Congratulations to 2013 Graduates
We extend our congratulations to all the graduates from in the University of Utah Ballet Department. Two students are receiving the MFA degree and twenty –eight students will receive the BFA. This is the largest BFA graduating class in recent memory. Even more impressive is that half of them have either a double-major (8) [Read More]
Congratulations Rachel Osterman
Congratulations Rachel Osterman Congratulations to Ballet BFA student Rachel Osterman on receiving the Student Mentor of the Year Award of the 2013 U of U Student Leadership Awards! More
Utah Ballet Opens Next Week!
Choreographers of the Far East – Ma Cong, Dr. Jung Sik Roh, & Jay Kim. March 22, 23, 28, 29, 30 – Tickets @ kingtix.com, 801.581.7100
Kelly Boal Master Class – February 9, 2013
Kelly Boal Master Class – February 9, 2013 Kelly Boal trained with Olga Kostritsky in her home town of Buffalo, New York and at the School of American Ballet under Suki Schorer, Alexandra Danilova and Stanley Williams among others. She joined the New York City Ballet in 1984 and received a promotion to the rank [Read More]
Live To Dance 2013 Concert Opens January 31st!
Be sure not to miss this year’s LIVE TO DANCE Jazz Dance Concert! It’s a high energy jazz dance concert featuring the University of Utah jazz dance students. It will include Hip Hop, Lyrical, Contemporary, Bollywood, Fosse, Broadway, Thrash and more!! Choreography by Director of Jazz, Tamara Squires, as well as guest artists Eldon Johnson, [Read More]
Utah Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’ Sells Out MCD
Utah Ballet, the Department’s premier company, presented Swan Lake to a sold-out theatre, in a private performance to donors to the College of Fine Arts, and to grade school children courtesy of a generous grant from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation. An excerpt was also featured at the College of Fine Arts Assembly, honoring distinguished alumni. [Read More]
Ballet West/UofU Ballet – Joint Trainee Program
The U and Ballet West have formalized a Joint Trainee Program that allows a select few students to take classes both in the Ballet Department and with Ballet West’s Professional Trainee Division. The students are also eligible to perform with both Ballet West and the Department of Ballet. This year there are three “Joint [Read More]
Professor Rick Wacko, Artist-In-Residence at CSU
During the month of September, Professor Richard Wacko traveled to CSU to be an artist-in-residence, conducting lectures on character dance history in relationship to dance history, teaching masterclasses, and setting traditional character choreography on CSU dance students. CSU students will be performing his choreography in November. Click here for more info.
CDE Performs for UN Day
CDE recently performed for invited guests at a celebration for UN Day in Utah. This event titled “Solutions for a Prosperous World” was held in the Panorama Room at the Olpin Union on campus, and featured speakers, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and Michael Beard. CDE performed several international choreographies from Italy, Belorussia and [Read More]
Tamara Squires/Students, Perform For U President
Tamara Squires, Director of Jazz Dance has been asked to perform and choreograph for the Inaugural President’s Dinner at the Grand America. She will be performing with the Jazz Dance faculty and students. It is part of Inaugural Week. The theme this year is ‘Imagine U’ and will explore the wonderful relationships that exist between [Read More]
Freshman Choreographs/Performs In Music Video
Chanel Kostich, Department of Ballet Freshman, was selected by Empath Media LLC to dance in a new music video with the band Cedar Breaks a local Utah band featuring unique, fresh, new age folk with strong harmonies & themes that cause thought & reflection. Chanel did an amazing job choreographing on herself to the song [Read More]
Laura Katz Rizzo – Dept. of Ballet Visiting Scholar
Professor Laura Katz Rizzo of Temple University will be visiting scholar / master teacher in residence from October 24 – 26, 2012. She is a ballet choreographer, scholar and pedagogue. Holding a Ph.D. in Dance Studies and a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies, she will lecture and lead discussions about the agency of women in [Read More]
Gerard Cuesta Workshop With CDE
The Department of Ballet was pleased to welcome back Gerard Cuesta, Basque and Spanish dance master to work with CDE. This was his second visit to share his knowledge and expertise with the Character Dance Ensemble. Thank you Gerard!
