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School of Dance
School of Design and Production
Visual Arts Program
School of Drama
School of Filmmaking
School of Music
Academic Programs
Division of Student Life

• Students concentrate in ballet or contemporary dance; however, they study in both areas.
• Renowned faculty have danced with the finest ballet and contemporary dance companies in the world, from New York City Ballet to the Limón Dance Company.
• Guest artists have included Lar Lubovitch, Arthur Mitchell, Jacques d’Amboise and Alvin Ailey, among others.
• Highly competitive, the school accepts fewer than half (35 percent) of its applicants.
• Students have more than 40 performance opportunities a year, including fully mounted productions such as “The Nutcracker.”
• Exemplary facilities for dancers include nine air-conditioned dance studios with sprung floors and two performance spaces (1,380-seat Stevens Center and the more intimate Agnes de Mille Theatre).
• Dance students and alumni have won awards and recognition from the Prix de Lausanne, the International Ballet Competition and the Princess Grace Foundation.
• Dance alumni are performing or have performed in most major dance companies in the United States and many throughout the world. They include Gillian Murphy, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre; Dwana Smallwood of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Katita Waldo, principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet; and Manelich Minnifee, Pilobolus.
• Offers a Preparatory Dance Program for about 60 elementary and middle school students in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

• One of very few independent schools of theatrical design and production in the country.
• Concentrations offered in costume design, costume technology, lighting design, performing arts management, scene design, scenic painting, sound design, stage automation, stage management, stage properties, technical direction, and wig and makeup design.
• Curriculum emphasizes hands-on instruction. Students work on more than 25 shows a year – plays, musicals, operas, ballets and contemporary dance concerts, as well as student films.
• Distinguished faculty of professionals who have designed for or worked in theatre, dance, film and opera around the world, from Broadway to Norway.
• Guest artists have included lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, stage manager Maxine Glorsky, scene designer John Lee Beatty, and costume designer Ann Roth.
• Facilities are among the most extensive and sophisticated of any school or professional company in the country. More than 70,000 square feet of space.
• Ranked among the top graduate theatre arts programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
• Almost 100 percent of students find employment in their field after graduation. Many are assisted by the school’s annual Job Fair.
• Alumni can be found working on Broadway, in national touring companies and regional theatre, and with dance and opera companies across the country, as well as with well-known organizations such as Disney and Universal Studios.

• High school program of the School of Design and Production, for 11th- and 12th-graders
• Explores the field of visual communication.
• Curriculum includes drawing, painting, graphics, color theory, two-dimensional design, sculpture, ceramics and photography.
• Exceptional facilities include two art studios with clerestory lighting, a gallery, darkroom, and separate sculpture studio.
• Alumni are currently working in the fields of animation, architecture, fashion, film and video production, graphic design, illustration, jewelry, painting, photography, sculpture and others.

• Professional actor training program provides training in acting, voice and speech, movement, singing, period and style, stage combat, and other skills, as well as business practices in the profession.
• Students receive broad performing experience through workshops and major productions from the classical repertory through the 20th century.
• College students may be admitted to the directing option in their third and fourth years of study.
• Professional faculty has acted, directed, taught and coached nationally and internationally, from Chicago to Broadway and from London to Moscow. Guest artists have included actors Olympia Dukakis, Mandy Patinkin and Sam Waterston and playwright Horton Foote.
• Extremely competitive, the undergraduate program accepts only 12 percent of its applicants.
• Offers a high school drama program for 12th-grade students
• Sends its graduating college seniors to New York City each spring to present a showcase for casting agents and directors. Many students secure jobs and/or agents through this process.
• State-of-the-art facilities include Performance Place, which features proscenium, arena and black box theatres; a drama gym; and a movement studio.
• Drama alumni have received five Tony Awards and 13 Tony nominations over the past few years.
• In addition to Broadway, drama alumni can be found working in national touring companies, regional theatre, and film and television. They include Mary-Louise Parker, “Proof” and "Reckless" on Broadway and HBO's ANGELS IN AMERICA; Wes Day, Blue Man Group; Chris Parnell, "Saturday Night Live!"; and Joe Mantello, Tony Award-winning director ("Assassins" and "Take Me Out").

