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
by Stephen Trimble The leaders of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition use the word “healing” whenever they define their relationship with the redrock of Utah's public lands. Eric Descheenie says, “By protecting these sacred ancestral lands we can take an important step towards healing.” Descheenie, a Navajo, emphasizes this “indigenous truth” as the foundation for all discussions about why
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
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
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”
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
Choreographer Zvi Gotheiner explores the choreography of DABKE and his relationship with RDT. DABKE runs April 6-8, 2017 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. This video will open the show. Learn more and get tickets here. ABOUT ZVI GOTHEINER ZVI GOTHEINER was born and raised in a kibbutz in northern Israel. Zvi began his artistic career as a gifted violinist with
Many countries have a national dance. The Polish have the polka, the Catalans have the Sardana, the Greeks have the Kalamatianos dance. Jordan and much of the Arab world refer to their ritual line dance as the dabke, while the Chinese are perhaps best known for the dragon and lion dances which stem from the Han Dynasty. But what is the
Repertory Dance Theatre is the only dance company to receive a grant from the (currently) embattled Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and at the time (2011) the Company took some hard hits from Utah's congressional delegation, two of whom argued that, especially during a recession, funding from the Federal Government to a modern dance company--even one as celebrated as