Ashley Anderson is a choreographer based in Salt Lake City. She is founder of loveDANCEmore, a blog and biannual journal about dance in Utah, and currently serves as 15 Bytes's Dance Editor.
In bringing a cross section of performance to a broad public, the Utah Arts Festival fulfills an important role each summer. Dance is often accused of being one of the more insulated art forms, as audiences find difficulty in analyzing nonverbal ideas and, more specifically, doing so at […]
Stephen Brown, or SB as he is known, has created a local following based on the premise that his work is different in its engagement of adult sensibilities and its challenge to the presumed insulation of concert dance. Audiences have come not just to expect but to desire […]
Ririe Woodbury’s Spring Season was a challenging program exploring abstraction as a method for viewing as well as moving. Artistic Director Daniel Charon’s program note suggested a hope for his premiere to be taken as an experience without a need for definition while visiting artist Netta Yerushalmy suggested […]
Dance and education are linked out of compatibility and necessity. It makes sense for choreographers to have a regular space as well as a group of dancers to work with. And in an ever-shifting landscape of presenters and funding, it is also one of the few financially stable […]
Salt Lake’s summer dance landscape is slowly shifting; rather than most locals going off contract and skipping town, many community dance artists go “off contract” from full-time teaching positions and use the summer as a space for premiering new work or exploring new contexts for choreography. It’s […]
Each year Ballet West puts convention aside for “Innovations” and this year’s concert is no exception. From a visibly pregnant Katherine Lawrence adding depth and complexity to “The Sixth Beauty,” by guest artist Matthew Neenan, to Arolyn Williams leading audience members on pedestrian pathways in a premiere by […]
This year has been one of great change for Ririe-Woodbury. In addition to celebrating the 50th Anniversary and welcoming new Artistic Director Daniel Charon the company has also welcomed new dancer Yebel Gallegos as they prepare to say goodbye to Tara McArthur. Rather than interview either, it seemed […]
As they embark on their eleventh year as a collective improvisation company, Movement Forum should be well known to most in the Salt Lake dance audience. However, their unconventional, and frequently public, performances may also mean their patron base has extended beyond the expected dance crowd into more […]
On December 2nd, The King’s English hosted Wendy Perron, editor of Dance Magazine, to read from her new book Through the Eyes of a Dancer. The reading encapsulated much dance history, fostering connections between those working in ballet, modern dance, and spaces between. The night connected the artists in […]
Repertory Dance Theater (RDT) maintains a clear mission to preserve and perform historical modern dance works. This near fifty-year undertaking has required a dedicated administrative staff who are able to navigate the contexts in which these dances can be learned and rehearsed in a city like Salt […]
This weekend Salt Lake audiences will be treated to a wide range of performance experiences starting with Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) season opening Legacy and continuing with the Performance Art Festival at the Main Library. Both events seek to unite local interests and artists with a more national and historical […]
This weekend, Ririe Woodbury opened their 50th season with “The Start of Something Big” at the Rose Wagner. The concert celebrates the work of company founders Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury while welcoming the work of Daniel Charon (see our article in the September edition), the company’s new […]
Choreographer Ashley Anderson and visual artist Mary Sinner layer their talents at the Ladies Literary Club.
Despite the common perception that dance is most frequently found in performing arts venues, Utah’s dance artists have always stepped outside of theater settings to find new venues for their work. Sofia Gorder’s recent work with inFluxdance at Art Access and Danell Hathaway’s direction of Movement Forum at […]
Because I’m invested in watching the choreographic process unfold, Innovations has always been one of my favorite Salt Lake City concerts. I find it significant that Ballet West supports the emergence of new methods in dance-making by creating a format for company members to develop new works. It’s […]
This weekend’s performance of Women of Valor is the latest in a long line of community outreach efforts by Repertory Dance Theater (RDT). From educational programming to the recent “Green Map Project,” which considered environmental efforts through art-making, making dance accessible to nuanced groups within the general […]
by Ashley Anderson Salt Lake audiences have always carved out support for concert dance. The model of multiple subsidized theaters featuring large scale repertory has been successful at gathering patrons but has not always left room for experimental choreography. Many local organizations have addressed this deficit over the […]
