Student-Led Dance Groups

STUDENT-LED DANCE GROUP LEADERS 

Student-led Dance Group Leaders regularly gather as a cohort together with Dance Center staff for advisement, knowledge-sharing, fellowship, and professional development workshops. 

If you are a new incoming director of a student-led dance group, please contact Elizabeth Epsen. 

Previous workshops offered:

• Introduction to Campfire: An introduction to a new online, community-building platform Campfire, co-created by Dance Center alum Jenny Liu ’20, which was awarded an Innovation Grant from Harvard’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging.  
• Video Production Workshops: Broken up into two parts and led by Kathryn Abarbanel GSD’19, workshops offered students both an introduction to video editing as well as intermediate level editing using Adobe Premiere Suite.
• Diversity Peer Educators (DPE's) Workshops: Led by DPE's from the Office of Diversity Education and Support around best practices for leading and cultivating an inclusive environment for dance organizations.
• Disability Inclusion Workshop led by dancer, teacher, and global disability rights activist Kerry Thompson Ed.M.08 for a 101 on disability inclusion best practices in the arts. 
• Office of Sexualt Assualt Prevention and Reponse (OSAPR) Workshop: A discussion led by OSAPR case coordinator Rose Poyau on tools and frameworks for addressing identity, gender, and sexual violence. 

Student-Led Dance Group Residency

All student-led dance groups may apply for a residency at the Harvard Dance Center. Two residencies will be held per academic year (one per semester), however, collaboration is encouraged and two or more student-led dance groups may submit a combined application for a joint residency. 

Selected student-led dance groups are given sole access (with the exception of credit courses) to the Dance Center's 3,500 square foot Studio 1 for one week, Sunday to Sunday. Examples of residency activities during the week are meet-and-greets, cyphers, open rehearsals, informal showings, workshops, community conversations, and performances. Students are invited to think creatively and broadly about how to use the time and space. 

Dance Program staff are available for mentorship and support throughout the year and can also help connect students to other potential advisors and/or collaborators. The residency will be featured and promoted through the Dance Program's communications. Although check-ins will be included as part of the Student Residency program over the course of the semester, students are expected to take full ownership of all managing and producing aspects of their residency. 

Additional Residency Information: 
Harvard Dance Center Residencies include the use of Studio 1. Multiple options are available to support the residency activities including: the (supervised) use of risers; setting up chairs in different audience configurations; use of the sound system via portable device, laptop, etc.; and pre-programmed lights accessible via Studio 1 wall panel. For residencies that include a showing or performance, a production meeting with the Dance Program's Production Manager will be required. Lighting design and production mentorship is available throughout the residency. Students are expected to set up, manage and operate all technical aspects of activities that use lighting and production elements.

Students are encouraged to think about how residency activities will be accessed for people with disabilities. Selected student groups will be required to attend a Dance Program offered workshop focusing on equity and inclusion best practices. 

The OFA Dance Program prioritizes:

• Undergradute student-led dance groups
• Residency proposals that are in alignment with the Dance Program's mission.
• Residency proposals that are driven by the student-led dance group's own mission and which help to expand their reach. 
• Collaborative residencies; two or more student-led dance groups may submit a combined application for a joint residency.
• Student-led dance groups who have not received a residency at Harvard Dance Center within the last two semesters.

If you have questions about the application or would like to learn more about how a residency at Harvard Dance Center might serve your student-led dance group, email Elizabeth Epsen at epsen@fas.harvard.edu. 

Spring 2024 Student-Led Dance Program Residency

Student-Led Dance Group-in-Residence: Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company

Residency Dates: Sunday, April 14-Saturday, April 20

Join us in celebrating the Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company's (HRMDC) student-led dance group residency at Harvard Dance Center! HRMDC is using their residency for a production of original works by student choreographers titled the eleventh hour.

In their words:

Life tells us to prolong the sweeter things, rush through the boring or painful, and avoid the inevitable. But what happens when, in the buildup of an evening, we find ourselves fighting against the approach of an hour “too late,” and the night, a performance, must end? At the core of our spring 2024 show, we aim to visualize this movement and struggle against time and limits, something that drives us to chase a goal or brings us to a point of no return.
 
Come see how these choreographers interpreted this theme and support the student dancers, choreographers, designers, directors, and producers in this entirely student-run production! 

Performance Dates/Time

Friday, 4/19: 7pm
Saturday, 4/20: 2pm and 7pm

Tickets available for purchase through Harvard Box Office.