The time has come and the party is about to begin! RDT presents our 5th annual fundraiser REGALIA on March 7th. Every year, RDT receives choreographer applicants from across the nation and selects artists to compete for a commission in one of RDT’s season concerts the following season. The audience casts their votes and by donating money to the artist they enjoyed most. Which ever artist gains the most votes will receive the opportunity to create and present work with RDT. All funds that are raised are applied to RDT’s Arts-in-Education Outreach programs that serve thousands of students in Utah’s public education system. The past four years have brought exemplary and gifted artists to Regalia. But only one artist a year walks away with a commission promised and a blank canvas before them.

Previous winners of REGALIA include Andy Noble, Nichelle Woods, and Bryn Cohn. Last year’s winner was Nancy Simpson Carter, a dancer and aerialist working with Aerial Arts of Utah and Rumble Motion Massage and Movement as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Her piece, Little Fugue in G Minor, was performed in RDT’s fall show SOUNDS FAMILIAR.

Next week, we have the exciting opportunity to see five more choreographers compete for a commission with RDT. Read the bios of the competing artists below:

Chelsea Ainsworth

HUMA/Chelsea Ainsworth is the resident dance collective at Arts On Site NYC, a non profit organization dedicated to supporting the development of artists. HUMA provides movement classes, community outreach and performances. Since December 2016, HUMA has performed on many stages in New York City including Joe’s Pub, Soaking WET, Judson Church, Dixon Place, Arts On Site and Top Floor West Fest. HUMA’s Artistic Directors come from an international background of creating and performing work in places such as England, Germany, Israel, Spain, Japan, Philippines, West Africa, and the United States. The work uses partnering skills to explore the relationship between dependency and trust, playing with leading and letting go and listening to each other through movement.

Rachel Barker

Rachel Barker is dance-maker, teacher, and performer from Salt Lake City, Utah who loves the mountains and her bike. Her current research investigates meaning-making and human relationships through movement while exploring crossovers between dance and theater.  Rachel’s choreography has been presented at the Breaking Ground Festival (AZ), Seattle International Dance Festival, the North Carolina Dance Festival, On Site/In Site Festival (NC), the Dixon Place Theater (NYC), University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and venues throughout Utah, Washington, and Ohio. She is currently working on a dance film investigating the relationship between the moving body and the red rock environment of southern Utah. As a performer, she has worked with artists Bebe Miller, John Jasperse, Keith Johnson, Cyrus Khambatta, Donna Uchizono, and Helen Simoneau, among others. Rachel is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Brigham Young University, where she teaches composition, improvisation, contemporary technique, pedagogy, and kinesiology. Her article, “Educator, Artist, Researcher: A Synergistic Relationship” was published in the Dance Education In Practice journal, December 2018.  She holds an MFA from The Ohio State University, an MAT from Westminster College, and a BFA from the University of Utah.

Justin Bass

Justin Bass is from East Cleveland, Ohio and attended Kent State University and majored in Dance Education in 2009. In 2011 he transferred to SUNY Brockport and graduated in 2013 with his BFA in Dance. During his time at SUNY Brockport he was a touring and performing intern with Garth Fagan Dance, performing at renowned stages including The Joyce Theater. Justin was a former dancer for five seasons (2013-2018) with Repertory Dance Theatre. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY where he is continuing his choreography, teaching at 92^nd Street Y and working for The Wallace Foundation.

Brooklyn Draper

Brooklyn Draper is a performer, choreographer, educator, and researcher currently residing in Missoula, MT. She received her MFA from the University of Utah in 2019 and in 2012 she received a Post-Graduate degree from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in London, UK. Brooklyn has had the honor to perform In the U.S., China, and the UK and to work with over 20 choreographers including Hagit Yakira, Gary Lambert, Eric Handman, Pamela Geber Handman, and most recently Anouk van Dijk. 

Brooklyn’s choreographic work has been shown nationally and internationally through Mudson, WCDC, Artist Interrupted, Beijing Dance Academy (China), Bonnie Bird Theater (U.K.), Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (UT), Flatlands Dance Theater (TX), Utah Metropolitan Ballet, Utah Valley University, and University of Montana. Her most recent works “All Thorns and No Flowers” and “Void” premiered in Missoula, Montana Fall 2019. “Void” was recently chosen to be shown at the ACDA Northwest Conference in 2020.

​While attending the University of Utah, Brooklyn received a Certification as a Laban Movement Analyst through the Integrated Studies program. Brooklyn’s most recent research was a study under the mentorship of Tom Welsh, to determine the percentage of modern dance majors who have detectable Leg Length Discrepancies and correlations of self-reported orthopedic complications. Brooklyn was the recipient of the Sally Fitt Award Spring 2018 from the University of Utah and was also awarded the prestigious University Teaching Assistantship to design and teach her own course, “Collision Theory: The Essence of Collaboration” for Spring 2019. Brooklyn is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre & Dance at the University of Montana.

Stephanie Zaletel

Originally from Las Vegas, NV Stephanie Zaletel is a choreographer, dancer, mentor, wife, and educator currently working from Los Angeles, CA. Zaletel’s work emphasizes a holistic approach to contemporary dance forms and empowers dancers and non-dancers to access joy in their bodies around the country. Her choreography has been commissioned for various music videos, short films, colleges, institutions, and collaborations. Zaletel began her career dancing for artists including Barak Marshall, Colin Connor (Artistic Director, Limon), and Danielle Agami (Artistic Director, Ate9) before officially forming Stephanie Zaletel | szalt in 2015. Through szalt’s platform Zaletel has performed original works, led workshops, and held residencies at numerous notable venues and festivals across the U.S. including LA Dance Project, The Hammer Museum, LAX Festival, REDCAT, Arizona State University, Cornish College of the Arts, Tempe Center for the Arts, Loyola Marymount University, Ford Theatres, University of Central Missouri, California Institute of the Arts, and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Zaletel most recently choreographed for Lars Jan’s “The White Album” by Joan Didion which toured and premiered at Wexner Center for the Arts, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, the Freud Playhouse in partnership with CAP UCLA and Centre Theater Group, and internationally at Sydney Festival 2020. Zaletel is currently performing for Rosanna Gamson // World Wide in a new creation and collaborating on an independent opera project with Jodie Landau and Beth Morrison Projects for a world premiere at National Sawdust in New York in May 2020. Zaletel leads Dance Church in Los Angeles, an all-abilities movement class featured recently in Dance Magazine that offers a fun and inclusive approach to dancing for all bodies founded by a colleague, Kate Wallich in Seattle, WA. Zaletel holds a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography with a minor in Humanities from California Institute of the Arts.

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Tickets are still available for this unforgettable night of dance! Tickets include a lively cocktail party, drink tickets, appetizers, performance, and a dance party on stage!

Learn more & buy tickets at www.rdtutah.org/shows/regalia2020