The Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) department is offering a new minor in dance this semester.
Dance Director and professor Jill Grundstrom, said NMU is looking beyond the arts community when offering a dance minor this semester.

“There are students in physical therapy, health and fitness management, and exercise science programs that may find this minor relevant to their post-undergraduate work or study,” Grundstrom said. “For the arts though, this is a great addition because of the opportunities that it opens up.”
According to Grundstrom, job opportunities are opening up for people with an education in dancing. Employers are looking for people who know about choreography and dancing and have the experience.

“Performing arts administration is a growing profession as many school systems are not able to afford a full-time ‘dance professional.’ They rely on outside groups to help fill this role,” Grundstrom said.

Alycia Heckathorn, theatre major, said having a dance minor at NMU is more than just adding another minor to the undergraduate bulletin. For her it’s also going to expand the musical numbers that she and other students can perform at Forest Roberts Theatre because it will give students the opportunity to be trained to do musical numbers that are complicated and require more training than what they get in play practice.

“As a theatre major, I think it’s really important to be trained in a lot of different performing arts,” said dance minor Alycia Heckathorn, “And part of the reason the HPER department decided to add a dance minor was to reach out to the theatre department and help those students become better performers.”

Heckathorn said she hopes the minor will grow into something more in the future.
“I think it would be great to have a dance major here,” Heckathorn said. “There is a lot of talent for dance in the area.”
The minor consists of 20 credits. There are 12 required dance and theory courses and more than 28 electives to choose from.

Dance is a great way to exercise said Grundstrom and Northern offers many options for students to take courses from ballet to modern dance to hip-hop dancing. For the minor the main dancing focus is on ballet, folk, and modern dancing at beginning and intermediate levels. History and Theory of Dance is also required. There’s a variety of courses for electives to choose from with zumba, yoga, and even ballroom and Latin dancing. The minor also offers acting and Tai-Chi classes.

While this minor is complementary to majors such as theatre, music and community health education Grundstrom said everyone is encouraged to join and that most of the dancing courses count towards the physical activity course requirement for all liberal study degrees at NMU.
Students interested in more information about this minor or dance courses can email HPER at [email protected] or call (906) 227-2130.