MO FULL PROGRAM

  • MO is a multi-year post-secondary program that provides relevant contemporary dance development to 30 aspiring professionals between the ages of 18 and 25. Each year of the program runs from September to June and is divided into three terms that are separated by winter and spring breaks. While every term incorporates all aspects of the curriculum, the central focus of the program evolves from foundational technique to creative practice and performance. Students train an average of 33 hours per week, with additional hours devoted to mentorship meetings and dialogue. The daily schedule includes one to two technique and conditioning classes followed by one to two complementary classes in performance and creation studies.

    Because the student body is composed of dancers with a wide range of expertise and backgrounds, a core value of the program is that students at all levels train together. Although mentorship and assessment is ongoing throughout, the end of each term provides a period for reflection in which mentors and students can reassess development and objectives.

    Each year, MO students perform at a selection of community events including Discover Dance, Vancouver International Dance Festival, and Dance in Vancouver. End of year performances share three to four new creations by local and international choreographers.

    From January to June, the Focus Group offers additional development hours for third- and fourth-year students. Activities are planned in collaboration with students and are designed to support their individual interests and needs through demanding professional practicum. Each year the Focus Group shares selections of their own work at the Focus Group Showing and Reception.

    * Program delivery is in person and in English

  • Rigorous & Diverse Foundational Training and repetition are the backbone of the curriculum, along with the development of sophisticated physiological understanding across multiple contemporary dance languages. We prioritize foundation classes (Flow, Contemporary Techniques, Improvisation, Conditioning and Ballet), which are taught by core faculty and are programmed frequently.

    MO is hailed for the spectrum of methods and perspectives that we present to our students. Our program offers intensive training in popping, breaking, and house, to further the relevance and adaptability of our students’ skillsets. Interpretation & Transformation, Theatre, and Voice introduce students to new interpretive territory and provide them with the tools to broaden and deepen artistic and technical skills, perspective, endurance, and connections between traditions.

    We believe that Dance Making & Improvisation are critical tools for innovative independent artists and collaborators. These skills are incorporated into technique classes and also programmed separately.

    Partner Work is offered in several sessions in the form of technique classes and contact improvisation as well as diverse repertoire and within students’ own choreographic development.

    Choreographic Workshops bring the processes of active professional choreographers into experimental labs. Students engage with an assortment of creative perspectives, approaches, and environments, and are asked to contextualize their training, offer their perspectives, and contribute to momentum. In addition, students are involved with three to five New Creations for Performance each year.

    Repertoire includes the study of 10 excerpts of diverse and demanding solo, partnering, and ensemble work, and has recently included work from Kidd Pivot, Out Innerspace, Eric Cheung, Josh Beamish and Tentacle Tribe.

    Mentorship, Assessment & Career Navigation are ongoing activities that incorporate group dialogue, meetings, written assignments, and directed study. Each student receives a minimum of four individual meetings with the Directors in addition to group meetings, and personal feedback from faculty. Students learn to understand the demands inherent in each course and to relate them across their multi-year development. Students develop their goals, personal regimens, and critical self-assessments alongside their mentors. Dialogue, writing, and creative tasks empower students to take charge of their own progress through productive self-assessment.

    The Graduate “Focus Group” offers programming for the third- and fourth-year students to further develop their own practice and amplify the practicum to match professional process. Activity is planned in collaboration with the students and designed to support their individual interests and needs. They prioritize their resources, drive their own process, bring their questions together for peer research, facilitate their own showings and feedback, and select their own mentors. Upon graduation, students’ portfolios include substantial solo and group material created by themselves, over 15 excerpts of professional repertoire, and over ten creations by professionals including solos, duets, ensemble, improvised, and evening-length works. A large collection of written work spans their four-year development. With the assistance of mentors, they develop their choreographic voices and tools as well as their own regimens in physical therapy, improvisation, movement generation, and reflection. Collective writing, artistic statements, developmental questions, and dialogue help students to build a verbal and written language to support their physical one.

