Daniel Charon

Salt Lake City’s arts scene is roaring back to full steam: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Total Ellipse, Roger Benington’s Psychopomp, SONDERimmersive’s The Chocolatier

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With live performances resuming on several fronts, the arts calendar for the fall season in Salt Lake City has returned to levels not seen since the fall of 2019. The Utah Review offers reviews of three shows, seen within the span of four days. RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE COMPANY: TOTAL ELLIPSE Season openers for Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company returns to live performances in 58th season opener with premieres by Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Daniel Charon; Raja Feather Kelly’s Pantheon

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It’s been nearly 20 months since Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company had a live concert — Allegory — in its regular season. This week, the company opens its 58th season in the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts’ Jeanne Wagner Theatre with Total Ellipse, a program featuring two world premieres and a work that premiered in 2017. … Read more

Three examples of virtual excellence: Plan-B Theatre’s P.G. Anon, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Home Run; Repertory Dance Theatre’s Regalia

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Three recent virtual events emphasize just how well three Salt Lake City performing arts institutions continue to sustain their creativity and visibility. PLAN-B THEATRE: P.G. ANON Plan-B Theatre always is a master of minimalism so its instrinic strengths are making an audio-only season to celebrate its 30th anniversary possible. The premiere of P.G. Anon, written … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury’s Home Run promises to be briskly paced miniature dance film festival, with live, real-time elements, world premieres

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What appears to be a genuinely holistic appreciation of the potential of home in all of its meta dynamics will anchor the forthcoming premiere of Home Run by the internationally renowned Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. It is worth thinking about this hour-long concert as a documentary shorts program one might see at a film festival. Set … Read more

Stress, healing, empowerment: The top 10 moments of The Utah Enlightenment in 2020

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INTRODUCTION One year ago, when The Utah Review presented the 2019 edition of the top 10 moments of the Utah Enlightenment, it was a jubilant representation of Utah’s integral strengths as a community of the arts and the momentum that catapulted Salt Lake City as one of the Intermountain West’s most dynamic centers for creative … Read more

Double Take is flattering cinematic representation of historic dual season opener for Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

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While virtual presentations in the performing arts abide by pandemic-related constraints and adjustments in social distancing, they also afford unique advantages. The case for such advantages is evident in Double Take, the film of the historic collaborative season opener for the Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. There are obvious ones that pop … Read more

Historic collaboration Double Take virtual concert, with 2 world premieres, set to open Repertory Dance Theatre’s 55th season, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s 57th season

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Modern dance always has adapted to extraordinary circumstances. “We always have been willing to improvise, adjust and be flexible,” Linda C. Smith, co-founder and executive artistic director of Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), explains. “If we couldn’t afford a theater, we found a rooftop. If we didn’t have a budget for costumes, we performed in pedestrian … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Allegory concert opens up multicolored vistas for bilingual audiences

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Mark Alvarez, an immigration attorney who also has written for various publications on many subjects along with radio and television appearances, is the guest reviewer for the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Allegory concert, which he and his family attended recently as part of the company’s Moving Parts Family Matinee Series. His review is presented … Read more

World premiere Aberrations of Light, restaging of the live creature and ethereal things, to highlight Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Allegory concert

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In the second chapter of his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Carl Sagan wrote about the “human-centered conceit” and the work of Copernicus and Galileo proposing to “displace us from cosmic center stage.” It was the image of the earth as a mere orbiting dot that the … Read more

Elizabeth, the dance is rich, superb 56th season opener for Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

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Ann Carlson’s Elizabeth, the dance, is the supreme example of an organic, living work of art. And, the six current dancers of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company nurtured and nourished it in a rich, superb performance in Traces, the opening concert of the company’s 56th season. As The Utah Review mentioned in an earlier preview, the 2017 … Read more