Black Hills Symphony Opens Its 94th Season With Danse Macabre
About 50 musicians and 70 dancers will take the stage at The Monument Saturday night when the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra opens its 94th season with a concert built for October.
Danse Macabre brings the orchestra together with Black Hills Dance Theatre for an evening of Halloween-inspired orchestral music, film music and dance at the Fine Arts Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 17.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
The Symphony has described the program as a mix of haunting symphonic works and music from iconic films, with Thriller among the pieces planned for the evening. Black Hills Dance Theatre joins the orchestra for the performance, putting dancers onstage alongside the live music.
It is a sizable local collaboration. South Dakota News Watch reports that the concert will include roughly 50 musicians and about 70 dancers from area studios.
A Halloween Opening for the Symphony
Danse Macabre also marks the beginning of the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra’s 2026–27 season.
Now in its 94th season, the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra continues under the direction of artistic director and conductor Bruce Knowles.
Rather than begin its 94th season with a traditional classical program, the Symphony is leaning directly into the calendar.
The title comes from Danse macabre, or “Dance of Death,” a long-running artistic idea depicting the living and dead dancing together. It also shares its name with Camille Saint-Saëns’ famous 1874 orchestral work, one of classical music’s best-known pieces of spooky-season repertoire.
For Saturday’s performance, that Halloween atmosphere expands beyond the orchestra pit. Dance gives the music a physical component, while the program moves between symphonic works and recognizable music from film and popular culture.
The result should look considerably different from a standard night at the symphony.
Black Hills Symphony’s 94th Season
Saturday is the first of five concerts currently listed for the Symphony’s 2026–27 season.
The season continues Dec. 5 with A Night Before Christmas, featuring cellist Jolyon Pegis; Disco Inferno on New Year’s Eve; Cupid’s Bow on Feb. 13; and an April 10 season finale featuring Rapid City native and violinist Maya Anjali Buchanan in 4 Seasons Reimagined.