  • 1ST YEAR STUDENTS

    • Develop foundational technical and artistic skills

    • Analyse and reflect upon their own approach, progress and challenges

    • Have their fundamental challenges and learning needs identified by faculty and mentors

    • Participate in career navigation activity through exposure to a broad range of contemporary dance with follow-up discussion

    • Gain an understanding of personal goals and the work required to reach these goals

    • Are introduced to the standards and expectations of professional-level practice

    • Participate in improvisation, dance-making, choreographic workshops, dance on screen, and movement repertoire

    2ND YEAR STUDENTS

    • Strengthen their technical and artistic skills

    • Take greater responsibility for their learning and progress

    • Deepen their connection between daily work and professional ambition

    • Gain greater knowledge of and appreciation for the dance community

    • Build a stronger relationship between short-term and long-term goals

    • Take more risk in every aspect of their learning

    • Take on new challenges in class, creation and performance

    • Participate in career navigation based on the understanding of their own personal practice within the breadth of possibilities in professional practice

    • Build their self-assessment, reflection, writing and dialogue skills

    3RD YEAR STUDENTS

    • Develop a level of sophistication in a multitude of methods and approaches

    • Experiment with what they are learning and find their own unique point of view

    • Connect their dancing to the way they see the world

    • Use their growing skill-set in diverse creative processes

    • Use their growing skill-set to dialogue, write, make dances and interpret the work of other artists

    • Develop their own practice and expectations, drive their own progress

    • Enjoy a more self-directed, critical engagement with the form of contemporary dance

    • Strengthen relationships with the greater dance community

    • Gain a deeper awareness of the demands and expectations of becoming a professional dance artist and are able to assess and communicate their personal challenges in meeting these demands and expectations

    4TH YEAR STUDENTS

    • Develop a mature and diversified technical and artistic toolkit

    • Take responsibility for their developing dance practice

    • Employ productive critical self-assessment

    • Have a self-practice and a collaborative practice

    • Respect and support their peers

    • Possess connected, strong, articulate and sophisticated bodies and minds and are eager and able to express complex ideas in dialogue, writing and creative process

    • Have a deep appreciation for and interest in the existing community and respect for all dance forms and approaches

    • Develop multiple meaningful relationships with dance professionals that will help to bridge the gap between training and independent career

    • Build an insatiable hunger for learning, approach daily work with joy, rigour, purpose and contemplation

    • Know how to use the skills they have learned

    • Cultivate the confidence to challenge themselves, others and current expectations and structures thoughtfully and with respect

    • Are invigorated by their artistic questions are innovative problem solvers

    • Participate in intimate creative process and performance experiences that challenge them to work at a professional standard

    • Learn to manage all aspects and responsibilities of being a professional with clear career goals related to their own interests, capabilities and practice

  • WEEKLY SCHEDULE

    September – June

    Mondays – Thursdays 9:00am – 3:00pm 

    Fridays 9am – 2pm, 2:30pm – 4:30pm students’ own work time

    Focus Group January – June

    Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays 3:00pm – 5:00pm

    DAILY SCHEDULE

    The basic daily schedule includes 1-2 technique or conditioning classes followed by 1-2 performance and creation classes and incorporates a lunch break and small breaks between classes. The program runs from September – June with a 2-week spring break and a 2-week winter break.

    IMPORTANT DATES 2026/27 *subject to change

    Start Date: September 8th, 2026

    Winter Break: December 18th, 2026 - January 4th, 2027

    Spring Break: March 15th - March 26th, 2027

    End Date: June 18th, 2027

  • Our policy is to provide professional-level quality education for an affordable price that is inclusive of young dancers who are dealing with diverse kinds of transitions into post-secondary education. MO tuition is a scholarship rate based on the regular membership and enrolment fees for local classes and comparable institutions. Through scholarship level prices, MO seeks to support a wider range of young people looking to pursue a professional dance career and also offers work exchange and partial scholarships. Additionally, MO helps students apply to provincial scholarship programs which results in an average of one-quarter of the student body receiving full scholarships. Our program administrators are also able to arrange alternative payment plans to support students and payees who are experiencing financial difficulties.

    ANNUAL TUITION $3990

    REGISTRATION FEE $130

    ADMINISTRATION FEE $400

    STUDENTS SUPPLIES, EQUIPMENT + READING MATERIALS $450

    MENTORSHIP AND STUDIO USAGE FEES $850

    PROJECT AND PERFORMANCE FEES $750

    Tuition includes all activities, both inside and outside of the regular schedule, including performance, projects, mentorship, and masterclasses. No additional fees are levied during the training season.