In their respective season openers, two of Salt Lake City’s most distinguished dance institutions — Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and Repertory Dance Theatre — gave more than ample proof of why their artistic excellence commands attention not just locally but also nationally and internationally. The Utah Review offers reviews of both season openers. RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE COMPANY: … Read more
Entering its 53rd season, Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) always has been at the modern dance forefront in expressing the complexities of the past and the ever-shifting contemporary present. In the 1960s, the idea of Manifest Destiny still dominated the mindset of the American West although it was being obscured increasingly by the civil rights movement … Read more
In between its 54th and 55th seasons, the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company traveled in May to Mongolia and South Korea, as part of DanceMotion USA℠’s cultural diplomacy program. In Mongolia, the dancers and company staff taught master classes in contemporary dance and improvisational technique at a state university as well as the police academy. In South … Read more
We rely on skilled journalists and editors to make sense of a volatile news cycle. Forty years ago, Umberto Eco wrote about the artist who protests through form in The Open Work. In part, he suggested that the artist, while rejecting the current order and system, also accepts the world in its crisis terms. The … Read more
NOTE: This is Part II of reviews of shows from the 2018 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival. For Part I, see here. Austin Archer’s Marty Has Cancer – Prufrock Productions Every performance of this play sold out or had standing room only, which likely makes it one of the most successful productions ever presented at … Read more
NOTE: This is the first of two parts about this year’s Great Salt Lake Fringe, which includes reviews of three shows. Part II will highlight reviews of four other shows. For its fourth year, the Great Salt Lake Fringe festival (Aug. 2- Aug. 12) is testing its new venue space at the Gateway shopping center … Read more
One of dance’s most powerful functions is its capacity to express something so profoundly that the audience watching it connects to it immediately. As we have listened to the voices of the #MeToo movement that always have been there but suddenly gained the frequency and volume which has asked us to empathize on a deeper … Read more
Dance has a monumental presence at this year’s Utah Arts Festival. There are the daily performances of BANDALOOP, the phenomenal vertical dance company from Oakland, California; a June 22 performance of RUUDDANCES featuring Ballet West and Ballet West Academy performers who will present classic and contemporary ballet works including the festival’s dance commission by Peggy … Read more
In the 44 hours over the four days in which the 42nd Utah Arts Festival (June 21-24) will be open to the public, so many activities and performances will be available that only the savviest planner attending every minute of that time will be able, at best, to sample a respectable share of what each … Read more
Of all the performing arts genres, dance is the most intimidating when it comes to photographs that truly represent the individual’s artistic expression of skilled movement. Dance is an ethereal art, even in its growing story-telling power which has dominated 21st century works. Accomplished dancers create marvelous geometric spaces of lines, angles, dimensions and planes … Read more