The Peabody Conservatory BFA Dance program prepares exceptional 21st-century performers, choreographers, teachers, and future leaders dedicated to pushing the boundaries between performing arts, social justice and dance science. We are committed to expanding the role and relevance of dance in both traditional and non-traditional contexts, creating success in a myriad of fields.
At the end of this program, students will be able to:
We learn, live, move, and play on the unceded lands of the Piscataway and Susquehannock nations. We acknowledge the settler-colonial history and systemic inequities that continue to shape the present and future of indigenous people who reside in Baltimore City, including Piscataway, Lumbee, and Eastern Band of Cherokee community members. As artists, teachers, and students, we are responsible for engaging in a multifaceted dialogue about our complacency as participants in and beneficiaries of settler-colonial ways of knowing and being. This public acknowledgment extends the ongoing conversation in our practice, history, and theory courses.
Peabody Dance Ensemble: Students have an opportunity to perform in the Peabody Dance Ensemble; a pre-professional dance company showcasing original and repertory work by faculty and guest artists. The ensemble performs in annual concerts and travels to festivals, conferences, and community residencies.
Guest Artist Residencies: Master dance artists create original works and/or re-set existing works on students. Guest artists also teach master classes and offer lectures touching on the important role dance has played in shaping the course of an engaged civic life.
Apprenticeships and Internships: Pre-professional preparation at Peabody is designed to give students practical experience for success after graduation. Under the direction of a faculty member (depending on interest), students are placed with professional dance companies, choreographers, dance studios, arts organizations and other community partners.
Capstone Dance Project: The Capstone Project gives students the opportunity to pursue independent, innovative, and interdisciplinary research that culminates with a presentation of a self-produced concert, dance film, lecture, or panel discussion.
Previous movement experience recommended.
Alexandria “Brinae Ali” Bradley, born and raised in Flint, Michigan is an interdisciplinary artist who believes in using the power of the arts to transform the conditions of the human spirit.
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For more than five decades, Glenna Batson has drawn from multiple disciplines as catalysts for teaching, research, mentoring, advocacy, and artistic and personal growth. Batson brings a trans-disciplinary perspective to embodied learning through a synthesis of dance, Somatics, embodied cognitive neuroscience and neuro-rehabilitation medicine.
danah bella is the artistic director of d a n a h b e l l a DanceWorks, a modern dance company focused on reclaiming evocative movement as social practice. bella has performed and presented her work throughout the country.
Tiffanie Carson is an educator, mentor, and performance artist. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance at Chapman University.
A native of Taiwan, pianist Hui-Chuan Chen began piano lessons at age four and made her debut performance at six. As a successful soloist, chamber musician, collaborative pianist and educator, Chen has traveled and performed widely throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Diedre Dawkins is a 2003 Bessie Award winner and founder of Dance is Healing mentoring for middle school girls through dance. Dawkins graduated from the New York City High School of the Performing Arts...
Mike Esperanza is an acclaimed artist from New York City who has established a national presence in the graphic design and dance communities. As a designer, his work has been recognized in publications such as Print, Communication Arts, and Graphis.
Jabari Exum is an electrifying performing artist born and raised in Washington, DC. He is a skilled percussionist in the West African / Latin tradition and is a prolific writer and performer of Hip-Hop music. Since 1997 Exum has also been a pioneering artist in a movement called “Hip-Hop Theater.”
Robin Gilmore, MFA, ATI, is an internationally recognized Alexander Technique teacher and somatic specialist with 40+ years experience teaching in universities, conferences, organizations, and private practice.
Gayanne Grossman is a dancer, physical therapist, author, researcher, and a performing arts medicine specialist. Grossman is adjunct faculty for the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.
Laura Halm Hamilton is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and mother. Originally from Baltimore, she received a BFA in dance from The Juilliard School in 2002 and an MFA from Hollins University in 2024. Well-versed in Eurocentric forms of concert dance, including Classical, Modern, Contemporary, and Postmodern forms, she has performed as a company member with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Ballett des Saarländischen Staatstheater in Saarbrücken, Germany, and the Chamber Dance Company of The University of Washington.
Kelly Hirina is a certified teacher of both Countertechnique, created by Anouk van Dijk and Double Skin/Double Mind, created by Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten. She has been teaching these methods at the Lucia Marthas Institute for Performing Arts (Amsterdam) and in her role as the artistic coordinator of ICKamsterdam’s academy.
Colette Krogol (she/her) is a Cuban-American artist originally from Miami, Florida. She is a choreographer, director, dancer, filmmaker, and educator. As the Co-Artistic Director of Orange Grove Dance (OGD) her creative work exists at the intersection of dance, design, and film.
Andrea N. Lasner is a licensed physical therapist and clinical specialist for The Johns Hopkins Hospital and The Johns Hopkins Outpatient Rehabilitation Network Clinic for Performing Artists at the Peabody Institute, and The Johns Hopkins Outpatient Rehabilitation Network Clinic at Green Spring Station.
Gabriel Mata (pronunciation: gah-bryehl mah-tah) is a Mexican American dance choreographer, educator, dance film maker, and performer.
Founding Artistic Director of Nickerson-Rossi Dance, Palm Springs International Dance Festival, and Palm Springs Dance Academy, Michael Nickerson-Rossi’s choreography is filled with complex intricacies that unravel through a beautifully orchestrated mixture of artistic movement and emotional freedom.
Christopher Pennix leads a dynamic career in dance, teaching, opera, and fitness as a certified yoga and cycle instructor.
Baltimore native Chris Pierorazio began his formal studies at the age of six with Peabody Conservatory alum Mark Jones at the Baltimore School for Drumming, where he studied until 2005. While there, he studied drum set in all genres including advanced jazz studies, modern rock and funk techniques, Latin style as well as classical and rudimental snare drum studies.
Ayal Yariv works as a piano accompanist at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He is also the regular pianist at Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Fairview United Methodist Church and the church services at Glen Meadows Retirement Community, and is a company musician at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, where he plays period woodwind instruments.