Susan Waltner has been teaching, choreographing, performing and administrating at Smith and the Five College Dance Department since 1967. She retired in 2011 but returned to chair the extraordinary Five College Dance Department from 2014–16.

Waltner has choreographed at least 70 works for students and professional peers from 1967 to the present. Her work has been shown in Smith and Five College concerts, and in independently produced concerts in New York and Massachusetts. Some of her choreographies were supported by Harnish grants in support of the fine and performing arts. Overlapping her retirement, she was a member of The Dance Generators, an intergenerational dance company, until it dissolved. She was both an active choreographer and performer in the company. Waltner currently teaches a class for dancers over 40, is in an improv group and still choreographs.