Senior Dance Concert: Etiquette

Northampton, MA – The Smith College department of dance is pleased to present the 2022 Senior Dance Concert: Etiquette on April 7, 8, 9 at 7:30 PM. The 6 graduating seniors, Sophia Botrán, Nicky Consales, Helen Danielson, Qingyang Gu, Sheena Kuhn, and Becca Soifer, examine the ways we choose to embrace or challenge cultural norms and what is considered polite. The concert is open to the public in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre on the Smith College campus. Masks and Smith IDs or proof of full vaccination required. Tickets available at SmithArts.Booktix.com.

“With the effects of the environment we currently live in, I'm sure many people, have been asking themselves ‘what’s the point?’” Becca Soifer’s piece Parallel (no points) encompasses support, balance, and pleasure as the 4 dancers seek to discover the purpose or pointlessness of their motions. The movement is inspired by the psychology of happiness, looking deeply into three vital pieces that determine one’s ability to feel happy: habits, quality of life, and our subjective well-being. Soifer describes her piece as a “journey of fulfillment.”

Helen Danielson’s Flurries and Storms embraces the power of coexisting simplicity and complexity. She explains the concept as “much like that of snowflakes falling into a blanket of snow.” The dance features 6 dancers and seeks to showcase the simultaneous beauty and power of something delicate.

Building a House by Nicky Consales explores the comfort and discomfort we feel when we inhabit different emotions. “We are all constantly having mood swings affected by various factors within our lives.” Consales explains.  Different embodiments and interpretations of emotions are explored in the piece and are offered to the audience as a prompt for self-reflection.

Qingyang Gu examines her personal journey through multiple cultures and identities in her presentation of a classic Chinese dance 啓今 | Us and the Many Before. The piece for 5 dancers acknowledges and explores the influence of transculturation both in the historical form and in the contemporary era. In its modern form, the dance was half-reinvented and merged with art forms from other cultures to fill the gaps of lost history and art.

In Elbows on the Table Sophia Botrán explores the rituals of eating and table setting, the social act of meal sharing, and the dos and don’ts of dining. The piece examines these behaviors and the idea of etiquette rules while investigating how to disrupt them through a playful, pleasure-seeking improvisational practice and set choreography.

Salute by Sheena Kuhn is an exploration of what it means to be Asian and angry, to be Asian and scream. The piece investigates rage and all the ways the emotion comes up—as empowering, as awkward, as loud, as small. Through this piece, Kuhn explores what it means to take up space alongside others with similar identity/rage experiences and do so in the most campy, inconvenient way possible.