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Dance may be the most competitive performing arts major to pursue at the college level. The best programs admit only a few dozen dancers a year, serious training often starts long before high school ends, and a single audition can decide everything. Choosing where to apply is as much about fit as prestige: a dancer headed for a contemporary company needs something very different from one chasing a Broadway tour or a classical ballet contract.
This guide covers the strongest undergraduate dance programs in the United States, grouped by the kind of training each does best. A few things are worth understanding before you dive in:
- Concert dance vs. commercial dance. Concert programs (ballet, modern, contemporary) prepare dancers for companies, choreography, and academia. Commercial programs prepare dancers for TV, film, music videos, theme parks, cruise lines, and Broadway. Some schools do both, but most lean one way.
- BFA vs. BA. A BFA is conservatory-style: audition-based, performance-heavy, and built around daily technique. A BA leaves far more room for academics, double majors, and a broader college experience. Neither is better; they serve different goals.
- Auditions. Nearly every program here requires a live or video audition. Unlike musical theatre, a separate video "prescreen" is less common in dance, though many schools accept or even prefer a video audition, which matters when travel is a barrier.
How We Chose These Programs
There is no single official ranking of college dance programs, and any list reflects judgment calls. We built this one by combining the program data we track on stageready, including selectiveness, class size, audition rigor, and alumni outcomes, with each program's reputation among dancers, faculty, and companies. We weighted training quality and professional pipeline over name recognition alone, which is why you will find public conservatories and regional standouts next to the household names.
Every school card below pulls live information from our database, so tuition, acceptance rates, and program details stay current as they change. These groupings are not a strict numbered ranking; programs within each section are simply strong options for different kinds of dancers. Click any school to see full program details, audition requirements, and how it compares.
The Most Competitive Conservatory Programs
The Juilliard School
Juilliard's Dance Division offers some of the most selective undergraduate dance training in the world, admitting only about two dozen dancers a year. The four-year BFA grounds every student in both ballet and modern or contemporary technique, with a constant emphasis on artistry, improvisation, and choreography. Admission runs through a video prescreen followed by a live audition, and Juilliard uses a need-blind admission process so financial need is not a factor in the decision. Graduates routinely move into the field's leading concert companies and onto Broadway.
New York University
NYU Tisch packs intensive conservatory training into a three-year-plus-two-summer structure that gives equal weight to ballet and contemporary technique, with live musicians in technique classes and somatics and yoga built into the weekly schedule. Third-year students perform as members of the Second Avenue Dance Company under four guest choreographers a year, with shows at the Jack Crystal Theater and NYU Skirball. Alumni include Kyle Abraham, a MacArthur Fellow and Bessie Award-winning choreographer, and Karla Puno Garcia, the first woman of color to choreograph the Tony Awards (2023). Greenwich Village puts students inside New York's professional dance world.
University of Southern California
The USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance launched its BFA in 2015 as USC's first new school in roughly four decades, and it has quickly become one of the most talked-about programs in the country. Its signature "New Movement" curriculum trains ballet, contemporary, and hip-hop on equal footing, with repertory by choreographers like Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Justin Peck, and Christopher Wheeldon. The program enrolls only about two dozen dancers a year inside the 54,000-square-foot Kaufman International Dance Center. Recent graduates have joined A.I.M by Kyle Abraham (William Okajima won a 2025 Princess Grace Award) and made their Broadway debuts (Ava Noble in & Juliet).
SUNY Purchase
SUNY Purchase's Conservatory of Dance is a public conservatory delivering daily ballet and contemporary technique alongside one of the deepest choreography and composition curricula of any BFA, including a three-year choreography program. Students train with internationally recognized faculty, perform with the Purchase Dance Company in the Performing Arts Center and on tour, and complete a senior project that combines performing repertory, choreographing an original work, and co-producing a concert. Four tracks are offered: Performance, Ballet, Composition, and Production. At a net price around $19,000, it is one of the best values in elite dance training.
Fordham University
The Ailey/Fordham BFA pairs daily professional training at The Ailey School, one of the most storied institutions in American dance, with a Fordham liberal arts education at Lincoln Center. The curriculum spans Horton, Graham-based modern, ballet, West African dance, improvisation, composition, and repertory. Because it sits inside a research university, students in good standing can add a second major or a minor. The result is conservatory-level technique in the heart of New York City's dance ecosystem.
Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Boston Conservatory at Berklee, founded in 1867, has been named one of the best college dance programs in the country by DanceUS.org for years running. Its BFA in Dance offers a Contemporary Dance Performance concentration that pairs a classical foundation with innovative contemporary work, a partnership with The Verdon Fosse Legacy, and more than 25 movement electives. A separate Commercial Dance concentration follows an accelerated three-year track aimed at TV, film, Broadway, theme parks, and cruise lines, whose students have performed during Coldplay's Music of the Spheres stadium tour. Both tap Berklee's music and industry network.
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts opened in 1965 as the first state-supported arts conservatory in the United States, and its School of Dance remains one of the country's premier classical and contemporary training grounds. The BFA offers two concentrations, Classical Ballet and Contemporary Dance, with a four-year technique sequence, composition in every year, and a senior choreographic capstone. As a residential conservatory, students perform constantly, from The Nutcracker to guest-artist repertory. The ballet pipeline feeds American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet, while contemporary graduates join companies like Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
California Institute of the Arts
The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts trains the experimental, interdisciplinary dance artist, with a heavy emphasis on contemporary technique, choreography, and dance on camera. Faculty are all working artists, the student-to-faculty ratio is roughly five to one, and students create work not just for the stage but for galleries, film, and digital platforms, performing at venues including REDCAT. Alumni include Alonzo King, founder of Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Bessie Award-winning choreographer Luciana Achugar. It is a strong fit for dancers who want to make work, not just perform it.
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Top University BFA Dance Programs
Indiana University - Bloomington
Indiana University's BFA in Dance, based in the Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance, is grounded in modern and contemporary dance with ballet and world dance forms, and all students perform with the IU Contemporary Dance Theatre. The curriculum is unusually broad, covering repertory, composition, pedagogy, injury prevention, and Pilates certification, and students can elect tap, jazz, and musical theatre. Because it sits within a flagship research university, dancers can pair the BFA with minors in business (Kelley School) or theatre, or a pre-physical-therapy track.
Florida State University
Florida State University's BFA in Dance is a nationally respected program centered on performance, choreography, and the theoretical side of the art form, taught by a faculty of recognized artists, scholars, and company veterans. Students train in Montgomery Hall, an extensive complex of studios, a black-box theatre, a movement-training lab, and dance-technology spaces. FSU also runs optional Dance in Paris and Arts in NYC programs that connect training to international and professional contexts. With a net price near $11,000, it is one of the most affordable elite-tier dance programs anywhere.
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona School of Dance is one of the few programs to require equal training in ballet, modern, and jazz across all four years, producing notably versatile dancers. A dedicated Performance Medicine Program with an on-site dietitian and athletic trainer supports career longevity, and every student is guaranteed a performance on the 300-seat Stevie Eller Dance Theatre stage. On-campus auditions bring in recruiters from Royal Caribbean, Cirque du Soleil, and more. Alumni have danced with American Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street, and the Radio City Rockettes, and in tours such as Hamilton and Wicked.
The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University's Department of Dance is one of the premier contemporary dance programs at a major research university, NASD-accredited and known for blending technique with creative technology, from dance-film and motion capture to embodied theory. The core curriculum spans contemporary, African, and ballet technique alongside choreography, kinesiology, and production. The program targets an entering class of about 30 freshmen, and the Helen P. Alkire Scholarship awards $7,000 a year for four years to a handful of incoming students.
University of Utah
The University of Utah's School of Dance is one of the only programs in the country to house full, separate BFA degrees in both Ballet and Modern Dance, each with its own faculty and repertory. The Ballet BFA provides rigorous classical training with extensive performance opportunities in the Marriott Center for Dance, while the Modern Dance BFA prepares dancers for performing, choreographing, and teaching careers. Utah's ballet program has deep historic roots and a longstanding connection to professional ballet in Salt Lake City. A 15-credit screendance certificate is also available.
Southern Methodist University
SMU's Meadows School of the Arts offers a BFA in Dance Performance that develops versatile artist-scholars across ballet, modern, and jazz, with two technique classes a day in the first two years and four terms of composition beginning junior year. Dallas gives students access to a major regional arts market, and the Charles S. Sharp Performing Arts Studio doubles as a teaching and performance space with full theatrical lighting. It is a selective, audition-based program inside one of the South's leading arts schools.
Butler University
Butler University is one of the country's premier collegiate ballet programs; College Magazine ranked it No. 3 in the nation in 2019, behind only Juilliard and NYU. Core training emphasizes classical ballet alongside modern and jazz, with pointe, men's allegro, character dance, and pas de deux. Butler Ballet stages three fully produced performances a year, including a full-length Nutcracker with live orchestra at the 2,200-seat Clowes Memorial Hall. Studio work sits alongside a rigorous liberal arts education.
