RDT to Close 2013-14 Season with LAND, 4/10-12

Repertory Dance Theatre, America's premiere modern dance repertory company since 1966, will close the 2013-2014 season with a concert dedicated to the landscapes that surround us with LAND on April 10-12, 2014.

After spending 48 years creating new work and restaging modern dance masterpieces here in Utah, RDT will dedicate an entire evening to the beauty and majesty of the place we call home. From the towering red-rocks of Southern Utah to the lush wetlands and powerful mountains, Utah has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. And with choreography by Molissa Fenley, Shapiro & Smith, Ze'eva Cohen, and Zvi Gotheiner, RDT hopes to pay tribute to our home state's natural wonders.

Ze'eva Cohen's "Rainwood" is set to sounds of birds, frogs, and insects, "Rainwood" is a forest ritual that brings alive the creatures of the wilderness in a brilliant symphony of steps, crawls and twists. The dancers themselves become the music in a sweeping harmony of bodies and limbs. The dancers seem to be nature together and apart, nature at one with itself and nature in its multiplicity.

"Desert Sea" by Molissa Fenley was a commission for RDT in 2005 as part of the "Sense of Place" choreographer competition. Ms. Fenley was inspired the culture and history of the Native people living in the Colorado Plateau area. She used the geography and the geometric designs reminiscent of the weaving of the Native Americans as suggestion for dancers' movement and placement in space. Click here for video>>

The concert also features "Turf" by Shapiro & Smith, commissioned in 1997 with original music by Scott Killian. "Turf" makes an energetic and a witty statement about the spirit of friendly competition, ownership and territory. It was created as part of a series of Millennium Commissions leading up to the 2002 Winter Olympics which encouraged a way of living based on the joy found in effort.

Finally, long-time RDT collaborator, Zvi Gotheiner's work makes an appearance in "Erosion." Gotheiner and composer Scott Killian joined forces to create the piece, a tribute to the red-rock, canyon-lands area. The sculptural images in this piece create a timeless quality filled with reminders of the geology, the history , inhabitants, and the expansive projection of space and time.

In conjunction with the three-day performance, RDT will be hosting a 'land-inspired' art auction & sale titled, LAND 2 LAND in the Jeanne Wagner Gallery at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. Work from 15 local artists will be for sale in the form of a silent auction with proceeds benefitting RDT (split evenly with the artist). Starting on Monday, April 14, the showing will revert to a regular art sale running through the month of April. Some artists include Hadley Rampton, Deborah Brinckerhoff, and Dean Bradshaw. For a full list of artists and breakdown of how the auction will work, click here.

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