Dance Major Journal
By dance majors, for dance majors
Looking to learn more?
Send us an email at:
Jennifer Fisher
Professor of Dance
jjfisher@uci.edu
Dance Major Journal (DMJ) was founded in 2010 in the Department of Dance in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine. It features writing focused on the interests, issues, experiences, and concerns of dance majors, aimed at sharing information, research, advice, and points of view.
DMJ welcomes conversational writing style, personal essays, new formats, humor, stories, and “answers for dance majors” (ways to explain to the outside world the value and facts of a dance education), as well as academically sound essays using clear language and lively prose.
Dance Major Journal features writing by university dance majors for dance majors—and for the people who seek to understand them. How do dance majors see the world? How have they experienced dance and its effects? What are the issues that matter to them? Writers also include students studying for graduate degrees in dance, and occasional contributions from dance world professionals.
- Professor Jennifer Fisher, Editor
Read the Issues
Essays, insights, and advice from the next generation of dancers.
Volume 13: 2025
Redefining the Dance World—One Step at a Time
- Dear Dance Competitions—Do Better
- The “ideal ballet body” myth has hurt so many dancers—can we break that mold?
- The Lost Audience for Dance
Volume 12: 2024
Is there room for cultural expression in classical dance training?
- An Imposter Amongst Others
- Why Dance Teachers Need to be Educated Humans, not just Experienced Dancers
- Financial accessibility of dance classes
Volume 11: 2023
Reclaiming Black Spaces in Jazz Dance
- Can Body Positivity and Dance Coexist?
- I Couldn't Have a Future in Science without My Past in Dance
- I gave the dancers the freedom to improvise...and they choreographed
Volume 10: 2022
How do dance majors survive and thrive?
- Perfectionist much? Learn how to deal with that
- What does a racial microaggression in the studio feel like?
- Dads stand out in the dance world—you gotta love ‘em, find out why.
Volume 9: 2021
Still dancing through a pandemic
- How Being a Dance Major Will Help Me Be a Better Doctor
- Setting Boundaries in Our Relationship with Our Reflection
- What to Do When You Lose Your Joy
Volume 8: 2020
Dancing Still Goes On
- Brown legs, pink tights
- Diving Forward–or is it going backwards to pursue a graduate degree in dance?
- Forced to move virtually
Volume 7: 2019
Maintaining Your Balance: Survive and thrive in the dance major
- Mental Health in Dance – It's Time to Break the Silence
- Gender and dance majoring
- Letter to a Young Dancer by Lar Lubovitch
Volume 6: 2018
Personal Stories
- The Gifts I Received in College Led Me to My Future
- Dance – the cause of our fight, the cause of our bond
- My Able Body
Volume 5: 2017
Hot Topics: Critical issues in dance
- You can't filter real life: can you be too obsessed with elite dancers on social media?
- Do student athletes get all the advantages over student dancers?
- Ignore the arts at a nation's peril: why we need the NEA
Volume 4: 2016
A digital edition of Dance Major Journal featuring new essays by dance majors and a special guest section of recommended documentaries, continuing its mission to share student perspectives and insights on university-level dance.
Dance Major Journal: 2012
A digital edition of Dance Major Journal featuring new essays by dance majors and a special guest section of recommended documentaries, continuing its mission to share student perspectives and insights on university-level dance.
Dance Major Journal: 2011
A digital edition of Dance Major Journal featuring new essays by dance majors and a special guest section of recommended documentaries, continuing its mission to share student perspectives and insights on university-level dance.
