Butler's Department of Dance offers the serious dance student professional-level training with a broad approach to liberal arts education. Dance majors at Butler acquire a strong technical training based on the central focus of ballet; versatility in other techniques; the opportunity to perform extensively in a pre-professional company; broad exposure to academic subjects in dance and in other arts; and skills in writing, speaking and analysis from the humanities, mathematics and sciences.

Butler Ballet, the performance component of the program, is designed to offer extensive pre-professional opportunities. Butler Ballet produces full-length classical ballets — such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake , The Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella — as well as original contemporary works and shortened versions of the classics.