Thomas Vacanti (BS in Dance, Skidmore College ‘02. MFA in Dance, Smith College
’04) is Associate Professor and Director of the Dance Program at UMass Amherst. During his professional dancing career he toured extensively
throughout the United States, Central America and Russia performing contemporary
and classic repertory. He danced professionally with The Florida Ballet, Tampa
Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Ballet Mississippi, Ballet Michigan and Ballet de Panama. He
was one of ten dancers chosen nationally, by the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow, to
represent the USA in their Soviet/ American Exchange Program. He worked with
internationally renowned choreographers and teachers while performing
extensively throughout Russia. Thomas is also Co- Artistic Director of the Pioneer
Valley Ballet in Northampton, Massachusetts and his own touring repertory
company Vacanti Ballets. As a choreographer, he has presented work with Vacanti
Ballets at the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, Cape Cod Dance Festival,
Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, the North Carolina and Massachusetts Dance Festivals,
The Provincetown EcoArts Festival, the Youth American Grand Prix in NYC, the
Peridance APAP Showcase in NYC, and the IUGTE Global Theater Conference in Graz
Austria. Tom has also set work on the Pioneer Valley Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence,
North Atlantic Dance Theater, City Ballet in Raleigh NC, and at Harvard University.
Vacanti Ballets, a dance company based in western Massachusetts since 2012, produces and performs elaborate dance works created by artistic director Tom Vacanti. Inspired by the creative intersection of ballet and contemporary culture, Tom’s artistic vision is driven by his investigations into the traditions of ballet and the new ways to create and present ballets in a contemporary context. Vacanti Ballets makes exceptional dance theatre. Visually stunning, arresting, provocative and humorous. The work is diverse in form and content encompassing productions for the stage, site specific, new-media and installation work.
