Dance Auditions

Ballet Placement Fall 2023

1. Abby Frisch, UMass 2026
2. Aika Chen, UMass 2027
3. Anaheed Khalili, UMass 2027
4. Annalise Kuhlmann, MHC 2025
5. Ariel Barniv, UMass 2027
6. Billie Bernard, UMass 2027
7. Catharine Richards, UMass 2025
8. Chynna Jacobs, UMass 2025
9. Ellery Whitman, UMass 2025
10. Grace Wieselquist, MHC 2026
11. Hengel Yong, UMass 2027
12. Julia Steinberg, Smith 2027
13. Madison Farmer, UMass 2025
14. Maxine Kamen van Westen, UMass 2027
15. Meena Relyea-Strawn, MHC 2027
16. Meghan Macbeath, MHC 2025
17. Mia Frias, MHC 2027
18. Nicolette LeBrun, UMass 2026
19. Olivia Olsen, UMass 2025
20. Sophie Bergfalk, UMass 2027
21. Sophie Kahn, MHC 2027
22. Stella Melucci, UMass 2027
23. Vivian Eisenman, UMass 2026

Note: Students receiving placement into 300 level courses are entitled to register for those courses for their remaining time as a FCD student unless their course work is unsatisfactory. Congrats Everyone!

Shakia Barron, Mt Holyoke College

About the Work: I am looking for 8-10 dancers that have experience in Hip-Hop dance and other street dance forms like Locking, Popping, House etc.

Rehearsals: MHC Fridays 1-4pm

Performance: AC/MHC Faculty Concert, Nov. 9-11

Links: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/directory/faculty-staff/shakia-barron, www.shakiathekey.com

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Rodger Blum, Smith College

About the Work: This will be an abstract contemporary ballet created for the specific personalities and talents of the dancers cast. The dance will consist of solo, small group, and ensemble sections performed in technique shoes and/or socks (not on pointe). Dancers will be expected to open to new movement ideas that stretch traditional ballet vocabulary and also be generative, vocal, and energized contributors to the development of the work.

About the Artist's Working Process: In my choreographic work, I tend towards big, energized, athletic, and theatrical dances that draws from the ballet vocabulary and aesthetic, and also plays with and expands those tenets.

Rehearsals: Tu/Th, 7:15-8:45, some Sundays, 10:30-1:30 (snacks and coffee provided!) Scott Dance Studio, Smith College

Performance: Smith Faculty Dance Concert, Nov. 16-18

Links: https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/rodger-blum

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Barbie Diewald, Mt Holyoke College

About the Work: I'm looking for students who are excited about improvising, generating material, and being in a deeply collaborative process. My work draws from modern, contemporary, postmodern and ballet practices, and I enjoy arranging elements from those forms in unexpected ways. I often create work with many simultaneous layers, images and senses of time. The meaning of the work will emerge as we go, but right now I am deeply interested in shifting landscapes, dances we know by heart, bodies as archives, intertextuality, and queer femme choreographers on the 1980s and 1990s.

Rehearsals: Tuesday & Thursday, 6-9pm, Kendall Hall Studio Theater, MHC. Some additional Saturdays from 10-2.

Performance: AC/MHC Faculty Concert, Nov. 9-11

Links: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/directory/faculty-staff/barbie-diewald

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Molly Fletcher Lynch-Clark, UMass Amherst

About the Work: This work is part of a series that explores the mental health impact on young people during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The process will be deeply collaborative and the work specific to the bodies and voices in the room. We will have the pleasure of collaborating with Sara Brooke Curtis from the New York Times, and composer and musician Jesse Olsen Bay, who will help to respectfully hold space (and if desired, a microphone) to the shared yet highly individualized experience and embodied memory. Dancers should expect to be active collaborators and willing to share, listen, create, play, work hard and sweat. Seeking 8-10 dancers.

Rehearsals: Tuesday and Thursday 9-11:15am. Umass Amherst, Totman 204. September 16th and 17th 10am-4pm Totman 202, Saturday November 18th 10am-4pm Totman 202

Performance: UMass / HC Faculty Concert, Nov. 30-Dec. 2

Links: https://www.umass.edu/music/member/molly-fletcher-lynch-clark, https://mollyfletcherlynch.com/

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Ellie Goudie-Averill, Mt Holyoke College

About the Work: I will be working with Eileen Myles' book "Snowflake / different streets" as a jumping off point to explore rhythm and syntax as they translate to movement. We will celebrate dailiness/daily magic, routine, and a communication style combining depth and humor. I am seeking 5-7 dancers to work with me and will use balletic vocabulary (the style could potentially be called casual ballet or postmodern ballet). Maybe we'll end up making something that is tongue and cheek without being flippant, clever but also full of care... let's see :)

About the Artist’s Working Process: I love working with, against, and through technical training/technique in Western classical dance to create works that hold beauty, drama, and humor in equal regard. I often work with poetry and language as inspiration.

Rehearsals: ONLY Wednesday, 6-9pm, Kendall Hall Studio Theater, MHC. with two weekend intensives, TBD.

Performance: AC/MHC Faculty Concert, Nov. 9-11.

Links: https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/ellie-goudie-averill, https://vimeo.com/eleanorga

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Jeff Jean-Philippe

About the Work: It's a continuation of last years performance. Challenging perspectives through movement, and approaching movement through different perspectives. I am looking for those who are able to be patient with the creative process, and open to the unknown of no structure, as well as being not attached to the structure of movement given. Looking for versatile dancers who are well trained in hip-hop (or any street dance style) and contemporary/Modern dance. Need those who are looking to be challenged and explore movement quality of their own. Passion, Commitment, and love for the craft.

