I am dictating this to my wife, Lea Vivante McKayle after a Black student in UCI posed me with a question and after I found out that my work CROSSING THE RUBICON caused a negative meeting of students at UCI and not the Moslem students. Hard for me to believe that RUBICON had its first performance on the same day the first Moslem ban was announced by our government. I am anguished, saddened and depressed by the deepening racial divide…
The story is now iconic. It has the quality of an urban legend, but it is indubitably true. Repertory Dance Theatre’s original home in the army barracks at the University of Utah was being demolished. RDT was homeless. Going here, going there . . . at one point “squatting” at the old Salt Palace. That they ended up in an old restaurant equipment warehouse on west Broadway (300 South) in Salt Lake City was indeed fortuitous. Who knew that the…
Can you believe it’s been 20 years since the Rose Wagner opened its doors? A Rose is a Rose. . . but there’s only one Rose Wagner, the arts complex of dance studios and small to mid-sized theaters in Salt Lake City, home of Repertory Dance Theatre. Affectionately known as “The Rose,” the brainchild of the Performing Arts Coalition formed in part by RDT’s own Linda C. Smith, turns 20 this year. Since then, the Capital City of Utah has…
Always in our memory. Kathleen McClintock McCormick. We called her KJ. She was a dancer with Repertory Dance Theatre from 1967-1974, during the formative years. Her beautiful dancing and vivacious spirit, her dynamic energy and charisma helped put RDT on the national dance map. Whether she was performing the seductive movement of John Butler’s The Initiate, or creating edgy drama in Richard Kutch’s The Brood, our KJ was incomparable. Smart and funny, spirited and genuine, Kathleen was and will be unforgettable. 1967-1972 | Member…
What is the difference between loneliness and being alone? Choreographer Francisco Gella attempts to answer that question here, along with the need to embody on stage the human impulse to be alone while fearing loneliness. His effort, filled with virtuoso contemporary movement and an unusual stage prop, makes its first appearance in his new commission for Repertory Dance Theatre titled Aloneness. Gella, an RDT alum dancer, took his inspiration (and the title of his new dance) from a children’s book by…
Repertory Dance Theatre has always been a revolutionary dance company, ever since a group of Salt Lake City dancers beat out the big city stalwarts and were awarded a Rockefeller Foundation grant to establish the first repertory dance company in the nation. The same can be said of of its innovative approach to fundraising galas. Thirteen years ago, RDT dancer and now Artistic Associate Nicholas Cendese came up with the idea of a choreographer competition in the spirit of TV’s…