{"id":56050,"date":"2021-01-19T19:59:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T01:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=56050"},"modified":"2021-01-21T20:09:17","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T02:09:17","slug":"rdts-emerge-brings-new-works-by-the-company-and-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/rdts-emerge-brings-new-works-by-the-company-and-others\/","title":{"rendered":"RDT’s Emerge Brings New Works by the Company and Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jon Kim and Daniel Do, photo by Sharon Kain<\/p><\/div>\n

Repertory Dance Theatre\u2019s virtual performance of Emerge<\/em> premiered on January 16, 2021.\u00a0In this sixth annual presentation of Emerge<\/em>, company dancers and staff have taken on the role of choreographer.\u00a0RDT takes pride in the opportunity it provides artists to practice the art of dance-making. The show consists of seven works created by Rebecca Aneloski (winner of the 2019 New Century Dance Project choreographic competition), Lauren Curley, Jonathan Kim, Jaclyn Brown, Dan Higgins, Daniel Do & Edromar Undag, and Nicholas Cendese.<\/h4>\n

A stunning opening to the evening was Odes, <\/em>choreographed by Rebecca Aneloski. The original sound score composed by Michael Wall had a pulsating meditative drive throughout the work. On a minimally-lit stage, the piece developed seamlessly, shifting between solos and duets performed by the dancers. The first duet between Daniel Do and Jonathan Kim exhibited beautifully intricate partner work. In a delicate yet captivatingly powerful manner, their bodies appeared to weave between and around one another hypnotically. This duet transitioned into an enthralling and powerful solo performed by Do which swiftly led to a dynamic solo from Kim. After another mesmerizing duet performance by Kim and Ursula Perry, the piece finished with a solo danced by Perry, accompanied by an instrumental version of \u201cAmerica the Beautiful.\u201d This suddenly gave the piece an entirely different meaning for me, one that was slightly ominous.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help but notice the chilling connotation attached to the song in light of the current political moment.<\/h4>\n

Solace<\/em> was a duet choreographed by Lauren Curley and featured more beautiful partner work between Do and Kim.\u00a0 The piece begins with a subtle golden light illuminating the dark stage, which looks like a black void when viewing the piece through a screen. Slowly, the lights brighten to reveal more of the surrounding space.\u00a0 The camera angle shifts throughout the piece, offering new perspectives of the human architecture morphing and transmuting on stage.\u00a0 Do and Kim danced with stunning strength and compatibility. Their connection was palpable.<\/h4>\n

The moving camera angles continued to offer unique perspectives of Dusk Fades, <\/em>a solo choreographed by Kim and performed by guest dancer Kerry McCrackin. The sound score begins with exciting string music and is accompanied by frenzied arm tosses and giant strides across the stage.\u00a0 The music transitions into a mediative soundscape punctuated by the sound of ocean waves. The dancing takes on a suppler quality. This shift in sound and movement quality is paralleled by the shift in the lighting design from bright oranges and reds to deep purples and blues. All of these components culminate in the emulation of a sunset.<\/h4>\n
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Kareem Lewis and Ursula Perry, photo by Sharon Kain<\/p><\/div>\n

One By One <\/em>was a series of seven solos created for each company member by Jaclyn Brown. Carefully crafted with the dancers\u2019 individuality in mind, the solos take us on a journey revealing the unique qualities possessed by each of the dancers. The solos were performed to live accompaniment by musical artist Nate Anderson, who played a variety of exciting electronic music.<\/h4>\n

Knowhere <\/em>was choreographed by company member Dan Higgins and danced by Ursula Perry, Kareem Lewis, and Elle Johansen.\u00a0 The partnerships were in a constant state of flux throughout the work. The trio morphed seamlessly into separate duets, solos and reassembled again as a trio.\u00a0 The soundscape mimicked atmospheric\/space sounds that appeared to be embodied by the orbiting pathways taken by the dancers.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help but wonder whether the title of the work was reflecting upon these cosmic themes.<\/h4>\n

Space in Sonder <\/em>was a duet choreographed by Daniel Do and Edromar Undag.\u00a0The performers Jaclyn Brown and Ursula Perry have danced together as company members since 2014. The longevity of their relationship as fellow dancers showed in their unwavering synchronicity.\u00a0The partner work in this piece was beautifully balanced and powerful.<\/h4>\n

Nicholas Cendese, artistic associate and development director of RDT, was the choreographer of the final piece, Another Day in Quarantine<\/em>.\u00a0 The four-part theatrical work included a solo, trio, duet, and group dance all performed to songs by Dorris Day.\u00a0 Each segment reflected in some manner upon the experiences of Americans in self-isolation over this past year. The piece was a fun and light-hearted end to the show.<\/h4>\n

Despite the turbulent year all performing artists and audiences have experienced, the silver lining of it all is perhaps the novel ways in which art is being dispersed and consumed. Though nothing will quite beat the live experience of concert dance, virtual performances, I\u2019d argue, do have their perks. As a viewer, you are provided with an entirely new perspective of the action unfolding on stage. The point of view offered by the camera in this year\u2019s presentation of Emerge<\/em> shifts continuously, offering insights into the performance that were never available before.<\/h4>\n

Tickets to Emerge<\/em> are still available on RDT\u2019s website<\/a>. Ticketholders are granted access to the performance via a personalized link that expires within a week.<\/p>\n

This review is published in collaboration with loveDANCEmore.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Repertory Dance Theatre\u2019s virtual performance of Emerge premiered on January 16, 2021.\u00a0In this sixth annual presentation of Emerge, company dancers and staff have taken on the role of choreographer.\u00a0RDT takes pride in the opportunity it provides artists to practice the art of dance-making. The show consists of seven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1682,"featured_media":56051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/kim-and-do.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 16:01:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1682"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56053,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56050\/revisions\/56053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}