Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College

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Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College

Conservatory-style training… A faculty of renowned professionals… Rigorous programs with the bes

The Conservatory of Dance’s BFA program gives students a comprehensive entrée into the world of professional dance. Purchase alumni currently perform with many of the foremost international contemporary modern and ballet dance companies. They also teach, direct, and choreograph major productions, dance on Broadway, have founded companies across the globe, and are nurturing the next generation of p

rofessors in higher education. The Conservatory offers professional training for serious and dedicated dance students, with daily classes in classical ballet and contemporary modern dance, as well as an extensive curriculum in composition. The program emphasizes both performance and choreography, providing students with a broad artistic foundation through the four year composition program and studies of music, dance history, dance production, anatomy, core curriculum courses, and a wide variety of electives. The Purchase Dance Company
Performance is a vital part of the Conservatory’s professional training program. The Purchase Dance Company performs major concerts in The Performing Arts Center; in student and faculty concerts in the Dance Theatre Lab; and on tour in New York City, New York State, and abroad. The Purchase Dance Company has toured to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing, Amsterdam, France and Germany. The company presents a diversity of work, from reconstructions to contemporary modern and classical ballet repertory to new works created especially for the Purchase Dance Company.

04/27/2026

Generations!🟩✨

PDC starts Friday, May 1st! Take a look inside of a studio rehearsal with Martha Graham's “Dark Meadow!” Don’t miss Purchase Dance and this classic Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are on sale now, so make sure you get yours today. Ticket link is in the bio!
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🎥: Yael Levitin-Saban
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purchaseCoD

04/20/2026

Purchase dance is thrilled to announce our Purchase Dance Company Spring 26 Concert as:

⭐️Generations!⭐️

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Martha Graham

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recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th Century.

She was named
“Dancer of the Century” by Time and has been compared with other creative giants such as Picasso, Einstein, Stravinsky and Freud. She created 181 ballets and a technique that revolutionized dance
throughout the greater part of the past century. Using the founding principals of contraction and release, she built a vocabulary of movement to “increase the emotional activity of the dancer’s body,” exploring the depth and diversity of human emotion. Her ballets were inspired by a wide range of sources from the
American frontier to Greek Mythology. She created and portrayed prominent women, including Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Medea, Phaedra, Joan of Arc and Emily Dickenson.

During her 70 years of creating
dance, she collaborated with other great artists – Noguchi, Copland, Barber and Schuman, and her mentor Louis Horst among others, and is recognized for her groundbreaking work in all aspects of the theater – use of time, space, lighting, costumes, sets and music. Her company was a training ground for many generations of choreographers including Cunningham, Taylor and Tharp. At the Neighborhood Playhouse, she is said to have changed the course of American acting through students such as Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, Tony Randall and Orson Wells. Her creative genius earned numerous honors and awards, including
the Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of the Arts.

Martha Graham’s extraordinary legacy lives on in the work of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Ensemble and School, and in the students worldwide studying her technique and performing her masterworks.

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This Spring tenured professor Martin Løfsnes is setting "Dark Meadow"
(1946) with additional coaching by Christine Dakin, Katherine Crockett, Miki Orihara.

(Martin's Bio in comments...)

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Make sure to mark your calendars for our Spring Concert Generations! May 1-3 2026.
Tickets are on sale NOW!🎉

04/18/2026

Purchase dance is thrilled to announce our Purchase Dance Company Spring 26 concert as:

Generations!

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Ja’Malik

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Ja’ Malik built a career of executing commissions from nationally-renowned dance companies and advocating for representation of Black artists. He founded and has served as Executive
Director of New York City’s Ballet Boy Productions, whose mission is to create pathways for young Black men to thrive in a career in dance. In 2019, Ja’ Malik collaborated with Tony-nominated Camille A. Brown on choreography for The Public Theater’s 2019 production of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enuf, and is a former member of Cleveland Ballet, Oakland Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Nathan Trice Rituals, City Dance Ensemble, Ballet
Hispanico, and Ballet X. In 2003 he graduated from the first class of Joffrey Ballet School, and New School University, BFA program.

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This Spring Ja’Malik is creating a new contemporary ballet work!

