Gratitude for Hampshire Dance

The year Hampshire opened, the first Dance faculty member Francia McClellan (Tara Stepenberg) was there. She was a recent Julliard graduate, full of energy and inspiration for developing the dance program. The succession of Dance faculty members at HC since then has included a stellar group of intelligent, creative, innovative and engaged dance artists and scholars. Francia was a tireless collaborator in the formation of the Five College Dance Department, and an early Chair. All of the dance faculty have been truly vital to the life and liveliness of the FCDD/FCD. Their support, along with the use of space at the college, and with the support of the other FC dance faculty helped create a nurturing ground for the promotion and flowering of Contact Improvisation, Bonnie Cohen’s School for Body Mind Centering, and Janet Adler’s development of Authentic Movement—all now world-wide, highly respected movement practices. This small college has had a deep and collaborative role in bringing respect and recognition of Dance to the Five College Dance program, to Five Colleges, Inc., to national college dance programs, and in the wider artistic, somatic, embodied, worlds of movement. I am/we are incredibly blessed to have known and worked with these artist teachers for the span of Hampshire’s existence.

– Susan Waltner, Smith College Emerita

Teaching at Hampshire as an MFA student was a gift. The students were so committed and open. They taught me how to teach. Laban with Becky and modern/authentic movement and pedagogy with Daphne allowed me to think and move deeply with concepts that I carry with me still, so many years later. One of my longtime best dance friends, LH you know who you are, made a brilliant and radical duet that felt so new and showed possibilities that I had not even imagined.

– Heidi Henderson, Smith College MFA

The Hampshire College Dance Department has been an essential force in our field, and its closure is a real loss—not just locally, but nationally. Personally, from summers on campus with the BMC community and spanning the past two decades of community engagement, Hampshire Dance has been a vital home for experimental, multidisciplinary arts education. So many of its students became part of the SCDT community, contributing their curiosity, rigor, and bold creative voices. We will deeply miss the energy, vision, and artistic leadership the department brought to the Valley and beyond.

– Jen Polins, Founder & Director, School for Contemporary Dance & Thought

Hampshire Dance has my whole heart. Lighting dance here and collaborating with student choreographers has been a big highlight of my post-graduation years. From flashlight ingenuity to natural light to shadow work, from short works to evening-length epics, it's been a joy to play with light together and to think deeply about how light can support the intentions behind stunning, myriad works. I will never forgot the things we made together here and know Hampshire will live on in our bodies, spirits, and the work we keep making. 

– Ezekiel Baskin '15F

After transferring to Hampshire, the first thing I did was attend a transfer dinner in the Kern. The literal second thing I did was ask to be guided to the music and dance building where I was given a tour by the previous technical director. Before I had my schooling sorted out, before even having a class schedule at Hamp, I had a tech schedule for the winter concert that I was booked to work. Dance was part of my Hampshire experience from before day 1. Had I not earned that rapport from the TD, had I not been given the many opportunities to work dance shows, I would not be in the position I am today, no question. Had Deb Goffe and Lailye Weidman not believed in my ability as a technician and allowed me the oversight they did on dance productions, I WOULD NOT be the technical director of FCD. I'd probably be at some miserable job wallowing away my days, but instead I'm here, and my heart is full. I'm forever grateful and in debt to the dance department for shaping me.

– Hayden Gadd, HC grad and Five College Dance Technical Director

This was only my first year as part of the Hampshire Dance world, but I felt quickly embraced and welcomed by everyone at Hampshire. It has been a joy to work with every Hampshire faculty and staff member, choreographer, dancer, crew member, and alum that has been a part of the three FCD concerts at Hampshire this year. Each step in the process of producing a dance concert at Hampshire is full of kindness, collaboration, dedication, creativity, and hard work. I got to watch so many Hampshire students go above and beyond while creating for these concerts, on- and off-stage alike, and I also got to see Five College Students from other campuses find a home in Hampshire Dance, and produce incredible works for the Hampshire concerts. Hampshire Dance has been a pillar of culture and community for Five College Dance, and I feel very lucky that I got to be a part of it. Thank you Hampshire Dance!!

– Brigid Mullen MHC '25 and Five College Dance Asst. Production Manager

I have very fond memories of attending the Tatiana Desardouin Passionfruit Project master class on Hampshire campus back in Fall 2022. What a beautiful, homey, welcoming dance studio! I wish I had spent more time on Hampshire campus. As a five college dancer (graduated in spring 2023), I worked on multiple faculty dance projects, and took multiple Five College dancer classes, which ALL included Hampshire students, whom made the projects better and more whole<3. My heart breaks for the interwoven community of the five colleges. I sincerely hope the amazing, creative, and curious Hampshire students all find another home as welcoming and supportive as the Hampshire campus was. <3

– Ruby Green

I am full of gratitude for the wonderful students and colleagues I had the good fortune to work with in my many years of teaching at Hampshire (1981-2015). Our dance program was full of adventurous, imaginative, courageous and uncompromising artists and scholars whose work often blew me away! I especially appreciated how often students brought faculty from other fields and disciplines onto their Div committees. This gave me the opportunity to learn new things and enhance my own understanding of how interdisciplinary explorations into movement, dance and art making could be expanded and enlivened in remarkable, and sometimes quite unusual, ways! The Hampshire dance program was enriched by being part of the Five College Dance Department and I am full of gratitude for the ways in which students, faculty and staff from all of the schools worked, learned and performed together within this vibrant consortium. My heart is full at this sad time for Hampshire, but gratitude and vivid memories help sustain me. Sending love, condolences and best wishes to the current students, faculty and staff who have been impacted by this sad turn of events.     

– Becky Nordstrum

I loved my experience teaching contemporary dance at Hampshire College in 2024. As part of the curriculum, I included a unit on Authentic Movement. I wasn’t sure how the students would respond to it, but the explorations became so rich and deeply moving that I ended up extending the unit.

Knowing that Daphne Lowell had taught the form there for many years, I felt there was something special about continuing that lineage and perhaps contributing to the embodied knowledge held within the space itself.

I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to have taught at Hampshire and to be inspired and challenged by such thoughtful, creative, and unique students.

– Gabi Revlock