For summers during the 1970s, Ballet West traveled to Aspen, Colorado for an artistic residency and festival that included a summer dance school in Snowmass Village. The experience anchored Ballet West’s steadily growing reputation as one of the most distinguished performing arts companies in the American West. It also led to the Ballet West Academy … Read more
This spring produced an overflowing bounty of great programs in dance, which enjoys imperial status among the performing arts in Utah. The following five exemplify this distinction. Ballet West: Choregraphic Fest VII: Spotlight Utah Donald Byrd’s Processional world premiere capped a distinguished choreographic valedictory in the history-making closing production of Ballet West’s 2025-26 season. The … Read more
In Utah, dance wears the empress crown in the performing arts. Choreographers and guest dance artists from around the world know well just how broad and deep the dance ecosystem in Utah is, as evidenced by the numerous commissions that have been set on local companies in ballet and contemporary dance over many decades. For … 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
Four Utah premieres featuring works by two choreographers who have had a major impact on ballet and Broadway are on deck for Ballet West’s newest production West Side Story: Broadway & Beyond, which opens Friday, April 10, to start a run of six performances in the Capitol Theatre. In a literal storybook season for the … 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
Published in 1820, Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow stands out as America’s first ghost story. The town’s residents enjoy telling stories of the supernatural and The Headless Horseman is among the most fascinating. The ghost of a Hessian mercenary hired by the British during the Revolutionary War who was decapitated by a cannonball, … Read more
To borrow the words of Adam Sklute, Ballet West’s artistic director, Trey McIntyre’s Peter Pan becomes “almost a living pop-up book.” The company’s Utah premiere of this 2002 evening-length ballet affirmed these words, with sensational and touching impact in every facet of the production. It was a toy treasure chest: Wiliam Lynch’s raw charisma and … Read more
Puer Aeternus translates from Latin into eternal boy, a mythological description of an eternally young child-God. All children, except one, grow up. In J.M. Barrie’s timeless classic, Peter Pan’s eternal youth is preserved and in both the play and novel the author wrote, Peter teaches the Darling children to fly, thanks to sparking their imagination … 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 production of Willam Christensen’s The Nutcracker. For a preview ahead of this year’s production, see this link to The Utah Review feature. Before turning … Read more