Dance Faculty

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.

Michele Byrd-McPhee is a tenure-track Assistant Professor for the Dance Program of the UMass Amherst Department of Music and Dance, beginning in January, 2025.

Lauren Cox is a storyteller of many mediums, originally from the SF Bay Area. As Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Jazz Dance and Pedagogy at UMass Amherst, she is deeply interested in studying and creating spaces for communal sanctuary and recognizes these practices as a blueprint for radical reclamation and transcendence.

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.

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.