Dance department now one of 8 accredited in Texas

The UTRGV Department of Dance was granted accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Dance on Sept. 14, taking a step toward the right direction in providing the best possible dance education, its chair says.

The Department of Dance went through a two-year process that included a self-study, campus visit and a visitors report.

Dana Shackelford, Department of Dance chair, said the procedure of writing the self-study helped the department pay close attention to all the available resources for dance students and what needs to be improved within the department.

“We’ve been working on accreditation for a very long time, meaning that we had been aware of the standards and as we made decisions, we tried to keep those in mind,” Shackelford said. “So, it’s been something that has been a goal for several years, but it wasn’t until 2021 that we actually started the paperwork and the actual process.”

Steven Block, former dean of the College of Fine Arts, started the process toward receiving accreditation by applying and submitting a letter of interest in order to start the comprehensive review with the NASD.

Shackelford said being accredited will help with procedures to follow when degree proposals are revised or submitted.

“This is really big for the students, and it would be great for them to understand that that means that when they get their degrees, they can say they got their degree from an accredited university’s dance department,” Shackelford said.

Sonia Chapa, a professor in the College of Fine Arts and artistic director of ballet, said the accreditation will give more support to all the areas in the department that need improvement. 

Chapa said the accreditation holds a lot of weight in the dance world, helps hold the department accountable in how it is run, and expects faculty to keep improving themselves and grow in personal development.

“The NASD will offer so much more we didn’t have before,” she said. “The support from the university is a lot more now that we are accredited.”

Chapa said classes will now be separated by skill level, something the department was not allowed to have due to school policies.

“It’s going to allow the students to learn more from us and the instructors to be able to have a more full lesson plan, where we can go through a whole lesson plan as we should, instead of having the classes, the techniques together,” she said. “… The students will learn a lot more from us.”

As a result of the accreditation, a musician shared with the Music Department will practice along with the classes, starting in Spring 2024.

“The students are going to feel so much more valuable, and enjoy the class more,” Chapa said.

Paola Cantu-Gonzalez, a dance senior and Dance Department Student Association undergraduate representative, said NASD representatives listened to the concerns of the student body regarding the dance department, during the campus visit in spring 2023.

“I feel like every student had something good to say,” Gonzalez said. “… We got to say what we felt like.”

She said this recognition has helped the department grow more than it already has in terms of class size and support. 

“I feel like we’re going to attract more students from out of the [Rio Grande] Valley and out of state because we have the facilities, we have the faculty and we have the student body to back up such a strong dance department,” Gonzalez said.

NASD completed a Visitor’s Report in which it listed the department’s strengths, which Shackleford said reflected the main reasons accreditation was granted.

The list of strengths included having a specialist and dedicated dance faculty; talented and engaged students; strong administrative support for the department from full-time dance specialist and key staff in the Dean’s office; recognition and support for the department at both university and college levels; and strong connections with alumni and with schools and dance organizations in the region.

Only seven other institutions in Texas are accredited by the NASD: Sam Houston State University, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University, Texas Woman’s University, Trinity University and the University of Texas at Austin.