Texas Christian University
TCU's School for Classical & Contemporary Dance was founded in 1949 as the first university in the United States to offer a BFA in ballet, and it still offers parallel BFA tracks in Ballet and Modern Dance, with the option to double major in both. First-year students train daily in both disciplines, the student-to-faculty ratio is about ten to one, and the school hosts six or more guest-artist residencies a year, with connections to companies like the Mark Morris Dance Group. Students perform six to eight times annually, beginning as early as freshman year.
University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music
The University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) offers a highly selective BFA in Ballet that combines top-level classical and contemporary training with in-depth somatics, plus the chance to perform with professional companies like Cincinnati Ballet and BalletMet while still enrolled. Ballet legend Suzanne Farrell, George Balanchine's celebrated muse at New York City Ballet, received her early training at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, the forerunner of today's CCM. Facilities include three large studios with on-site physical therapists and athletic trainers.
University of California - Irvine
UC Irvine's Department of Dance offers a BFA with specializations in Performance and Choreography and a curriculum spanning ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop, and tap alongside serious dance-science and kinesiology training. Faculty have included UCI Distinguished Professor Lar Lubovitch, and the department produces several mainstage concerts a year, including work at the Experimental Media Performance Lab. Graduates have joined companies from San Francisco Ballet and the Joffrey to Hubbard Street and Martha Graham, and toured in Wicked, Newsies, and The Lion King. As a UC, it pairs elite training with a research-university price.
University of Texas - Austin
The University of Texas at Austin's BFA in Dance trains dancers in contemporary, ballet, African, and street forms, with two fully produced concerts a season performed by the award-winning Dance Repertory Theatre and a guest choreographer in residence each semester. The program also offers a Dance Education emphasis leading to Texas teacher certification. UT Austin is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Dance, and one of the country's most vibrant cities provides a strong creative community right outside the studio.
Temple University
Temple University's Boyer College offers a 124-credit BFA in Dance rooted in ballet, modern and postmodern, and African diasporic forms, paired with choreography, dance science, improvisation, and repertory. Students perform in the Conwell Dance Theater and a senior concert, and the program is NASD-accredited. Temple is also home to one of only a handful of Dance PhD programs in the country, so undergraduates train in a department with unusually deep scholarly resources. Philadelphia's dense arts scene rounds out the experience.
Rutgers University
The BFA in Dance at Rutgers' Mason Gross School of the Arts is an NASD-accredited program with cohorts of roughly 40 students a year, located about 45 minutes from New York City. The curriculum spans movement practice and performance, choreography, theoretical studies, dance production, kinesiology, and professional practice, with movement training that includes African diasporic, classical, contemporary fusion, and somatic approaches. Study-abroad options include DanceJerusalem and Trinity Laban in London, and a 4+1 BFA/Ed.M. pathway lets dancers add a dance-education master's.
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Best for Commercial, Jazz & Musical Theatre Dance
Pace University
Pace University's BFA in Commercial Dance is one of the top programs in the country for dancers headed to TV, film, music videos, Broadway, and tours. Billed as the first bi-coastal commercial dance program, it requires a full semester in Los Angeles during junior year, and students train in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, tap, theater dance, and aerial work, with integrated acting and vocal training. Annual productions bring in guest choreographers like Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton) and Mandy Moore (Taylor Swift's Eras Tour). Concentrations are offered in Performance or Choreography.
Point Park University
Point Park University's Conservatory of Performing Arts runs one of the most respected dance schools in the country, recognized by DanceUS.org as one of the best college dance programs in the U.S. Students build a versatile foundation across ballet, modern, and jazz regardless of concentration, training in the George Rowland White Performance Center with UPMC Sports Medicine support. Point Park's pipeline reaches companies and stages from Alonzo King LINES Ballet to national musical tours. Fast-track master's options include a BFA plus MBA or a BFA plus M.Ed. in dance education.
Chapman University
Chapman University's Department of Dance has been named one of the best college dance programs in the United States for years running, with comprehensive training in jazz, ballet, and modern and a heavy emphasis on student choreography (the program produces 80 to 90 student pieces a semester). Faculty include Dwight Rhoden, co-founder and founding artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Dancers train in the state-of-the-art Sandi Simon Center for Dance and perform at the Musco Center for the Arts. All majors begin in the BA and can apply to the BFA in sophomore year, and alumni have danced on Taylor Swift's world tour.
