Duane Lee Holland Jr.

Duane Lee Holland, Jr. began his professional dance career at the age of 17, dancing for Hip-Hop theater dance company, Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM); he was later named Assistant Artistic Director of the company. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Dance (Magna Cum Laude), with a focus in Choreography, from the University of Iowa.

Throughout his career, Holland has been a pioneer in bringing Hip-Hop to college dance programs. He became the first full-time Hip-Hop professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2016, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019. The University of Massachusetts Amherst Dance Program welcomed new faculty member Duane Lee Holland, Jr. in the fall 2022.  

Holland has had the privilege of working with choreographers Bill T. Jones (We Shall Not Be Moved), Garth Fagin (The Lion King, original Broadway cast), Ronald K. Brown (Evidence).  He was also assistant choreographer/dance captain and featured dancer in Maurice Hines’ Broadway production of Hot Feet.  In 2010, he released his first independent R&B/Hip-Hop music project, Life Expansion, and his second project, Love-n-Life, featuring songs from his one-man show, The Adventures of Maxx Lancaster, was released in March  2021. In March of 2024, Duane released his third music project entitled, Maxx Remixed, that was coupled with the debut of his one-man show, The Adventures of Maxx Lancaster: A Journey of Black Masculinity. The show is planning to tour in 2026-2027.

For many years, Holland has been conducting community outreach programs with his Arts and Education organization, CRĀV (Cultivating Revolutionary Artistic Virtuosity), in the suburban Philadelphia area, as well as in conjunction with select universities across the nation.

In May 2025, Holland became an affiliated faculty member of the UMass Amherst W.E.B DuBois Afro-American Studies Department, and in June 2025 Holland became Director of the UMass Amherst Dance Program.