The four-year B.F.A. program meets the complex needs of today's dance students enabling them to develop as both highly versatile dance technicians and well-educated adults. Students complete a diverse curriculum with a minimum of 140 credits that includes a carefully designed sequence of dance and liberal arts courses, encouraging students to achieve their artistic and academic potential. B.F.A. candidates are full-time students at both institutions.

At The Ailey School, students are trained to be in the vanguard among the finest and most versatile dancers. To that end, they complete a broad curriculum of dance techniques and become equally proficient in modern dance and ballet, as well as strongly grounded in West African, jazz, and other techniques. B.F.A. students have many opportunities to learn from and perform varied repertory with renowned The Ailey School faculty and guest artists. In addition to developing their choreographic skills, students take several dance-related academic courses including kinesiology and dance history. In their senior year, students perform at various sites in the New York area. At the completion of the Bachelor's program, students are presented in a fully produced performance at a New York City theatre.

At Fordham College at Lincoln Center, course work is undertaken in classes with the undergraduate community and is taught by Fordham's arts and sciences faculty, 98 percent of whom hold the Ph. D. or other terminal degree. Course work ranges across the fine arts and liberal arts, including music history, theatre design, the social sciences, literature, art history, philosophy, religious studies, history and foreign languages. There is also an opportunity to take academic electives, and to minor in an academic area.