Utah Film Center’s Through My Lens screening to feature short documentary films about immigration, migration by Salt Lake City valley students, their teachers

Sixteen short documentary films produced by students in schools throughout the Salt Lake City valley in collaboration with their teachers and featuring a wide range of stories about immigration and migration will premiere May 1, as part of the Utah Film Center program Through My Lens, an educational collaboration unlike any other in the U.S. … Read more

Efren Corado’s Dust. Breath. Place., an artistic reflection on immigration, set to premiere in Repertory Dance Theatre’s Link Series

The five dancers who will perform Dust. Breath. Place., a new work by choreographer Efren Corado, have transported themselves to a different world in the rehearsals leading up to the forthcoming premiere in three performances (May 2-4), as part of Repertory Dance Theatre’s Link Series (RDT). Observing Easter morning rehearsal was spiritually uplifting. Eleven days … Read more

Red Desert ensemble’s spring concert a mesmerizing jam session

The Red Desert ensemble, the duo project of clarinetist Katie Porter and composer/percussionist Devin Maxwell, organized one of the most interesting public jam session concerts to happen recently in Salt Lake City. Joining forces with numerous local musicians, Westminster College students, and University of Utah students from Radical Quiet, Phillip Bimstein’s honors college course about cultivating a heightened … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Bloom concert closes with a magnificent choreographic bouquet

Many florists and horticulturists associate metaphorical themes with flowers and plants. Indeed, in every spring bloom, there is a unique significance: friendship, perseverance, patience, enthusiasm, honesty, unconditional love and affection, rebirth, dignity, strength of character, trust, just to name a few. Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company delivered all of these blooms in a magnificent bouquet in its … Read more

Kapustin concerto Western Hemisphere premiere to highlight NOVA Chamber Music Series’ Parallel Worlds concert

This past weekend, Portuguese-born pianist Luis Magalhães made the 9,800-mile journey from his South African home to Salt Lake City for the Western Hemisphere premiere of Nikolai Kapustin’s Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra, Opus 105, in the upcoming NOVA Chamber Music Series concert titled Parallel Worlds. The concert (April 28, 3 p.m., Libby … Read more

Silent Dancer’s unique staging in Salt Lake Acting Company premiere resonates with good Jazz Age sensibilities

In 1931, as the Great Depression’s grip tightened, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the obituary for the flimsy age of roaring confidence and youth-driven abandon that had been “jolted” out of existence when the stock market crashed in 1929. In an essay titled Echoes of the Jazz Age, he wrote, “It was an age of miracles, … Read more

Repertory Dance Theatre’s Voices concert caps unforgettable expression of diversity, inclusion in 53rd season

Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) Voices concert capped an unforgettable expression of diversity and inclusion for its 53rd season. However, before delving into the specifics of the rich, subtly emotional dynamics of the Voices performances, a broader context is essential. The theme of Manifest Diversity came full circle with Voices. In the season’s first concert last … Read more

Transitions, thresholds, nostalgia, liminal spaces define Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s upcoming spring concert Bloom

To close its 55th season, the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s upcoming Bloom concert will offer two world premieres and a performance of a 2011 work from its repertoire – astutely timed for this particular phase of the spring season. Each work explores the themes of transitions and nostalgia as rites of passage leading to a blossoming … Read more

Historic, contemporary expressions of the community of dance set for Repertory Dance Theatre’s season closing concert Voices

Voices, perhaps the most apt conclusion to Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) superlative Manifest Diversity season, will be a celebration of community as represented by the synthesizing of each individual’s movement to transform the body (or company) of dancers metaphorically into a creative organism attuned emotionally to support each other through the unique strengths of their … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s …Of Color fearlessly demolishes restraints on creative expression with four first-rate short plays

For a critic who sees the creation of art, in its broadest terms, as framing difficult questions that pull us out of our comfort zones, creative expression that is fearless in taking risks becomes the most meaningful to consider. In Utah, we put a premium on civility, politeness and gentility that tacitly signals restraint – … Read more