Dance is art, imagination, collaboration and the physical expression of the human existence.

California State University, Northridge students can now earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in dance, beginning this fall.

“This new degree was inspired by our students who love dance and want to complete a degree that will prepare them for a career in dance,” said kinesiology professor Paula Thomson, who led the effort to create the new major and teaches in the College of Health and Human Development. “For years, CSUN has offered a solid dance education for students majoring in kinesiology and selected the dance option. But that option was science heavy. The new major still requires some science courses that involve understanding the human body, but it is geared more to training and preparing young dance artists.

“Many of our students are first-generation college students who had little opportunity to study dance growing up, given the financial costs involved,” she continued. “This new major will give them creative opportunities and academic support to prepare them for a career in dance or a dance-related field.”

CSUN still offers a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology with a dance option and a minor in dance.

Thomson said the new degree in dance aligns with the university’s K-12 single-subject dance teaching credential offered in the Michael D. Eisner College of Education.

“Our undergraduate students who are interested in teaching can complete the requirements to enter the credential program, as well as begin working on some of the credential courses during their undergraduate senior year,” she said.

CSUN’s dance program has long had the respect of professionals in the field. Thomson pointed out that many of its alumni have gone on to become well-regarded professional dancers and choreographers.

“In many ways, we are responding to our alumni, who have pointed out that CSUN needed a degree that focused on the art of dance in response to the demands they see in the entertainment industry,” she said.

Thomson noted the university sits in heart of the San Fernando Valley, “home to a plethora of respected dance schools.”

“It only makes sense that we offer a degree in dance,” she said.

“CSUN has beautiful dance studios, and we have access to wonderful performing venues, including an amazing relationship with The Soraya,” she continued. “We also have strong working relationships with the university’s Departments of Theatre, Music, and Cinema and Television Arts. Being housed in the Department of Kinesiology provides rich opportunities to conduct dance science research and the department’s first-class faculty and students enhance the students’ understanding of exercise physiology, dance injury, biomechanics and performance psychology.

“The education we are providing is really impressive,” Thomson said. “Our alumni who graduated from our program with a Bachelor of Science degree with a dance option have gone on to do amazing things. I can’t wait to see what graduates of this new major will do.”