Dance, Rehearse, Perform
The Conservatory of Dance offers conservatory-style training for dancers in the master-apprentice tradition. With a select enrollment of 140 students from 31 states and 17 foreign countries, Purchase is one of a handful of colleges in the world capable of preparing you for the rigors of the professional dance world.

Here, on a campus just 35 minutes from New York City, the world capital of dance, you will be privileged to study with a faculty whose names will be familiar to anyone who follows dance. Daily training with these accomplished professionals provides the foundation, inspiration, and mentoring you need to work and perform at your highest level.

This is not a program for dabblers. Commitment, intensity, and exceptional talent are essential qualities for all successful Conservatory applicants.

The Conservatory's program is grounded in a shared emphasis on the study of dance composition (modern and ballet) and dance technique. While you may choose from any of the four concentrations offered, you will be required to study technique and composition.

Studies in the Conservatory of Dance lead to the BFA degree. Concentrations are offered in:

• Performance (Modern and Ballet)
• Ballet
• Composition
• Dance Production

Stretch and grow as you train
At Purchase you will dance every day in a demanding schedule that includes two to four technique classes in classical ballet and modern dance, modern and ballet partnering, pointe, men's class, and improvisation.

Your "home" on campus is the award-winning Dance Building designed by Gunner Birkerts. This is the first facility in the United States to be constructed solely for the study and performance of dance, and includes 10 fully equipped studios, saunas, the Dance Theatre Lab, and more.

Emphasis on performance
Right from the start, students in the Conservatory audition for the internationally renowned Purchase Dance Corps. This acclaimed student company performs repertory and commissioned works and offers two major on-campus concerts a year at The Performing Arts Center

The Purchase Dance Corps also works with guest choreographers and artists of renown. Over the past 11 years, the PDC has mounted eight international tours, including visits to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing, Amsterdam, and France.

Students rehearse and perform in each other's required senior projects, as well as MFA graduate concerts. Additional opportunities exist for students to learn and perform works of the classical and modern repertory, as well as works commissioned for them by our faculty and alumni.

Academic/professional requirements:

• Dance (90 credits): Technique, performance, composition, music for dance, dance history, anatomy for dancers, production. Included in the 90 credits is the 5-credit Senior Project, a public concert of the student's choreography and his or her performance of a major piece of repertory. The Senior Project is a three-semester commitment, mentored by faculty.
• Liberal Arts and Sciences (30 credits): 8 credits can be in required Dance History courses.

Plan on spending four years at the Conservatory of Dance in order to fulfill the requirements for your BFA degree. All students, no matter what their prior college or dance training, enter the Conservatory as first-year students. Please note that dance technique, improvisation, and composition credits from other colleges do not transfer to the Conservatory of Dance.

For additional information, visit the Conservatory of Dance.