Tulane's Department of Theatre and Dance announces the official launch of the Newcomb Dance Program's Master of Fine Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Dance Performance (IDP) for fall 2015. The program offers a 3-year in-depth study of dance performance with an emphasis on preparing the candidate for professional or academic careers with focus on creative process. Through the lens of movement and performance making, the IDP MFA program is envisioned to provide graduate opportunities, for returning professionals, for scholarly investigation in diverse disciplines that directly link to creative practice in dance performance. In keeping with the National Association of Schools of Dance standards, the program seeks to achieve the "simultaneous development of the ability to produce advanced research findings, often using the practices and protocols of the humanities, sciences, or social sciences, and the ability to utilize, combine or integrate these findings with practice of the artistic, pedagogical, or other dance and performance-related professions."
The IDP MFA was approved by Tulane in 2009. Monique S. Moss, IDP's first and only candidate to date, completed the program in 2011/2012 with her thesis production, in collaboration with ArtSpot Productions and Kathy Randels, titled "Rumours of War: a Performance in Commemoration of the Slave Revolt of 1811". Ms. Moss previously completed a MA in Latin American Studies at Tulane University and is the example of scholar, community organizer, and artist citizen.
The faculty members of the Newcomb Dance Program designed the MFA, the terminal degree for the arts, so that candidates, at the end of three (3) years, complete the MFA core coursework in dance and, in collaboration with cooperating departments, complete significant coursework in another area of inquiry. With the changing benchmarks for higher education in the arts and the continued fusion of scholarship and dance, the uniqueness of the program offers opportunity to meet current demand for interdisciplinary graduate programming and also job placement in the country.