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Dancing toward a degree: five dances talk about balancing academics and performing.

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For some young dancers, school is just something that gets in the way of dancing. When they finish high school, many who have spent years polishing their expressive instruments want to put them to use right away. They skip college, or postpone it, and head off to audition for professional companies. More and more dancers, however, are deciding that college, far from being an impediment to a professional career, might just be the best next step in becoming dance artists who think for themselves.

Free Your Mind

If you've seen Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company perform in recent years, you remember Leah Cox--pale skin, white-blonde hair shaved close, and stunning stage presence. Cox graduated from Texas Christian University in 1998 with a major in philosophy, minor in religion, and concentration in dance. After spending her last year of high school at North Carolina School of the Arts, she took a year off and went to New York to take classes, "because I thought I was going to be a ballet dancer." Becoming rapidly disenchanted with that idea, however, she felt modern dance might be a more creative outlet and decided on college as the best way to investigate it. When her parents asked her to stay in-state (Texas), she chanced upon TCU.

"I had so much anxiety that I wouldn't find a job because I wasn't a good enough dancer," says Cox. "But there's a...