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If getting a bachelor’s degree of fine arts and a master’s of arts doesn’t satisfy one’s appetite for artistic credentials, there is the option Kim Vetter, a 39-year-old teacher, student and lifelong dancer, took: continuing for a master’s of fine arts.

Vetter, one of the ambitious few who recently finished the M.F.A. program through the world arts and culture department, performed her final project, “Gypsies, Zealots and Pieces of Me,” this past weekend.

This eclectic dance work is a collection of pieces inspired by aspects of Vetter’s life, focusing especially on issues of identity and cultural bias.

“I went through this process of exploring using my breath and voice. That’s where it started,” said Vetter. “The piece itself has subtle differences every night because it comes out of me differently.”

The M.F.A. program has a 72-unit requirement with required courses in everything from production experience and creative practice to critical studies seminars like African Popular Culture. These requirements are typically fulfilled by students within seven to nine quarters.

“I did it in ten quarters because I hurt my back my first year and it slowed me down a little,” said Vetter. “So it took me longer to fulfill the requirements.”

This painful back injury, along with other back injuries and a life-long battle with scoliosis, were the inspiration for the opening part of the show. This piece, titled “Unwinding,” features Vetter sitting on a stool, nude except for a sheet partially covering the lower half of her body. With her back to the audience she makes peculiar noises while moving her back in a circular motion slowly until the symbolic “unwinding” process is complete.

“After being injured I realized that I couldn’t work the same way that I used to. I couldn’t go in the studio and throw myself around and think of a dance anymore,” said Vetter. “Unwinding of the spine then is (about) this physical and emotional pain that is finding its way out, and by the end of the piece it’s been released and the rest of the dancing can happen.”

After being accepted into the program, students are assigned a faculty adviser from their specialization with whom they work closely to develop their curriculum and from whom they receive mentorship.

Once the curriculum is complete, students are required to put on a final project, such as Vetter’s, which took about a year of preparation before it was finally performed. Much deliberation goes into a final product meant to be representative of the student’s life and work.

“We do so much choreography and a lot of it just gets tossed,” said Vetter. “We do these weekly studies where we go throw that, throw that, toss that. But you come up with something that you like and you want to keep going with it.”