Repertory Dance Theatre's COMPASS Coming to the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in November

Repertory Dance Theatre continues their 56th season with COMPASS, featuring choreography from Martha Graham, Bebe Miller, and Ihsan Rustem, this November. The performance will take place at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center with limited seating capacity to account for social distancing, November 18-20. For those who are unable to attend in person, the concert will be available in a virtual, on-demand format starting November 26.

With choreography ranging from 1936 to today, RDT uses history to guide us into the present. Featuring choreography by Martha Graham, Bebe Miller, and Ihsan Rustem, this diverse program highlights a wide range of modern dance styles across decades and techniques.

The earliest work on the program is Steps in the Street by Martha Graham, choreographed in 1936. Steps in the Street depicts the isolation and desolation that war leaves in its wake. The dance was a response to the menace of fascism in Europe.

Earlier that year, Graham had refused an invitation to take part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, stating: "I would find it impossible to dance in Germany at the present time. So many artists whom I respect and admire have been persecuted, have been deprived of the right to work for ridiculous and unsatisfactory reasons, that I should consider it impossible to identify myself, by accepting the invitation, with the regime that has made such things possible. In addition, some of my concert group would not be welcomed in Germany" (a reference to the fact that many members of her group were Jewish).

When asked about the work by Forbes in 2019, Martha Graham Company's Artistic Director Janet Eilber said, "The geometry of the work is so powerful and evocative that it's traveled well through time and speaks to people of any era who are going through a trauma of any time." RDT will perform this work with guests from Utah Valley University.

RDT will bring back Event by Bebe Miller, a piece the company commissioned in 2018. Event is an exploration into the relationships between people, and the differences among them. Miller is an internationally renowned artist who has been called, "a tender visionary, a subtle social and political commentator." (The Village Voice)

Bebe says: "I love to watch people. We are all movers. We all have a movement signature. This is something we do as a human society. There is something about the physical language of the human condition that interests me. Sometimes it is more abstract than others. As a choreographer, I want to communicate who we are together as humans. I am not a storyteller, but I am fascinated by "storiness."

After the piece premiered in 2019, Les Roka of The Utah Review said, "The most fascinating elements were how Miller exploited the dancers' natural spatial relationships in movement (particularly how they overlap as well as separate from one another) and the choreography generated plenty of surprises along the way."

The final, and most recent work on the program will be the world-premiere of Hallelujah Junction by British choreographer Ihsan Rustem. While residing in Zurich, Ihsan is currently the Resident Choreographer for the NW Dance Project in Portland, Oregon and has received numerous accolades including "Up & Coming Choreographer" by Nederlands Dans Theater and Dance Magazine's 2017 Readers' Choice Award for Best Collaboration.

In the creation of this commission, Rustem focused on the celebration of being back together and the joy of dancing. In the program notes, Rustem says, "Pure joy. That was the one driving force behind this creation. As the first work to be created coming out of the challenges of 2020, I had one simple desire - to go back to the source. The very essence of why we all partake in this craft and why we share this. In this work, I have pushed the boundaries of contact, musicality, and speed. The 1998 score of John Addams' 'Hallelujah Junction', with its charged, driven and challenging melodies seemed the perfect companion and backbone for this creation."

All patrons attending COMPASS in-person will be required to wear a mask throughout their time in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. Additionally, seating is limited to allow for social distancing between parties. All dancers have been vaccinated and will be tested prior to the performance.

After a successful opening concert, NORTH STAR, RDT hopes to continue guiding audiences back to the theater safely.

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