Rhode Island has recently mandated a new kind of arts requirement for high school graduation that involves proving proficiency in one of four art forms: music, visual art, theater, or dance. How the state came to mandate this law, how proficiency is currently defined and assessed in dance, and what effects the cuts in arts education funding will have upon the requirement are the issues that we will discuss in this article. In addition, we will take a look at pilot programs where some of the preliminary results have been encouraging. Although it is too soon to know how all of the challenges facing the program will be overcome, considerable progress has been made in achieving its design and implementation. (Contains 2 tables.)