UCDC - Fall '26 Student Choreography

UCDC - Fall '26 Student Choreography
Ursinus College Dance Company - Fall 2025 Submissions for Student Choreography

Please read all information, instructions, and questions before submitting. We suggest that you compose your responses in a Word or Google document and then copy and paste your responses into this form so that you can save your work as you complete this application. Please reach out to Prof. Love (mlove[at]ursinus.edu) with any questions or concerns. (Please note that this choreography submission process is designed to be rigorous and model professional grant and application processes. You can always reach out to Prof. Love for support and guidance as you work on your submission!)
About Student Choreography for UCDC (Fall 2025)

The Ursinus College Dance Company is soliciting proposals for student choreographed pieces to be considered for the Fall 2025 concert, sound(in)sight, to be produced and directed by Michael J. Love, Assistant Professor of Dance.

The Company will consider producing and debuting up to two student-choreographed works as part of the Fall 2025 concert. These works will be choreographed and danced by students who are members of the Company (students who attend the entire Fall 2025 Faculty and Guest Artist Works Audition on August 28, 2025 and are cast in and commit to at least one faculty or guest artist work).

Students selected as choreographers are expected to:
- Hold a weekly rehearsal to set and prepare their piece to debut in the fall 2025 concert (Prof. Love will take care of securing your weekly rehearsal space.)
- Participate in a weekly seminar led by Prof. Love, time TBD by Prof. Love and student choreographer(s) (DANC 361)
- Successfully complete all reading and writing (and other dramaturgy work) as pertaining to the weekly seminar (DANC 361)
- Attend the weekly UCDC production meeting (Time TBD)
- Develop a full choreographic work that is four to six minutes in length, features a cast of four to six UCDC Company members, and is thoughtfully designed (lighting, costume, sound, projections, etc) in alignment with the central theme/ concept of the concert and Prof. Love; Shannon Zura, Associate Professor of Theater and Dance in Design & Technology; guest artist designers, and assigned student designer(s)
- Participate fully in the UCDC production process as guided by Meghan Jones, Technical Director and Production Manager
- Attend all required technical and dress rehearsals
- Participate fully in the rehearsal, development, and performance of at least one faculty or guest artist work
- Formally register for DANC 003 A and DANC 003 B
The debut of each student-choreographed work in the concert is subject to each choreographer's adherence to the stated guidelines and at the administrative and artistic/ aesthetic discretion of Prof. Love as the producer and director of the concert.
About the Fall 2025 Ursinus College Dance Company Concert

Ursinus College Dance Company presents
sound(in)sight
November 20, 21, and 22, 2025
Directed and Produced by Assistant Professor Michael J. Love

Featuring choreographic works by:
Emanuel "Manny" Chacon, UCDC Guest Artist
Amalia Colón-Nava, UCDC Guest Artist and Adjunct Professor of Dance (Fall 2025)
Kingsley Ibeneche, UCDC Guest Artist
Michael J. Love, Assistant Professor of Dance

"What may we learn about ourselves and our communities by honoring familial and cultural traditions through sound, rhythm, and movement? With sound(in)sight, the Ursinus College Dance Company will engage faculty, guest artist, and select student choreographers in an embodied-intellectual study of family, forms, and time. As they translate and transpose oral histories into a cohesive, evening-length dance work, these choreographers will seek to identify the ways we may best care for the memories and futures of our loved ones."

Important Dates
Open Call Audition: Faculty and Guest Artist Works — Thursday, August 28, 2025
Student Choreography Proposals Due — Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 12:00pm
Student Choreographers Announced — Monday, September 1, 2025
Audition: Student Works (open only to UCDC members) — Friday, September 5, 2025

Tech Rehearsals — Saturday, November 15 and Sunday, November 16, 2025
Dress Rehearsals — November 17, 18, and 19, 2025
Performances (and Strike) — November 20, 21, and 22, 2025

More on the concert theme from Prof. Love:
"Aesthetically, I have been thinking about the old school 1980s and 1990s Olan Mills, Sears, and JCPenny family portraits as a unifying overall idea/concept for the design of the concert (lighting/ sound/ 'interludes' between pieces, etc). I have also been thinking about how the 'family portrait' or homemade photo album often functions as a repository of legacies and traditions (shared, hidden, and/or the stories 'between' photographs) and the idea of a physical 'family archive.' I am imagining the concert opening with the full cast creating various 'portrait poses' to represent various types of families or familial moments and perhaps returning to this for a unifying closing moment."

