By Jessica Ballard
Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company
Salt Lake is home to the internationally renowned Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company making it one of the growing hotspots for dance in the country, which has even caught the attention of producers for shows like “So You Think You Can Dance.” Ririe-Woodbury is at the forefront of this dance scene offering Utah audiences the opportunity to see premiere dance works by world-renowned choreographers, reconstructed ballets by dance/theatre wizard Alwin Nikolais, and cutting-edge performances for which New York audiences would pay twice as much.
Why are people drawn to Ririe-Woodbury? Perhaps because of the reputable choreographers that include Tony Award nominee Karole Armitage and New York choreographer John Jasperse. Or it may be the music, with everything from The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs to The Doors and from Philip Glass to the opera diva Maria Callas. Audiences know they will be entertained, but they will also find something unexpected. Be it the dance, music or unique collaborations with local artists.
One attendee admitted that he came to a performance because he read that the Company would be using the music of Nick Cave. “As cliché as I will sound mentioning this,” he reported later, “the performance moved me. The dedication to the art by the dancers was awe inspiring. It has taken three decades for an unsophisticated schmo like me to give modern dance a chance, but now I look forward to future performance.”
Artistic Director Charlotte Boye-Christensen intends to make the Company known for artistic excellence locally, nationally and internationally. “My aim is to provide our audience with an experience of the utmost quality, to provide dance that is exhilarating, moving, innovative and provocative,” she says. “In continually pushing boundaries in our work, as great art must, our dance aims to both invite and invigorate reflection on life.”
Ririe-Woodbury continues to do just that in its 2009-2010 Season in Salt Lake City and abroad. Two New York choreographers, Karole Armitage and John Jasperse, will create new dances for the Company to premiere in Salt Lake before they are toured across the country. Armitage, who earned the title “Punk Ballerina” by Vanity Fair Magazine in the 1980s, draws from her classical ballet but is famous for her interface with pop culture including choreographing for celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Madonna.
A month-long tour to France in October 2009 kicks off the Alwin Nikolais Centennial, a two-year tribute to this choreographic genius. Ririe-Woodbury is the only professional dance company authorized to perform full evening works of this legend. The Alwin Nikolais Centennial will tour around the country, Western Europe and spend a week performing at the Joyce Theatre in New York City, May 2010.
There is clearly a reason that Ririe-Woodbury’s 2003 performance in New York City was called “One of the Ten Best Dance Events of the Year” by the New York Times. But instead of buying a plane ticket to New York just head into downtown Salt Lake for a quality dance theatre experience.
Details
General information: 801-297-4241
Tickets: 801-355-ARTS
Location: Performances are held in Salt Lake City at Capitol Theatre (50 W. 200 South) and Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (138 W. 300 South)
Season schedule
Equilibrium, Sept. 24-26, 2009
Gravity, Dec. 17-19, 2009
Circle Cycle, Jan. 29-30, 2010
Propel, April 22-24, 2010
Now Utah staff is here to keep you informed about what's happening in your world. 
