{"id":58655,"date":"2021-06-13T13:11:15","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T19:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=58655"},"modified":"2021-06-16T14:33:27","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T20:33:27","slug":"dance-as-an-opportunity-to-examine-society-at-large","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/dance-as-an-opportunity-to-examine-society-at-large\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance as an Opportunity to Examine Society at Large"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Elizabeth\u2019s Waters\u2019 Castor and Pollux (1956), photo by Sharon Kain.<\/p><\/div>\n

After contemplating Dominica Greene\u2019s questions<\/a> in a recent loveDANCEmore podcast regarding the purpose of dance reviews in our community, I craft this review of RDT\u2019s Homage<\/em> from a perplexed place. What is the role of the loveDANCEmore reviewer, considering the intimate and delicate bonds in the Salt Lake dance community? How do reviewers encourage dialogue about a performance, not only share their opinions? Is it more important to provide an honest response to an artist\u2019s work or to consider the artist\u2019s feelings? Particularly for this performance, I wondered what I could say about the dancers of RDT and the works in Homage<\/em> that hasn\u2019t already been said.<\/p>\n

The classic, historic modern dance works presented in Homage<\/em> fulfill RDT\u2019s stated mission of performing and preserving dance treasures. Jos\u00e9 Lim\u00f3n\u2019s Suite from Mazurkas<\/em> (1958) opened the program, and was followed by his mentor Doris Humphrey\u2019s Invention<\/em> (1949). Before Donald McKayle\u2019s Rainbow \u2018Round My Shoulder<\/em> (1959) appeared on the screen, we were presented with a brief excerpt from a documentary in which McKayle shared his inspiration for the piece. Elizabeth\u2019s Waters\u2019 Castor and Pollux<\/em> (1956) included, before the dance, an introduction to the work\u2019s musical composer, Harry Partch.<\/p>\n

As dance enthusiasts, you\u2019re likely familiar with the aesthetic and movement vocabulary of these mid-twentieth century works. As supporters of Salt Lake City dance, you\u2019re also likely familiar with RDT\u2019s dancers and their strengths. Dance is not only a form of personal expression, an art to be critiqued, or a physical activity to participate in. It is an opportunity to examine society at large. Therefore, instead of forming and sharing an opinion of what I witnessed in Homage<\/em>, I invite all of us to further research the decade during which the aforementioned works were created (1949-1959). What happened outside of the choreographers\u2019 time in the studio and on stage? What did they encounter when they walked down the street? What content filled the conversations between their friends and families? What beliefs of this particular era in U.S. history did they portray through their choreography, and, does choreography need to do this? Who can escape \u201cmaking a statement\u201d through their art and who cannot? Even more lighthearted questions \u2014 what were people watching on TV, what novels were they reading, what was the number one hit song? \u2014 can lead to captivating discoveries and realizations.<\/p>\n

Our ruminations on historical works can inspire questions about the present day as well. How does Utah\u2019s current culture play into what our dance companies choose to include in their repertoire, and what they choose to define as \u201cdance treasures?\u201d What and whose value systems are communicated and prioritized through these choices? How does our arts funding affect what and who is remembered or forgotten, both historically and in this very moment?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll say that you should watch Homage<\/em>, mostly because I think we (dancers) need to support each other. We should consume each other\u2019s work as often as we can. Whether we are freelance artists or employed by larger arts institutions, we should ask ourselves what we are \u201csaying\u201d by showing up or not showing up for other artists\u2019 work, what we are \u201csaying\u201d by encouraging or not encouraging others to show up as well.<\/p>\n

You can still <\/em>watch <\/em>Homage<\/a> at RDT\u2019s website until June 30. <\/em><\/p>\n

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

After contemplating Dominica Greene\u2019s questions in a recent loveDANCEmore podcast regarding the purpose of dance reviews in our community, I craft this review of RDT\u2019s Homage from a perplexed place. What is the role of the loveDANCEmore reviewer, considering the intimate and delicate bonds in the Salt Lake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1662,"featured_media":58656,"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-58655","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\/06\/castor1_800x400.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 14:45:06","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\/58655","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\/1662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58657,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58655\/revisions\/58657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}