Dance Concert Auditions

Winter Dance Concert '25 + Nut/Cracked Concert auditions - Saturday August 30th, Nichols Hall Studio 008

Winter Dance Concert '25 will be presented November 13-15 in Chapman Theatre. Students will perform faculty choreography. Nut/Cracked will be presented Dec 5-6 in Chapman Theatre, this is an opportunity for select students to perform alongside professional dancers from NYC, David Parker & The Bang Group .

Auditions for both concerts will be held Saturday August 30th, 2025 at 8:30 am in Nichols Hall Studio 008. Doors will open at 8:00 am. (Enter the building at the basement entrance in the south east corner). See guest artist information below.

Participants will need to complete the digital Registration Form and Availability Form prior to the audition.

Rehearsal schedules vary based on casting. The audition registration form will prompt you to share your availability. It is also linked below.

We will be auditioning for choreography in contemporary, jazz, ballet, and tap styles. The audition is open to all K-State students.

Click HERE to see the Fall Dance Concert '25 production schedule.

Click HERE for Fall Dance Concert '25 audition registration.

Click HERE to submit your availability for rehearsals

Contact Neil Dunn with any questions at: neildunn@ksu.edu

Guest Artist Information

With special funding from the QuVee Mock Masterclass Series, we are able to offer a very special opportunity this semester: Students selected by audition will participate in a residency with Guggenheim Award winning choreographer David Parker and his NYC-based company, The Bang Group. Rehearsals will take place September 18-23, and then the students will perform Parkers Nut/Cracked along with 10 members of The Bang Group December 5-6 (tech/dress rehearsals Dec 3-4). A brief description of the hilarious Nut/Cracked is below.

The Bang Group's Nut/Cracked provides a destination for those seeking shelter from the usual holiday dance fare. Choreographer David Parker, has gleefully cracked the old chestnut open, roasted it with tap riffs, vaudeville turns, ballet steps, disco, contemporary dance, toe-tapping and rebuilt it into a seasonal fixture for 21st century New York City--a tonic for cheerful grinches and latter-day snow angels. With genre-nonconforming glee, Parker and The Bang Group purge the show of the saccharine and shake loose its tinsel. In fact, the only traditional thread is Tchaikovsky's music but that too takes a turn off center as portions of the original score are juxtaposed with arrangements by Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller and Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians. Passionately non-traditional, Nut/Cracked is as ardent and virtuosic as it is disruptive. Its rhythmic component is vigorous with a stomp-off on bubble wrap, tap dances on pointe, barefoot hoofing, and a Waltz of the Snowflakes featuring precision body slams in 3/4 time. Yet the show retains a sense of beauty even in the ridiculous and has an absurd romanticism that soars far beyond satire. Once liberated from both its narrative tethers and its conventional trappings, Nut/Cracked shows us innocence regained.

K-State Dance Auditions

K-State Dance produces two Mainstage Concerts per year: Winter Dance Concert, and Spring Dance Concert. These performances feature choreography from our renowned faculty as well as acclaimed guest artists in jazz, modern, and tap styles. Auditions for these concerts are open to all K-State students, undergraduate and graduate. Prior experience is preferred, but not required. Students should arrive by 30 minutes before the audition begins to warm up and submit audition materials which includes weekly availability (bring your calendars!).

If you are seeking information about Scholarship or Ensemble auditions, please visit the linked pages.

Audition Details

  1. Dance Concert auditions are typically held twice per year: on the first Saturday after classes begin in the Fall semester for the Winter Dance Concert, and on the Saturday after the last week of classes in the Fall semester for the Spring Dance Concert. These dates are subject to change. Changes will be announced on this website, via K-State Today, and on the Dance “Call Board” in the basement of Nichols Hall.
  2. Audition participants will need to complete a digital Registration Form and Availability Form prior to the audition. Individual solos are not required for K-State Dance auditions.

(Please be as accurate as possible with your schedule, as casting is partly based on availability)

  1. Please bring appropriate shoes and dance attire for the styles in which you intend to audition.
  2. Participation in person is required to be considered for casting. Please direct questions about this to neildunn@ksu.edu.
  3. Casting results will be posted by the same day via email.

Contact Neil Dunn, K-State Dance Production Manager with any questions at: neildunn@ksu.edu