Hampshire College Dance Program

Hampshire College Dance Program Connecting prospective students, current students, alumni, and all who love to move and dance!

Here is an incomplete collection of phone photos from the exquisite performances at the End of Semester Showing. Hampshi...
06/02/2026

Here is an incomplete collection of phone photos from the exquisite performances at the End of Semester Showing. Hampshire dancers really and truly left it all on the floor. If you have other photos of that event, please send them to us, for the archive/insta & our collective memory. 💕❤️💕❤️

Dear HDP community, You are invited to a goodbye/closing ritual for the Hampshire Dance Program on Saturday, May 9th, 20...
05/04/2026

Dear HDP community,
You are invited to a goodbye/closing ritual for the Hampshire Dance Program on Saturday, May 9th, 2026. We know these studios and the people who have moved through them have been deeply significant to so many of us and we know that it’s good to gather in times of big change.

There will be a few different ways to mark this transition on May 9:

Open time in the dance studios: 12-3:30pm
Come and go, lie on the floor, write, move, do a score, be with yourself and/or whoever happens to be there at the same time!

Memory archive project
During the open studio time, there will be many copies of a piece of paper that has a map of the studios, as well as writing and drawing implements that you can use to annotate the maps with memories, names, stories, drawings. These pages and any other photos and ephemera that people bring will be archived in digital form for all to visit and see

Circle: 3:30pm
We will gather in a circle in the main dance studio. This is a time when we will introduce ourselves to one another and have an opportunity to share a few words to acknowledge what this space has held for each of us over the years.

After the circle, we will potluck!

Please come if these spaces have been meaningful to you, and please spread the word to others who you know might want to know that something like this is happening.

We look forward to gathering with you.

LIGHTWORK OPENS TONIGHT!!! ticket link in bio and come on over now!!
04/09/2026

LIGHTWORK OPENS TONIGHT!!!

ticket link in bio and come on over now!!

The Hampshire Dance Program will present the Div III Dance Festival, Thursday, April 9- Saturday, April 11, 2026. Progra...
04/07/2026

The Hampshire Dance Program will present the Div III Dance Festival, Thursday, April 9- Saturday, April 11, 2026. Program A: LIGHTWORK, will be performed on Thursday, April 9th and Saturday, April 11th at 7:30 PM. Program B: BELOVED FORMS, will be performed on Friday, April 10th at 7:30PM and Saturday, April 11th at 4PM.

The Div III Dance Festival brings together new dance works that have been developed by five choreographers as part of their Div III/senior projects. At Hampshire, A Div III is an extensive, independent, year-long project that students undertake in their last year. For each choreographer in the concert, dance functions as a central practice in dialogue with multi- and transdisciplinary research. The artists’ creative, scholarly, and community-engaged project inquiries include: Black survival and legacies of resistance, forest ecology and embodied stewardship, songwriting/recording and choreopoetics, and event production and q***r burlesque. The works draw from a multitude of dance practices including but not limited to jazz, modern, hip hop, burlesque, and body-percussion.

Program A: LIGHTWORK features How We Get Thru: Scriptures for Black Life choreographed by Samara “Mère” Ternoir, and Sounds Of My pEace (SOME) by Kylie Gregory. Program B: BELOVED FORMS features To the Ash Trees choreographed by Whitney Byington, Shaping and Shifting choreographed by Rowan Banford, and Excerpts of Starlight choreographed by Fae Galatis.

The Div III Dance Festival will take place Thursday, April 9-Saturday, April 11, 2026. Program A: LIGHTWORK will be performed on Thursday, April 9th and Saturday, April 11th at 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7PM). Program B: BELOVED FORMS, will be performed on Friday, April 10th at 7:30PM (Doors open at 7PM) and Saturday, April 11th at 4PM (Doors open at 3:30PM. Tickets can be reserved with a suggested donation of $5-$20. Free tickets are available. Reserve tickets at https://hampdance.ludus.com/

TOMORROW!!! Interested in learning some beginner-friendly dance moves, for party tricks or dates? Need a break from home...
03/24/2026

TOMORROW!!!

Interested in learning some beginner-friendly dance moves, for party tricks or dates? Need a break from homework? Want a spring fling? COME TO SPRING SWING!

This joint class-jam, facilitated by Div II Anais Dallett and Div III Samara “Mère” Ternoir, brings people together with the magic of jazz and swing, embracing the body’s natural instinct to move with what feels good. We’ll learn some basic East and West Coast swing steps, as well as Black vernacular jazz moves, turns, and even lifts! After the class portion, we’ll open up the space for a lively jam using all the moves you’ve learned, supplemented with some light snacks and refreshments. Come dance your winter blues away with us, partnered or solo — all are welcome!

MARCH 30th, 2026 7:00-8:30pm in the Main Dance StudioIn her presentation, yes, and…, Mariana Valencia explores her own p...
03/19/2026

MARCH 30th, 2026 7:00-8:30pm in the Main Dance Studio

In her presentation, yes, and…, Mariana Valencia explores her own process of making dance that hinges on themes of repetition and revival. Making new work is not merely a process of producing new material; it is often a reanimation of the past or an improvisation of what has already been rendered in previous work. Valencia’s stance-on-dance can be thought of as rehearsal-as-performance, often in solo or duet forms. The performances discussed in yes, and… span 12 years of dance making: on the floor on the bed (2014), Originators (2016), Yugoslavia (2017), Album (2018), Bouquet (2020) and Jacklean (2023-2026), all of which are concerned with what she knows and what she has yet to find.