Marymount Manhattan College
Marymount Manhattan College's BFA in Dance puts intensive training in the middle of New York City, with concentrations in Ballet, Choreography, Jazz Dance, and Modern Dance. The curriculum balances technique with music, anatomy, production, and career preparation, and senior-year coursework includes resume, audition, and professional-readiness work. The city itself is the program's biggest asset, opening doors to internships, auditions, and the professional dance community.
Ithaca College
Ithaca College offers a rare specialized BFA in Dance & Choreography for Musical Theatre, built for the dancers, dance captains, and choreographers who will stage musicals. Training covers ballet, jazz, modern, and tap with concentrated study in improvisation, composition, and pedagogy, plus foundational theatre and music coursework, the makings of a true triple-threat choreographer. A senior capstone, industry masterclasses, and an option to continue at the Ithaca College London Center round out the program.
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More Standout Dance Programs
Virginia Commonwealth University
VCUarts is consistently one of the top public arts schools in the country, and its BFA in Dance and Choreography gives equal weight to performing and making work. Training spans modern and contemporary forms, improvisation, composition, ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, and contact improvisation, supported by eight dance studios and a staffed theater. Faculty are active artist-researchers, and graduates work as choreographers, performers, dance physical therapists, and artistic directors.
George Mason University
George Mason University's BFA in Dance is a performance-oriented contemporary program with daily technical training in modern dance and ballet and an intensive 123-credit curriculum. Its location in Fairfax puts students within reach of the Washington, D.C. arts community, including the Kennedy Center. Dancers audition, rehearse, and perform throughout the year, developing the versatility that contemporary companies look for.
Cornish College of the Arts
Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle offers a BFA in Dance built on daily physical practice that rotates across contemporary, modern, ballet, jazz, West African, hip-hop, and somatics, with an emphasis on anatomically sound technique and long-term well-being. Class sizes are small and faculty are active practitioners. Modern dance pioneer Merce Cunningham studied at Cornish before founding his legendary company, and today's students benefit from entrepreneurship training and Seattle's thriving arts scene.
Shenandoah Conservatory
Shenandoah Conservatory's BFA in Dance offers comprehensive training for both performing artists and choreographers, with live accompaniment for all ballet and modern technique courses and an international focus that facilitates study and performance abroad. Three mainstage concerts a year run in the 600-seat Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre, and a fast-track option adds a Performing Arts Leadership & Management master's in just one more year. Alumni perform with companies including Diavolo and on Disney Cruise Line.
Montclair State University
Montclair State University's BFA in Dance is regularly cited among the top college dance programs in the country and is NASD-accredited, with an outstanding record at American College Dance Association events. Every dance major performs every semester starting freshman year, with opportunities at venues like the Kennedy Center, the Joyce Theater, and the 92nd Street Y. Just 30 minutes from Manhattan, the program draws guest artists from the city, and alumni dance with companies including Ballet Hispanico, LA Dance Project, and Paul Taylor Dance Company.
University of Colorado - Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder offers a contemporary BFA in Dance that values stylistic range and the fusion of forms, with technique spanning contemporary, ballet, jazz, African, tap, aerial, and more, plus a full slate of dance-theory coursework. BFA students present original choreography every semester and produce a senior concert. It is a strong public-university option for dancers who want both rigorous technique and creative independence, set against a striking mountain backdrop.
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How to Choose the Right Dance Program
Start with the kind of dancer you want to become. If your goal is a contemporary or ballet company, prioritize technique depth, repertory, and where graduates actually end up dancing. If you are drawn to commercial work, look for programs with industry connections, a Los Angeles or New York presence, and training across multiple styles. If you are not ready to commit to a conservatory track, a strong BA can keep your options open while still offering serious training.
Beyond the studio, weigh the things that sustain a dance career: injury prevention and dance-science resources, how often you will actually perform, faculty access, financial aid, and cost. A program with a lower net price and constant stage time can serve you better than a famous name where you rarely get cast. Visit if you can, take a class, and pay attention to how the dancers around you train and treat each other.
About This Guide
stageready tracks more than 300 undergraduate dance programs across the United States, Canada, the UK, and Europe, including renowned international conservatories like Rambert, Trinity Laban, and Codarts Rotterdam. The programs above are a starting point, not the whole field. Browse every dance program to filter by location, degree type, selectiveness, and audition requirements, and create a free account to save schools to your list and track deadlines as you build your audition season.
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