Elementary Students Attend Ballet Performance
On Friday September 28, 2012 three hundred children from East Midvale Elementary School, a Title I school, attended a performance of ballet. They watched nine original works that ballet majors had choreographed, cheering loudly for each performance. Rachel Osterman, Sorenson Dance Scholar, had provided their teachers with instructional material about ballet prior to the show. [Read More]
Sandra Birch Allen – Distinguished Alumna, Ballet
Sandra Birch Allen, BFA 1964, MFA 1967, Associate Professor of Dance at Brigham Young University, was named the 2012 Distinguished Alumna of the Department. Sandra began teaching at BYU in 1968, and rose to be the Ballet Division Administrator, basically creating, nurturing and growing the program of ballet studies at BYU for the past 44 [Read More]
Three Chosen as Sorenson Dance Scholars
Senior Rachel Osterman, junior Meredith Jones, and sophomore Jessica Cetrone were selected by the faculty to serve as Sorenson Dance Scholars. They will work to bring children from disadvantaged Title I elementary schools to campus to watch all of the department’s performances this year and to take the Character Dance Ensemble into local junior high [Read More]
Rob Wood, National Choreography Intensive
In July and August of this year, Rob Wood had the pleasure of serving as Director of Music for the National Choreography Intensive 2012 sponsored by Regional Dance America. It is Rob’s seventh year serving in the capacity. This year the Intensive was held in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and brought together 12 choreographers and 50 [Read More]
Sorenson Foundation Awards Grant to Ballet
The Sorenson Legacy Foundation has awarded the Department of Ballet and the Department of Modern Dance a $48,000 grant to support outreach and education in the public schools. The funds will permit the Ballet Department to bring children from disadvantaged Title I schools to campus to attend Friday morning performances. Students will see classical ballets [Read More]
Maggie Tesch Coaches A Winner In Beijing
Adam Sklute, Artistic Director of Ballet West, asked Professor Tesch to coach two of his young dancers for the 4th Beijing International Invitational for Dance Schools held this June, 2012. Dancers auditioned by DVD and the finalists were chosen to go to Beijing to compete in both classical and contemporary solos. There were only 16 [Read More]
Maureen Laird Guests, San Diego Civic Youth Ballet
Professor Laird was invited to teach and choreograph for the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet, the resident classical ballet school in Balboa Park. During the week of July 9th-13th Professor Laird taught Ballet Technique and Dance Conditioning classes to workshop participants and choreographed an original piece on the company. Her piece is schedule to be [Read More]
Jay Kim Presents in Korea
In June, 2012 Professor Kim was invited to serve as faculty for the Korea International Ballet Competition, a UNESCO-registered event in its 5th year. Professor Kim taught ballet technique classes and presented lectures to both competitors and workshop participants. In addition, he lectured on the subject of ‘The New Millennium Approach to Ballet’ at Sejong [Read More]
Recent Graduates Secure Jobs!
The graduating class of 2012 presented its final Ballet Senior Showcase on May 3, 2012 before dancing across the stage at Kingsbury Hall to receive their diplomas. They’re now off to perform and teach throughout the country. Congratulations to the following graduates on their employment: Madeline Bay accepted an apprenticeship contract with Ballet Idaho [Read More]
Ballet Seniors Leave Their Mark
The Department of Ballet graduating class of 2011-12 said farewell through movement on May 3rd, 2012, by gracing the stage of the Marriott Center for Dance one last time as undergraduate students. They did so with a dazzling concert featuring choreography, re-stagings, and performances by the Seniors, themselves. The production was produced by the Senior class [Read More]
Utah Ballet Opens This Week!
March 22 – 5:30pm March 23 – 7:30pm March 24 – 2:00pm and 7:30pm March 29 – 5:30pm March 30 – 7:30pm March 31 – 2:00pm and 7:30pm
MCD Theatre To Get New LED Lighting
A state-of-the-art LED lighting system will soon be installed in the Hayes Christensen Theater thanks to a grant from the University of Utah Office of Sustainability and additional contributions from Rocky Mountain Power, the College of Fine Arts and the Departments of Modern Dance and Ballet. The nearly $65,000 project for the Marriott Center for [Read More]
Anna Marra – Outstanding Senior
Anna Marra, Fall 2011 graduate, was nominated by the Ballet Faculty for the College of Fine Arts Outstanding Senior Award. Anna’s excellence in academics was an important reason for her nomination, given that Anna completed all three emphases in the Department (Performance, Teaching and Character Dance), completed a double major, getting a degree in [Read More]
Ballet Undergrad To Present At ACDFA
Senior Morgan Butler’s work, Illuminati, was selected by the Ballet Department faculty to be presented at the American College of Dance Festival Association Northwest Regional Conference, to be held in at the Marriot Center for Dance March 13 -16, 2012. Her work is a contemporary ballet danced by Madeline Bay, Alexa Daniels and Larissa Kogut [Read More]
Student Choreography Chosen for Competition
Junior Holly Martin entered her choreography from Student Showcase I into a choreography competition called Breaking Ground, created by CONDER/dance company in Tempe, Arizona. The competition was designed to select the pieces that would be presented in the Breaking Ground festival in January of 2012 from both student and professional choreographers. Holly’s choreography was selected [Read More]
Professor Maureen Laird Travels To Sarajevo
Professor Maureen Laird was invited to teach classes for the workshop program GENESIS:SARAJEVO during January, 2012. She also created original choreography for the culmination performance. Professor Laird taught classes to students of dance and to the general community in Sarajevo, Herzegovinia and Vukovar. GENESIS:SARAJEVO is a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading dance and arts education [Read More]
Department Students Perform with Ballet West
Ballet West’s recent production of Anna-Marie Holmes’ Don Quixote included five students from University of Utah’s Ballet Department. Adam Sklute and Pamela Robinson, the Artistic Director and Principal Ballet Mistress of Ballet West, auditioned students to participate in Don Q. and invited Leah Bonli, Megan Hustel, Christine Mathews, Janelle Melvin, and Katharine Nichols Grandstaff [Read More]