Dancer Combines Her Passions
for Art and Education

For 21-year-old Yusha-Marie Sorzano, the call to dance was powerful and came early in life. As a nine-year-old in Miami, she enrolled herself in an after-school program that offered dance. She attended an arts high school to further hone her craft and left Miami for New York after graduation to pursue her passion.

Her talent and commitment to dance not only got her accepted into Fordham University’s competitive Ailey/B.F.A. in Dance program, it helped her win a spot with the exclusive Ailey II Junior Performing Ensemble, a professional dance company comprised of the country’s most promising young dancers, some of whom go on to dance with the legendary Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Six years ago, Fordham University teamed up with the Alvin Ailey company to develop a unique program that trains students in the art of dance, while providing a strong liberal arts education. Students split their time between classes at Fordham and intense dance training at the Ailey School. In 2003, 250 candidates applied for 35 slots in the B.F.A. program. About 60 percent of students go on to dance professionally, but more important, they leave the program with an education that can carry them beyond their dance careers.

“If I had just gone to a dance conservatory, I would have been half a person in a sense. I grew so much from what Fordham had to offer,” said Sorzano, who added that balancing her studies with dance classes and her Ailey II travel schedule was intense. “My days went basically from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fordham only accepts the best of you in every aspect. It really requires dedication.”

Few dancers get the opportunity to perform with Ailey II, a 12-member company. Dancers stay with the company for three years before graduating to other professional endeavors. Sorzano is one of two Fordham students currently dancing with Ailey II, and all told, just four Fordham students have been admitted to the company.

But Ed Bristow, Ph.D., a professor of history at Fordham who helped found the B.F.A. program, expects those numbers to rise, and said the exposure the B.F.A. students receive is tremendous.

"The B.F.A program has gradually evolved, and each class is stronger than the last,” said Bristow. “Ailey II is an important opportunity because those dancers are seen all across the country.”

Sorzano was handpicked by Ailey II’s artistic director at the end of her junior year at Fordham and has toured nationally and internationally with the company. She has one year left with Ailey II and generally spends about three months of the year on tour.

“The best part was going to Trinidad and Tobago, where I was born. To go back to my home town where both of my parents were born was wonderful,” she said.

Although her first love is dance, Sorzano has other interests—namely singing and more education, possibly a master’s degree in the arts—that she hopes to pursue after Ailey II.

"I will not dance for the rest of my life,” she said, though she’d jump at the opportunity to dance with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “Whether it be dance, music or communications, my heart is in the art world.”

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