Celebrating the College of Fine Arts’ 75th year at the University of Utah, the School of Dance presents “Alchemy” at Kingsbury Hall on April 19 and 20. “Alchemy” is a three-piece program in collaboration between the School of Dance and three major dance companies based in the Salt Lake Valley: Ballet West, Repertory Dance Theatre and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Ballet West presents an abbreviated “Coppélia,” RDT presents “Passengers” and Ririe-Woodbury presents “The Parable.” This was an intentional, educational and well-executed show, so let’s get into the why and the what.
‘Coppélia’
The show begins with “Coppélia.” Before each piece in the program, an informative video plays with the person who helped set the piece on the dancers explaining the history of the piece and the company they work with. School of Dance professor Tauna Hunter explained how after Willam F. Christensen worked at the San Francisco Ballet in the 1930s-40s, he started a ballet school and later a professional ballet company in Utah, known as Ballet West. Hunter also explains that “Coppélia” is a significant ballet in Christensen’s repertoire, so to have the students bring to life elements of that ballet is very special. The piece was special indeed, with beautiful and vibrant costumes, restored by the School of Dance costume department and placed and energetic dancing. “Coppélia” brought dance technique and high production quality to the forefront, demonstrating with ease the expertise of the School of Dance ballet department. An abbreviated version of the full length ballet, the Mazurka, Wheat Pas de Deux and Wedding Pas de Deux had beautiful dancing with the pas couples giving standout performances.
‘Passengers’
After a brief pause, “Passengers,” in collaboration with Repertory Dance Theatre, is presented. “Passengers” was choreographed by Viola Farber in 1970 for University of Utah students. RDT artistic director Linda C. Smith stated in the brief introductory video that this piece seemed fitting to bring back to the U as it continues to reflect RDT and the U’s relationship over the years. “Passengers” is a unique modern work in that the whole piece is on an empty stage, and fabric “legs” that normally define the space are “flown out” so as to not be seen. Additionally, the piece has no music. Instead, microphones pick up sounds from the dancers to make an audio track. Yet the most interesting part of the piece is the choreography, whose structure is decided by the dancers, who keep track of time on stopwatches, choosing what to perform out of 30 possible sections. This piece had many comedic moments as well as demonstrating the dancer’s athleticism, making watching the piece more like an interactive experience than passive viewing.
‘The Parable’
The final piece of the night was “The Parable,” a new work choreographed by Daniel Charon, the artistic director of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in collaboration with the School of Dance dancers. This was my favorite piece of the night. Charon shared that the piece was based on collaboration and a joyful love of dance in the intro video, which was beautiful to see with lots of light, color and high quality dancing. The piece has a large cast of dancers in flowy colorful costumes designed by the School of Dance costume department. As they dance, interacting with the space and each other, we see a set of rectangles, originally thought to be interesting shapes as scenic backgrounds. In fact, they are enormous white blocks the dancers move around the space, dancing, defining and building space with. This piece was very beautiful and something new I had not seen before.
Reaching New Heights Through Collaboration
“Alchemy” brought Ballet West, Repertory Dance Theatre, the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and the U together to present a show reflecting on where we came from, where we are and where we could go. School of Dance director Melonie Murray introduced the show as a “legacy concert” she has wanted to put on for years. Reflecting on where dance in Utah has come from and how many of these paths intersect with the learning environment presented by the University of Utah School of Dance was very informative and inspiring. Dance in Utah is something great, yet it’s only the beginning and “Alchemy” aims to show that.
