Student Experience

DanceTCU

DanceTCU is the performance company of the School for Classical & Contemporary Dance (SCCDance).  Every dance major is part of DanceTCU, which produces numerous performances each year.  The faculty/guest artist concerts are produced twice a year, fall and spring, and feature works from established masterwork repertoire as well as works staged or created by faculty and guest choreographers.

Twice each year, senior BFA majors create new choreography for their performance series: Senior Choreography Concert (fall) and Capstone Dance Concert (spring). The spring capstone choreography and performance projects are the culminating BFA event for each BFA candidate in the SCCDance.

Performance opportunities are available to all dance majors, from the first year through the senior year. Auditions are held at the beginning of the fall semester for the DanceTCU faculty/guest artist concerts and the fall Senior Choreography Concert. Performances are offered at various campus venues including Ed Landreth Auditorium and Erma Lowe Studio Theatre. DanceTCU has also performed in TCU’s Van Cliburn Concert Hall as part of the 150-year Celebration kick-off concert and for the Black Excellence Gala concert.  Each academic year may also offer off-campus performance opportunities.  Recent invitations have included Fort Worth Dance Festival at Fort Worth’s historic I.M.Terrell High School for Performing and Visual Arts and STEM and Dancing Across Borders with DBDT: Encore!, at the W.E. Scott Theatre.

The SCCDance’s honors organization, Chi Tau Epsilon (XTE), organizes and hosts Brown Bag Dance! each semester.  This informal showing is available as a performance outlet to any dance major in the SCCDance and is held during the lunch hour on a select Friday each semester.  It’s a campus favorite event where students, faculty and staff from across campus ‘brown bag’ their lunch while enjoying performances.

Since 1993, Chi Tau Epsilon has also produced a concert to benefit the AIDS Outreach Center of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, as their philanthropic and community engagement main event. Each year, XTE committee members organize, market, invite, schedule, produce, and oversee this extraordinary concert, which includes performances by invited area professional dance companies, pre-professional and school-affiliated programs, and DanceTCU. This benefit concert celebrated 30 years in 2023 and marked a powerful milestone of dedicated philanthropy, action, and impact.

The SCCDance regularly attends the regional conference of the American College Dance Association, presenting works created by students, faculty and guest artists for adjudication and informal performance.  At ACDA, students take master classes, attend performances, and engage with the broader dance community of the region. DanceTCU work has been chosen for every gala concert of ACDA in recent years of attendance.