Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

What Sets Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company Apart from other Dance Companies?

• Performances for adults, families and young audiences.

• Original and new choreography

• The only dance company to perform a full evening of works by Alwin Nikolais, Nikolais Dance Theatre

• Residency work since the Company's inception

• The Company hosts a showcase of choreography by the most contemporary
  dance artists.

• Choreographers include: Wayne McGregor, Daniel Ezralow, Anne Carlson, Seán Curran, Douglas Nielson, Doug Varone, David Rousseve and others.

• Residencies and performances specifically tailored to the presenters needs

Before founding Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in 1964, Shirley Ririe and Joan
Woodbury helped create Choreodancers, a company of professional dance
performers and teachers. After the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company name became permanent, the company choreographed and performed in Utah and throughout Arizona, California and Colorado.

While assisting Alwin Nikolais in 1968 at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Joan accepted a Minnesota Arts Council invitation to perform at four colleges. The council asked if the company could be ready to perform in a week. "Yes, of course," Joan replied. She returned to Salt Lake City where she and Shirley choreographed a whole zany performance and lecture demonstration especially for the Minnesota tour. The resulting production was a hit. In 1971, the show was seen in Canada by representatives of the first U.S.-Canada dance conference. Performance invitations came immediately from the east and west coasts of both countries.

A breakthrough came in the following year when the company performed at The Space in New York through the generosity of Artistic Director Alwin Nikolais. Representatives of the National Endowment for the Arts attended the performance and accepted the company for the Endowment's Artists In Schools and Dance Touring Programs.

The company's acceptance in these prestigious programs offered new full-time touring as a national company and the most Artists In Schools performances in the United States of any company for 12 years. More than a third of all program performances were the result of the company's work and more than half of all program movement specialists were trained by Shirley and Joan.

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company was chosen to be part of the Dance On Tour state-touring program from 1990 to 1994 and performed in South Carolina, Kentucky, Montana and New Mexico. The company has become a Utah institution and is recognized as a successful modern dance company combining formal performances and community residencies.

Widely recognized, the Company continued to receive many international performance. In 1977 the International Congress of Girls' and Women's Sports invited the Company to South Africa for an extended tour of Capetown, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Pretoria, marking the first time that a nationally and racially diverse performing group had performed in those areas. In 1978 the company was chosen to represent the United States at the first Dance and the Child International meeting in Canada and traveled to Puerto Rico to conduct a two-week residency tour.

In 1980 Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company was selected as the first U.S. modern dance company to perform in Sibenik of former Yugoslavia. The company also performed in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore. During this year, Ririe-Woodbury became the first modern dance company to perform in Canton, China.

From 1987-1992 company tours included Europe, American Samoa, and the former Soviet Union. Just one month before the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the dancers performed in East Germany and were the first modern dancers to perform in Karl-Marx Stadt (now Chemnitz) in the former Soviet Union and East Berlin in 15 years. The company returned to Chemnitz in 1991.

1993 led the company to the young republic of Slovenia which is part of former Yugoslavia. The company performed a benefit fundraiser for the 70,000 Bosnian war refugees who were seeking shelter in 53 collection centers in Slovenia. The highlight of the tour was a particularly moving performance for 500 refugees in a Maribor collection center. Slovenia invited Ririe-Woodbury back for a two week tour in July, 1996. 

Ririe-Woodbury is known for its tremendous work in the education system of Utah. After working with teachers and students in schools for many years, Ririe-Woodbury formalized its education program and named it Step Lively. Step Lively is a statewide program designed to assist classroom teachers in meeting the objectives of the Utah Fine Arts Core Curriculum. Ririe-Woodbury has pioneered dance education in Utah and throughout the United States.

The history of Ririe-Woodbury and the strength of its co-founders and dancers built a company that fosters stability and growth in the development of modern dance throughout the world. The company's mission will carry the performing arts and dance education into the next century.

TOURING PROGRAMS:

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company is dedicated to furthering contemporary, multi-media, dance by creating and performing original and innovative works of the highest quality modern dance, and promoting the understanding of and appreciation for the art form of dance, in the belief that Dance is for Everybody!

• We accomplish our mission by reaching our goals of:

• Commissioning choreographers of exceptional talent

• Touring regionally, nationally and internationally

• Preparing dancers as performers, teachers and choreographers

• Providing dance education in communities and schools

• Broadening and deepening the dance experience for audiences of all ages

REPERTORY:

1.) Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company performs dances from their repertory by the following choreographers:

Chia-Chi Chiang . Charlotte Boye-Christensen . Loa Clawson . Seán Curran . Della Davidson . Laura Dean . Daniel Ezralow . Abby Fiat . Keith Johnson . Stephen Koester . Wayne McGregor . Alwin Nikolais . Jerry Pearson . Shirley Ririe . Pascal Rioult . David Rousseve . Shapiro and Smith . Joan Woodbury . Doug Varone

2.) Fully Produced Shows for Families and Young Audiences by Joan Woodbury and Shirley Ririe Circle Cycle *, On the Move*, Objects & Places *

* Dances are original works choreographed for and on the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

NIKOLAIS DANCE THEATRE
PERFORMED BY RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE COMPANY
ARTISTIC DIRECTORS: MURRAY LOUIS AND ALBERTO DEL SAZ

