Les Roka

Not wasting any time after concluding its superb production of Romeo & Juliet, Ballet West will open a twin-bill Nov. 7, with weddings as centerpieces in both works.  A delightful gem, Sir Frederick Ashton's The Dream, a Victorian-era adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, blends classical ballet with theatrical comedy, including a male dancer...

“Only one who knows English in its Elizabethan fullness, who can ride with gusto the Elizabethan winds of rhetoric, lyric, and vituperation, who puts no bounds to the theater’s mirroring of nature and release of imagination, can bring to Shakespeare’s plays their merited acceptance with open arms and heart,” the American historian Will Durant wrote,...

The historical significance of Ballet West’s 62nd season opener, Romeo & Juliet, for the company cannot be overstated.  As early as the late 18th century in Italy, ballet versions of Shakespeare’s famous play were being staged and in the first decades of the 1800s, versions cropped up in Denmark and Russia. But it was Sergei...

EDITOR’S NOTE: For a detailed rundown of the 2025 slate for the Utah Queer Film Festival, see this link. At a hostile, polarizing time like now, many people understandably demur from being unapologetic about expressing their authentic selves. And, with that in mind, the 22nd edition of the Utah Film Center’s Utah Queer Film Festival...

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the curtain raiser of the 2025 Utah Queer Film Festival, see this link. The theme of fearless queerness permeates the slate of six feature-length documentaries and 40 short films in this year’s Utah Queer Film Festival slate. In some instances, the theme is fully manifested, while in others, it starts from a...

In the video for Noble Rise, the epitome of musical collaboration is dynamic. An exquisite conversation is captured in a montage with alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin on her solos and her core band Phoenix in the studio while fellow alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins plays his solos from his home. Joining in is guitarist Mark Whitfield....

Choreographic works encompassing a tongue-in-cheek reflection upon the sacred and profane cultural dimensions of the many representations of Maria in Latin America, an inspired commentary on sancocho through the story of a 17th-century Afro-Hispanic painter who was an enslaved artisan to a Spanish master artist and a balletic celebration of Cuban music and dance styles...

Sensitive to their historical legacies, two of Utah’s greatest dance institutions opened their new seasons with respective themes of reverberation and migrations, as well as new artistic director leadership at the helms of both companies. RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE COMPANY: REVERBERATION As noted in a preview at The Utah Review, Leslie Kraus became the company’s fourth artistic...

When many arts organizations turned to video during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns as a means of staying visible and demonstrating that fresh forms of creative expression could still thrive, many artists found ways to merge cinematography with their media and disciplines. In contemporary dance, as an example, video primarily had been used for archiving and...

Salt Lake City Arts Council