“Out of old tales, we must make new lives,” the great literary scholar Carolyn Heilbrun once wrote. For London audiences still feeling weary after World War II, the Cinderella fairy tale took on a spectacular new life in the ballet choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton to the music of Sergei Prokofiev. Seventy-seven years later, Ballet … Read more
Few stories have been so versatile for adaptation than Cinderella. There have been versions for children’s theater, pantomime, opera, comic theater, vaudeville, burlesque, melodrama, risqué sendups, Christmas shows, rock music adaptations with Cinderella as antiheroine, television productions, mainstream and art films in many languages (more than 140 versions just of the fairy tale) and the … Read more
An encouraging trend in the contemporary performing arts era is that once a new work has its premiere, it nevertheless remains an organic piece, open to revision, restaging, expansion and finetuning. For Re-Mix, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s upcoming production, three previously performed works, including one that will be a company premiere, are restaged in a fresh … Read more
If audiences are worried that modern dance might be too abstract or opaque to understand their meaning, productions such as Repertory Dance Theatre’s Emerge, which has become a splendid New Year’s tradition over the last decade, can put novices in dance appreciation at ease. For example, Steve & Jim, Jim. & Steve: Another Modern Dance … Read more
What has become a worthy New Year’s tradition in the Salt Lake City performing arts scene returns this week, as Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) presents Emerge, an annual showcase of original choreography by company dancers, along with Nicholas Cendese, associate executive and artistic director. A community focus has been evolving in recent Emerge editions but … Read more
For many in Salt Lake City, the greatest source of pride has been Willam Christensen’s efforts to make the first American version of The Nutcracker, which he transported from its San Francisco premiere in 1944 to the University of Utah in the 1950s and eventually to its permanent spot in the Ballet West repertoire. One … Read more
Last year, Repertory Dance Theatre’s world premiere performance of Natosha Washington’s I AM…, which the company commissioned, was outstanding. Coming 13 months later, in line with the company’s season theme of Reflection, the eight dancers, joined by narrator and singer Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, took the evening-length work to new heights in a riveting display of spectacular … Read more
A roundup of several performing arts events this month in Salt Lake City: NOVA Chamber Music Series: Musical Marriages Two musical marriages — one from the 19th century and the other from current times — made for a splendid NOVA Chamber Music Series concert earlier this month. The first half was dedicated to Anthony Cheung … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: This preview of Natosha Washington’s I AM, which Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) will reprise this week, was published in 2023, just ahead of the work’s world premiere. Just as essential as a choreographer’s skills in setting the most impactful movement upon a dance company in the studio is their capacity to trust the … Read more
From 1910, in his seminal art theory book, On the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian painter who was one of the greatest early abstract artists, envisioned the concentric trinity of the visual arts, music and dance as separate in that each “has its own strength which cannot be substituted for another,” but also … Read more