Spring Dance Roundup: Ballet West’s Choreographic Fest VII: Spotlight Utah, Repertory Dance Theatre’s Anthology, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Vantage Point, RDT Link Series’ Of Each OtHER, Nitya Nritya Foundation

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

Putting the spotlight on the Utah dance ecosystem, Ballet West’s Choreographic Fest VII set for Donald Byrd world premiere, works by guests Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, SALT Contemporary Dance

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

Set to close Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company Season, Vantage Point will feature world premiere by Leslie Kraus, along with outstanding repertoire works by Keerati Jinakunwhiphat, Tzveta Kassabova

Vantage Point, the forthcoming season closer for Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, will feature works by three women choreographers, including a world premiere by Leslie Kraus, the company’s artistic director, which will feature live sound design by Harrison Lind, a local musician-actor, and an avant-garde floral sculpture and costuming by Galore Floral artist Meagan Bertelsen. Vantage Point … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Traverse to feature world premieres by award-winning choreographer Annie Rigney, four company dancers

Continuing its 62nd season. Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company brings back the programming concept of Traverse, a collection of world premieres, including works by award-winning guest artist Annie Rigney and four current company dancers (Luke Dakota Zender, Fausto Rivera, Sasha Rydlizky, and Miche’ Smith). While the venue is the Jeanné Wagner Theatre in the Rose Wagner Center … Read more

Fearless, fierce and indomitable in human spirit: The Utah Review’s Top Ten Moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2025

This year’s selections in The Utah Review for the top ten moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2025, the eleventh annual edition, stood out for being fearless, fierce and indomitable in human spirit. Wholly liberated, art ensures nothing is erased, censored or compromised. Reiterating the core premise of the Utah Enlightenment: In Utah, there are … Read more

Exceptional season openers for two of Utah’s greatest dance institutions: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Reverberation; Repertory Dance Theatre’s Migrations

Sensitive to their historical legacies, two of Utah’s greatest dance institutions opened their new seasons with respective themes of reverberation and migrations, as well as new artistic director leadership at the helms of both companies. RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE COMPANY: REVERBERATION As noted in a preview at The Utah Review, Leslie Kraus became the company’s fourth artistic … Read more

Reverberation: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company set to open its 62nd season with new artistic director, two premieres

The first lines in the new chapter of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s history will be written this weekend when the company opens its 62nd season with Reverberation. Along with the reprise of  Keith Johnson‘s A Century, A Day, which the company premiered in 2024, there will be two premieres: one by Leslie Kraus, the company’s new … Read more

Summer review roundup: Twofold (RDT Link Series), Intermezzo Chamber Music Series, Rose Performing Arts Coalition’s Our Carnival of the Animals

TWOFOLD: REPERTORY DANCE THEATRE LINK SERIES In an internationally recognized hub of modern and contemporary dance such as Salt Lake City, nearly every week brings a show that reflects just how high the bar of excellence is pitched when it comes to movement. As part of Repertory Dance Theatre’s Link Series offerings, always worth checking … Read more

A zoological fantasy: annual Performing Arts Coalition show at The Rose set to be Our Carnival of the Animals

Last year’s Pictures at an Exhibition: ReFramed, which the Performing Arts Coalition of the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts offered, passed the test of full collaboration with sufficient top honors that the six residential companies decided to dig in with the same spirit but this time with Our Carnival of the Animals.  Last year, … Read more

Plenty of exceptionally moving masterpiece moments in Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s season closing Re-Act

At 2024 Sundance, two documentaries about artificial intelligence premiered that raised tantalizing questions about whether in some way or another, could we really live forever. In Love Machina, director Peter Sillen highlighted a head-and-shoulders robotic bust which unquestionably does not resemble the flesh-and-blood version of the individual upon which it was modeled but it also … Read more