The SMU Division of Dance offers professional training within the context of a comprehensive liberal arts education. The program’s goal is to develop disciplined, versatile dance artists through a balanced study of ballet, modern dance and jazz techniques – complemented and reinforced by a broad range of theoretical studies and performance opportunities. The faculty has extensive professional performing and choreographic experience, and the academic credentials to support it. As a result, students work in an atmosphere where they’re nurtured and stimulated in their quest for artistic achievement, technical mastery and scholarly excellence. As a charter member of the National Association of Schools of Dance, the Division of Dance is committed to upholding standards that define how dance is taught today.

Students in the Division of Dance are exposed to many opportunities for performance and choreography, including two fully-staged Mainstage Concerts and the twice yearly Brown Bag Series of lunchtime concerts. The division also regularly presents works in festivals locally and nationally. Through documentation and preservation projects of major historical choreographic works, students have danced in pieces by Martha Graham, José Limón and Agnes de Mille. They have also performed the works of George Balanchine, Judith Jamison and Paul Taylor. The Division was the first university dance program to receive funding for a documentation and preservation project from the National Endowments for the Arts.

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