Ursa Major

An Academy From T. Lang Dance

Mission

School of T. Lang Dance is a movement school for youth ages 13–18. Inspired by the trailblazing choreographic and teaching practices of T. Lang Dance, the school extends the company’s devotion to movement as a force of memory, imagination, and transformation.

At URSA MAJOR, students are not shaped to fit existing systems. They are invited to learn how to perform and choreograph entirely new worlds.

Vision

Ursa Major, an academy from T. Lang Dance, is a conservatory-style training ground for young artists, built around concentrated Signature Labs led directly under the artistic direction of T. Lang. Students train across four disciplines, Improvisation, Choreographic Process, Movement & Technology, and Ancestral Soul Movement, developing technical skill, creative voice, and the discipline to think and create as real artists. This is not recreation. It is serious training for young people building a life in this work.

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Constellation Tracks

  • Ursa Major Academy is not a weekly dance class. It is a conservatory training model built around concentrated Signature Labs, each one a focused immersion in a single discipline of contemporary dance and choreographic practice. Enrollment in each lab is capped at fifteen students so that every young artist receives real attention and real mentorship, not a seat in a crowded room.

    Each lab is led by a Ursa Major Teaching Fellow, trained directly by T. Lang in her pedagogy. T. Lang serves as Artistic Director across every lab: she opens the training as Master Teacher, returns at the midpoint to mentor, delivers final critique, and directs the closing showing.

  • T. Lang is Associate Professor and Inaugural Department Chair of Dance Performance and Choreography at Spelman College, and Founder and Artistic Director of T. Lang Dance. Her research platform, Black Soul Codes, archives and reimagines ancestral movement practices through motion capture, immersive technology, and choreographic modeling. Students in Ursa Major train inside a living research practice, not a franchised curriculum.

  • Each lab runs as a concentrated intensive with a defined beginning and end, closing in a public showing rather than a recital. The series builds across the year, so a student who completes one lab is invited to continue into the next, developing a real, connected body of work rather than attending disconnected classes.

    • Ursa Major Sample Lab

      • Nov 30-Dec 17, 2026

    • Improvisation Lab

      • Jan 11-28, 2027

    • Choreographic Process Lab

      • Feb 22-Mar 11, 2027

    • Ancestral Soul Movement Lab

      • Mar 15-Apr 1, 2027

    • Choreographic Process +  Improvisation II Lab

      • Apr 12-29, 2027

    • Movement & Technology II, Summer Workshop Lab

      • Jul 12-29, 2027

  • Ursa Major Academy does not enroll on a rolling, open basis. Each lab admits a small, selected cohort of fifteen students. Families begin with a short interest form, and students are chosen for their readiness and commitment to serious training before registration opens.

    Program Length

    Concentrated multi-week intensive, Monday through Thursday, 6:00 to 8:00pm

    Cohort Size

    15 students, by invitation

    Tuition

    $450 per lab

    Culmination

    A public showing, directed by T. Lang

    • Selective admission, so acceptance itself means something

    • Direct access to a working Artistic Director and college department chair

    • Training made visible in a showing, not staged for a trophy

    • A connected series of labs that builds real technical and creative range across a year

  • Submit a short interest form, letting us know the student's experience and which lab draws them in. Families hear back within a few days. Confirmed students then register and pay to hold their seat in the cohort.

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