85 YEARS OF DEVOTION TO DANCE

UMass dancers are having a celebration on December 12th – the MVP 85th Birthday Gala to honor the founder of UMass dance, Marilyn V. Patton.  Miss Patton, MVP, or Marilyn as many of her former students know her, was director of the dance department at UMass from 1965 through 1992.  And now dance alumni who studied, grew and thrived under her tutelage, are honoring her by raising $8,500 to bolster three endowments that will fund UMass dance in perpetuity.  Please join us in honoring Marilyn with a gift to any of these three funds:

THE MARILYN V. PATTON UNIVERSITY DANCERS ENDOWMENT – This fund was established by Rick Guimond in 2019 to provide support for the University Dancers. This company of UMass dance majors tours throughout the state of Massachusetts bringing live dance performances and dance classes to elementary, middle, and high school students. It also provides funding for collaborative initiatives across campus and dance outreach activities in surrounding communities.

THE RICHARD JONES SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENT – This fund was created by Richard Jones more than 30 years ago to provide annual scholarships to UMass dance majors.  Its goal is to support students who wish to pursue a career in dance performance, education and/or administration.  It has the additional goal of building and supporting an ongoing male presence within the dance department at our University.

THE ANY BODY CAN DANCE ENDOWMENT – This new fund is designed to help underwrite the cost of non-majors dance classes at UMass.  It will help UMass dance to hire adjunct teachers who can bring new styles, approaches and perspectives on dance to the University at large.