Dance
Ballet West serves up humor and visual splendor with a fresh “Cinderella” – Feb 08, 2025
Amy Potter and Hadriel Diniz in Ballet West’s Cinderella. Photo: Beau Pearson
Ballet West’s Cinderella is a timely work for February, both brightening up the winter gloom, and adding a touch of romance for Valentine’s Day.
Cinderella is the story of a mistreated young woman who, through help from a fairy godmother, goes in secret to a royal ball, falls in love with a prince, and lives happily ever after. Many versions of Cinderella focus on the romance, but Sir Frederick Ashton … Read More
Ballet West’s beloved “Nutcracker” remains spirited and delightful at 80 – Dec 07, 2024
Katlyn Addison and Adrian Fry in Ballet West’s The Nutcracker. Photo: Beau Pearson
Ballet West’s Nutcracker marks the beginning of the holiday season for many Utahns, and this year the company is celebrating the 80th anniversary of Willam Christensen’s historic production. Christensen’s The Nutcracker premiered in 1944 with San Francisco Ballet and was the first full-length production in America. Christensen brought his version to Ballet West in 1955, where it has been performed ever since.
The story of The Nutcracker opens at a … Read More
Ballet West exults with color and joy in “Pictures at an Exhibition” – Nov 09, 2024
Emily Adams and Victoria Vassos (above) in George Balanchine’s Serenade at Ballet West. Photo: Beau Pearson
Ballet West opened its season two weeks ago with a dark Jekyll and Hyde. The company’s second program of the season, Pictures at an Exhibition is its polar opposite, with three ballets that, in their own way, explore movement and feelings of playfulness and joy.
The program opened with George Balanchine’s Serenade, a work that has been popular at Ballet West for decades. On opening night, … Read More
Ballet West mixes it up madly with “Jekyll and Hyde” – Oct 27, 2024
Katlyn Addison and David Huffmire in Ballet West’s Jekyll and Hyde. Photo: Beau Pearson
Ballet West opened its 2024-25 season with Jekyll and Hyde, a retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic novella, choreographed by Val Caniparoli. This production is an exploration of opposites, not just in the dichotomy of the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but also presented through the details of the sets, costumes, music.
Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an allegory for man’s … Read More
Ballet West closes season with a colorful array of “Asian Voices” – Jun 07, 2024
Emily Adams in Phil Chan’s Amber Waves, part of Ballet West’s Choreographic Fest VI. Photo: Beau Pearson
This weekend Ballet West closes its 60th anniversary season with the “Choreographic Festival,” the company’s program focused on new works. Since 2008, this final program of the season has been an avenue for incubating new works from Ballet West dancers and emerging choreographers. In recent years, it has included premieres from other American and international ballet companies.
This year’s program is subtitled “Asian Voices,” and … Read More
Weimar-era “Green Table” proves a powerful experience in Ballet West program – Apr 13, 2024
Adrian Fry in The Green Table in Ballet West’s “Love and War” program. Photo: Beau Pearson
With “Love and War,” Ballet West offers a triple bill of diverse works, including a Utah premiere. All of these pieces showcase the dancers’ agility and wide range of expressive movement.
And Friday night’s opening performance at the Capitol Theatre, afford the company showed off its remarkably precise, well defined dancing both individually and as an ensemble.
The most successful of the three works was The … Read More
“Cinderella,” Stravinsky, and premieres in the spotlight in Ballet West’s 2024-25 season – Feb 29, 2024
Pictures at an Exhibition will be performed by Ballet West November 8-16. Photo: Beau Pearson
Ballet West will offer a lively array of events in its 2024-25 season, including four Utah premieres.
Following the Halloween tradition of the company’s popular Dracula, Ballet West will open the season October 25 with the local debut of Jekyll & Hyde. Based upon the celebrated Robert Louis Stevenson story, Jekyll & Hyde is choreographed by Val Caniparoli, with music of Chopin, Penderecki and Górecki.
Pictures at … Read More
“Swan Lake” takes flight in Ballet West’s elegant production – Feb 10, 2024
Emily Adams and Adrian Fry star in Ballet West’s Swan Lake. Photo: Beau Pearson
There is no question that Ballet West is this country’s leading regional ballet company. And that it is recognized nationally as a top-notch company should come as no surprise.
The ballet troupe’s remarkable artistry was on full display at Friday’s opening-night performance of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
The sold-out audience at the Capitol Theatre was treated to a superb production of this venerable and much-loved ballet. The performance by … Read More
Ballet West’s spirited “Nutcracker” returns for a welcome revival – Dec 11, 2023
Emily Adams and Hadriel Diniz in Ballet West’s Nutcracker. Photo: Beau Pearson
WASHINGTON. Nutcracker season is upon us. The Kennedy Center has taken to presenting its sumptuous performances of the Tchaikovsky favorite over Thanksgiving weekend, with a different American company invited each year in a pleasing rotation of different productions.
This year, Utah’s Ballet West made its fourth trip to the Opera House with its storybook staging, based on the first complete Nutcracker in the United States, choreographed by Willam F. Christensen.
Seen at the Sunday matinee performance, this visit offered a second chance to take … Read More
“Dracula” rises again in Ballet West’s devilishly entertaining revival – Oct 22, 2023
Amy Potter as Flora and Tyler Gum in the title role of Ballet West’s Dracula. Photo: Beau Pearson.
What are the odds of encountering Franz Liszt’s Totentanz on consecutive nights performed in two wholly different genres?
Such was the case with Liszt’s work—performed by pianist Joyce Yang with the Utah Symphony Friday night and then again as part of the score for Ballet West’s highly entertaining and atmospheric revival of Dracula Saturday at the Lawson Capitol Theatre.
Ben Stevenson’s devilishly clever adaptation, debuted at Houston Ballet in 1997, is becoming … Read More