Preliminary readings for students considering submitting a choreography proposal:
- "The Secret Art of the Family Photo" by Michael Johnston, The New Yorker (July 2022) Read Here or Read Here
- "A Family Photo Album Holds Black History" by Shamira Ibrahim, Harper's Bazaar (February 2023) Read Here
- "Retrospect: The Alabama Origins of Olan Mills Inc." by Scotty Kirkland, Business Alabama (May 2024) Read Here
Submitting A Proposal

Please answer each of the questions below. If you need help, feel free to reach out to Prof. Love via email (mlove[at]ursinus.edu). Student choreography proposals are due on Thursday, August 28, 2025 by 12:00pm (noon).
Please share your full name.*
Please share your Ursinus email address.*
Tell us about your proposed piece! What is the title or working title of your proposed piece?*
What forms or styles will you and your cast be working in as you develop and perform your piece? (i.e.: Capoeira, Rhythm Tap, Contemporary, House, Hip Hop, Jazz, etc)*
What media (music, video, projections, images, text, etc) would you like to use to compose the aural and visual landscape of your piece? Please list each piece of media or item in MLA format and include the artist, song title, album title, publisher, record label, book title, poem title, author, and year as appropriate. Please be sure this list is as complete and thorough as possible (as of the date of submission).*
Please describe your piece in detail. Share with us the theories and concepts you plan to explore and/ or the larger questions you'd like to pose or explore with your piece. [Use at least 400 words to 500 words maximum.]*

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Please revisit the "About the Fall 2025 Ursinus College Dance Company Concert" section above. Use the space below to describe the ways that your piece speaks to and/ or addresses the main theme(s) of the concert. Please also refer to the preliminary readings linked above (or other readings via the links in the readings that you followed, artists or scholars mentioned in the readings, etc). [Use at least 400 words to 500 words maximum.]*

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The Fall 2025 concert will be performed on the Dance Program's custom sprung wood floor. Sound and rhythm will be a major focus of the concert (even for pieces that are not rhythm tap dance pieces). Also, the concert will be "continuous" and each piece will be presented without pauses. (We will not stop in between each piece and close the main drape. Instead, each choreographer will set a short transition into the next piece.) The concert will open and close with movement set by Prof. Love. Lastly, there will also be a lobby display and other elements to bring audience members into the "world" of the concert. How will the various elements of your piece respond to each of these aspects of the concert?*
Tell us a bit about how you will cast your piece! Student choreographers are encouraged to consider casts of four to six UCDC Company members. What will you consider as you audition and work with Prof. Love to cast your piece (i.e.: skills or techniques, experience, identity, etc)?*
Tell us a bit about the research you've done or plan to do as you develop your proposed piece! Use the space below to list three to five sources (readings/ articles, books, films, albums, videos, choreographic works, etc) using MLA format. Briefly describe (with a sentence or two) how each item has/ is/ will shaping/shape the development of your piece.*
Tell us a bit about how you've prepared for developing and setting your piece! What Dance Program courses have you taken over your time at Ursinus (please list the course title, professor, and semester)? Which UCDC faculty or guest artist choreographers have you worked with in the past that have left a lasting impression? What other dance or choreography experiences have you had on campus or outside Ursinus? How will these experiences shape how you approach your choreographic process?*
Lastly, please show us what your piece may look like! Please share a link to a 1:00 (one minute) video sample of movement, rhythms, sounds, actions, or text that may make up a portion of your piece.
- If your sample is over 1:00, please leave notes to let us know which 1:00 to view. (i.e.: "Please view 6:45 to 7:45. Thank you.")
- The link you include should lead to a YouTube or Vimeo video or a video on a similar platform. Please be sure that you've set up sharing preferences so that we will be able to access the video.
- Remember that we are not asking you to have choreographed the entire piece! We are asking you to share up to 1:00 of choreographic ideas with us so that we may learn more about what you are thinking/ envisioning. The video should feature you as the choreographer. It should not feature prospective Fall 2025 Company members as we ask that you do not pre-cast your piece. (Any prospective Fall 2025 UCDC Company members featured in your 1:00 video sample will not be permitted to dance in your piece.)
- Please do not spend too much time recording your video! Feel free to share a video that you have captured with your phone or laptop (be sure to film in the horizontal position). Perhaps you may be able to film yourself dancing outside or in a room at your hometown dance studio. Or, perhaps you can work with Prof. Love to reserve a studio during the first few days you are back on campus. Please be safe and remember not to dance on concrete floors (i.e.: in your basement or garage). Please dance in a space/ on a surface that is safe for your joints and for your body.
Please reach out to Prof. Love (mlove[at]ursinus.edu) with any questions or concerns.
Share your video link and any necessary notes here.*
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UCDC - Fall '26 Student Choreography

Ursinus College Dance Company - Fall 2025 Submissions for Student Choreography