The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) is designed for those who wish to obtain a broad undergraduate background as preparation for careers or graduate work and related fields. It offers students a dance education that stresses performance and choreography, and, at the same time, intellectual depth and scope. In addition to the core, 12 units of elective Dance courses are required. The remaining elective units required for graduation may be chosen from Dance or other disciplines in relation to a student’s individual interest. While the program of study in Dance stresses technical proficiency and academic understanding in dance, the B.A. degree program also enables students to pursue elective subjects in their special areas of interest in other academic disciplines.

A career in dance requires excellent training and extraordinary discipline, tenacity, and dedication. Beyond the perhaps more obvious careers in professional dance performance, choreography, and teaching, the major in Dance also serves as a basis for graduate study or job opportunities in fields such as dance history, dance science, dance reconstruction, dance criticism, and dance filmmaking. Related fields, such as arts administration, law in relation to the arts, arts therapies, design and production, and music also offer positions for the individual trained in dance. Students who are interested in a career in physical therapy or some aspect of dance medicine/science find that a major in dance, with breadth course work in chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics can be excellent preparation for further study. UCI Dance graduates have an excellent record of placement in the many fields of dance. Some have become professional dancers in ballet companies (including the San Francisco, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart Ballets); in modern dance companies (including the Bella Lewitzky, Lar Lubovitch, and Bat-Dor Companies); and in major musicals (including Jerome Robbins' Broadway, and the original cast of Chorus Line); as well as in films, television, and theatre. Others have entered the professions of dance education, dance anthropology, medicine, law, and psychology.