The Arts at Mount Holyoke | Mount Holyoke College
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The Arts at Mount Holyoke
The Arts at Mount Holyoke
Pushing the boundaries of expression
Follow your creative spirit to reveal a fuller understanding of yourself and the world around you — it’s what the arts at Mount Holyoke are all about. We’ll share the resources and approaches you need to get started and then encourage you to go beyond the limits of genre, medium and format.
However you choose to create, you’ll refine and build skills you’ll use throughout your life — like how to think creatively and analytically and how to express yourself with originality. Most importantly, you’ll learn how sharing your perspective can change the world.
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Upcoming performing arts events
Performing Arts at Mount Holyoke
Welcome to Dance; Film Media Theater; and Music at Mount Holyoke College – home of cutting-edge theater artists, award-winning choreographers and dancers and renowned musicians.
Our performances are relevant, vibrant and inclusive and celebrate the many facets of life at the college. Join us this year for a slate of exciting performances featuring work by students, faculty and guest artists.
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about upcoming performances.
For more information or questions on upcoming productions, please email us at performingarts@mtholyoke.edu.
Launch Performing Arts at Mount Holyoke
Dance
The
Dance Department
inspires students to become impressive dancers, creative makers, critical and abstract thinkers, problem solvers, collaborators, effective communicators and affecting artists. Areas of study include performance, choreography, historical and cultural contexts, rhythmic analysis and scientific foundations. Studio courses include modern dance, ballet, street forms and West African dance.
With an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning, faculty share their expertise in our studios, classrooms and performance spaces, engaging in creative collaboration and mentoring individuals to define their unique research trajectories. Multiple performance opportunities are available each semester at Mount Holyoke and with our partners in Five College Dance.
During the academic year, the Dance Department produces four concerts: a faculty concert in the fall and senior, student and commencement concerts in the spring. Students are heavily involved in the production aspect through dancing, choreographing, producing, working and supporting the concerts both behind the scenes and on stage.
Learn more about Dance
Film Media Theater
The
Department of Film Media Theater
integrates creative and critical thinking with the practice of making theater, film and other media-based communicative forms. Our curriculum consists of courses in acting, directing, design, playwriting and screenwriting, as well as courses that study film, media and theater through the lens of history, theory and cultural studies.
In addition to a comprehensive curriculum that balances critical study with practical production and performance experiences, students have multiple production-based opportunities. The department annually presents three main stage productions, a short play festival, a film festival and numerous student performances.
During the academic year, the Department of Film Media Theater presents three main stage productions, a short play festival, a film festival and numerous student works and performances.
Learn more about Film Media Theater
Music
The
Music Department
regards the study of music as an artistic discipline with an essential role in liberal arts education. Through courses in music history, music theory, ethnomusicology, performance and composition, we foster creative, intellectual and critical abilities.
The curriculum is designed for a broad range of interests, backgrounds and career goals. The integration of creating, performing and thinking about music fosters musical fluency across multiple styles and cultural contexts. With over 20 concerts a year, our department offers hands-on performance experience for students.
Music has always played a central role at Mount Holyoke College. Over nearly two centuries, the Music Department has developed unique traditions that are now central to campus life. With over 20 concerts a year, our department offers hands-on performance experience across a broad range of musical styles and cultural contexts.
More in Music:
Signature and Special Events in Music
Music Ensembles
Performance Study in Music
Learn more about Music
The Performing Arts
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Fall 2024 - Faculty Dance Concert - “hiraeth-ofie ne fie” - Choreographed by Mustapha Braimah
Fall 2024 - Faculty Dance Concert - “Off The Dome” - Choreographed by Shakia Barron
Fall 2024 - Faculty Dance Concert - “Thousandth Orange” - Choreographed by Barbie Diewald
Fall 2024 - Family and Friends Concert
“The Addams Family Musical” Directed by Noah Ilya-Alexis Tuleja
Vespers concert in the winter of 2024.
“AGOO” - West African Dance and Drumming Performance, 2025
“Big Broadcast 1940s Jazz Variety Show”, 2025
“Marie Antoinette” Directed by Ari Considine ’24
4th Annual Student Film Festival, in 2025
2025 Capstone Dance Concert - “Between Thresholds” - Choreographed by Meghan MacBeath ’25
Annual and biennial events in the arts
Each year several signature events provide a platform for you to share your creative projects and connect with the Mount Holyoke and Five College arts communities. Several of these are sponsored by the InterArts Council, a group of representatives from the arts departments and programs at Mount Holyoke, Art Museum staff, and students who meet monthly to collaborate and keep members informed about campus arts activities.
View upcoming events in the arts
Crafting a Life in the Arts
This is a biennial daylong career workshop that brings together students and alums working in the world of the arts to explore career options and artistic practice beyond graduation.
Distinguished Artists at Mount Holyoke College
This event includes public presentations by scholars, artists, writers and practitioners who find common ground between the academic and public spheres.
Glascock Poetry Contest
This is an opportunity for you to showcase your best work for a panel of three distinguished poets — as students have done every year since 1924.
Signature events in music
Throughout nearly two centuries of history, the music department has developed unique musical traditions that are now central to campus life.
Happening at Mount Holyoke
The arts on campus — and beyond
An artistic collaboration of the Five College Consortium
MassLive has reported on the Five College Museums’ new online database, which provides access to more than 100,000 artworks held across six institutions.
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Arts: Fine and Performing
Five College Consortium
Mount Holyoke in the News
Staff
MHC students and ’84 alum “Keep Marching” with “Suffs”
Mount Holyoke College students Molly DeLuca ’26, Marley Hollen ’28 and Abigail Ding ’29 got to shadow stage managers for the touring production of the musical “Suffs,” which features alum Tami Dahbura ’84.
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Alum
Arts: Fine and Performing
Humanities
Internships and Career Preparation
Student
Chloé Zhao ’05 helms Oscar-winning film
Mount Holyoke College alum Chloé Zhao ’05 directed “Hamnet,” which was recognized by the Academy Awards for the “Best Actress” category.
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Alum
Arts: Fine and Performing
Faculty
Women’s College
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Alum Connections
Stories from art alums
An insider’s view of “The Outsiders”
Daniela Chamarro Angeles ’27
she/her
Leaping into center stage
Liz Almonte ’24
they/she
The chemistry of leadership
Mackenzie “Mack” Windus ’24
she/her
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The Arts at Mount Holyoke
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Music Ensembles
Signature and Special Events in Music
The InterArts Council
The InterArts Council is a group of representatives from the arts departments and programs at Mount Holyoke, as well as Art Museum staff who meet monthly to collaborate and keep members informed about campus arts activities.
The InterArts Council
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