Utah Dance articles published in 15 Bytes, Utah’s Art Magazine.
For 15 years, loveDANCEmore has served as a catalyst for Utah’s experimental dance community, presenting performances, publishing criticism and sustaining a dialogue about what it means to make and witness dance in Utah. Founded by choreographer and educator Ashley Anderson, the organization has evolved from a grassroots effort […]
I had the opportunity to chat with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s newest Artistic Director, Leslie Kraus, amidst her first concert, REVERBERATION. Leslie’s appointment as Artistic Director comes at a time when both founders of the organization have recently passed—Shirley Ririe this past August and Joan Woodbury in 2023. Leslie […]
Two men appear, one after another, dressed in work suits. They take turns pushing a plastic garbage pail through a field of discarded objects—broken cups and clamshells, eerily white. jo Blake leans on the can, then back onto two feet; he proposes something with the slap of a […]
“Birds are really reliant on the Great Salt Lake,” says Mitsu Salmon, director of immersive dance experience Feathered Tides. Centered around native birds and bringing awareness to the drying of the Great Salt Lake, Feathered Tides takes viewers on a journey into all levels of emotion through varying […]
This profile was originally published in our 2019 publication Utah’s 15: The State’s Most Influential Artists. With the announcement that Linda C. Smith will step down as Executive/Artistic Director of Repertory Dance Theatre at the close of its 59th season and transition to Director Emerita in July 2025, […]
Natosha Washington’s words begin the monologue which opens RDT’s I AM: “This is a story of a Black woman…” She asks the audience, as we pause to witness the person next to us, if we are part of the problem, or stand with the solution? A warning: no […]
Daniel Charon, artistic director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, has announced that he will step down at the end of the company’s 12th season in the spring of 2025. After a transformative 12-year tenure, Charon shared his decision, citing it as a deeply personal choice made in pursuit of […]
Mythili Prakash and her ensemble performed She is Auspicious on the evening of September 8 at the Jeanne Wagner Theatre, under the auspices of Utah Presents and Nitya Nritya Foundation. To the terms “avant-garde,” “bold,” and “original” used to describe Mythili Prakash’s production, I would add “candid” and […]
Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company opened its 2024-2025 season with an evening full of tension, humor, elegance, and exuberance, featuring two world premieres and a dynamic exploration of human emotion. The evening begins with The Bunker, choreographed by Laja Field and Martin Durov. Set against an original score by Durov, […]
Bené Arnold, a seminal figure in Utah’s dance community and Ballet West’s first Ballet Mistress, passed away on January 25, 2024, at the age of 88. Arnold’s legacy is marked by her significant influence in shaping the careers of countless dancers at Ballet West and the University of […]
Ririe-Woodbury recently celebrated sixty years with Groundworks, a show that honors the company’s long standing relationship with Alwin Nikolais, its founders, Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, and the current artistic director, Daniel Charon. The opener was Tensile Involvement, an iconic Nikolais piece that uses elastics coupled with movement to […]
In April, Utah’s two flagship modern dance companies respond to the environment. With To See Beyond Our Time, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company joins the swelling number of artistic voices calling for dramatic change to save Great Salt Lake. Co-created by Ririe-Woodbury artistic director Daniel Charon and theatre director Alexandra […]
I continue to be struck by the quantity and quality of work being made week-to-week in our community in small spaces and on shoestring budgets. A couple weekends ago I took in Anhad: Beyond Limitations at the Regent Street Black Box. The evening was the latest offering of […]
Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s show HERE TODAY played January 12-14 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake. The performance featured an engaging, diverse program of work from three choreographers – Raja Feather Kelly, Molly Heller, and Charles O. Anderson. The evening opened with a premiere […]
For their October Digest, loveDANCEmore editor Arin Lynn spoke with Joshua “Text” Perkins, executive director of 1520 Arts, a nonprofit dance organization. The organization’s They Reminisce was performed at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center Sept. 16 & 17. Answers have been edited for clarity. Can you tell […]
I met with loveDANCEmore artist-in-residence Stephanie García to talk about the upcoming panel, Moving Forward Together: Latinx, Hispanic, and Chicanx Artists in Conversation. It will be this Sunday, Sept 25th at 5:00pm on the Spyhop Rooftop. You can RSVP to attend here. How did organizing this panel start? […]
In Salt Lake City, one of the most pleasingly brave and authentic events I have the pleasure of attending is 12 Minutes Max, staged by Paul Reynolds and Salt Lake City Public Library (Main Library) every third Sunday at 2 pm in its ground-floor Tessman auditorium. Each month, […]
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 […]
