MDAA Programs

Montana Dance Arts Association (MDAA) operates statewide and serves Montana dance students, teachers, and artists. MDAA is the only organization of its kind in the country, and it continuously receives rave reviews from dance professionals from across the nation. Programs offered through MDAA help the organization achieve it's goals of reaching students across the state, helping them grow artisticalty and technically within the realm of dance, and encouraging Montana’s dance educators to continually grow in their skills, thus propelling each generation of dancers in Montana to a higher level.

In the art of dance, Montana is both geographically and culturally isolated from the rest of the country. Because of this, there is a strong need for cost-effective means to access and enhance the art of dance statewide. One of MDAA’s goals is to meet this need by providing rural and urban communities access to high quality dance education opportunities, the kind more readily found outside of Montana’s borders, through MDAA programs such as annual workshops and scholarships. Many Montana dance students, especially from rural communities, may only have the opportunity to learn from one teacher throughout their dance training. For many students, attending MDAA workshops and striving for scholarships to access additional training such as summer intensives, is the only opportunity they have to learn from various instructors and broaden their dance education. These experiences translate to a higher proficiency in their technical and artistic growth. Well trained dancers mean higher quality performances on the local level. High quality performances spark an interest in dance and further promote the art of dance in Montana. MDAA has had former students and scholarship recipients who have gone on to professional dance careers eagerly return to the state to teach as guest faculty members, therefore continuing the cycle of improving dance education in Montana.

Having developed a strong appreciation for the art form, whether or not they pursue a professional career, MDAA students most often become patrons of dance performances and the arts throughout their lives. MDAA workshops are just as important to Montana dance instructors as they are to Montana dance students, serving as their connection to the professional dance world. Twice a year Montana dance instructors have the opportunity to participate in or observe classes taught by the guest faculty and are exposed to additional teaching techniques. Teachers are also eligible to apply for the MDAA teacher fellowship that can help them pursue continuing education and development. With improved and additional tools for teaching, local teachers raise the level of proficiency in their students, again continuing the cycle of bringing higher quality dance to all of Montana.

Biannual Workshops

MDAA holds a three-day Fall Workshop in October and a two-day Spring Workshop in April. During these workshops, Montana dance students are exposed to cutting edge dance techniques and high quality instruction from professional out-of-state guest faculty members. Students can expect to grow tremendously in a short time.

Here is a short list of previous MDAA professional guest faculty members to give you an idea of the variety, breadth, and exceptional level of the workshop guest instructors invited each year:

Ballet: Marcus Bugler, Sharee Lane, Judy Rice, Le Mai Linh, Otto Neubert, John Magnus, Peter Christi, Tim Lynch, Deborah Hess, Stephanie Saland, Elizabeth Shipiatsky, Wang Shao-Pen and Frank Bays.

Jazz/Hip-Hop: Randy Duncan, Jeff Amsden, Hector Guerrero, Kim Hale, Daniel Cruz, Susan Quinn Williams, Theo Ivey, Elizabeth Ponarelli, Michael Peele, Jesse Johnson, Brandon Koepsell and Kevin Bender.

Tap: Lisa Hopkins, Gene Medler, Steve Zee, Julie Cartier, Josh Hilberman, Germaine Salsberg, Anthony Peters, Nicholas Young, Caleb Teicher, Michela Marino Lerman, Acia Gray and Cheryl Johnson.

Modern: Donna Jewell, Sonia Dawkins, Cleo Parker Robinson, Colleen Thomas Young, Nicole Wolcott, Angela Banchero-Kelleher, Rebecca Loft, Edward Taketa, Hilary Easton, Jamie Louise Wollenberg and Joe Goode.

The location of these workshops moves from city to city and is often held in Belgrade, Great Falls, Helena, or Missoula. The workshops offer classes in classical ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, hip-hop, modern or contemporary dance, and other specialty styles. Guest faculty travel to Montana from professional dance companies and schools from across the nation. More often than not, MDAA makes use of the specialized talent of its guest faculty and incorporates additional classes into the workshops such as; improvisation, repertory, steppin’, African, and injury prevention classes.

To learn more about our past and upcoming workshops, please visit the Fall Workshop and the Spring Workshop webpages. These pages are updated as the workshops come up, so you can see information about past workshops until the pages are updated for the new year.

