Ariel Rivka Dance Spring Season

What does it mean to truly know yourself? Ariel Rivka Dance’s 2026 Spring Season is a cathartic journey through identity, authenticity, and the courage it takes to be seen. Featuring three works performed to original live music—each score performed by its composer—this season pulses with intimacy and power. Two world premieres join a beloved work in an evening that moves from anger and disbelief to clarity and connection. Together, these three works tell a complete story. And along the way, we discover simple, meaningful ways to connect. To be our true selves is not only possible—it is welcome, and invited. Bold, musical, honest, cathartic, and deeply relational: this is ARD at its most essential. 

The program opens with What You Want (excerpts, 2023), a story of personal revolution told through intimate duets, revealing solos, and powerful collective displays. The score is composed and performed live by Summer Dregs (Carl Cadwell), the Emmy & NAACP Image Award–winning composer, engineer, and producer whose work spans ballet, film, and genre-defying sound design.

The world premiere of The Milk marks the first collaboration between Ariel Grossman and violinist Lauren Conroy (a Juilliard graduate and ARD’s Company Manager), who has toured domestically and internationally performing contemporary music. Inspired by Kevin Henkes’s beloved children’s book “Kitten’s First Full Moon”, The Milk is a tender meditation on longing, wonder, and the search for the root of self.

The season closes with Selves ii, a bold reimagination of Ariel Grossman’s acclaimed work (Selves, premiered in 2025) on identity and performance.