The Pre-Professional Program (ages 12-21) 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 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 Program curriculum includes codified classical techniques (ballet, modern, jazz) and indigenous dance forms (hip hop, 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 open for the 2011/2012 Season.

Register now online. For additional information and/or assistance, please call our registrar at (202) 371-9656.