Dance

St. Paul’s School provides students with the opportunity to combine a rigorous academic education with the finest dance training in a dedicated dance facility. The SPS Dance Program fosters a fun, nurturing, and artistic learning environment, while training technically proficient dancers with a sound work ethic.

 

Offering year-round dance classes as part of its academic calendar and training all levels of dancers, the SPS Dance Program prepares its students to dance at the college and pre-professional level. All classes are focused on challenging students and supporting their physical, mental, and artistic development. The program offers year-round dance classes as part of its academic calendar, including Dance I (introductory class), and Ballet II – V (for the more experienced dancer).

Serious dancers may audition for the St. Paul’s School Ballet Company (SPSBC), a year-round program that can be substituted for athletic participation at the varsity level. SPSBC dancers work one-on-one with faculty and guest teachers and choreographers, rehearsing daily throughout the academic calendar, and performing four different programs each school year, including classical and contemporary works.

 

Through the Visiting Artist Program (VAP), the SPSBC has worked with principal dancers of companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ballet X, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Big Dance Theater, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Twyla Tharp, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Batsheva Dance Company, and master ballet teachers from American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, the Balanchine Trust, New York City Ballet, and School of American Ballet.

 

SPS graduates have gone on to dance at The Juilliard School, Barnard College, Columbia University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, Princeton University, Wellesley College, University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, University of Michigan Department of Musical Theater, and Vassar College and professionally with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Jose Limon Dance Company, Lar Lubovitch, Batsheva Dance Company, Twyla Tharp, Louisville Ballet, Carolina Ballet, and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, to name a few.