Regalia 2023

February 4, 2023

04

February

REGALIA 2023

February 4, 2023
RDT's Annual Choreographer Competition & Fundraiser that lets the audience award a commission.
RDT's annual choreographic competition returns LIVE... a party, a process, a performance... as four choreographers create new work in record time to vie for an RDT commission.
On Saturday, February 4 - 4 choreographers created new works in just 4 hours. They were performed that evening and audience members could VOTE to determine which choreographer is awarded a commission for RDT next season. Now YOU have the chance to view and vote for your favorite.   Voting continues until 5 pm MST on February 11, 2023. The winner will be announced at 6 pm.  

And the winner is....

Thank you to everyone who voted!
COMPETING CHOREOGRAPHERS
Click on the choreographer to view their interview & performance videos.
Regalia Choreographer
Regalia Choreographer
Choreographer
Regalia Choreographer
SPONSORS

YOUR HOSTS

Angela Banchero-Kelleher

Angela Banchero-Kelleher

Angela Banchero-Kelleher, MFA, is a Professor of Modern Dance at Utah Valley University. She has had a professional career spanning twenty five years, including 15 years with Repertory Dance Theatre.  RDT’s mission to preserve the best of Modern Dance has been a significant influence in Angela’s academic career, leading her to write several grants to create connections between UVU dance students and RDT.  Recent projects include facilitating with RDT the restaging of There is a Time, by Jose Limon and Steps in the Street, by Martha Graham.  Angela was privileged to have performed Ekstasis, a recreation of one of Martha Graham’s earliest solos, with RDT this past season.  Her performance/teaching career has taken her to venues worldwide allowing her to share her view of dance.  Angela is currently pursuing scholarship that reflects her interest in dance as a vehicle for social and political activism.  She has presented her scholarly research internationally, co- publishing a paper in the International Journal of Arts in Society. Her choreography has been presented nationally and internationally; with Lacuna and Blackbird most recently presented in several European venues.  Her piece, Material Tokens of the Freedom of Thought, is in the repertory of RDT.

Justin Bass

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. Justin was a former RDT dancer for five seasons (2013-2018). Justin presented his choreography in RDT’s EMERGE and developed three evening-length concerts of his works. In 2020, Justin won RDT’s Regalia choreographic competition and created RESET which premiered Oct 2020 in RDT’s DOUBLE TAKE concert. He presented his first choreographic work titled “Low Key Stressed, High Key F’Ning It Up” in Brooklyn this past year as recipient of the Triskelion Arts Split Bill series grant. As of 2023, he resides in Brooklyn, NY where he is continuing his choreography, teaching at 92nd Street Y and working for The Wallace Foundation where he also created a monthly artist salons series which provides a virtual platform and funding for emerging artist for the last two years.

Honoring Jean Irwin
Each year at REGALIA, RDT honors a someone who has impacted the organization in a meaningful way. This year, we honor Jean Irwin.

Jean Tokuda Irwin is a visual artist, believes in kintsugi, the Japanese art of embracing imperfection and the value of tsundoku (owning many unread books), global travel, saving this planet, and life-long learning. She is AE Manager for Utah Arts & Museums. Service includes NEA, IMLS and U.S. President’s Committee for Arts & Humanities Youth Arts. She served on National Assembly of States Arts Agencies’ AE Leadership Advisory Group; as a non-indigenous representative on the Utah American Indian/Alaskan Native Education Committee and is currently in partnership with BYU Arts Partnership Native American Curriculum Initiative. She recently joined the board of Local Learning (National Network/Folk Arts in Education. She served on the Coalition for Minorities Advisory Council/State Board of Education; the National PTA Diversity Committee and NPTA board; piloted dance, film/video for Reflections, later adopted by NPTA. Awards include: SLC Mayor’s Individual Arts; Human Rights Award/Utah Counselor’s Association; Ruby Chacon Award-Arts & Social Justice; Sorensen Legacy Award-Lifetime Achievement in Arts Education; Special Recognition Award/Utah Cultural Alliance; Americans for the Arts Education Award, 2020; and in 2022, the NASAA Individual Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Texas – Permian Basin.

"Few dance companies in the U.S. would take the audacious path of holding a choreographer’s competition in which the audience determines the winner with the prize of a commission for a composition to premiere in the company’s next season. However, the format of Regalia, the largest fundraising event each year for Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), has proven to be a winner, capped by consistently excellent premieres of new work in the following seasons."

Les Roka / The Utah Review

"I come almost every year. I sort of miss the hilarity from when it was kind of a fake contest, but I do like that it's a real prize for the winner, and I like coming back to see the final work."

Attendee / Regalia 2020

Former Winners

2022
Tyler Schnese

2021
Kaley Pruitt
2020
Justin Bass
2019
Nancy Simpson Carter
2018
Bryn Cohn
2017
Nichele Van Portfleet
2016
Andy Noble
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