Ballet West’s season opens with Madame Butterfly

Adapted from the beloved opera, Madame Butterfly flits back to the Ballet West stage to open the 2016-1017 season. A relatively new ballet, the dance version was brought to life by choreographer Stanton Welch and premiered in 1995 in Melbourne, Australia—from which hail the stunning costumes and sets for the Ballet West production. The Ballet … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: ‘Five Grand Micro-Adventures,’ ‘A Shift West,’ ‘Networked’ highlight music, dance commissions

Two musical works inspired by autobiographical transitions – one the news of an impending birth of a child and the other relocating from the Midwest to Salt Lake City – and a new dance composition about conformity and the age of social media mark this year’s newest Utah Arts Festival commissions for music and dance. … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2016: 40 Years New for festival city

Each year, the Utah Arts Festival is the most effective barometer of the strength, impact and potential of arts in the state. At 40, the festival is really a cosmopolitan miniature city in which more than 80,000 people will sample from the largest slate of programming, artists and performers ever presented at one time in … Read more

Ballet Wests Innovations 2016 takes bow

APPROVED-2015-Innovations-Homage-by-Luke-Isley-0175-Artists-of-Ballet-West

Ballet West closes the 2016 season with what has come to be an annual tradition in the Innovations program. As it has for the past nine seasons, Innovations celebrates up-and-coming choreographers from around the world and talent from within the company on the stage of the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. But with the final … Read more

Ballet West’s The Nijinsky Revolution

Afternoon of a Faun, courtesy Ballet West

Baslav Nijinsky, a legendary male dancer for the Ballets Russes, choreographed a body of work that shocked, intrigued and inspired audiences in the early 20th century. This spring, Ballet West brings three of his pieces to life with modern day takes on his revolutionary work in The Nijinsky Revolution. “In putting together this program, I … Read more

Ballet West Family Series presents Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

Fairy tales told through the dance medium are perhaps some of the most expressive. This spring, Ballet West II dancers and students from the Ballet West Academy came together for a world-premiere production of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. The ballet featured entirely new costumes and sets designed by Ballet West to … Read more

Ballet West’s Romeo and Juliet

The February performance of Ballet West is historically a romantic production and this year’s premiere of John Cranko’s version of Romeo and Juliet is no exception. Most will be familiar with William Shakespeare’s telling of the long-standing feud between the Montague and Capulet families and what happens when young lovers from each family (Romeo and … Read more

Ballet West’s Diamond Anniversary of The Nutcracker

Few activities bring the charm and wonder of the holiday season to life more than Ballet West’s annual run of the Nutcracker. Giant mechanical dolls and bears dancing, sugar plum fairies twirling, Clara saving the Nutcracker prince from harm by the Mouse King—all with the iconic Tchaikovsky score played live by the Ballet West Orchestra. … Read more

Ballet Boys, The 78 Project Movie highlight Utah Film Center’s September documentaries

Two outstanding documentaries – an award-winning film from Norway about three teen boys who aspire to become ballet dancers and an unusual musical road trip which gives several American roots musicians the opportunity to make one-of-a-kind recordings on a 1930s direct-to-disc recorder – are part of the Utah Film Center’s September screenings which are free … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2015: ‘Juno,’ ‘Andante,’ ‘Hang On,’ ‘And Then There’s That’ highlight music, dance commissions

A blizzard and musical inspirations from two great composers and the unique therapeutic sounds of the handpan inspire this year’s newest Utah Arts Festival commissions for music and dance. The chamber music commission is sponsored by The Mandel Foundation. Robert Honstein, Juno, June 27, 4 p.m., City Library Auditorium Robert Honstein, 35, is in the … Read more