Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2018: Closing day headliners include St. Paul and The Broken Bones, Salt Lake City Saxophone Summit, Repertory Dance Theatre, finals for individual, team poetry slams

Closing day headliners for the Utah Arts Festival will offer their own infectious expressions of musical joy to send visitors off with pleasant memories of the 2018 event. In The Arts Fest Amplified Concert Series, St. Paul and The Broken Bones from Birmingham, Alabama closes the Amphitheatre Stage with a concert beginning at 8:30 p.m. … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2018: Dance’s major presence includes Children’s Dance Theatre, Repertory Dance Theatre, SALT Contemporary Dance, The Bboy Federation

Dance has a monumental presence at this year’s Utah Arts Festival. There are the daily performances of BANDALOOP, the phenomenal vertical dance company from Oakland, California; a June 22 performance of RUUDDANCES featuring Ballet West and Ballet West Academy performers who will present classic and contemporary ballet works including the festival’s dance commission by Peggy … Read more

World, U.S. premieres highlight recent spring productions of Sackerson, Repertory Dance Theatre, NOVA Chamber Music Series

This spring has blossomed with numerous adventurous concerts and performances, including several world and U.S. premieres, with works presented by the Repertory Dance Theatre, Sackerson and NOVA Chamber Music Series. SACKERSON: SCARLET For a small theatrical company without a permanent home, Sackerson has managed consistently to electrify the Salt Lake City performing arts scene with … Read more

Repertory Dance Theatre’s Current concert brings two world premieres, works by three former dancers and winner of 2017 Regalia choreographer competition

Dance’s creative laboratory is much like its scientific counterpart. The drive to experiment is informed and directed by the history of revolution and breakthroughs in methodology, technique and process. Those who participate in the laboratory – as mentor or choreographer, as new scientist or dancer – eventually move on, further consolidating the legacy of their … Read more

Two worthy Utah Enlightenment examples: Dan Higgins’ In. Memory. Of, NOVA Chamber Music Series’ Micro-Concerto program

Two recent Salt Lake City performances once again highlight the creative entrepreneurial impact of the Utah Enlightenment. DAN HIGGINS: IN. MEMORY. OF., AN EVENING OF STORYTELLING AND DANCE Talkbacks after a performance or a screening of a new film can be risky, frustrating and deflating. There are plenty of justifications why many creative professionals hesitate … Read more

Regalia, Repertory Dance Theatre’s annual fundraiser, concert sets rigorous demands for choreographers with chance to win commission prize

The four choreographers who will participate in the competition part of Repertory Dance Theatre’s Regalia, the company’s largest annual fundraiser, will maximize the creative opportunity of every minute in the four and one-half hours they are allocated to compose and set a short dance work which audience members will see later that day. They may … Read more

Dan Higgins’ In. Memory. Of. focuses on stigma of mental illness, as part of Repertory Dance Theatre’s Link Series

The theme of lifting and eradicating the stigma of mental illness is prominent in Stephen Hinshaw’s book Another Kind of Madness: A Journey through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness (St. Martin’s Press, 2017). The UC-Berkeley psychologist is unfailingly honest in how he learned at the age of 18 about his father’s struggles with … Read more

Repertory Dance Theatre’s Emerge concert to feature slate of new works by company dancers

In the middle of a momentous season that already has brought thrilling performances of works representing the company’s artistic roots and new forms of storytelling in dance, Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) will mark the new year with Emerge, a portfolio concert of sorts featuring new dance compositions created by the dancers. Last year’s Emerge program … Read more

The rededication of spirit: Top 10 moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2017

It is not an artifice that the mind has added to human nature. The mind has added nothing to human nature. It is a violence from within that protects us from a violence without. It is the imagination pressing back against the pressure of reality. It seems, in the last analysis, to have something to … Read more

Unconventional holiday programming with the season’s perfect tone: Sackerson’s The Little Prince, Repertory Dance Theatre’s Top Bill

The challenge in any holiday season is to find fresh entertainment that carries a theme without resorting to conventional tropes or clichés. Two local companies have offered their own version of a holiday program not set necessarily in the season but with a spirit that fits perfectly into the celebration: Sackerson’s ongoing production of The … Read more