2024 Senior Dance Concert

The Smith College Department of Dance presents the 2024 Senior Dance Concert: Evocations on April 11, 12, 13 in Scott Dance Studio featuring original choreography by Di’ Anna Bonomolo, Radha Consiglio, Emma Frank, Mara Kelley, Ashton Lane, Emma Lawrence, and Drew Rivera. The concert consists of six contemporary pieces composed in collaboration with cast members, Artistic Director Angie Hauser, and one another. Evocations will have five performances: April 11 at 7:30 p.m., April 12 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., and April 13 at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are required for $5–10 at smitharts.ludus.com.

Evocations includes a contemporary hip-hop piece that explores various forms of love in conversation with trauma, a contemporary duet about human resilience and reckoning in moments of grief, and an investigation of the ways in which we hold ourselves and each other. Additionally, the show presents pieces that blur the lines between real and imagined worlds: a glimpse into the intersections of Latin American folklore and colonialism, navigating ways to move forward while simultaneously honoring tradition, and the journey of confronting impermanence in its relationship to the body.

Di’ Anna Bonomolo uses her contemporary hip-hop dance piece, “tides of agapé,” to explore love in various forms, including platonic, familial, romantic, and self-love. She grounds her creative process with questions: What does trauma look like in conversation with love? Does communal sorrow suggest joy? and How can we find peace in heartbreak and sadness?

“the moment of grappling” is a piece about loss, grief, reckoning, renewal, and community. Choreographed by Mara Kelley in collaboration with dancer Abbey Fluet, the piece is about human resilience in the face of the unimaginable. When the unthinkable happens, how does it change you and the people around you? How does adjusting to a new reality reshape what you know to be true about yourself, your community, and your humanity?

Emma Frank explores the ways in which we show up for each other emotionally and physically in “To be held...” How do we make space to hold ourselves in moments of solitude? What happens when we release ourselves to vulnerability, to being seen, to being cared for? To be held is to finally find home.

“A La Chingada” by Andrea Rivera explores the place of Black and Indigenous women in Latin American storytelling practices. Taking a deep dive into the folk stories of La Llorona and La Bruja de Córdoba, she asks, did La Llorona really do it, and can you blame La Bruja for seeking her own freedom? This piece represents the internal struggle of moving towards progress by challenging history, yet still carrying one’s traditions within.

In the choreographic project, “Scapulae,” Emma (Em) Lawrence researches ways that dance performance can blur the lines between real and imagined worlds. The piece expands upon the idea that we carry people and ideas with us on our shoulders. People who raised us and influenced us, and those who know us best propel us forward in our pursuits, bridging our personal histories with collective visions for the future. Drawing strength from engaging with the past, we can find release and let fly!

Co-created by Ashton Lane and Radha Consiglio, “The Impermanence Museum” is an embodied showcase confronting the reality of change. They explore how love and loss, chaos and order, and the evolution of community manifest in the body. Lane and Consiglio attempt to encapsulate the easily forgotten beauty in impermanence, finding inspiration in a quote from Alan Wilson Watts, “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”

The senior choreographers are excited to share the moving contours of this culminating work of their time in the Smith Dance Department. Tickets for the five performances can be purchased online at smitharts.ludus.com or by emailing boxoffice@smith.edu.