Mariana Valencia researches self-representation, collectivity, and abstraction through dance. She was born in Chicago, IL; received a BA from Hampshire College; and in 2006, she moved to New York to live and work as a choreographer. Valencia has been a recipient of The Herb Alpert Award in The Arts (2024), the Creative Capital Award (2023), the Bessie Award for Outstanding “Breakout” Choreographer (2018), Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists Award (2018), and a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant (2015). Her performance, Futurity, was included in the Whitney Biennial 2019. She is a founding member of the No Total reading group, and has been the coeditor of Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence. In 2019, two of her performance texts were published: “Mariana Valencia’s Bouquet” (3 Hole Press) and “Album” (Wendy’s Subway). Valencia has toured in the United Kingdom, Norway, and the Balkans. She has received commissions from the Museum of Modern Art, the Abrons Arts Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory Theater, Danspace Project, Performance Space New York, and the Shed. Valencia has taught in the dance departments at The New School and Sarah Lawrence College and she organizes CLASSCLASSCLASS, a DIY dance class model, co-founded in 2009 by AUNTS in NYC.

RSVP at the link in bio!

EXCITING SHOW APPROACHING! HDP’s Fae Galatis is presenting Starlight, a dance show accompanied by a themed dinner, broug...
03/17/2026

EXCITING SHOW APPROACHING! HDP’s Fae Galatis is presenting Starlight, a dance show accompanied by a themed dinner, brought to you as a Division III project in collaboration with Movers Unite. The night will include six different performances, multiple courses served at table, mocktails, and a lovely evening in a beautiful venue. Come join your community for a fabulous night!

Tickets link in bio or at hampdance.ludus.com!

Last week, nine Hampshire dance students attended the ACDA New England and had a fantastic time. Samara Ternoir and John...
03/02/2026

Last week, nine Hampshire dance students attended the ACDA New England and had a fantastic time. Samara Ternoir and Johnathan Earl Clark produced concert work, and Heath Suzor showed out at the informal showing. Ternoir also facilitated a session on her Div III work, entitled “How We Get Thru”: Black Dance and Getting Free”. A huge thank you to ACDA and The Dance Complex for a fantastic conference! Congrats to all!

Our winter concert is just ONE (1) day away!! As we approach the concert we will be doing highlights to showcase the inc...
02/11/2026

Our winter concert is just ONE (1) day away!! As we approach the concert we will be doing highlights to showcase the incredible work that our choreographers will be showing.

Last but not least is Josiah Looft, choreographer of “Spaces Between Walls”.

“Spaces Between Walls” is an embodiment of anger, pain, and hope.

Josiah Looft is a dancer, choreographer, and artist. He’s in his second year of Division II at Hampshire College and has studied under Lailye Weidman, Daniel Guzman, Eleanor Goudie-Averill, and others. This is his first time performing his own choreography.

HAZE: The Heightened Liminal Sense, an evening of new dance works by eight student choreographers. Performances will take place on Thursday, February 12th and Friday February 13th at 7:30PM, Doors open at 7:00 PM. Tickets can be reserved with a suggested donation of $5-$20. Free tickets are available. Reserve tickets at https://hampdance.ludus.com/

Our winter concert is just two days away!! As we approach the concert we will be doing highlights to showcase the incred...
02/11/2026

Our winter concert is just two days away!! As we approach the concert we will be doing highlights to showcase the incredible work that our choreographers will be showing.

Up next is Zoey Carter-Bell , choreographer of “PRICE/PEACE”

PRICE/PEACE in a work in progress created by Zoey Carter-Bell showing on the life of her paternal grandfather and grandmother, Grady “”Mike”” Bell Sr and Louise Johnson Bell. Showcasing their story backwards, offering the audience grief before a look back on their love. This will work and be redone so many times, so I offer the audience to reach out and show what they enjoyed and how I can continue to hone into this piece with my movements and create a fitting, strong tribute.

Zoey Carter-Bell has put up one piece of work previously, “pourchlight”, that went up in April of 2025 in Labyrinth, on Mount Holyoke Campus. She has also been seen in the works of Fae Galatis in Mr.Lily Diamantis in a Tragicomical Tale of Transvestitude, put up in “”SELCOUTH, The Unfamiliar, Rare, Strange and Yet Marvelous”” in April of 2025 by Hampshire College. Along with KC Johnson Erikson in collaboration with Moonspark Productions & Moonstone Captures in The Revolution Will be Danced, The Doomsday Mixtape & The Next One. Part II: Wings Up., the later you will see when witnessing the show. Zoey is in her third year at Hampshire College and with this performance, she wishes to remind all that though times may be filled with grief, we shall overcome and see the legacy and purpose of those who left us shine through every single one of you.

HAZE: The Heightened Liminal Sense, an evening of new dance works by eight student choreographers. Performances will take place on Thursday, February 12th and Friday February 13th at 7:30PM, Doors open at 7:00 PM. Tickets can be reserved with a suggested donation of $5-$20. Free tickets are available. Reserve tickets at https://hampdance.ludus.com/

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893 West Street
Amherst, MA
01002

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