We provide a broad, liberal arts education and train students in the fields of dance, theatre, and design for performance
The Department of Theatre and Dance cultivates critical thinking and analysis, and helps students develop tools for creative expression.
For emerging artists and specialists, we provide tools to build careers in their chosen field and networks to the professional world, both nationally and internationally. We serve the community through high quality performance events that showcase student and faculty artistic work and serve as a laboratory for applying skills learned in the classroom and studio.
Dance
The vision of the program is to provide the most current, experimental, and sophisticated choreography curriculum and productions in the southwest, and to explore and value the rich tradition of dance history as a living legacy for the contemporary artist/scholar
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Theatre
The Theatre program at UNM integrates a dynamic liberal arts education with rigorous practical training. Theatre is seen as an extension of the humanities, a mode of critical inquiry and creative expression. The program emphasizes interdisciplinarity, collaborative creation, and community engagement
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Design For Performance
Prepares students for advanced study or professional careers in design and technical production across the spectrum of the performing arts, leading to career paths in Theater, Dance, Opera, Film, Television, Gaming and Interactive Environments
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Dramatic Writing
An MFA environment where students prepare scripts for submission to our annual festival, submit material for production to the local theatre community, or for the season of plays selected by students that is presented in our black-box, Theatre X
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““To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”
—Osho
Theatre & Dance Events
We produce a mainstage series of five events: three plays, a faculty-choreographed dance concert and the Linnell Festival of New Plays at UNM. In addition to the mainstage series, we support the Theatre X series of student produced plays as well as student dance showcases and outreach tours.
Degrees in Theatre & Dance
From the Chair
As the Chair of this vibrant academic and artistic department, I am proud to be a colleague of the nationally and internationally renowned faculty and a professor working with diverse, talented, and multifaceted students. Throughout each academic year our production season creates sophisticated and ambitious performances that challenge students in the undergraduate and graduate degree programs; design, dance, theater, and dramatic writing.
Collaboration provides a platform for students to see beyond their artistic discipline and delve into deeper realms of experimentation in creating and performing works for the stage. Resident and guest faculty bring diverse approaches to creative and academic practice, inspiring students toward refined academic research that builds a solid platform for academic and professional growth and career placement in the field.
Browse through our website for photos and video of our production season and detailed descriptions of our academic degrees, designed for students developing their artistic voice. Contact our department for a guided tour of the facilities and meet the faculty and students that engage in the creative and scholarly arena on a daily basis. We are excited to be a part of the artistic community of Albuquerque and New Mexico.
—Professor Donna Jewell, Chair, Department of Theatre & Dance
Because It’s Time: Unraveling Race and Place in NM
Because It’s Time: Unraveling Race and Place in NM examines race and identity in New Mexico and is a space for artistic expression that grapples with the complexities of who we are, how we are understood, and how that impacts the way we live (or don’t) in a variety of places.
UNM professors take the stage in Granada
Their performance, Nueva Música de Nuevo México, will connect new music from New Mexico with an international audience, and bring selected John Donald Robb Field Recordings of historical New Mexican folk music back to Spain as part of the world premiere of a new composition.
Making movie magic, like a girl
University of New Mexico alumna Carol Payne banded together with her colleagues at Industrial Light & Magic to create Women in VFX, a series that highlights women working in visual effects for film and television.
Contact the Department of Theatre & Dance
Robert Hartung building
2414 Central Ave SE
(505) 277-4332
How to Apply
• All students must be admitted to the University, whether as an incoming freshman, transfer student, or non-degree student. Apply online through the Admissions Department at UNM
•After meeting all CFA admission requirements, students must apply to become a declared major.
Academic Advisement
The College of Fine Arts Student Success & Advisement Center is committed to serve the UNM community with compassion, guidance, and respect as we promote academic excellence.
To speak with a CFA advisor, please call (505) 277-4817.