Dance

Performance Opportunities for Students

Dance Placement Class
Senior Dance Workshops
Guest Choreographer Auditions
Princeton Dance Festival
Dan 326: Princeton Dance Festival: Approaches to Performance & Choreography
Princeton Dance Festival FAQ
Senior Dance Productions
Past Performances

 

Fall 2025 Performance Opportunities

Princeton Dance Festival Placement Class: September 1

Want to perform in Princeton Dance Festival? Plan to attend mandatory placement class on Monday, September 1, 2025, at 3 p.m. in the Hearst Dance Theater. Students will perform in the Princeton Dance Festival at the Berlind Theatre on November 21, 22 & 23, 2025. Preparations will require several costume fittings, as well as a technical and dress rehearsal the week of the performance. Students will also participate in a choreographic showing during Reading Period (mandatory).

Please email Dance Program Associate Cindy Rosenfeld at cr17@princeton.edu with any questions.

 

Senior Dance Workshops: September 2 + 4

Learn about opportunities to perform in the new choreographic works planned by 2025-26 seniors in the dance program including works by Braeh Simon, Maddy Mejia, Maya Sessions, and Olivia Kasule.

Casting for these spring 2026 projects will happen through two fall workshops held on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, and Thursday, September 4, at 4:45-6:00 p.m.

 

Guest Choreographer Auditions: September 6 + 9

Want to perform in Princeton Dance Festival but can’t take a dance course? Audition to be in a guest choreographer’s work! Students may audition for all opportunities but would only be cast in one. These works will be performed at the Princeton Dance Festival, November 21-23, 2025. Weekly rehearsals will be Tuesdays/Thursdays 4:30-6:20 PM. Audition for guest artists:

More Info on Guest Choreographers & Auditions

Kyle Abraham, a MacArthur Fellow and Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed A.I.M dance company, has also choreographed for Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. His piece will be a contemporary dance.

Pam Tanowitz has created dances for New York City Ballet and The Royal Ballet, and she been honored with Bessie Awards and the Doris Duke Artist Award, among others. Her piece will be a ballet. Please bring ballet slippers to audition, if possible.

Omari Wiles’s choreography has been featured with Janet Jackson and Beyoncé, among others, and his choreography for Cats will be coming to Broadway in 2026. His piece will be Vogue and House dance. Bring sneakers and/or non-stiletto heels, if possible.

 

Princeton Dance Festival: November 21-23

The Festival, held each year in late fall, is the program’s major event of the year. Students prepare throughout the fall semester for this performance which is presented in the 350-seat Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center. Repertory and new works by professional choreographers and faculty are staged on students either through a fall course or through extracurricular rehearsals with guest choreographers. In past years, students have performed the works of Kyle Abraham, Robert Battle, Brian Brooks, Ronald K. Brown, Merce Cunningham, Francesca Harper, Bill T. Jones, Sun Kim, Ishita Mili, Mark Morris, Ohad Naharin, Stephen Petronio, Crystal Pite, Shamel Pitts, Caili Quan, Hofesh Shechter, Donna Uchizono, Pam Tanowitz, Yue Yin, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Professional lighting and costume designers collaborate with the Lewis Center’s production team to present one of the Lewis Center’s essential performance events.

 

DAN 326— Princeton Dance Festival: Approaches to Performance and Choreography

The dances taught in the DAN 326 course embrace a wide spectrum of dance backgrounds. However, please note that this is an upper-level course. Some dance experience recommended. Mandatory placement class is in early September in the Hearst Dance Theater. Students will perform in the Princeton Dance Festival (mandatory). Preparations will require several costume fittings, and a technical and dress rehearsal the week of the performance. Students will also participate in a choreographic showing during Reading Period (mandatory).

All students will receive their M/W section assignment after placement class. First-year students will receive their precept placement following placement class.

 

Princeton Dance Festival FAQ

Please review a list of frequently asked questions about Princeton Dance Festival and the related course, DAN 326.

 

Annual Spring Performance Opportunities

Senior Dance Productions

Seniors in the Program in Dance can satisfy their independent work toward a minor in dance by choreographing new work, performances, or through scholarly research. These productions take place mainly in the spring semester and are supported through faculty and guest artist advisors and design teams and by the Lewis Center’s production department. Seniors choreographing new work cast their pieces from students both in and outside the dance program, providing students an opportunity to work with a senior in the realization of their vision for new choreography; sometimes the seniors choose to create these works in collaboration with their casts. Seniors electing to do a performance are matched with guest or faculty choreographers to perform a new or repertory work — often a solo, duet or small ensemble piece.

Some of these works are part of the spring senior collaborative dance concert, while others are presented as individual productions, some of them as site-specific works. The spring season is presented in the state-of-the-art Hearst Dance Theater in the Lewis Arts complex. 

 

Past Performance Opportunities

See photos, video trailers, and view information on guest choreographers and works performed at past Princeton Dance Festivals on our season archive pages.

Browse digital programs from past Princeton Dance Festivals and senior dance productions.