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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.

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Faculty


Jillian Hopper

Interim Chair of Dance and Clinical Assistant Professor of 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

Minors

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.

Performance

Access the Dance Playlist

Our Stories

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Alumni Notes

More Alumni Notes
Briana Ashley Stuart (BFA ’13, dance; BA ’13, sociology) is a performer and choreographer based in Brussels, Belgium. Recently, she toured performances of Re-Turn in France and Belgium as part of BIG BANG Festival for young audiences. She also co-founded KB Dance Hub, the only Black- and Brown-women-owned dance studio in Brussels. (Spring 2026)
Alex Springer (BFA ’07, dance) and Xan Burley, assistant professors at the University of Florida, advanced their collaborative choreographic practice through a distinguished series of extended residencies with Treasure Hill Artist Village in Taipei, Taiwan. Their sold-out, site-responsive works activated movement, sound, sculpture, and video across the historic village and into the streets of Taipei. (Spring 2026)
Angela Gallo (MFA ’01, dance) is a consultant for ArtsNOW based in Atlanta, and she is the artist-in-residence at the Richland Library in Columbia, South Carolina, until June 2026. In February, in Columbia’s North Main district, Gallo opened the Movement Lab at NOMA, a new space for dance and somatic practices, community workshops, and performance events.

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.

Tour the Building

Performance Calendar

Attend an upcoming Dance performance

Dance Events

Show Your Support

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

You can support the Department of Dance with a contribution to:

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