MFA Takeaways: Connecting Knowledge to Practice

How can an MFA experience support your postgraduate career endeavors? Will your research continue to benefit you? Through this panel, we seek to address these questions, and share personal experiences as teaching artists who have recently completed MFA graduate degrees and navigated the school-to-career transition. In addition, we hope to initiate conversation about the impact of MFA programs on the future of dance education. As young dance educators and scholars who engage with diverse student populations through various institutions, we feel our perspectives can offer students and faculty involved with MFA programs contemporary insights into post-graduate experiences. MFA program requirements vary across universities, and terminal projects can range from choreographic and performance studies, to theoretical and pedagogical inquiry. While each panelist’s research project was unique in its design, collectively our research continues to influence us in common ways as educators. Our projects aided us in uncovering biases and broadening our awareness of the field, thus strengthening our ability to connect with and respond to the needs of our students and workplaces. As we interact with student populations of varying sociocultural backgrounds, our experiences as graduate researchers both fuels current creative and scholarly inquiry, and helps us guide students to connect dance knowledge to other facets of their lives. This panel will use the following topics as starting points for conversation: (a) the value of investing in research that is personally meaningful; (b) how graduate research projects can continue to influence classroom approaches and professional endeavors; (c) how graduate experiences enable educators to reach and connect with students from various sectors including higher education, private studios, K-12, and performing groups; and, (d) incorporating technology to create accessible learning environments. Through discussion, we hope to illuminate how these takeaways can help graduates develop as teaching artists, promote accessibility to dance for all, and advocate for dance as an essential field of study across communities.