School of Performing and Visual Arts
School of Performing and Visual Arts
Freshman Company REPERTORY DANCE COMPANY ACDA
Freshman Repertory members take DAN 220, a class taken in dance majors’ first semester.
It is a structured rehearsal process that leads to a public performance. At the completion
of this course you will have a better understanding of the creative process and program
expectations for professionalism.
In DAN 220, students are members of the "Freshman Company" and work in rehearsal with a faculty member as they set a new modern dance on the Freshman Company. Students become better performers through this process and are exposed to the collaborative nature of modern dance choreography. This experience prepares you to successfully audition for the Repertory Dance Company. The Freshman Company performs choreography excerpts at High School Dance Day and the entire dance at the December Informal Dance Concert.
The Southern Miss Repertory Dance Company (RDC) was established to provide performing opportunities for dance majors and to promote excellence in dance performance for our students. As company members, you gain insight into the protocol and standards of professional dance as they prepare for careers.
RDC provides an opportunity for dance majors to gain valuable performance experience and to become further prepared for professional careers in dance.
All dance majors are eligible to audition for RDC beginning in the second semester of study as a dance major. However, students must maintain an unweighted 2.5 GPA in dance courses in the previous semester.
Auditions for RDC are held on the second day of class each semester and are led by the RDC director for the semester.
If you are eligible to audition for RDC and do not make it, then you may enroll in RDC II. This will include learning, collaborating, and performing in faculty or senior dance major’s choreographic works. The dancers must attend rehearsals and maintain professionalism. The works are featured in the Informal Dance Concert in the spring semester. This should be used as a stepping stone into RDC. It is not required, but it is definitely recommended.
Each year the USM dance program attends ACDA. During the conference, students meet other dancers, take master classes, attend dance concerts featuring other college students and professional dancers/companies, etc.
Hub Dance Collective is a contemporary dance collective formed by dance faculty, including Kelly Ferris Lester, Stacy Reischman Fletcher, Brianna Jahn, Lauren Soutullo Smith, Candice Salyers, and Julie Hammond.
Since 2012, the Hub Dance Collective has been Hattiesburg's home for professional contemporary dance, sharing the dance talent in Southern Mississippi with the nation by touring to Illinois, Texas, Michigan, New York, and Alabama. The idea for the Hub Dance Collective grew from faculty members in the Southern Miss Dance Department who wanted to continue choreographing and performing professionally, in addition to producing their work with the student body. Recognizing there was an "arts gap" that a professional contemporary dance company could fill in Hattiesburg.
Hub Dance Collective focuses on the collaborative nature of modern dance. It values the inspiration, challenges, and creativity that arises in a collaborative process. Having trained nationally as individuals, its members now are committed to bringing their broad, collective perspectives on dance to the region. By performing their work in Southern Mississippi; they grow local audiences for dance; by touring they increase recognition of the burgeoning contemporary dance scene in the Gulf South region.