Professor. Performer. Newlywed. New mom. Choreographer. University of Utah adjunct professor Christine Moore brings a lot of life experience into the classroom.
Moore was born and raised in Canada. Her parents encouraged her to try different activities before she fell in love with dance.
“They never really pushed me any direction, which I’m grateful for,” Moore said.
When Moore asked her parents when they knew she would be a dancer, she recalls them saying “I don’t know, you just always wanted to do it. You pushed yourself.” While in Canada, Moore attended a professional ballet school, but she remembers struggling to find her place in ballet.
“I’m really tall,” Moore explained. “Back then they didn’t like tall dancers so much.”
Her then-unappreciated height led her to look for opportunities to perform outside the ballet world, and musical theater seemed to be a good fit.
Two of Moore’s favorite musical theater performances was when she was in “White Christmas” two separate times — once as a chorus ensemble member and another time as Rhoda, one of the two showgirls.
“To me, that was such a beautiful show to do,” Moore said.
Another gig she had a blast doing was the 2007 movie “Hairspray.” She was an auditionee for the “The Corny Collins Show” on the film.
“It was fun to be a part of it and to be on set,” Moore said.
Moore initially went to graduate school because she was ready to transition into the next phase of her life. She looked at a few different schools and decided to go back to the U, where she had completed her undergraduate degree as a ballet major in 2002.
“I think you have to decide where you’re going to put your emphasis, and if you want a family you need to focus on having a family,” Moore said.
She headed to graduate school ready to settle down. Being in theater and only living in a location for a couple of months had made dating impossible for her.
“It’s like, I don’t want to be single forever, and I want to be able to date and have a family and have kids,” Moore said.
She began teaching at the U during her graduate studies as a part of her scholarship and graduated with an master’s in fine arts in 2011. After receiving her master’s, Moore went home to Canada and booked a show, but she was offered a teaching job at the U that would conflict with the first week of the semester.
“I turned down performing the show and I still miss it,” Moore said. “I still wish I was on stage, I miss that part of what I loved, but life happens.”
Instead of performing, Moore now spends time choreographing. ,
“That is another way I feel like I can perform without being on stage,” Moore said.
Moore fulfilled her dream of starting a family when she walked down the aisle in August, 2016, and she had a baby girl in August, 2017.
“I’m 36, and if you want more than one [child], which we do, we had to get on it,” Moore said with a laugh.
With an academic education in ballet and life experience in musical theater — like auditioning in New York City without any background — Moore brings unique knowledge to impart to her students. Moore has learned that anything you want takes hard work. She encourages students to keep going and not take no for answer. Being a mom has helped her cultivate her never-quit attitude.
“This is like anything. When [you] learn to swim or ride a bike, it takes time,” Moore said.
Moore foresees being on stage again, but for now, she is happy teaching, choreographing, being a mom and a wife.
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