The Dance Program at Swarthmore College treats dance as a global discourse. The central intent of our program is cross-cultural study focusing on Africa and the African Diaspora, South Asia and East Asia, Europe and North America, and Latin America. The Dance and Music Programs share an integrated approach to composition, history, and theory, and believe this is essential to the understanding of dance as an artistic and intellectual inquiry. The mission of the Program is to offer students dance experiences that privilege a merging of embodied practice, history, and theory in relation to more multiple perspectives. Some courses are constructed to concentrate on one cultural context, and others are built to put a variety of perspectives in conversation. The role of dance as a social change agent is also present in Swarthmore dance offerings. All dance studies courses engage students in an investigation of the relationship of dance to other arts and areas of thought.

Learn more on the Dance Department website and in the College Catalog, or browse performances.