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Make sure to mark your calendars for our Spring Concert Generations! May 1-3 2026. Tickets going on sale soon!🎉

04/17/2026

“FANFARE: ENCORE
A Conservatory of Dance Senior Project

April 17th and 18th, @ 7:30 pm (EST) in the KAZ Dance Theater Lab at Purchase College

Featuring works by Maddy Anderson, Emma Blacksmith, Mel Cornick, and Aubrey Mailloux, as well as solo performance choreographed by Emmy Wildermuth, Nelly Von Bommel Zelniker, Joy-Marie Thompson, and David Dorfman.

Tickets are $5 General Admission and $3 Student with Purchase ID and Senior Citizen. Cash only and tickets sold at the door. In addition, we will be collecting donations for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

We are excited to share our work with all of you

Video:

*We don’t own the rights to this music*

-From the Seniors of FANFARE: ENCORE”

04/16/2026

Purchase Dance is thrilled to announce our Purchase Dance Company Spring 26 Concert as:

⭐️Generations!⭐️

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Hannah Garner

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named a 2025 Princess Grace Award recipient in Choreography and ‘25 to Watch’ by Dance Magazine, is a NYC based dancer/choreographer making work that “tackles topics like death and q***r identity through rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine). Since graduating from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Performance and Composition and a minor in Arts Management, Hannah has gone on to work with Doug Varone, Raja Feather Kelly, Sue Bernhard Danceworks, and Megan Williams Dance, in venues such as The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, the Park Avenue Armory, and New York Live Arts.

Her work as 2nd Best Dance Company has been commissioned nationally by leading contemporary dance companies and schools, such as Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, GroundWorks DanceTheater, GALLIM x CreateArt, SUNY Purchase, NYU, Bard College, among others. 2nd Best was the Resident Artist of Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (2022), Atlantic Center for the Arts (2021), GALLIM’s Moving Women Residency (2021), and Triskelion Arts (2019), among others. Hannah's choreography has also been presented through Triskelion Arts, Mark Morris Dance Group, Dixon Place, New York International Fringe Festival, The Wassaic Project, and appears in music videos for artists like Snail Mail, Half Waif and Frankie Cosmos.

(Bio continued in comments...)

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This Spring Hannah is setting "Welcome Suite" (2023), assisted by Channce Williams. A piece originally created as commission for Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance.

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Make sure to mark your calendars for our Spring Concert Generations! May 1-3 2026.
Tickets going on sale soon!🎉

04/14/2026

Purchase dance is thrilled to announce our Purchase Dance Company Spring 26 concert as:

Generations!

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Doug Varone

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Award-winning choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, and fashion. He is a passionate educator and articulate advocate for dance. By any measure, his work is extraordinary for its emotional range, kinetic breadth and the many arenas in which he works. His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for over four decades. Since its founding in 1986, Doug Varone and Dancers has commanded attention for its expansive vision, versatility, and technical prowess. On tour, the company has performed in more than 125 cities in 45 states across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Moscow’s Stanislavsky Theater, Buenos Aires’ Teatro San Martin, the Venice Biennale, and at Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival. Varone, his dancers, and designers have been honored with 11 New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Awards.

CONTINUES IN COMMENTS…

04/02/2026

🌳GENERATIONS🌳

The Purchase Dance Company will be havibg their annual Spring Concert in TWO WEEKS! Join us Friday, May 1 at 8pm, Saturday, May 2 at 2pm & 8pm, and Sunday, May 3 at 3pm. This program celebrates our remarkable community and several important milestones, including the 50th Anniversary of our first graduating class!

Tickets are on sale now, so get yours while you still can! We have an exciting show presenting works by:

Martha Graham - “Dark Meadow” (1946)
Staged by Assistant Professor Martin Lofsnes in honor of the Martha Graham Dance Company Centennial.

Doug Varone - “Double Octet” (2022)
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Doug Varone & Dancers!

Hannah Garner ‘15 - “Welcome Suite” (2023)
An innovative work from our Princess Grace Award-winning alum.

&

Ja’ Malik _ - “Come Together” (World Premiere!)
An exciting new commission from the Artistic Director of Madison Ballet.

The 8pm performance on Friday, May 1 will be preceded by an Artist Talk at 7:15pm. This event will be open to the general public! (Broadview members: join us Saturday at 1pm for a special cast talk).

We absolutely can’t wait to see you all there! Scan the QR code for tickets or visit The Performing Arts Center, Pepsico Theatre!🎉

Pictured: Conservatory of Dance BFA Majors

Photo: Christopher Duggan

Address

735 Anderson Hill Rd
Purchase, NY
10577

Telephone

+19142516800

Website

http://www.purchase.edu/dance

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