• Curriculum stresses hands-on experience in film and digital video, to prepare students for careers in the film and television industries.
• Offers concentrations in cinematography, directing, editing and sound, producing, production design, screenwriting, and film music composition.
• NCSA’s newest arts school, established in 1993.
• Very competitive, the school accepts fewer than half (40 percent) of its applicants.
• Credits of the faculty range from theatrical motion pictures such as BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA to television series such as "Beverly Hills 90210" to all manner of media including commercials, documentaries and music videos. Includes members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
• Guest artists have included directors Spike Lee and Saul Zaentz; editor Tom Rolf; and cinematographer Andrew Laszlo.
• Unlike other top films schools in the country, the school underwrites all of the cost of production of student filmmaker work required in the program.
• Unique “Studio Village,” which was built to resemble and function like a Hollywood studio “back lot,” has state-of-the-art production, post-production and exhibition facilities and equipment.
• Has the largest educational film archives in the world, second only to the Library of Congress in the United States.
• Fourth-year productions are screened for the industry in New York and Los Angeles, where graduating students have a week of meetings and workshops designed to develop contacts in the profession.
• Approximately 80 percent of students find employment in their field after graduation.
• Already, students and alumni have distinguished themselves in all areas of the film and television industries. They include David Gordon Green, director of the critically acclaimed independent features UNDERTOW and ALL THE REAL GIRLS; Randolph Benson, director of the Student Academy Award-winning film MAN AND DOG; Anna Dudley, winner of the SHOWTIME Black Filmmaker Showcase; Kevin Hickman, assistant editor, SEABISCUIT; and Tim Orr, cinematographer, RAISING VICTOR VARGAS.

• The only music school in the nation that offers residential high school and college programs as well as graduate studies in performance.
• Offers concentrations in instrumental performance, vocal performance, composition, and conducting.
• Curriculum is designed to provide the broadest possible performance opportunities for each student, from Symphony Orchestra to Contemporary Ensemble to Opera Theatre. Students regularly tour throughout the state and the Southeast.
• The basis of student instruction is studio work with the major teacher. Music faculty members are distinguished artists who maintain active careers, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to the Killington Music Festival in Vermont to the recording studios of 20th Century Fox.
• The A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, based in the School of Music, provides world-class training for emerging opera professionals.
• Guest artists have included composer Bernard Rands, violinist Itzhak Perlman, conductor Leonard Bernstein and the Juilliard String Quartet.
• Performance venues include the 1,380-seat Stevens Center; the 590-seat Crawford Hall, with a Fisk organ; the new 300-seat Watson Chamber Music Hall; and the 60-seat Hood Recital Hall.
• Music alumni are performing with symphony orchestras, opera companies, chamber music ensembles and in solo careers throughout the world. They include violinists Lisa Kim and Sarah O'Boyle of the New York Philharmonic, soprano Jennifer Welch-Babidge of the Metropolitan Opera, and internationally renowned flutist/conductor Ransom Wilson.
• NCSA’s Community Music School provides private and group music lessons to more than 450 Triad students, from toddlers (Kidsbeat and Suzuki programs) to senior citizens.

• Established because the School’s founders believed in the importance of a broad, liberal arts education to the development of the professional artist.
• Courses in languages and literature, mathematics, the humanities, and the natural and social sciences are offered at the high school and college levels.
• The School’s academic program is specially tailored to the intellectual and cultural needs of the artist in society, and is carefully integrated with the study of each arts discipline.
• Compared to most universities and high schools, NCSA’s academic classes are very small, allowing for extensive student-teacher interaction.
• All faculty members have master’s degrees, and many have doctorates. They maintain active academic careers, presenting papers and winning grants.
• SAT scores of high school seniors and incoming college freshmen consistently rank NCSA among the highest in academic achievement among the state’s public high schools and the UNC system.
• More than 80 percent of the School’s high school graduates go on to four-year colleges, universities and conservatories.

• NCSA is a residential community with separate housing for high school and college students, as well as an on-campus apartment complex for college-age students.
• Students of all arts disciplines live together, generating a creative, interdisciplinary dynamic.
• Staff members provide high school and college students with the appropriate level of support and supervision for their age groups.
• The center of student life is the renovated Hanes Student Commons, which includes a cafeteria, snack bar, mail center, campus store, computer lab and wellness center.
• Licensed health care providers (including an athletic trainer and nutritionist) and counselors are available to students on campus at the new Wellness Center.
• A separate Fitness Center features an indoor pool, an aerobics room, a weight room with Cybex equipment, a cardiovascular workout area, and a full-court gymnasium.
• NCSA is a safe and secure environment with its own campus police staff of commissioned officers, who provide community-based policing.
• Middle and high school students have a parental and peer mentoring program available to them.