Dance Faculty

Thomas Vacanti (BS in Dance, Skidmore College ‘02. MFA in Dance, Smith College ’04) is Professor of Ballet and Director of the Dance Program at UMass Amherst. In 2012, Tom received one of UMass Amherst’s highest honors, The Distinguished Teaching Award.

Ann Biddle has been a dance educator, staff developer, curriculum consultant, writer, and choreographer for the past 30 years. In addition to teaching with UMass Amherst’s Dance Program, she is currently the Director of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) Institute for Professional Learning and Advancement and the Director of DEL at Jacob’s Pillow.

Lauren Cox spent most of her adolescence as a highly competitive Rhythmic Gymnast, eventually achieving 20th in the nation. Her training is the sum of her travels ranging from Jazz to Haitian Cultural Dances, Hip-Hop and Social Dances, Samba, Modern, Contemporary, Improvisation, Singing and Acting. She is a published poet and storyteller who delivered a TEDx talk in 2018.

Throughout his career, Holland has been a pioneer in bringing Hip-Hop to college dance programs. He has been an adjunct faculty member at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, Ursinus College, and Montgomery County Community College, all in the Philadelphia area. 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. While performing with RHPM, he also taught at MIT, Stanford University, University of Utah, and UCLA, as well as Jacob’s Pillow, Philadanco, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater

Molly Fletcher Lynch-Clark is a professional choreographer, performer and professor of dance based in Western Massachusetts. She is currently on faculty at UMass Amherst and Keene State College where she teaches modern dance technique, experiential anatomy, composition and research studies.