Scholarship Programs

During the Fall Workshop

Each year, MDAA Professional Members receive up to a certain number of scholarships that they can award to their students to help them attend the MDAA Fall Workshops. Members are encouraged to award the scholarships to students in need of financial assistance and might not be able to attend the workshops without assistance.

Forms are sent out to Professional Members and can be re-sent upon request.

During the Spring Workshop

As part of the MDAA Spring Workshop, Montana dance students have the opportunity to audition for scholarships towards summer dance study, such as for summer dance intensives. The summer dance scholarships come from schools and programs both within and outside of Montana. On average, MDAA awards close to fifty scholarships annually, and the total value of cash and tuition scholarships awarded each year is sometimes over $20,000.00.

MDAA scholarship recipients have had the opportunity to study at nationally renowned professional dance programs such as;

Ballet: American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Austin, Ballet Idaho, Ballet San Jose, Ballet West, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Contra Costa Ballet, Goh Ballet Academy, Joffrey Ballet, Juilliard, Kansas City Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pittsburg Ballet Theatre, Summer Dance Lab, and Harvard Summer Dance Program.

Jazz: 24 Seven, Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, Broadway Arts Alliance, Dancerpalooza, Edge Performing Arts, Gus Giordano, Interlochen Arts Camp, JUMP, LA Hip-Hop Intensive, Lou Conte Dance Studio, NUVO, Tremaine, Triple Arts at National Dance Institute, and Vineyard Arts Project. 

Modern: Alvin Ailey, K + C Summer Intensive at Juilliard, RDT Young Dancer Workshop, Snowy Range Summer Dance Festival, Vail Dance Institute, and Young Dancer's Workshop at Bates College.

Tap: Chicago Human Rhythm Project, LA Tap Festival, Motor City Tap Festival, St. Louis Tap Festival, Tap Kids, Tapestry Dance Company, 

In-State Workshops: Dance The Divide (Helena), Feat by Feet (Whitefish), Montana Regional Dance Intensive (Livingston), On Center Performing Arts (Missoula), Queen City Ballet (Helena), Quench (Belgrade), School of Classical Ballet (Billings), and Summer Dance Study (Great Falls).

In order to be eligible to audition for summer scholarships at the Spring Workshop, students must have registered for the preceding Fall MDAA Workshop and be Student Members for the current academic year. When registering for the Spring Workshop, students will need to register for the auditions in which they are interested and pay for them when they are registering for their workshop classes.

Please see our Scholarships page for more information. For full eligibility rules and scholarship audition requirements, please see the Scholarship Audition Rules (2023). There is a separate form that must be filled out to register for the auditions, and all required elements are described in the Rules Form.

Jewell Choreography Prize

MDAA’s goal of further expanding the dance opportunities and experiences students have in Montana to include choreographic development, was met in the spring of 2015 with the addition of the Jewell Choreography Prize. Donna Jewell, a MDAA workshop guest modern dance instructor, was so impressed with the work that MDAA does that she offered to fund an annual prize for student choreography. The mission of the Jewell Choreography Prize is to foster original and well-crafted student choreography by students of dance who are in an institution/school that is a member of MDAA. The objectives of this prize are to:

• Promote creativity and craft in dance choreography by non-professional dancers in Montana

• Provide objective adjudication of student choreography in the selection of the prize winner

• Award the prize to the most artistically deserving student in accordance with the prize criteria

• Allow the awarded student to apply the prize to the dance educational experience of their choice

After following the guidelines set forth by both Donna Jewell and the MDAA Board of Directors, student choreographers present their work to a panel of guest adjudicators at the MDAA Fall Workshop.

Please see our Scholarships page for more information. Students who are interested in creating and auditioning work for the Jewell Choreography Prize should familiarize themselves with the Donna Jewell Choreography Prize Information Sheet (2024) as well as the Audition Rules (2023). All required elements are listed in the forms.

Teacher Fellowships

The purpose of the MDAA Teacher Fellowship is to allow MDAA Professional Members to expand their knowledge of dance or dance-related studies and improve their skills through continued education experiences. Funds may be used to attend dance-related workshops and/or to cover travel expenses for such events. Dance-related workshops could include topics related to business management, choreography, production, and use of technology. Teacher Fellowships are awarded annually at the Spring Workshop. 

Those who are interested in applying should read the Fellowship information and Application Form (2024): PDF or Word Doc.