Last Friday, on May 9, 2026, at 4 PM, students, staff, and families gathered in the Nott Memorial to witness this year’s Lothridge Festival of Dance. The festival featured 70 dancers from various majors and class years across 13 performances. Dance styles ranged from Contemporary and Hip-Hop to traditional and folk dances such as Bhangra and Salsa, in commemoration of the festive spirit of Steinmetz Day at Union College.
This year’s festival was special because it was the first time it was produced by a single faculty member, Laurie Zabele Cawley, the Gustave L. Davis ’59 & Susan S. Davis Director of Dance. Cawley’s hard work behind-the-scenes came to fruition as the event received many praises from the attendees.
“The Lothridge Festival is my favourite part of Steinmetz Day,” shared Aaron Binion ’27. “The day is all about supporting your friends in their endeavors, and so I really enjoy being able to watch everybody put up such amazing performances. You can tell how much work they all put in by the quality of each performance.”
“My favorite part of the show was seeing everyone perform and hyping each other up from the sidelines,” expressed Elizabeth Cardenas ’28, a dancer and choreographer in this year’s Lothridge Festival.
The choreographers and dancers spent countless hours over the past few weeks of the spring term preparing and perfecting their pieces. Some pieces were choreographed in the winter term for the Winter Dance Concert and were performed again on Steinmetz Day in front of a wider and more diverse audience. Performers appreciated the large audience that showed up in their support and enjoyed being able to ‘present’ their work to them, in true Steinmetz spirit.
“It was such a privilege to have performed a solo that I choreographed,” added Cardenas. “This piece was my first time tapping into the Dance Department and committing myself to the craft. The creative process was a bit rocky, but I learned so much about my own body, and gained confidence in myself and my ability to dance.”
The festival lasted an hour and culminated with the ‘Senior Piece’, choreographed and performed by the senior dance minors at Union College. The fun and carefree piece was performed on ‘Disturbia’ by Rihanna, and was a fitting farewell to the 13 dance minors for whom this year’s Lothridge festival was their last time performing at Union before they graduate soon. Even the seniors who aren’t officially dance minors bid a tearful farewell to their dance family at Union through this performance.
“Bhangra has brought me closer to a different side of my culture than anything else,” shared Armaan Uppal ’26, senior co-captain of the club Bhangra Union. “It has helped me make friendships and memories that I will never forget, and has been a big part of my Union journey.”
As the dance department prepares to say goodbye to its cherished performers from the last four years, it looks forward to welcoming many more dancers in the incoming first-year class. With that, the Lothridge Festival of Dance is expected only to get bigger and better.
