MMC Appoints New Chairs to Lead Dance and Art Programs
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MMC has appointed new chairs for its Dance and Art and Art History departments, tapping seasoned professionals with broad industry experience to guide the programs through a period of transition.
The College named Melanie George, a nationally recognized dance dramaturg, choreographer, scholar, and educator, as head of its Dance department and New York City-based artist, curator, and educator Dina Weiss as its new Art and Art History chair. Weiss will also serve as director of MMC’s Judith Mara Carson Center for Visual Arts and as a visiting associate professor of Art.
Both will formally take on their new positions in January, though they have already begun meeting with faculty members and students and learning the intricacies of their departments.
“As MMC continues the merger process with Northeastern, it is imperative that we maintain the same level of formidable leadership in the arts that we for a long time have been privileged to have. Melanie George and Dina Weiss are those leaders for our Visual and Performing Arts Division,” said Katie Langan, Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty. “I look forward to working very closely with Melanie and Dina—along with Mary Fleischer, Chair of the VPA Division, and Jill Stevenson, Chair of Theatre Arts—as we integrate with Northeastern. Our new colleagues will help ensure a smooth transition and a primary role for the arts on the NYC campus, reflecting NU’s own commitment to these vital, creative fields.”
George brings more than 20 years of higher education experience to the role, most recently serving as an assistant professor of dance at Rutgers University. She previously led dance and dance education programs at American University and Kent State University and is widely regarded as one of the country’s most sought-after dramaturgs, according to Dance Magazine. George also serves as associate curator and scholar-in-residence at Jacob’s Pillow, an internationally renowned dance center, school, and performance space. She holds an MA in Performing Arts from American University and a BA in Dance from Western Michigan University.
Weiss earned an MFA in Sculpture from Parsons and a BS in Studio Art from NYU. She has exhibited across the United States, with work held in public collections including the Brooklyn Museum and the New York Public Library. Her recent co-curated exhibition project, Textures of Feminist Perseverance, was presented at the CUNY Graduate Center’s James Gallery and at Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space in 2024. Weiss previously served as director of school, youth, and family programs at the Guggenheim Museum and spent more than a decade as assistant chair of Pratt’s BFA and MFA fine arts programs. Her career also includes extensive work in arts education and community programming at institutions such as the Museum of Arts and Design and the New Museum.
Weiss said she was eager to return to higher education after serving in a primarily administrative role at the Guggenheim. Moreover, both she and George noted that their careers in the arts—where change is a constant—and their experience across a range of institutions have prepared them to guide students in a shifting landscape, as the College merges with Northeastern University.
“Being creative sets you up to understand change—and even crave it—because you’re always looking to create and express yourself in new ways,” Weiss said. “As an artist, once you complete a series or bring an idea to life, you immediately start thinking about what’s next.”
As the mother of 18 and 20-year-olds, Weiss said that parenthood had also informed her ability to navigate transitions. “With children, nothing stays the same—every age brings on its own joys as well as its own challenges.”
For George, those lessons are clear in the dance world, as well, where performers “are taught very early on that we have to shapeshift.” “I’ve worked in a variety of environments doing a variety of things—you’d be surprised how many dancers have multiple careers, even if they wouldn’t define it that way,” she said. “That means there are several different skillsets I can call on to lead as we think about systemic changes the merger will bring.”
Though George is new to the College, she has long been familiar with MMC’s Dance program. “It’s well known—not only in New York, but across pre-professional higher education,” she said, noting the program’s reputation for producing versatile and highly employable dancers. She has also worked closely with MMC alumni in the field, including Holly Jones ’12, a producing director at Jacob’s Pillow and adjunct professor at the College, and has longstanding relationships with faculty such as Associate Professor Nancy Lushington, whom George has known for decades.
With this in mind, she said her immediate aim would be to continue building relationships and, above all, listening. “This is a large program with a long history that precedes me, and while we’re undergoing significant change because of the merger, that doesn’t mean the values and successes established here get pushed aside,” she said. “A leader who comes in and immediately imposes sweeping changes automatically throws a nail in the coffin of trust. I want to listen, to understand how to work well with everyone—including our students, who need to know I’m consistent, steady, and available, that I care deeply about people and the department.”
Still, George has several long-term goals for the department. She plans to boost the program’s visibility by diversifying its recruitment strategies and “ensuring that our curricular offerings make us feel firmly seated in the 21st century.” That would build on work that has already begun, she said, pointing to the department’s Embodied Africanist Aesthetic course, which it launched in 2021, as an example. “There is a growing understanding that non-Western dance forms are not to be othered within our programs,” she said.
George also wants to strengthen the curriculum to better prepare students for the entrepreneurial and business realities of a dance career, through seminars and concentrations that address the practical aspects of career management. “That extends to how they write about and market their work—the nuts and bolts that go into managing a career,” she said. “They know how to audition—they got into this program, and they’re dancers of the highest caliber. But what does it mean to be a professional in the room? How do you maintain ongoing relationships beyond the one gig you’re on? We have many courses where this knowledge can be embedded, and we can create new ones to support it.”
She also hopes to bring in experts to talk to students about financial management. “Let’s have a real conversation about how taxes work, because those are the things that will trip you up,” she said. “Talent is important, but it does not sustain a career exclusively.”
Weiss hopes to expand students’ sense of possibility and build on MMC’s longstanding interdisciplinarity by bringing an embedded interdisciplinary arts professional to The Judy—someone whose varied interests can help shape the center’s programming. “I’ve found in the past that with one-off lectures, both students and the visiting artist always crave more time with each other,” she said. “So, I would love to find a way to have someone who’s embedded for a longer period of time and can be a part of the community, so it doesn’t feel so fleeting.”
Drawing on her experiences, particularly at the Guggenheim, she also hopes to develop collaborations that bring more of the campus and local NYC communities to The Judy, key priorities for the center since it opened its doors in 2022. “I believe really strongly that the integration of the arts across disciplines, and even societally, helps build creative and critical thinking skills,” she said. “It helps build empathy, which we need more of in our world today.”
Published: November 25, 2025
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