Dance

The Dance Department at SPCPA provides rigorous, well rounded training that develops technical skill, artistry, versatility, creativity, and an understanding of dance as both an art form and a means of expression. Students study with teaching artists from varied professional, cultural, and movement backgrounds, exposing them to a range of techniques, traditions, aesthetics, and approaches to dance.

Dedicated technical training is central to the program. Students develop strength, alignment, coordination, flexibility, musicality, spatial awareness, movement quality, and performance skills while learning how to work safely and intelligently with their bodies. Alongside technique, students study choreography, improvisation, performance, collaboration, and artistic interpretation. The goal is to develop dancers who are not only technically capable, but curious, expressive, adaptable, and confident in their individual artistic voices.

Ballet I | Ballet II
Students develop the technical foundation of classical ballet through focused study of alignment, placement, turnout, coordination, strength, flexibility, musicality, vocabulary, and movement quality. Training emphasizes healthy technique and an understanding of how foundational ballet principles support growth across multiple dance forms.

Modern | Contemporary I & Modern | Contemporary II
Students deepen their technical and artistic practice through contemporary approaches to movement. Training integrates strength, alignment, floor work, weight transfer, dynamics, improvisation, musicality, spatial awareness, and individual expression while challenging dancers to adapt to varied choreographic styles.

Performance Studies
Students investigate what transforms learned choreography into compelling performance. Through rehearsal, interpretation, ensemble awareness, stage presence, musicality, intention, and performance practice, students learn to make specific artistic choices and communicate clearly with an audience.

Jazz Fusion
Students develop jazz technique, musicality, coordination, dynamics, rhythm, style, and performance quality while exploring the ways jazz movement intersects with other contemporary dance forms. Students are challenged to move with precision and clarity while developing versatility and confident personal expression.

West African Dance
Students experience West African dance through the study of rhythm, grounded movement, coordination, musicality, community, and the relationship between movement and live or recorded percussion. Instruction places movement within its cultural context, helping students understand dance as an artistic practice connected to history, tradition, celebration, communication, and community.

Hip-Hop | Street Fusion I 

Hip-Hop | Street Fusion II

Students develop rhythm, groove, coordination, musicality, dynamics, freestyle skills, and performance quality through the study of hip hop and street influenced movement. Alongside physical training, students examine the cultural foundations and evolution of the forms they study, developing greater understanding of the communities and artistic traditions from which these movement practices emerged.

Dance Faculty