Last Friday, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia announced it would be shutting down as of June 7, shocking dance students and faculty.

Bachelor of fine arts dance programs, whether housed in a conservatory or larger university setting, tend to give out letter grades like any other academic degree. But rather than exams and essays, the studio classes that make up the bulk of BFA programs are evaluating students on less tangible benchmarks like artistry, technique, and performance. How much weight are BFA programs really putting on grading—and how much do students’ grades matter during, and after, their time in college?

When the nation’s top college dance teams gathered at the Universal Dance Association Nationals in Orlando earlier this year, few could have predicted the millions who would be soon watching worldwide. The annual competition, in which college dance teams perform across a number of divisions in jazz, hip-hop, and pom categories, attracted a massive audience […]

Ana María Alvarez didn’t always imagine herself ending up back on campus. “I’ve had a love–hate relationship with the academy,” says Alvarez, the founder of CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater who joined the University of California San Diego’s Theatre and Dance Department as a tenured faculty member in late 2022.

The future it envisions is one where Black dance is recognized, celebrated, and preserved for posterity, and historical inequities in funding and operational support have been rectified. For now, the Legacy Project has stepped in to bridge the gap, drawing on the university’s plentiful resources and connections to help participating companies thrive.

When you think of a summer dance intensive, you might not immediately picture a college campus. But many higher ed dance departments do host summer programs, which can offer a chance for holistic growth and often function as a preview of life as an undergraduate. A summer on campus might help high school students plan for their futures—whether at the same school or elsewhere in the dance world.

How can we honor and preserve history without repeating the same mistakes over and over? How can we reimagine classics to center a variety of voices and speak to diverse audiences—not simply to avoid offending anyone, but to actively invite and include everyone? How can we propel the dances we know into a new era, so they—and ballet—can flourish into the future?

Winners of the Dance Magazine Awards, from 1954 to the present