The Pre-Professional Program prepares aspiring young dancers to be tomorrow’s professional artists. As part of the DIW’s studio school, this audition-based program employs a curriculum grounded in classical ballet technique, with emphasis on modern, jazz, and African dance.
Throughout the multi-level program, physicality, intellect, and a sense of aesthetics are developed, refined and expanded, producing students with a high caliber of performance artistry and technical skill. As a result, students who graduate from the Pre-Professional Program are well trained and prepared to pursue their passion for dance in a university or professional setting.

The Pre-Professional curriculum includes codified classical techniques (ballet, modern, jazz) and indigenous dance forms (African), which form the foundation and development of contemporary dance in America. Class instruction emphasizes the development of proper alignment and placement, musicality, agility, spatial and kinesthetic awareness, and the development of consistent and effective performance quality. Each semester, students take part in a public performance allowing for the practical application of skills acquired during classes. To participate in the Pre-Professional program, each student must attend a placement audition.

Registration is now closed for the Spring 2010 semester. To view iinformation for the Summer Intensive Program, please click here. Students who do not qualify for the Summer Intensive may register for Community Program classes.