November 19, 2024
Campus Life
UR’s first Hip-Hop Week
Cultural conversations, karaoke, and dance moves were on the list of events acknowledging a lifestyle that began on the streets of New York.
The Department of Theatre & Dance provides a unique liberal arts experience where students thrive by engaging across difference and critically investigating the world through creative processes.
As artist-scholars from very different disciplines, we engage with students in solving complex problems through high-impact learning experiences that develop critical thinking, an appreciation for complexity and context, and the ability to communicate clearly in a variety of languages (verbal, visual, aural, spatial, behavioral, kinesthetic). While many of our students go on to pursue a life in the performing arts, our fundamental mission is for all our students to develop as well-rounded individuals with a broad spectrum of knowledge and skills to think and act creatively in an ever-changing and increasingly challenging local and global reality.
Hip Hop Week
October 28-30
Monday, Oct. 28
- Hip Hop Karaoke, 12-1 p.m., Tyler Haynes Commons (THC) Room 117 (students only)
- DANC 205: Hip Hop Dance History, 12-1:15 p.m. Fredrick Rehearsal Hall (students only)
- Four Elements of Hop Hop Panel, 6-7:30 p.m., Alice Haynes Room, THC (open to public)
- Block Crew Performance, 8-9 p.m., Alice Haynes Room, THC (open to public)
Tuesday, Oct. 29
- Hip Hop Trivia, 12-1 p.m., Tyler Haynes Commons (THC) (students only)
- Open Hip Hop Dance Class, 6-7 p.m., Fredrick Rehearsal Hall (students only)
- EGL355U: Voices of Hip Hop in America, 6:30-9:15 p.m., virtual (students only)
- Sociology of Hip Hop: Gender Identities, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Alice Haynes Room, THC (open to public)
Wednesday, Oct. 30
- DANC 205: Hip Hop Dance History, 12-1:15 p.m. Fredrick Rehearsal Hall (students only)
- Open Hip Hop Dance Class, 6-7 p.m., Fredrick Rehearsal Hall (students only)
- Hip Hop Production, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Ukrup Auditorium, Robins School of Business (open to public)
Thursday, Oct. 31
- DANC 248: Movement Improvisation, 12-1:15 p.m., Fredrick Rehearsal Hall (students only)
Department Mission Statement
The Department of Theatre & Dance is committed to diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice. These values are central to the department’s curriculum, scholarship, teaching, art-making practices, and programming. Each student will engage with these values through curricular, intellectual, artistic, and personal endeavors. We commit to finding strength in our diversity, cultivating multiple perspectives, eliminating barriers to participation in the field, and fostering social justice. We uphold these values in our classes, rehearsals, play selections, casting, and our collaborative artistic processes. We continuously build more inclusive and equitable theatre and dance by foregrounding marginalized peoples and histories in our planning and policy decisions. We value creative engagement at the crossroads of theatre, dance, and social justice, traditional and non-traditional theatre, and dance-making practices both on and offstage.
Accessibility to Art Fosters Community
The University of Richmond Department of Theatre & Dance believes in the power of theatre and dance to build community through art, and that access to the arts should not be limited in any way. In partnership with the School of Arts & Sciences, we have created the UR Free Theatre & Dance initiative in order to remove economic barriers and make theatre and dance accessible to everyone.
University Dancers
University Dancers/DANC 306 is an auditioned student dance company of the University of Richmond in the Department Theatre & Dance. Students receive academic credit for participating in University Dancers/DANC 306. Founded in 1985 by Myra Daleng, the company’s current artistic director is Anne Van Gelder.
Auditions are held at the beginning of the fall semester, and students study a variety of dance and movement techniques such as African, ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, jazz, modern, and non-traditional partnering in company classes (three per week), master classes, and rehearsals.
A member of UD (Danc 306) is not required to be a dance major or minor to be in the company.
Feature Stories
November 5, 2024
Arts
Celebrating 40 years of UR dance education
The University became a stage for students who were filmed while performing with guest choreographer Robin Dekkers outside the Modlin Center’s four walls.
November 4, 2024
Student Experience
A world of experience
Hundreds of UR students participated in summer internships around the globe this year.
October 28, 2024
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Richmond marks decades of civic learning
As the Bonner Center commemorates its 20th anniversary, their Civic Fellows program has also reached a significant milestone, with more than 200 students engaging through internships worldwide.
Faculty Highlights
Van Gelder Promoted
Anne Norman Van Gelder was promoted to Senior Teaching Faculty of Theatre & Dance. Her specialties include dance history, choreography, and ballet and pointe technique.
View Bio
Herrera Elected
Patricia Herrera, professor of theatre and dance, was elected president of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) for a three-year term.
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Herrera Published
Patricia Herrera, professor of theatre and dance, and Mariela Méndez, associate professor of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies, published the chapter “Cuir/Queer Afro-Cuban and Xicanx Transnational Encounters: Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez's Dualidad: Todas las partes de mi ser" in the volume Bodies on the Front Line: Performance, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean.
View Bio
Herrera Promoted
Patricia Herrera was promoted to professor of theatre and dance. Dr. Herrera's research explores the social inequities experienced by underrepresented communities, specifically as it relates to Latinx and African American diasporic communities as well as LGBTQ+ people of color.
View BioResources
Contact Us
Mailing address:
Department of Theatre and Dance
Modlin Center for the Arts
453 Westhampton Way
University of Richmond, VA 23173
Phone: (804) 289-8592
Fax: (804) 287-1841
Box office: (804) 289-8980
Interim Department Chair: Dr. Olivier Delers
Administrative Coordinator: Rhonda Jackson