Student dancing in a classroom

Beyond Boundaries

Students dancing
By:
Eric Rangus

All of UGA is a stage for the faculty and students in the Department of Dance.

Onstage, there is nowhere to hide.

Dancers, and dance professors, accept this. They thrive on it. They love to perform. A wave of a dancer’s hand can say more than someone else’s 30-minute speech.

But performance is just one aspect of the Department of Dance experience. UGA faculty describe dance in broader, more ambitious terms. It is a body of knowledge. And a discipline. And a field of study. Students may not have that perspective at the start, but over time they embrace it wholly.

They also embrace the breadth of a University of Georgia education. Most of the students studying dance are double majors. Their interests spread to engineering, law, business, and so much more. Their calendars are full, but they embrace that, too.

While many academic departments might be possessive of their students, the dance department takes the opposite view. The pairing of dance with other academic disciplines is actively encouraged.

Faculty call it “Dancing Beyond Boundaries.”

Read more.

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The Department of Dance in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences is the cover of the Summer 2026 Georgia Magazine. See more photos from the print edition:

Dancers and dance professors at the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences embrace the breadth of a University of Georgia education. Most of the students studying dance are double majors. Their interests spread to engineering, law, business, and so much more. Their calendars are full, but they embrace that, too. These members of the Franklin community embrace the ampersand - the idea that meaning is created in the connections between fields of study. 

undergraduate dance and environmental engineering student Megan Fitzgerald dancing in Tanyard Creek near Bolton Dining Commons.
Undergraduate dance and environmental engineering student Megan Fitzgerald dances in Tanyard Creek near Bolton Dining Commons. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
Calista Honick leaps in a Terry classroom
Calista Honick, undergraduate dance and marketing student, at Terry Studio 225. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
Laura Towner and Katherine Stockton
Laura Towner, a third-year dance and psychology student, and Katherine Stockton, a dance student on a pre-occupational therapy route, have dived into multidisciplinary studies while at UGA. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
Portrait of Katerina (Kat) Lazos, undergraduate dance major and pre law student, in the Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom at Hirsch Hall.
Portrait of Katerina (Kat) Lazos, undergraduate dance major and pre law student, in the Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom at Hirsch Hall. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
Jason Aryeh teaches a hip hop dance class in the Dance Building.
Jason Aryeh teaches a hip hop dance class in the Dance Building. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
Barbara Powers teaches a contemporary modern dance class in the Dance Theatre
Barbara Powers teaches a contemporary modern dance class in the Dance Theatre. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
Student on aerial silk
Student Lily Morris, a double major in dance and theatre, during assistant professor Elizabeth Stitch’s aerial silks class in the dance theatre.
dance faculty members Barbara Powers, Lisa Fusillo, Elizabeth Stitch, Rebecca Gose, Jason Aryeh, and Jennifer Weber in the Dance Theatre.
Dance faculty members Barbara Powers, Lisa Fusillo, Elizabeth Stitch, Rebecca Gose, Jason Aryeh, and Jennifer Weber in the Dance Theatre. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
undergraduate dance and environmental engineering student Megan Fitzgerald dancing in Tanyard Creek near Bolton Dining Commons.
Calista Honick leaps in a Terry classroom
Laura Towner and Katherine Stockton
Portrait of Katerina (Kat) Lazos, undergraduate dance major and pre law student, in the Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom at Hirsch Hall.
Jason Aryeh teaches a hip hop dance class in the Dance Building.
Barbara Powers teaches a contemporary modern dance class in the Dance Theatre
Student on aerial silk
dance faculty members Barbara Powers, Lisa Fusillo, Elizabeth Stitch, Rebecca Gose, Jason Aryeh, and Jennifer Weber in the Dance Theatre.