Everyone in my company loves visiting George Mason University.  It’s a place where we can perform for an audience that loves dance and a place where we can teach students who love to dance.  What could be better than that?  It’s an inspiring environment. …I hold George Mason University’s dance program in high regard.  The program is really doing something right.      Mark Morris

• The School of Dance at George Mason University, located in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., offers a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance.
• The program focuses on modern dance performance and choreography, and also offers preparation for teacher licensure.
• The dance program is highly selective. All prospective students must audition and outstanding candidates are considered for talent scholarships.
• Performance opportunities abound at George Mason. The School of Dance produces five annual concerts, plus numerous choreographic showcases for audiences that exceed 4000 each season. Venues include the University’s 2,000 seat Center for the Arts Concert Hall, the 500 seat Harris Theater and a dance performance studio.  A special feature of the dance performance season is that concerts often include work performed with orchestras, choruses and solo instrumentalists.
• The Mason Dance Company also performs in other venues in the Washington metropolitan area including recent performances at the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage and the Harman Center.
• The department’s resources include five studios, including a performance lab, as well as a dance conditioning room and athletic trainer’s office – all in the beautiful new de Laski Performing Arts Building which opened in August, 2010.
•  All technique classes are conducted with accompanists from a staff of nine outstanding musicians.
• There are nine full time faculty in the School of Dance, who bring a progressive vision to the rigorous curriculum of studio and theoretical study, and there are ten to twelve additional dance specialists who teach each year. Faculty include former members of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company (Susan Shields), Mark Morris Dance Group (Dan Joyce), White Oak Dance Project (Susan Shields), Paul Taylor Dance Company (Connie Dinapoli), New York City Ballet (Christopher d’Amboise) and the Limon Company (Jim Lepore).
• Approximately 100 students are dance majors or minors, and more than 1,000 other university students enroll in dance classes each semester.
• The very selective audition process limits the incoming freshman class to 20. Approximately 75 % of each freshman class comes from out of state. Current Dance majors come to George Mason from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, South Dakota, Washington and Mexico City. 
• The contemporary performance repertoire of George Mason dancers is kept alive through a successful long-standing guest artist residency program. Most recently, students have performed the work of Mark Morris, Lar Lubovitch, David Parsons, Robert Battle, Susan Marshall, Doug Varone, Paul Taylor, Elisa Monte, Jacqulyn Buglisi, and Twyla Tharp.
• Dance majors at George Mason enjoy the many performances presented by professional dance companies in the Washington metropolitan area, and are especially fortunate that all the artists who perform on campus at the Center for the Arts also direct master classes, give lectures and conduct discussions in the School of Dance. Recent dance performances on campus have included Hubbard Street Dance, Doug Varone, Momix, Aterballetto, Martha Graham Dance Company, Complexions Dance Company, Parsons Dance Company, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Mark Morris Dance Group.
• Graduates of the dance degree programs at George Mason are professional performers, choreographers, university faculty members, dance educators, health practitioners and arts managers. You might meet a GMU dance alum: on tour with Mark Morris Dance Group, the Parsons Dance Company, the Jose Limon Company, the Elisa Monte Dance Company or Buglisi Dance Theatre; dancing with the Metropolitan Opera; presenting choreography in New York, Minneapolis or Richmond; teaching at the University of Maryland or Woodbridge High School Center for the Performing Arts; or, planning performances at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center.

Our invitation to you
Visit our campus and watch us in action. Performers and choreographers who are B.A., B.F.A., and M.F.A. candidates at George Mason have attracted the attention of the media and many professional dance companies. Observe a class, see a performance, meet our dance majors, and speak with an advisor. School of Dance is an exciting setting in which to foster your dance career. Strong dance technique, intensive theory, guest artist residencies, abundant performance opportunities – these are the trademarks of our degree programs. Join us for a day in our spacious dance studios and our three state-of-the-art theaters. We would be delighted to have you as a guest. Just suggest a day, and leave us your email or phone number.

Elizabeth Price
Director, School of Dance

Contact Us
School of Dance MS 3D4
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
(703) 993-1114
dance@gmu.edu