The Department of Dance at the School of Arts of Chongqing University was founded in 2000. For more than 20 years, it has been upholding the educational philosophy of building an aesthetic system of traditional Chinese dance culture based on the rich cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. It aims to cultivate comprehensive senior dance talents who inherit, revitalize and promote national dance culture with the ability to perform, teach, choreograph and research. Dance Performance is a first-class major at the municipal level in Chongqing.

The Department of Dance has a relatively strong faculty. Core faculty members graduated from Beijing Dance Academy, Yunnan Arts Institute and other first-class professional institutions in China. It is among the earliest teaching and research bases focusing on training senior talents in dance after the direct jurisdiction of Chongqing under the central government, and an early practitioner of higher education in dance in China. Since its integration into the School of Arts in 2007, it has made great strides in discipline construction, talent training, and scientific research. After 20 years of accumulation of experience, the Department of Dance, under the educational philosophy of Chongqing University - “Taking root in Chongqing, Finding a foothold in the Southwest, Facing the West, Serving the whole nation, Stepping towards the world”, has relied on the resources of interdisciplinary advantages and coordinated development of the University, followed the development path of the School of Arts to understand the contemporary trends in dance higher education and constantly improve curriculum system and talent training modules with a special focus on Han and Tang classical dance and modern dance. The Department now boasts a system of high-quality disciplines with local features in southwest China with the essence of traditional Chinese dance culture, attracting significant influence and competitiveness in the region and across the country. In the past 20 years, the Department of Dance has produced more than 700 outstanding undergraduates and over 60 master’s students in dance. The faculty and students of the Department of Dance have participated in many important international and domestic performances and won various awards in national and provincial and ministerial dance competitions. It is an important force in the development of dance art in southwest China.