2026 Senior Dance Concert: Orbit

Northampton, MA — The Smith College Department of Dance presents the 2026 Senior Dance Concert: Orbit on April 9, 10, and 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, featuring original choreography by Sadie Arundale, Addie Bowen, Audrey Garfinkel, Dahlia Riddington, and Isa Skare. The concert consists of five contemporary pieces that explore fearlessness, curiosity, play, complexity, and stardust created under the guidance of Artistic Director Angie Hauser. Tickets are $5–10 at smitharts.ludus.com.

Space oddities. Speckles of stardust. Swelling and shrinking. Sadie Arundale’s In the Frizz acts as a study on exploration, learning, and how we transform into grander versions of ourselves on stage. As the dance progresses, both dancers and audience come to new understandings about themselves and the world being built in front of them. “There is room in the composition for choice and spontaneous creation,” Arundale explains, “I am excited to see how the dancers respond.” Sadie Arundale is a Boston-based dancer and educator currently completing a B.F.A. in dance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

In her piece, chemical murmuration, Addie Bowen investigates complexity theory in the context of movement: how simple individual behaviors collectively and indeterminately give rise to complex structures. Seven dancers work with explosive solo and group movement to explore how connection blurs the line between self and other. Addie Bowen is a dancer, choreographer, and scientist from Colorado currently completing a degree in biochemistry at Smith College.

Swing Theory by Audrey Garfinkel explores the back-and-forth play of swinging: arms that oscillate like pendulums, bouncing bodies that move to and fro across the stage, and courageous jumps off the swing set. Garfinkel hopes “the audience is reminded of their own time on the playground, swinging so high you thought your feet would burst through the clouds.” Audrey Garfinkel is a Brooklyn-based choreographer and dance educator completing a dual degree in dance and education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

What is fearlessness? What does it look like? In her piece Leveling Dahlia Riddington explores the aesthetics of fear and fearlessness in the context of dance. Movement can both be an antidote to fear and a microcosm of it. This work explores the interrelationships of a quintet as they feel fearful and fearless together, and includes material that is bold and quiet, that aligns and misaligns, that is small and peculiar, grand and reaching. Dahlia Riddington is a dancer, paleoclimatologist, poet, and music-maker from Western Massachusetts studying creative writing and geosciences at Smith. Her dance training has instilled in her the importance of process, the joy of collaborative dance, and the value of specificity.

Isa Skare takes inspiration from the varied occurrences within the techno community in Trance-End. Choreographically, it aims to mimic a range of experiences, including curiosity, chaos, trance-like movements, reaching a flow state, and connections formed through unspoken interactions. Exploring themes such as form, repetition, and gait patterns, the work investigates the balance between obtaining an internalized focus and a sense of togetherness, as well as how each attitude can shape our movement choices. Isa Skare is a dance major and exercise and sports studies minor at Smith. She is interested in the intersection of stationary athletic physicality and choreography.