Dancers must be prepared to challenge both their minds and their bodies. Dance programs require them to explore the history, theory, and science of their art while developing their physical skills.

Dancers learn to express ideas and emotions through dance styles such as ballet, tap, modern, jazz, ethnic, and folk dance.

Dancers will learn different systems of dance notation – ways of describing movement through written symbols or abbreviations. A common form of this is labanotation, which uses symbols to represent the exact positions of each body part. It is a good idea for dancers to gain experience by helping with multiple aspects of dance performances, such as lighting, costumes, and sound.