{"id":22650,"date":"2013-09-05T09:42:34","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T15:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=22650"},"modified":"2025-11-08T14:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T21:51:07","slug":"starting-something-with-daniel-charon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/starting-something-with-daniel-charon\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting Something with Daniel Charon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This month Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company leaps into its 50th Anniversary season with\u00a0The Start of Something Big<\/em>, the first full performance under the leadership of new Artistic Director Daniel Charon.<\/p>\n

Charon, who is originally from Minnesota, grew up in a rich artistic culture that included choir, orchestra, visual arts, theater, and of course, dance. He began dancing in junior high, went on to study at the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Columbia College in Chicago where he was first introduced to modern dance, and received his B.F.A. at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He received his M.F.A. in Choreography and Integrated Media at the California Institute of the Arts earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Charon has been involved in dance as a choreographer, performer and teacher since 1995. He danced full-time with Doug Varone and Dancers for ten seasons, where he participated in over 20 new works. He has also been a member of the Lim\u00f3n Dance Company and has performed with a wide variety of American arts organizations. His choreography has been produced by the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival, at Jacob\u2019s Pillow, the Dance Complex, as well as a variety of dance companies, festivals and universities. He has extensive teaching experience including time at studios, master classes, festivals, and universities around the country, and has set over 15 new works on students in workshop settings. He also works extensively in the digital realm, including web design, video and incorporating technology in his work.<\/p>\n

Although Ririe-Woodbury\u2019s season hasn\u2019t \u201cofficially\u201d started, Charon has already presented a well-received evening of site-specific choreography at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), as well as a preview of his upcoming Ririe-Woodbury premiere at\u00a0The Rose Exposed<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While claiming to be \u201ca bit nervous,\u201d during our interview Charon appears relaxed and has an easy smile and sparkling green eyes. He is thoughtful and communicates equally well verbally and through his fluid movements. He says he views dance as a means to communicate in a different language, expressing, through touching, feeling, and movement, things that cannot be expressed in words. His works explore trust, cooperation, and relationships, as well as confronting limits, gravity, and mortality. Rather than creating a narrative, he invites the audience members to see themselves in what\u2019s happening, and to see the performers as real people rather than remote, abstract or interchangeable dancers. And he conceives of his role less as \u201cdirector\u201d and more as facilitating inspiration, teaching, and mentoring. Company members praise his openness and collaborative approach, describing him as \u201cgracious, curious, invested, and hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charon pauses briefly when asked about major influences and then lists dance pioneers such as Martha Graham; minimalist composers; Beethoven, who tells \u201cabstract stories through music\u201d; scenic, lighting, and costume designers whom he credits with showing him things he hadn\u2019t seen in a given work; music and video technologists; sculpture; spaces; contemporary visual art; and mentor Doug Varone who, he says, combines a \u201cpedestrian sensibility with technically demanding movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varone, in turn, says: \u201cAs a choreographer, Mr. Charon\u2019s dances have a beautiful sense of craft and design. He has a tremendous eye for how bodies can move in special relationship with each other, gently shifting the emotional balance of a work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charon is fascinated with minimalism, with allowing space for things to happen, room for thought and contemplation, inviting artists and audiences to look deeper, to see that which is not readily apparent. His work is humane, emotional, and challenging, yet approachable.<\/p>\n

Many of the above influences were apparent in the two brief glimpses Utah audiences have had of Charon\u2019s work. Kinetic Spaces, the one-night durational event at UMOCA explored space, from the confines of a stairway to the expansiveness of the huge downstairs gallery, as well as ever-changing and evolving relationships among both the dancers and the watchers, while upending preconceptions about dance by presenting several hours of dance that had no stage, no music, no discrete beginning or ending, and which challenged the audience to choose where and how long to watch. The preview at\u00a0The Rose Exposed<\/em>\u00a0was set to a minimalist score and explored themes of relationships, trust, space, layers and complexity. Charon clearly trusts his audience to find their own way in his work.<\/p>\n

Teaching is another interest, and Charon is excited about Ririe-Woodbury\u2019s extensive educational outreach activities. He is also committed to moving dance out of an exclusively proscenium (formal stage) setting, whether through site-specific work, dance film, the internet, or collaboration with other artists and arts entities. So far, he is enjoying Salt Lake City, which he describes as \u201cquirky,\u201d is impressed with its friendliness and vibrant arts community, and is inspired and optimistic about the future. In his words: \u201cLooking forward, my goal is to continue this great legacy that\u00a0is inclusive of\u00a0all audiences, while pushing the boundaries of\u00a0contemporary dance. My aim is to continue to bring great artists to Salt\u00a0Lake City, to expose a variety of\u00a0quality choreographic perspectives, to\u00a0expand the national and international presence of the company, and to\u00a0continue to inspire meaningful conversation\u00a0about humanity through the\u00a0art of dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to a glimpse of the future through Charon\u2019s premiere,\u00a0The Start of Something Big<\/em>\u00a0will include a look at the past, including early dances choreographed by founders Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, works gifted to the company by Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais, and \u201cMove It,\u201d a 1976 dance film featuring Shirley, Joan and company. The 50th Anniversary season will also include a record 8-12 new commissioned works, including six by company alumni in December; \u201cFlabbergast,\u201d a new family show by the magical Tandy Beal in February, and three new works in April: a multi-media collaboration between Varone and University of Utah professor Ellen Bromberg, a work by Cuban native, Sweden-based, Ririe-Woodbury alumnus Miguel Azcue, and another by Charon.<\/p>\n

Ririe-Woodbury Dance\u2019s 50th Anniversary season opens with\u00a0The Start of Something Big<\/em>, September 26-28. For more information and tickets, see\u00a0www.ririewoodbury.com\u00a0and\u00a0www.danielcharon.com.<\/p>\n

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