During our time with RDT, what is your favorite piece you have performed and why? During my six years on the company, I have performed around a hundred dances! Choosing just one of those is very difficult… So I’ll mention a few. We have a lot of Zvi Gotheiner’s work in our repertory, and dancing “Dabke” was certainly an unforgettable experience. We had the chance to perform it on three separate concerts, so we have greatly matured within it throughout…
Written by Linda C. Smith Artistic/Executive Director We live in a country like no other. As Americans, the landscape we call home has always been part of our continuing story. Since the early 1990’s, RDT has been commissioning works that celebrate and examine our human connection to land and water, critical issues here in America’s Mountain and Southwest regions. SANCTUARY focuses on landscapes that are mysterious and powerful. It is a concert designed to raise consciousness about how we relate…
In Part II, Linda C. Smith, RDT’s Executive/Artistic Director, reported on the group’s visit to Fry Canyon Ruin, the precipitious switchbacks of Moki Dugway and a kiva at the Cave Tower Ruin before the dancers spent time doing improvisation, culminating in a shamanic healing ritual by one of the Native American guides, Ida Yellowman (Dine). Here in the final installment, Part III, the group continues to the Moon House Ruin, The Procession Panel hike and a community gathering in Bluff, Utah,…
In Part I, Linda C. Smith, RDT’s Executive/Artistic Director, talks about the origins of RDT’s new commission, inspired by the recently proclaimed Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. To tour the Bears Ears is to enmesh in oneself in the cultures of Native Americans who have lived in this area from time immemorial. It is not only an opportunity to see this sacred land, but to hear the stories of the people who call this land home. Here in…
By Linda C. Smith Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), believes that each of us has a unique “sense of place” that can be explored through movement and art. Out of this impulse now comes RDT’s new initiative “Sacred Lands/Sacred Waters” and its first iteration, linked to the newly-proclaimed Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. Titled “Dancing the Bears Ears” this new commission has been hatching for over 25 years. Americans are faced with many concerns about the future of our…
Repertory Dance Theatre believes that each of us has a unique “sense of place” that can be explored through movement and art. RDT’s newest commission by Zvi Gotheiner, Sacred Lands/Sacred Waters, is the Company’s latest exploration, this time, linked to the newly-proclaimed Bears Ears National Monument in south-eastern Utah. This new work will be a tribute to Bears Ears, to the collaboration of Native tribes, and to the sacred spaces in each of our lives. RDT wants to honor the land,…