Announcements and Upcoming Events

Past to Presence: Hampshire & UMass Amherst Fall Faculty Dance Concert

The Hampshire Dance Program in collaboration with UMass Amherst Dance is thrilled to present Past to Presence, a Hampshire and UMass collaboration. This concert will feature new choreography by UMass professors Lauren Cox and Duane Lee Holland Jr., Lailye Weidman from Hampshire, Five College Joint faculty Neri Torres, and Bill T. Jones' Spent Days Out Yonder, staged by Jenna Riegel of Amherst College.

Tickets by suggested donation of $5-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. Tickets will go fast, reserve yours now!

Yaa Samar! Dance Theater

Join Five College Dance and Hampshire College for a masterclass with Yaa Samar! on Thursday, December 4, 1:00pm-2:20pm, at Main Studio, Hampshire College. This is a beginning/intermediate class. Free with registration through this form and open to the public. 

At UMass, the company will perform Losing It, an exploration of generational trauma through solo dance of a female Palestinian living in a war zone, and Noah, which presents themes of love, courage, and regret through one man's personal history. Bowker Auditorium, UMass, Wednesday, December 4 at 7:30pm. Please get your tickets through the FAC box office. 

Bill T. Jones's Spent Days Out Yonder (2000)

Spent Days Out Yonder (2000), set to the andante second movement of Mozart's String Quartet in F major (K. 590), evolved from one of Bill T. Jones's solo improvisations that was recorded during a time when Bill was working with postmodern choreographer Trisha Brown. His improvisation was recreated by then rehearsal director Janet Wong (now associate artistic director) and later made into a full company work. (Here is a solo version of the work, and here is a group version.) The intricate and detailed movement and musicality marries Trisha's release technique strategies with Bill's Africanist sensibilities of rhythm, sensuality, and spinal articulation/undulation. Bill, in recalling the improvisation, says he listened to Mozart as though he was listening to James Brown. This work offers students an opportunity to embody amalgamated movement lineages and styles through the choreography of a postmodern artist, while simultaneously developing deeper understandings of ways to hear and feel classical music in their dancing bodies. 

Five College Dance was featured in Dance Magazine this fall in an article by Stav Ziv. The piece includes information about the FCD program, this year's guest artist repertory project, an excerpt of Lucinda Childs's Dance, and interviews with faculty and students. Download a PDF of the article to read below.