2006-10-21

Dance Management Education at the Oklahoma City University

In 1981, Oklahoma City University, under the leadership of Professor Jo Rowan, founded an American musical theatre dance program to educate and train performers for careers in the American entertainment industry. The program was also created to recognize the legitimacy of the American dance art forms of tap, jazz, and theater dance.
At that time, university and college dance programs uniformly focused on ballet and modern dance. Few, if any, dance programs required majors to study tap and jazz; none offered specialization in tap and jazz leading to a bachelor's degree. Professors Rowan designed a degree which, with Dean John Bedford, has been refined over the years to give thorough preparation to students wanting dance performance careers in the American entertainment industry. The bachelor of performing arts in dance program now has 105 majors.

In 1984, Dean Bedford developed an arts management program at Oklahoma City University for both graduate and undergraduate students. The general wisdom of the time in higher education was that arts management should be a field of study reserved for graduate students with the maturity and seriousness that undergraduates interested in the arts could not have. In 1985, the trustees approved a new bachelor of science in dance management degree which now has over 70 majors.

The master of business administration in arts management, established in 1984, provided graduate level education and training in both business and arts management.

An undergraduate degree in business is not required since a student can accelerate preparation for graduate business studies by taking preparatory courses. Students of the master of business administration in arts management program are required to intern with a professional arts organizations. Former students have worked as interns for Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Assembly of Community Arts Councils of Oklahoma, Pollard Theatre, Allied Arts, Ballet Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Philharmonic and BLAC, Inc. The graduate program is kept to 10 to 15 students.

In 1996, a bachelor of science in entertainment business degree was created. Originally for students interested in careers in music business, the degree has been modified to a general arts management degree allowing students to tailor a portion of the curriculum to support their career objectives. In just four years, this new major has grown to 45 students and promises to continue growing.

In 2004, a $3 million grant from the Inasmuch Foundation was combined with Ann Lacy's $3.7 million contribution to make new facilities possible. Revovation and construction of the Edith Kinney Gaylord Center, the new home of the now-named Ann Lacy School of American Dance & Arts Management, will be completed in the fall of 2006.

Details: http://www.okcu.edu/dance_amgt
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