T. Lang, founder of T. Lang Dance and inaugural chair of Dance Performance and Choreography at Spelman College, is opening Ursa Major, a new conservatory-style academy for dancers ages 13 to 18.
Built around concentrated “signature Labs” in improvisation, choreographic process, ancestral soul movement and movement and technology, the program will train up to 15 students per lab under Lang’s direct artistic direction.
A sample lab runs Nov. 30 through Dec. 17, with a full slate of labs continuing through next summer. Lang spoke with WABE about why she built a training ground rooted as much in curiosity as in technique.
A childhood dream, nurtured early
Lang traces her path back to her own childhood. “I was really lucky and blessed to have parents who truly saw me and heard me when I told them at a very young age that I wanted to dance and be a dancer and be a dance maker and create worlds for dance,” she said. That early support, she said, shaped how she now thinks about building a space for the next generation of young dancers.
Much of Lang’s pitch for Ursa Major centers on treating young dancers as thinkers, not just performers. She wants students who are curious, committed, and driven by a desire to create — not simply perform. That includes encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration: working alongside a historian, an archivist, or an engineer, all through the vehicle of movement, she said.
The academy’s name draws on Lang’s academic platform, Black Soul Codes, which archives and reimagines ancestral movement practices through motion capture and immersive technology. “I think about how our ancestors looked at the stars to find their way to freedom,” Lang said, describing the kind of guiding light she wants Ursa Major to represent for young artists.
The name is also personal. “It’s also a nod to my family, along with our ancestors,” Lang said. “… my dad, he was called Bear in college.” She added that the name carries a second meaning close to home: “You know that he’s always there watching and guiding.”
Building the next generation of teaching artists
Ursa Major will train students across four disciplines: Improvisation, Choreographic Process, Movement & Technology, and Ancestral Soul Movement. Each lab will run as a concentrated, multi-week intensive, drawing on a range of forms, including Irish jig, Chicago stepping, West African dance, and capoeira.
A companion Artistic Leadership Fellowship, launching with a founding cohort this year and running as a two-year pilot through 2028, is designed to develop early-career dance teaching artists alongside the students. Applicants need a degree or professional certificate in dance, at least two years in a professional dance company, a record of self-producing their own work, and experience teaching youth.
In exchange, Fellows will teach a share of the program’s labs, choreograph new work for Ursa Major students, and complete pedagogy training with Lang, an arrangement designed to keep Lang’s artistic direction consistent across every lab.
