{"id":25369,"date":"2014-04-03T15:15:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T21:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=25369"},"modified":"2019-11-01T15:30:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T21:30:21","slug":"rdts-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/rdts-land\/","title":{"rendered":"RDT’s Land, in Dance and Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rdtland\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of Utah\u2019s best artistic resources is its landscape. From the high-mountain country of the Uintahs to the wetlands of our inland sea to the redrock cliffs of the Colorado Plateau, the place in which we live provides a limitless source of material for artists. And not just for the plein air painters who flood the trails and byways whenever the weather permits. Abstract artists like Doug Snow and Lee Deffebach expanded the urban aesthetic of abstract expressionism to express the vastness and versatility of the west, and influenced generations of local artists. And today artists working in a variety of media, and coming from diverse philosophical backgrounds respond to the land in their work.<\/p>\n

The influence of place extends to the realm of Dance as well. In May, NOW ID will premiere its second major project at Saltair, with an eye towards the remnants of the once mighty Lake Bonneville (more on that in our next edition). And this month Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) celebrates a long-standing relationship to land and place with their season finale\u00a0Land<\/em>. The evening features four dance pieces that celebrate, interpret and respond to the land, as well as an exhibition of work by local visual artists curated by Hadley Rampton.<\/p>\n

To those who have followed RDT, many of these pieces will be familiar. \u201cErosion\u201d was commissioned by Israeli-born choreographer Zvi Gotheiner for RDT in 1993. Inspired by the Colorado Plateau, the work investigates the physical presence of steep inclines and treacherous places, building to a climax as dancers stetch strips of ribbon across the stage and release them at the height of their tension.<\/p>\n

Joanie Smith\u2019s \u201cTurf\u201d was commissioned a few years later, and is representative of the popular and light-hearted work of Shapiro & Smith. The piece is a playful turf war in which dancers both fight and collaborate as they make their way across the stage on mats and carpets, culminating in a movment in which the dancers defy \u201cgravity with strong leaps, effortless lifts and athletic poses,\u201d as Scott Iwasaki wrote in the Deseret News after a previous performance.<\/p>\n

The most recent commission (2005) is Molissa Fenley\u2019s \u201cDesert Sea\u201d which\u00a0Karen Anne Webb<\/a>\u00a0has said, \u201chas an interesting mathematical aesthetic to its construction\u201d that takes multiple viewings to fully appreciate.<\/p>\n

Ze\u2019eva Cohen\u2019s \u201cRainwood\u201d fills out the evening. The 1977 work was not commissioned by RDT, but has been in the troupe\u2019s repertoire. The piece is performed to a score of natural sounds, including bullfrogs, birds, thunder and the patter of rain on leaves; meanwhile the dancers imitate the rhythms and natural movements of plant and animal life. If the \u201cwet\u201d feel of this piece seems foreign in our high desert home, there may still be one or two nooks and crannies in our landscape you need to discover.<\/p>\n

To accompany the evening\u2019s performance, local artist Hadley Rampton has curated LAND-2-LAND, an exhibit of works by fourteen local artists that will hang in the Jeanne Wagner Gallery at the Rose Wagner Arts Center. The artists selected for the exhibit reveal a range of styles and approaches to the land, from traditional interpretations to abstract evocations.<\/p>\n