Rehearsals: Mondays & Wednesdays, time: 4:30-6:30pm. At Amherst College.

Performance: AC/MHC Faculty Concert, Nov. 9-11.

Links: https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/jphilippe, https://youtu.be/FEqLmbvPZ-g?t=106

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Jungeun Kim, Amherst College

About the Work: We will use our rehearsal as a playground and focus more on exploration rather than producing. Improvisation will serve as the main source of movement development; learning and teaching each other will be a part of the process. The creative process will be collaborative and collective. Showing up to every rehearsal is very important for the process whether you are taking the course for credit or not. There is a small chance the piece will involve eating a popsicle. I am looking for 4-5 performers but I won't be casting during the audition and my repertory is open to anyone who can commit to the process. If you are interested, please come to say hi at the audition! 

About the Artist’s Working Process: My work, especially in repertory, depends on who is involved in the creative process, the individual's nature and the group energy. The work becomes our work, ideas and experiences. 

Rehearsals: Every Tuesday & Thursday 5:30pm-7:30pm (9/5-11/14), at Amherst College Webster Hall Studio 2

Performance: AC/MHC Faculty Concert, Nov. 9-11.

Links: https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/jekim www.jekim.org

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Sarah Konner, Smith College

About the Work: We will be collaboratively co-creating this work together. We will work with improvisational structures, partnering, floor work, and possibly text to generate material and compose. The work will be for about 12 performers, primarily Smith students, but is also open to Five College students. Our process will include movement games/puzzles, I will ask dancers to build your own material based on specific prompts, and there may be some taught and learned material. I ask dancers to commit to sharp attention throughout the process and showing up ready to be curious. 

About the Artist's Working Process: My work brings together patience, humor, partnering, improvisation, and the study of how our attention shapes aesthetic. Collaboration and rigorous play are central studies of practice. Dance-making, for me, is a way to comment upon the human condition, late-capitalism, consumer culture, the personal as political, body as part of earth, movement as intelligence, and more. 

Rehearsals: Rehearsals will be at Smith campus in Scott studio on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-6:30p following the Smith academic calendar. There will be an additional weekend intensive the weekend of September 30-Oct 1. Saturday, September 30, from 10-5p. Sunday October 1, from 10-1p. you will need to commit to the weekend intensive in order to join the work. At Smith College.

Performance: Smith Faculty Concert, Nov. 16-18.

Links: https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/sarah-konner, http://www.sarahandaustindance.com/video

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Jenna Riegel, Amherst College

About the Working Process: I am seeking between 6-9 performers who are excited to participate in the creative process with me and willing to engage in both physical movement research including phrase making, partnering and improvisation, as well as speaking or vocalizing. I also am looking for performers who could potentially sing. The movement styles and genres that I am most well versed in come from the contemporary/modern lineage, but within that are some strong influences of hip hop, jazz, ballet, African dance, and Contact Improvisation. My choreographic approach is heavily guided by my work and time with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and David Dorfman Dance. Generally, I begin my process with a concept that has caught my attention recently. For my work this fall, I am curious to explore an idea introduced to me via a TedTalk that discussed just how connected everything is through the example of how cosmic star collisions initially created the chemical element of iron, which is also the most foundational mineral in keeping our human hearts alive and functioning. So...in a nutshell...making a piece about stars and hearts, LOL!

About the Work: In general, the work I create has very virtuosic, complex movement that travels in and out of the floor, goes upside down and requires specificity of gesture whilst moving athletically and fluidly. It is a blend of dance and theater. It is very ensemble based. There is often a section that is highly locomotive and musically driven. Pre-Covid there was lots of partnering and I hope to pick that back up now! We have fun together!!!!! 

Rehearsals: Tu/Th 6-9 pm, Studio 1 at Amherst College

Performance: AC/MHC Faculty Concert, Nov. 9-11.

Links: https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/jriegel, https://www.jennariegel.com/choreography; https://vimeo.com/showcase/9037098 PW:5CD2021

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Tom Vacanti, UMass Amherst

About the Work: A new contemporary ballet work created to Stravinsky's Symphony in 3 Movements. This work will be part of a larger evening of dance presented by Vacanti Ballets on February 22-24.

Rehearsal: MW 5:30-7:30 during fall semester. Dancers need to be available on weekends January 27-28, February 2-4, and February 9-11, UMass Totman Gym.

Performance: At UMass Amherst, Feb. 22-24.

Links: https://www.umass.edu/music/member/thomas-vacanti, https://www.thomasvacanti.com

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Lailye Weidman, Hampshire College

About the Artist's Working Process: In this project, students will engage in an in-depth rehearsal process that involves collaboration, movement creation, improvisation, writing, and dialogue. While we will work in a variety of ways, we will lean into movement practices that require a full physical commitment to continual discovery. The proposed investigation centers bodily negotiation of proximity, connection, contact, and vulnerability during this time of the post- or lingering-pandemic. Together we ask: How has the risk of contagion registered in our bodies, shaped our movement, brought us together and pushed us apart? How do we honor the power of our shared breath? 

About the Work: Through multiple dance projects over the past two decades, I have been looking at the forces that move us and asking how bodies respond to those forces. My solo practice employs the body as a vehicle for multiplicity, and my ensemble work often ponders the power and difficulty of collective action.

Rehearsals: M/W 10:30-11:50 and bi-monthly Fridays 10AM-12PM, Hampshire College.

Performance: UMass / HC Faculty Concert, Nov. 30-Dec. 2

Links: https://www.hampshire.edu/academics/faculty/lailye-weidman,

http://www.lailyeweidman.com/, https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/802471918