Department of Dance

The Department of Dance celebrates creative risk taking, practical and theoretical research, scholarship, wellness, and entrepreneurship. We provide an expansive approach to the relevance of dance within cultures and communities that offers a combination of world-class dance training within a leading research university. We provide diverse perspectives, and integrate practice and theory to prepare dance artists for resilient and multi-faceted careers in our rapidly evolving fields. We emphasize technique, performance, research, and composition to prepare our students to become performers, choreographers, scholars, and professors in higher education. Collaborations with students in other departments within the School of Music, Theatre & Dance are strongly encouraged and supported by robust funding opportunities that can lead to advancements in the field and facilitate life-long professional relationships. Dance students at the University of Michigan employ their training to pursue their work in a variety of areas. Generations of UM dance alumni are actively working as performers, choreographers, and directors in both concert and commercial dance, throughout North America and abroad.

Faculty


Jillian Hopper

Interim Chair of Dance and Clinical Assistant Professor of Dance

Judy Rice

Associate Professor of Performing Arts
Dance

Joseph Walls

Lecturer / Production Director, Department of Dance
Lighting Design, Theatrical Lighting

Amy West

Clinical Assistant Professor of Dance

Degrees

dance

Undergraduate

Bachelor of Fine Arts

Graduate

Master of Fine Arts

Performance Opportunities

U-M dancers are proactive in pursuing a variety of opportunities to perform both within and beyond the Department, developing their own unique performance and choreography portfolio over the course of their time at U-M. Students perform faculty and guest artist choreography in a major annual production of the department, held in 1,400-seat Power Center theater. View a list of past dance productions.

First year dance majors perform faculty, guest artist and student choreography in multiple locations throughout southeast Michigan.  Second or third year graduate students produce performances at the culmination of their degree, often casting students from the department. And seniors produce performances at the culmination of their degree, often casting students from the department.

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Access the Dance Playlist

Our Stories

Alumni Notes

In 2024, Sean Hoskins (MFA ’11, dance) collaborated with Romanian artist Cristina Lilienfeld on an international project, and he performed with Jessica Post (MFA ’14, dance) in Portland, Oregon. His creative work with Hillsdale College dancers was part of the 2024 Detroit Dance City Festival in the Rivera Court, Detroit Institute of Arts.
Lizzie Leopold (BFA ’05, dance) has accepted a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Arts Administration & Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She will continue her research on dance infrastructures and the political economy of choreographic production while teaching in the master’s program. (1/2025)
As artistic director for Terpsichore Collective, Aimee McDonald (BFA ’96, dance) has launched a new dance festival, Dancing in Summer, the Festival! held in Ypsilanti in June 2024. McDonald also worked in collaboration with U-M alum Teri Sarristo to create a documentary on the history of dance in Ann Arbor, Local Movement.

A New Home For Dance

The Dance Building is the new home for dance at Michigan. Opened in September 2021, the 24,000 square foot facility features four large, flexible studio-classrooms, including a performance venue with seating for more than 100 and a dedicated screen dance studio, modern locker rooms, cross-training and treatment areas, and administrative offices.

Performance Calendar

Attend an upcoming Dance performance

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Any gift to SMTD helps launch the next generation of artists, scholars, educators, and entrepreneurs who challenge and inspire the world.

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