The Daily Utah Chronicle

In with the old, in with the new

By By Cressa Perloff | December 7, 2007

For more than 50 years, Ballet West has performed "The Nutcracker" around Christmastime. With traditional music by P.I. Tchaikovsky and choreography by local Willam Christensen, the show is a huge tradition and a huge production. Although the plot of the ballet varies slightly from one ballet company to another, a general synopsis is this: The show begins with a grand Christmas party, complete with costumes reminiscent of the late 19th century, when the ballet originally premiered in St.

From Theory to Movement

By By Cressa Perloff | November 30, 2007

This weekend, seven of the U modern dance department's third-year graduate students will reveal the results of years of research and training. There's no pressure on these graduate students in their final year at the U -- they're about to showcase the culmination of their graduate careers.

Art, meet science

By By Cressa Perloff | April 19, 2007

Arts and technology will unite this Thursday and Friday. In celebration of the U College of Fine Arts' creation of the Center for Interdisciplinary Arts and Technology, the College presents Media Experiments in Technology and the Arts. The performance includes faculty and students from the departments of dance, music, art and art history and the Arts Technology Program.

The ‘flight of imagination’

By By Cressa Perloff | April 13, 2007

Think you don't like dance? Think again. This weekend, Repertory Dance Theatre brings to the stage fire jugglers and twirlers, singers, dancers, actors, a wide variety of musical styles, large slides of paintings, a trapeze artist and an aerialist. And the group added as many pairs of identical twins as it could find.

These kids love to move

By By Cressa Perloff | March 30, 2007

Some kids dance because they like to wear tutus; others dance because they like to wear tap shoes. Some kids, however, dance in Virginia Tanner Creative Dance studios because they find joy in movement. The studios, nestled by the end of Legacy Bridge, offer creative dance classes for aspiring dancers ages two-and-a-half to adult.

Playing with verbs

By By Cressa Perloff | March 29, 2007

"Walk" is weak. Try "swagger," "saunter," "stroll" or "march." Believe it or not, these word choices make a significant difference in the world of journalism. Deborah Jowitt makes this kind of word choice every day. She has been writing about dance for the New York newspaper The Village Voice since 1967.

A return to roots

By By Cressa Perloff | March 16, 2007

Four years of college, and what have they got to show for it? A lot. This weekend, the U modern dance department is presenting Ultimate Dance Mix Vol. 1. Each year, U modern dance seniors choreograph their own pieces and present them in two separate concerts in the spring.

Listening to the Earth’

By By Cressa Perloff | March 16, 2007

Scene: 230 elementary school students. Forty U students. Some parents. A couple of babies. One stage. Who would have imagined such a thing could occur? Tandy Beal would have. "Listening to the Earth," a product of her creation, is in its 21st year. This year, U modern dance faculty member Kaye Richards coordinated and directed the project.

The luck of the thaw

By By Cressa Perloff | January 26, 2007

Hearing a story about a falling rock landing lightly next to a climber is enough to rack anyone's nerves. That's what makes SBDance's performance this weekend, "This Mortal Coil," so compelling. Not only does it tell the story, but it artistically manifests the choices of fate and the reactions of the climber.

Dance dialogue

By By Cressa Perloff | January 19, 2007

Wouldn't it be nice if all professionals saw working with students as give-and-take? Jen Nugent and Paul Matteson--the U modern dance department's current guest artists--share this view. The couple, who together form Nugent+Matteson Dance, are in residence here from New York City for two weeks, having arrived at the start of the term.