Hampshire offers a B.A. with a dance and movement concentration, individually designed by the student in close collaboration with the faculty.
The Hampshire College Dance Program welcomes students with a broad range of interests in dance, movement, and the body, and prepares students for advanced work in dance and movement studies. In addition to focusing on choreography and performance, students often combine dance and movement studies with other areas (video, anthropology, psychology, kinesiology, theater, education, religion, urban design, architecture, visual arts, film, community-engaged practice, social justice). Div III students undertake rigorous year-long independent projects. These might manifest as performance and installations of original work accompanied by scholarly research, in-depth dance/movement research, interdisciplinary projects, or a combination of these
The Hampshire Dance Program is a member of Five College Dance, which includes the dance departments/programs of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Each school offers its own distinctive program while collaborating as a uniquely rich inter-campus consortium with abundant possibilities for dance students, including an exciting array of classes, performances, and special events.
The Dance Program's facilities include two sprung-floor dance studios, one of which converts into a fully equipped performance space, state-of-the art sound and video equipment, and a substantial dance video and film collection.
Both the small and main dance studios and the faculty offices are found in the Music and Dance Building in the Charles and Polly Longsworth Arts Village.
Hampshire College Dance Program students and alumni are recognized for their intelligent and ground-breaking experimentation, their independence and innovation, and their commitment to service. Alums perform in major dance companies, direct their own dance companies, teach in schools and studios. They pursue careers as dance therapists, physical therapists, and body-workers. They are dance critics, arts administrators, and scholars. They include Bessie Award winners and Fulbright Grant recipients.
At Hampshire College, every student completes a "Div III," a yearlong, advanced study project, similar to a master’s thesis. Recent grad Aviva Yarrow Skoblow 20F collaboratively devised a performance piece titled “This Medicine is Good," guided by her restorative practice and Indigenous studies.
Petronio is one of twenty performing artists who will each receive $275,000 in funding as an investment in and celebration of their ongoing contributions to the fields of contemporary dance, theatre, and jazz.
During a field study in Ghana, Huguley performed doula work at a small rural hospital. This experience became a catalyst for her research on birth inequities and how to disrupt them.
Brooklyn-based choreographer and performer Mariana Valencia 02F was prominently featured in the New York Times. In 2018, Valencia won a Bessie Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Choreographer, one of the industry’s highest honors.
For her Div III, recent graduate Debbie Ampong 21F performed, choreographed, and animated a hip hop, interactive dance piece exploring the internal world of our imaginations.
