For Columbia, it begins with a web – based application which includes submitting an audition video of your choosing (1-3 minutes long; choreographed or improv; just you or you and others, as long as you identify yourself); an essay covering your experiences with dance, behavioral health, etc., and what motivated you to consider DMT as a career; two (or more) letters of recommendation; and the usual array of transcripts and so forth. At the open house, they said that the program usually attracts about sixty applicants per year.

For the audition video, they’re looking less at specific technique and more at how “at home” you are in your body, how you move, your emotional expressiveness, and how you connect with music (if you use it).

After they review the applications, a number of applicants (I want to say that it was thirty?) are asked to visit for an in-person interview, part of which is a group movement/improv session.

From that group, about twenty applicants will be accepted.

While I think a few of the other potential applicants at the open house were a bit intimidated by the acceptance rate, I found myself mentally comparing it to acceptance/hiring rates for neuroscience PhD programs (IIRC, <10% for most) and, of course, ballet jobs (around 0% for people like me right now :D), so 33% really doesn't seem that bad. I also figured the applicant pool would just be enormous.

All of the DMT programs want about 5 years' dance training at the minimum, but not necessarily all at once or in one idiom; likewise, it doesn't all have to be recent. A few programs very specifically want background in modern dance (either Lesley University or Sarah Lawrence specifies this; I'll double-check it tomorrow).