Harvard Undergraduate Contemporary Collective

Let me introduce you to the newest dance group at Harvard, Harvard Contemporary Collective. After a year of collaborative discussion and planning, Harvard’s first professional level contemporary dance company has become a reality.

In October of 2022, we began the year-long process of becoming an official Harvard organization during which we were required to operate at full capacity to be eligible. Although we had extremely limited access to studio space and no funding during this process, we did not let this stop our organization!

During our inaugural season at Harvard, we self-choreographed our own contemporary piece, self-funded our costumes, hosted weekly company classes and two workshops open to the public, and performed on five separate occasions in various productions at Harvard.

We are now almost to our 3rd birthday! Since our founding we have produced three original productions, guest performed in six outside shows, facilitated student choreography, and brought in four working professional choreographers. These include Madi Hicks, Levi Marsman, Jessie Jeanne Stinnett, and Adrienne Hawkins, with plans in the mix for who we will bring in this Spring!

Click HERE to access our performance library!

We are excited to announce we were recently invited to compete in the World of Dance preliminary competition in Boston, where we scored highly and advanced to the National Round! The World of Dance National competition takes place in Los Angeles this coming Summer 2025.

See our World of Dance Performance HERE!

With this groundbreaking opportunity comes a need for your support! The company will incur costs pertaining to competition fees, travel, accommodations, and costumes.

As we build a strong presence on campus and continue to grow your support would be of utmost value. We are reaching out to you to ask for your help to continue to bring in professional guest choreographers and take our team to World of Dance this July!

With your support, we hope to accomplish two main goals:

1. Take HCC to World of Dance! Making it to the national round of World of Dance is no small feat, and we need your help to get us there.

2. Each semester we will be welcoming a guest choreographer from the contemporary dance industry to set our performance piece for the season! It is extremely valuable to offer advanced opportunities to the company that go beyond student choreography and learning solely from our peers. Through these opportunities, members of the company will continue to grow and expand their contemporary repertoire in addition to gaining a connection in the dance world. Though this is an expensive endeavor, creating a professional environment was one of our original missions for this company!

Beyond these two main funding goals, we continue to incur additional costs for travel, studio rental, company bonding activities, conducting auditions, and advertising/marketing.

Your donation is an opportunity to make a lasting, legacy impact at Harvard. Our university has two primary dance companies - one is almost 80 years old and the other is turning 30 this year! HCC's intention is to far outlive our time as Harvard students, and we hope that this company will continue to thrive and offer distinguished artists at Harvard the opportunity to grow, perform, and foster community.

Together, with your commitment to helping us reach our goals, we will leave a long-standing legacy in the arts community at Harvard and beyond. We would appreciate anything you can contribute, large or small!

Please feel free to share with loved ones, supporters of the arts, and anyone who may identify with our goals! Help us grow the Harvard arts community and provide a professional space for Harvard's contemporary artists to flourish, continue their training, and perform at a high level!

We are sending love to you and yours - thank you from HCC.

HCC Co-Founders,

Payton Thompson, Liliana Price, Gianna Zades

Keep in touch with us!

Instagram @harvardcontemporarycollective