Utah Dance articles published in 15 Bytes, Utah’s Art Magazine.
The Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival is back once again to bring the art of theater performance from the fringes of society to the center of downtown Salt Lake City. Shianne Gray and Jay Perry, co-directors of the festival, put together 24 live performances to be enjoyed for […]
I arrived at Deseret Experimental Opera’s new creation, The Mushroom Murders, in the aftermath of a rainstorm this past Wednesday. As the audience waited on the porch of the Fort Douglas Military Museum, the cast and crew quickly reassembled the performance — intended to be outdoors — for […]
The traditional presentation of dance has grown increasingly inaccessible in these times, and often the staging of a performance is an artistic expression all its own. On the evening of June 17, in the basement and backyard of a suburban home in Draper, I attended one such act […]
Firstly, “Ally Up!” was a fantastic opportunity for people watching. During the pre-show hour or so of hotdog eating and mingling, I saw the highest number of mustaches in one place than any other event I’d been at and at least four feminist t-shirts in the wake of […]
The following is a conversation with Nick Blaylock, the choreographer and just one of the many artists that came together to make the film Traverse in 2016. The film is getting a screening this July 1 at the Rose Wagner, along with some new choreography performed and produced […]
The sun was hot in my face as I walked down the hill to the amphitheater in Bountiful’s North Canyon Park to see Stay, produced by the Salt Lake Ballet Cooperative in collaboration with DEXO. Nested at the bottom of a hill within the scrub oak, the venue […]
The audience arrives in a steel factory’s yard comprising stacks of large steel bars, machinery, and dirt. We are greeted by a young man who hands us goggles, which are mandatory for the performance. To his left is a keyboard with four keys taped down and dried orange […]
Queer Spectra Arts Festival returned last weekend to Salt Lake City with both online and in-person performances. The 2022 theme, Tell It Like It Is, invokes the words of social activist bell hooks when she said, “the function of art is to do more than tell it like […]
The drive to the new Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center involves a turn off Redwood Road to a straight shot down 5400 South’s Flex Lanes – the middle lanes in the road are marked solely with dotted yellow lanes and a light indicating which direction of traffic is allowed […]
When we say immersive, what exactly do we mean? Is the term simply a catch-all? A trendy way of saying that the audience will perforce participate? Or that the stage will not be a stage? The supposed genre has been around long enough that perhaps it isn’t even […]
Opening with a comedic premiere, SuperWomen began as Celine David and McCall McClellan showed us both their hilarious and athletic sides. Casual and colorful clothing transformed into the classic high leotards and tights we all know and love. This also included a seamless mix of ambient music with […]
The beautiful hallways at Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center were filled with the pre-show buzz of an eager audience on the opening night of SALT Contemporary Dance’s Spring 9. My usual excitement was heightened by the fact that the show featured three world premieres, with works by distinguished contemporary […]
This week I took in two very different performances — one viewed online and filmed at the Rose Wagner, the other in-person at a tiny converted storefront. Both showcased emerging local choreographers. RDT’s Emerge: Sounds Familiar took American music from the ’30s and ’40s as its inspiration. A […]
The playbill summarizes Dastak as “a meditation on borders, loss, belonging, home, and liberation. Structured through four elemental journeys — Earth, Water, Fire, and Air — the work traces the knockings (dastak, in Farsi) of global injustices on our hearts, and echoes the subtitle created by writer Sharon […]
Ririe-Woodbury’s Fill In The Blank on Thursday, January 27, was a wild ride of dance, throwbacks, and emotional tension. The show opened with the premiere of jo Blake’s “coincidences, when we meet up.” Blake is the only Utah-based choreographer in the program, but it’s nice to see Ririe-Woodbury […]
