Utah Dance articles published in 15 Bytes, Utah’s Art Magazine.
Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and guest artists in Alwin Nikolais’s “Tensile Involvement” (1955). Photo by Tori Duhaime. The work of Alwin Nikolais presented in Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Strata spanned three decades, but the exploratory nature of Nikolais’ work appears to transcend time. What was once progressive still feels to be so; […]
Ballet West Principal Artists Chase O’Connell and Beckanne Sisk in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella. Photo by Beau Pearson. Ballet West’s production of Sir Frederick Ashton’s 1948 story ballet Cinderella, last performed by the company in 2013, was well-wrought and thoroughly charming. Production decisions were made in appreciation of the […]
Gretchen Huff and Marissa Mooney both hold dual degrees in modern dance and gender studies from the University of Utah. Together they produced Dollhouse in February, exploring themes of womanhood and femininity in and amongst the rooms of a historic home in the Avenues. Huff and Mooney, also the show’s […]
The Ogden Symphony Ballet Association presented Collage Dance Collective, a decade-old company directed by Kevin Thomas that has, in the Collective’s own words, “inspired the growth of ballet by showcasing a repertoire of relevant choreography and world-class dancers representative of our community.” Who is included in their community […]
Repertory Dance Theatre is a collection of noticeably varied talents. Its company members possess distinctive personalities that can be glimpsed regularly in all RDT productions, no matter the program or how seamlessly they may move as a group. The second year of RDT’s Emerge, a choreography showcase for the […]
Ursula Perry (center) and members of Repertory Dance Theatre in Bill Evans’ “Suite Benny.” Photo by Sharon Kain. With tap shoes, reading glasses, and a relaxed yet specific performance demeanor, William “Bill” Evans literally (and figuratively) stepped into the spotlight at the conclusion of his solo, “Three Preludes.” […]
Artists of Ballet West in Nicolo Fonte’s Carmina Burana. Photo by Luke Isley. Ballet West’s fall offering is loaded with icons. The world premiere of Nicolo Fonte’s Carmina Burana, a co-production with the Cincinnati Ballet, draws inspiration from Carl Orff’s well-known score that set the poetry of medieval clergy to […]
Over the past decade the rate of cesarean births has continually increased so that now one-third of all births in the United States comes about through surgery, well over the 10 percent ideal established by the World Health Organization. Sara Malan-McDonald, a choreographer from the Phoenix area, gave birth to […]
The Bertelsen Manor was an uncommon venue for Deseret Experimental Opera Company’s 2047. Filled with childhood photos, piles of mail, and an old dog that wandered across the wood floors, the space was immediately intimate: I felt as if I was visiting a friend rather than attending a performance. […]
Repertory Dance Theatre in Zvi Gotheiner’s “Dancing the Bears Ears.” Photo by Sharon Kain. “When you have fire, that’s where you are,” she said as she rubbed ash across dancer Efren Corado Garcia’s face. The other dancers followed suit, rubbing the ashes from campfires grown cold across their […]
“We were changed.” It’s a phrase Zvi Gotheiner says repeatedly as we discuss his new work, “Dancing the Bears Ears,” being performed this week at Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT). It becomes almost a mantra. A rhythmic punctuation mark to pace his thoughts. It’s something he said repeatedly along […]
Ririe-Woodbury in Daniel Charon’s Exilic Dances. Photo courtesy of Ririe-Woodbury. Sept. 28-30, Ririe-Woodbury’s six artists undertook the task of creating for their audience a sense of Parallax — the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions. What ‘object’ […]
Photo of DRYPP, courtesy of EyeKnee Coordination. En route to DRYPP, I passed people taking photos of the sun diffused by haze caused by smoke blown into the Salt Lake Valley from fires as far away as Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest. I thought about my family and […]
Samantha Matsukawa and Efren Corado perform in Those With Wings. Photo by Pete Vordenberg On a warm summer evening, I gathered with a small group of people at Bend-in-the-River park by the Jordan River for a performance of “Those with Wings,” billed as an “immersive dance experience” based […]
Left to right: Samantha Matsukawa, Amy Falls, and Daniel Mont-Eton in “Homeward”. Photo by Dat Nyguyen/Motion Vivid, lighting by James K. Larsen. When I think of Daniel Mont-Eton’s Homeward I think ambient – a word derived from ambire in Latin, meaning “to go around” – and around and […]
Dancers in “very vary” by Molly Heller at the Eccles Regent. Photo by Tori Duhaime. Molly Heller’s “very vary” was just that: a very varied patchwork. For the duration of the hour-long dance, the cast of six — members of Ririe-Woodbury and freelancers alike — approached Heller’s performatively […]
Footage of SALT Contemporary Dance in Ihsan Rustem’s Voice of Reason. SALT Contemporary Dance closed their 2016-2017 season with a collection of current works from local, national and international choreographers. This was my first time witnessing a SALT performance and I am so grateful I finally had the […]
Bashaun Williams in Ann Carlson’s “Elizabeth, the dance”. Set by Torry Bend. Photo courtesy of Ririe-Woodbury. Choreographer Ann Carlson has a longstanding relationship with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, originally studying modern dance under company co-founders Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury at the University of Utah in the 1970s. While […]
Artists of Ballet West in Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table, by Kelli Bramble Photography. For the close of their season, Ballet West presents a program that spans over 80 years of dance making with three astoundingly diverse works. Beginning with George Balanchine’s Chaconne, dancers in softly draped dresses cover […]
