The Hop Announces Inaugural Season in Its Reimagined and Expanded Center
The Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth announced its 2025/26 season with arts and experiences that activate the welcoming and versatile center. Marking a major milestone for Dartmouth, the new and reimagined spaces become platforms for artistic innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration, anchoring a vibrant Arts District on campus and placing the arts at the heart of the Dartmouth experience.
The exterior of the Jack 1953 and Mac 2011 Morris Recital Hall, an exceptional new space with versatile acoustics, sculpted wood interior and spectacular views of the Dartmouth Green. Photo by Matt Driscoll
Following a $123.8 million expansion and renewal, the Hop throws open its doors to the public with a celebratory opening weekend this October featuring alumni in the arts and an original world premiere by Yo-Yo Ma, Jeremy Dutcher, Mali Obomsawin '18 and Chris Newell '96 celebrating the Kwenitekw (Connecticut River). A fall term of student and faculty experimentation and events warms up the facility, and the Hop's full public programming begins in January 2026. The season is curated to bring audiences closer to the arts through performances, experiences and encounters that offer joy, connection and vital, societal perspectives.
"This is a transformational moment for the Hop and for Dartmouth," said Mary Lou Aleskie, Howard Gilman '44 Executive Director of the Hop. "Our beautiful spaces are not simply new stages; they are versatile platforms for creative risk-taking, interdisciplinary work and meaningful dialogue. Now it is time to focus on the people who will gather to make the Hop and our community the best it can be."
Throughout the season, the Hop's transformed spaces become part of the performance experience—inviting artists and audiences to explore the full range of their flexibility, intimacy and cutting-edge technology. With expanded capacity and upgraded spaces, the reimagined Hop will offer 30% more events and activities than prior seasons and will welcome 8,000 more community members. Enhanced accessibility features, flexible seating and more welcoming gathering areas ensure that all can engage with the arts in new ways and feel at home throughout the building.
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Artistic Innovation
The season features immersive, technology-driven experiences that take advantage of the Hop's new spatial and technical capabilities, such as Dutch collective Touki Delphine's FIREBIRD (September 24 & 25), a dance installation of 500 recycled car taillights; a live, choreographed performance of Stravinsky's Firebird (May 8 & 9) by two resident Hop ensembles performing simultaneously in two Hop venues with live video linking the two in real time; and Being: The Digital Griot (March 30), an AI scholar exploring racial bias.
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Recital Series
A new recital series highlights the extraordinary acoustics and design of the Morris Recital Hall, featuring a diverse range of music from acclaimed soloists and chamber ensembles, including Horszowki Trio (January 10), Jason Moran (January 21), Sally Pinkas (February 10 & 11 and April 23), yMusic (2/17), Tyshawn Sorey Trio (April 19) and Francesco Libetta (May 5).
"These new spaces inspire new ideas and forms of creative expression," said Aleskie. "Emerging voices and new technologies are balanced with the works of legendary international artists with deep Dartmouth connections as Montgomery Fellows Anna Deavere Smith, Yo-Yo Ma, Bill T. Jones, Alessandro Sciarroni and Mark Morris. We are proud to actively participate in the creative process of many of their works through developmental residencies and commissions."
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Art that Meets Our Moment
The season also features a series of works that continue the Hop's tradition of fostering dialogue, as artists explore the histories of culture, race and resistance that shape our present in beautiful and timely ways.
The TEAM's Reconstructing (Still Working But the Devil Might be Inside) (April 2 & 3) is a Hop-commissioned meta-theatrical experience exploring how to move through history together in the aftermath of slavery. In his live concert Love Force, Sunny Jain (April 16) draws on his experience as a second-generation immigrant in America to dive into the concept of embracing your oppressor with compassion. In a similar vein, Kishi Bashi's Omoiyari: A Song Film (February 6) seeks to understand World War II-era Japanese incarceration and what it means to be a minority in America today. Canadian Inuk artist Elisapie reimagines iconic pop and rock songs.
The Hop will also host pre-show talks and campus conversations, offering opportunities to engage directly with artists, deepen understanding of their work, and explore broader global and cultural perspectives.
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Returning Partners & Hop Commissions
Some of these works originated at the Hop, such as Reconstructing by The TEAM, who were in residency in 2020. The season welcomes other longtime Hop partners as they present works that the Hop has helped develop such as: Mark Morris Dance Group's The Look of Love (January 30 & 31), a Hop commission that pays homage to the music of Burt Bacharach. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company also brings back Still/Here (April 10 & 11) a Hop-commissioned groundbreaking dance theater work that premiered 30 years ago during the AIDS epidemic, and yet still resonates today.
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Resident Creations & Tours
Hop Resident Ensembles return to the building with an adventurous slate of programs. Most notably, the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble expands the Mexican Repertoire Initiative with a Hop-commissioned world premiere by preeminent composer Arturo Márquez (February 13), as well as a concert featuring trumpet virtuoso Pacho Flores and cuatro master Héctor Molina (October 30). The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra performs Mahler's monumental Symphony No. 6 (November 15) ahead of its tour in Italy, in partnership with the conservatories of Siena, Lucca and Livorno. The Coast Jazz Orchestra teams up with the internationally acclaimed collective quartet Illegal Crowns (February 28). And the Department of Theater brings Legacy of Light (February 20-28) and a spring musical to the Hop's renovated stages.
Community Launch Party & Ticketing Info
The full season schedule can now be viewed on the Hop website. In addition, the public is invited to a free Season Launch Party on Wednesday, June 25. The event starts at 5:30 pm in Maffei Plaza, where Hop programmers and collaborators will share artistic context for the season's shows. Tickets go on sale to Hop Members starting June 24 and to the general public on July 15.
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Spaces that Spark New Possibilities
The new 15,000-square-foot Daryl and Steven Roth Wing adds dramatic spaces, including the Daryl Roth Studio Theater—the new Hop's most versatile space and creative heart. Designed as a lab for experimentation and new modes of performance and audience interaction, it sets the stage for many of the season's works that remind us how vast the world can be.
A gem of the new Hop, the Jack 1953 & Mac 2011 Morris Recital Hall, also housed in the Roth Wing, has unmatched acoustics, a stunning design and spectacular views of the Dartmouth Green.
The new spaces in the Roth Wing include the Hodgson Family Dance Studio, the Hop's first-ever dance studio, which meets the growing need for student rehearsals and resident movement artists.
The revitalized Top of the Hop will set the scene for pre-show talks, a vibrant space for drinks, informal concerts and an exciting new literary series in partnership with the Department of English & Creative Writing. Several of the season's performances will take place on the newly named David A. Graves Stage at Spaulding Auditorium. The beloved auditorium also received an upgrade, it now has enhanced accessibility and acoustic flexibility. The transformation also includes a Theater Lab, and other teaching and design spaces for the Hop and the Department of Theater.
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Our beautiful spaces are not simply new stages; they are versatile platforms for creative risk-taking, interdisciplinary work and meaningful dialogue. Now it is time to focus on the people who will gather to make the Hop and our community the best it can be. Mary Lou Aleskie, Howard Gilman '44 Executive Director