This past November, members of Hatchery, the teen dance troupe that’s part of Northampton’s School for Contemporary Dance & Thought, joined the Young@Heart Chorus at the elderly singers’ concert as part of a new dynamic: dancing to a number of songs by the singers.

Young@Heart’s “Twist & Crawl” concert featured a number of other dance groups sharing the stage with the singers, doing work they’d choreographed for the occasion. And the Hatchery dancers had such a good time that they’ve invited Y@H to join them for one of their own shows.

“Labyrinth,” which takes place in the Workroom Theater at 33 Hawley Jan. 26-28, is focused primarily on the 30-odd members of Hatchery, showcasing work they’ve been rehearsing for the last several months.

But Jennifer Polins, SCDT’s founder and Hatchery’s artistic director, says collaboration with other dancers and artists has become an increasingly important component for the group in the last several years — so bringing Y@H to one of their own performances was a natural followup to sharing a stage last November.

“I’d always wanted to work with (Y@H),” Polins said. “And we had such a good experience with them that we wanted them be part of our show, too.”

Young@Heart will join Hatchery for the Jan. 28 show, at 2 p.m., as will another dance group that took part in the chorus’ Nov. show, Youthful Expressions of Springfield.

The Jan. 26 and 27 shows, at 7 and 8 p.m., respectively, will be given over entirely to the teen dancers (ages 13-18), primarily from high school with some from middle school, who worked during fall rehearsals with two guest choreographers, Shakia Barron and Brendan Drake.

Polins notes that Barron, an assistant professor of dance at Mount Holyoke College, is also an alumna of Hatchery whose work is rooted in African diasporic dance forms such as Hip Hop and funk.

“I’ve known Shakia since she was 13, and I’ve worked with her for years,” said Polins. “She is a real catalyst, a great dancer and choreographer.”

Drake, meantime, is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Brooklyn, New York, whose work, according to program notes, uses a variety of forms, including movement and “sound manipulation to interrogate issues surrounding gender, vanity, and queer power dynamics.”

The other dances at the Jan. 26-27 shows have all been choreographed by Hatchery members, Polins notes, and they run the gamut — from large ensemble pieces to duos and solo works, all incorporating a range of styles.

“We’ve had some real growth this past year, a number of new members, so we have a lot of new work to showcase,” she said.

The shows will also provide an opportunity for several of the older students to shine, Polins added. Seven Hatchery members are high school seniors and likely will be leaving the group by summer; seven more Hatchery members are high school juniors.

“I hate to lose them,” she said with a laugh. “They’ve been such a big part of our team … We’re definitely looking to bring in some new students.”

Bring on the Pit Band

Aside from collaborating with other regional youth groups in recent years, such as The Performance Project from Springfield, Hatchery has also created a music and video program in which teen musicians and videographers compose soundtracks and create film projections for some of the dances.

What’s known as the “Hatchery Pit Band,” a teen ensemble of bass, guitar, drums and keyboards, has played at a number of past Hatchery shows, creating music for some of the dances, and this new show is no exception.

What’s more, the band will handle the music for the Young@Heart Chorus when the singers join Hatchery at the Jan. 28 show. It’s likely the first time the chorus has performed one of its concerts entirely without its own veteran band, according to Y@H Director Bob Cilman.

In an email, Cilman noted that Y@H had once performed a song with a youth group from Austin, Texas, using that group’s band. Y@H has also shared stages with, for example, the SciTech Band from Springfield, during which those high school musicians played along with the Y@H band on a few numbers.

“But I can’t remember ever doing (a show) live” without our own band, Cilman added.

The Hatchery Pit Band has been working with the Y@H’s keyboard player and music director, Mark Gionfriddo, to learn the basics for accompanying the chorus on four songs Hatchery members danced to at the November concert: “Life is a Carnival” by The Band, “If” by Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Holding Back the Years” by Simply Red, and “For What it’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield.

“They’ve been practicing pretty hard,” Polins said about the teen band, which sat in with Gionfriddo at a rehearsal earlier this week at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence, where the Y@H singers and the Hatchery dancers worked together.

The chorus will also perform the song “Pump Up the Jam,” which the members of Youthful Expressions will be dancing to.

Polins says she’s excited about next weekend’s collaborations, as are her dancers, and she hopes to expand those connections by having dancers from Hatchery and other teen groups rehearse and choreograph work together.

And it’s a thrill for all to be performing in the Workroom at 33 Hawley, which has just reopened this month for performances after being closed for months for final construction.

“We’ve come a long way to get here,” said Polins.

Tickets and addition information about “Labyrinth” are available at scdtnoho.com.

Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.