
Dance Auditions
Please send your audition notices for Five College Dance projects to fc-dance-program@ fivecolleges.edu.
Five College Dance Auditions at Amherst College with Shakia The Key. Photo © Jim Coleman.
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UMass Amherst Junior Choreography Project Auditions December 3, 4-6PM, Totman Gym 202
All styles are welcome including Contemporary, Jazz, Hip Hop, Tap, African Dance, Contemporary Ballet.

Smith College MFA in Dance
Smith College MFA in Dance accepting applications now.
The deadline for September 2024 admission is January 3, 2023. Faculty include Chris Aiken, Rodger Blum, Angie Hauser, Jake Meginsky, and Lester Tomé plus the Five College Dance Faculty including Jenna Reigel, Duane Holland, Barbie Diewald, and Shakia Barron.
Audition to follow.

Hampshire College Div III Looking for Dancers!
Kati (Katharine) Davis
I am looking for a group of 5-8 dancers to work with me as part of my Div III project! I'm interested in layers, textures, and many different parts moving at once. I can come to your campus for rehearsals and have flexible schedule availability. Email kvd20@hampshire.edu with interest and for more information.
Audition Dates
The next audition date for the UMass BFA in dance program will be Friday December 1, 2023 at 2:00pm and in February 2024. For more info, keep your eye on the UMass Dance Admissions webpage.
Cast Lists
Class Placement Lists 23-24
Ballet Placement Fall 2023
- Abby Frisch, UMass 2026
- Aika Chen, UMass 2027
- Anaheed Khalili, UMass 2027
- Annalise Kuhlmann, MHC 2025
- Ariel Barniv, UMass 2027
- Billie Bernard, UMass 2027
- Catharine Richards, UMass 2025
- Chynna Jacobs, UMass 2025
- Ellery Whitman, UMass 2025
- Grace Wieselquist, MHC 2026
- Hengel Yong, UMass 2027
- Julia Steinberg, Smith 2027
- Madison Farmer, UMass 2025
- Maxine Kamen van Westen, UMass 2027
- Meena Relyea-Strawn, MHC 2027
- Meghan Macbeath, MHC 2025
- Mia Frias, MHC 2027
- Nicolette LeBrun, UMass 2026
- Olivia Olsen, UMass 2025
- Sophie Bergfalk, UMass 2027
- Sophie Kahn, MHC 2027
- Stella Melucci, UMass 2027
- 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!
Fall 23 Faculty Rep Projects
Please find faculty project info and descriptions here.
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
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
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
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/
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Audition Results

Five College Dance Spring 23 Auditions Cast List
Thanks to all the Five College Dancers who came out for the auditions!
- Please email Melinda Buckwalter, FCD managing director, to confirm your acceptance of the role. mbuckwalter@fivecolleges.edu
- Final decisions about alternates/swings and double casts will be made during the August intensive.
- August intensive dates: Aug. 26 - Sept. 1, tentative 10:00 - 5:00 - full schedule TBD
- Please be sure to arrange summer housing through your campus dance department.
Lucinda Childs’ Dance 1
Caitlin Canty SC
Katharine Davis HC
Sophie Schilling UM
Em Lawrence SC
Nina Gibb SC
Yang Sun AC
Elizabeth Chin SC
Cailey Scholts UM
Catharine Richards UM
Trista Auclair UM
Ryann Burns UM
Sasha Toole MHC
Rebecca Robertson UM
May Saito UM
Chelsea Fowler SC
Emrose Seidenberg HC
Duane Lee-Holland Repertory Work
Gabi Revlock SC
Maddy Sher SC
Andrea Rivera SC
Emma Frank SC
Laura David SC
Nyla Clark UM
Mina Stern-Wenk HC
Ashton Lane SC
Radha Consiglio SC
Audrey Garfinkle UM
Kylie Gregory SC
Amanda Amoabeng MHC
Class Placement
Advanced Ballet Placement (September 2022)
Anastasia Meyer
Annika Champe
Cailey Scholtz
Elena Zytnicki
Emma Marchi
Hope Wampler
Julianne Woodward
Kate Snyder
Kyla Johnson
Lindi Kowal
May Saito
Natasha Nargarjan
Olivia Morningstar
Remy Gutterman
Robyn Pilecki
Ryann Burns
Sarah Thieler
Sophia Zuccala
Advanced House Placement (December 2022)
Abby Frisch
Amanda Amoabeng
Andrea Rivera
Cailey Scholts
Catherine D'Agostino
Chenlu Wang
Dahlia Riddington
Deborah Ampong
Di’ Anna Bonomolo
Emma Vicinanza
Emrose Seidenberg
Erica Schwartz
Grace Thompson
Hailey MacMillan
Kayla Samuel
Krista Lawson
Lilian Stone
Maddy Farmer
Mav Leslie
Meghan MacBeath
Nina Gib
Raj Jadhav
Riko Mukoyama
Sadie Aurndale
Sam Murray
Shawn Barnett
Sophia thomas
Summer Pratt
Tye Shields
Advanced Contemporary Placement (December 2022)
Amanda Amoabeng
Andrea Rivera
Cailey Scholts
Chelsea Fowler
Dahlia Riddington
Di’ Anna Bonomolo
Elle Walton
Emrose Seidenberg
Erica Schwartz
Grace Thompson
Kayla Samuel
Krista Lawson
Lilian Stone
Maddy Farmer
Mara Kelley
Meghan MacBeath
Molly Brown
Nina Gib
Sadie Aurndale
Shawn Barnett
Sophia Thomas