Back in its heyday before jets capable of making the transoceanic long haul became common, Canada’s Gander airport was “basically a pump-and-go station,” as journalist Andrea Sachs described in a 2019 Washington Post feature. “Locals would hitchhike up to the airport to buy ice cream and search for famous faces waiting to reboard, such as … Read more
I think of my pictures as dramas… They have been created from the need for a group of actors who are able to move dramatically without embarrassment and execute gestures without shame. Neither the action nor the actors can be anticipated, or described in advance. They begin as an unknown adventure in an unknown space. … Read more
The first part of spring has brought numerous dance productions of note. The Utah Review features two recent examples. REPERTORY DANCE THEATRE’S LINK SERIES: THAYER JONUTZ, OUT OF THE ASHES It always is an audacious enterprise for modern dance artists to perform truly as their authentic selves in works choreographed by others, but that sense … Read more
One does not go to Murder Ballad, the wonderful musical by Juliana Nash and Julia Jordan, looking for meaty inventive and intelligent plot elements of a whodunit story. Man and Woman end their relationship, Woman meets New Man but still has feelings for first Man, cheats, and yada yada yada, the situation escalates, ending in … Read more
For the ravishing opening night of Ballet West’s quadruple bill connecting the Broadway stage to classical ballet, one could not have launched this unforgettable evening of Utah premieres better than with Alison Olsen playing the last ten bars of Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute as the prelude for Jerome Robbins’ Antique Epigraphs. Intimate, delicate and … Read more
In her 2015 master of fine arts’ thesis, Molly Heller wrote about her formative development as a dancer. performer, choreographer and teacher. “It is in the act of being witnessed and witnessing that I feel my existence. I believe that we are all part of the same mystery and collectively we search for meaning. On … Read more
Editor’s Note: In extending its tradition, The Utah Review, with the assistance of Christal Jackson, an English teacher and ELL coordinator at City Academy, asked two students to review Ballet West’s world premiere production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Pamela Robinson-Harris, Ballet West’s rehearsal director, who has been the creative force behind Family … Read more
Nothing but net. Pioneer Theatre Company’s Utah professional premiere production of King James by Rajiv Joseph is flawlessly executed. With Final Four-worthy performances by Eli Mayer as Matt and Khiry Walker as Shawn, the production, directed by Miriam Laube, is perfect for the Meldrum Theatre at the Einar Nielsen Field House, where plenty of Utah high … Read more
Visiting Liberty Blake’s studio is like stepping into a portal that gives the fortunate visitor a glimpse into the muses and the spiritual journey which the artist traverses. Her workplace and what she surrounds herself with allow us as visitors to appreciate the foundations of her visual expressive language in the body of abstract collages … Read more
The most significant takeaway from the Utah Museum of Fine Arts ongoing salt exhibition series, has been demonstrating the diasporic knowledge of culture as so spiritually, socially, ethically and epistemologically potent that its most meaningful and historically accurate expressions emerge not through the neutral space of conventional categorization, but rather by honoring the diasporic origins … Read more