Alwin Nikolais was the master of innovative and startling dance. Each of his works is their own complete multi-media theater of abstraction for which he designed projections, sound, lighting, choreography and costumes making the dance a visual and kinetic art. nikolaislous.org

Dances performed will include: Crucible, Lythic, Blank on Blank, Liturgies, Noumenon, Mechanical Organ, Tensile Involvement and Tent. (10 dancers)

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS:

For additional details: www.ririewoodbury.com/education.php 

Concert Performance
Company Rehearsal
Open Rehearsal (Day of Show)
Performance Demonstration
Mini Performance Demonstration
Improvisation Jam
Modern Dance Technique
Choreography
Company Class
Dance Improvisation
Repertory
Partnering
Contact Improvisation
Creative Movement for Children
Classroom Visit

Other Dance Classes:
Ballet for beginners or Ballet for Modern Dancers
Jazz
Hard Moves for Tough Kids
Country Swing (2 step/waltz)
Pilates Conditioning
Folk Forms

Special Workshops and Lectures:
Teacher In-Service Training
Parent-Child Workshop
Movement for Actors
Beginning Yoga
Creative Movement for Seniors
Special-Population Movement
Dance for Gymnastics and Other Beginners
Special-Topics Lecture
Cultural Exchange
Physical Conditioning for the Active Individual

Technical Theatre/Dance:
Communicating With Your Techie
An Introduction to Technical Theater for Dance
Digital Sound Editing for Dance

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

"[The] works showed that the six dancers could fill a stage with playful, delicious moves and minimalist, ultra-modern repetitions.  The dancers' collective style can best be described as controlled attack.  They held nothing back, but they were never sloppy."  Cincinnati Enquirer

"McGregor's piece, 'Series 1,' was full of extremes and structural discovery.  The work was witty but not funny; natural, yet industrial; unpredictable but sensible; angual and expansive.  The dancers were serious but not mournful.  The controlled chaos looked new, feisty and splendid." Salt Lake Tribune

"With slow, deliberate lines and quick, breath-taking pauses, this segment mesmerizes views while priming the audience for the kinetic [finale]. ['Down by the River'] is beautifully crafted and made by the dancers to look fluid and easy."  The Deseret News

"The barre has been raised for the R-W dancers and they have met it.  The company's physical and artistic sensibilities have never been stronger or sharper...Boye-Christensen's 'Rite of Spring,' set to Stravinsky's famous score, was musical, sculptural and sensual."  Salt Lake Tribune

"The magic of these productions can delight theatregoers of all ages. Lovers of Harry Potter's wizardry will be enchanted by that of Alwin Nikolais." The New York Times

"Alwin Nikolais left us in 1993, and his company was kept alive until 1999 by his friend and collaborator Murray Louis. Today it is Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company from Salt Lake City (founded and directed by two dancers-choreographers close to Nikolais) that dedicated an entire program to the inspired American choreographer. A creator unique in his genre, he composed the music for his performances, designed the sets and the costumes, adjusted the lighting, and painted the slides that are projected on the bodies of the dancers.

"Since his beginnings at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in 1968, he performed more than 30 ballets at the Theatre de la Ville with his company. And it is with the same excitement that we rediscover some pieces created more than 50 years ago, interpreted by ten young, enthusiastic dancers, whose arms, through Nikolais's magic, become swan's necks and whose feet become giraffe's heads, (such as in "Crucible") with irresistible mirror games. 

"Restored by the faithful Murray Louis and Alberto del Saz, all of his pieces astonish the same as they did the first day. Le Figaro

"Seven pieces are danced at the Theatre de la Ville, and his former students pay him tribute.  Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) is back. Eleven years after his death, 25 years after his nomination to the head of the school of the National Center of Contemporary Dance (CNDC), this American master of the
abstract, choreographer, and teacher, whose pedagogical method still influences many dancers, is the center of one week of festivities at the Theatre de la Ville. Seven of his pieces are interpreted by an American company, the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company." Le Monde

"Few, if any, wrinkles; only those belonging to great works. To the masters whose style is identifiable in the first seconds. The tribute to Alwin Nikolais, designed by the Ririe Woodbury Company, is a delight of an evening. An enchantment composed of seven pieces or excerpts created by the choreographer, painter, musician, costume maker, Alwin Nikolais between 1953 and 1985. We knew that the choreographer Alwin Nikolais had the sense of imagery. But above the seduction, the rigorous construction, the almost architectural sense of space, and the graphic movement, the malice and the humor astonish with their modernity, sometimes fifty years later. The cleverly composed program let us catch the facets of the prolific artist, who created the first multimedia masterpieces." Lyon Figaro

"After a 12-year absence, Alwin Nikolais returned to Paris last night, and he couldn't have found a better vehicle for his resurrection on the stage of the Theatre de la Ville - Sarah Bernhardt than the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company...Judging from the involvement of the Paris audience - in a rare occurrence, they didn't wait until the end of the show but responded with rhythmic clapping even at the intermission curtain - French audiences want more of this. I hope and pray the presenters are listening...The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company has not only delivered Nikolais intact, but sends a dispatch, if you will, from a more contemporary American dance community that is ready to thrill and delight French Audiences and that, notwithstanding their dour, studious expressions, this audience is crying out to be engaged." The Dance Insider

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

(see attached Word document)