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Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company [1] is an American contemporary dance company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in 1964 by University of Utah dance faculty members Joan Woodbury and Shirley Ririe, the company is dedicated to furthering contemporary dance by creating and performing original works of modern dance.
Before founding Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company [1] in 1964, Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury helped create Choreodancers, a company of professional dance performers and teachers. After the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company [1] name became permanent, the company choreographed and performed in Utah as well as
throughout Arizona, California, and Colorado.
The following year, the company performed at The Space in New York City through 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 programs offered full-time touring as a national company and "Artists In Schools" performances. Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company [1] 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 continued to perform internationally. In 1977, the International Congress of Girls' and Women's Sports invited the Company to South Africa for an extended tour of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, and Pretoria. In 1978, they were chosen by the United States as representatives to the first Dance and the Child International meeting in Canada.
In 1980 Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company [1] performed in Šibenik of former Yugoslavia. The company also performed in Hong Kong; in Canton, China; the Philippines; and Singapore.
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.
In 1993, the company traveled to Slovenia. Ririe-Woodbury performed a benefit fundraiser for 70,000 Bosnian war refugees who were seeking shelter in Slovenian collection centers.
Recently, the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance selected Ririe-Woodbury as the dance company to house the works of modern dance innovator Alwin Nikolais, since his company, Nikolais Dance Theatre was no longer in operation.
In 2004 Ririe-Woodbury was one of five dance companies invited to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 2006, the company presented Nikolais' "Tensile Involvement" at the Fall for Dance Festival in New York City.
Alwin Nikolais was an American choreographer, dancer, composer, musician, teacher. He had created the Nikolais Dance Theatre, and was best known for his self-designed innovative costume, lighting and production design. Nikolais gave the world a new vision of dance and was named the "father of multi-media theater."
Murray Louis was an American modern dancer and choreographer.
José Arcadio Limón was a dancer and choreographer from Mexico and who developed what is now known as 'Limón technique'. In the 1940s he founded the José Limón Dance Company, and in 1968 he created the José Limón Foundation to carry on his work.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate artistic director Matthew Rushing.
Terese Capucilli, acclaimed interpreter of the roles originally performed by Martha Graham, is one of the last generation of dancers to be coached and directed by Graham herself. A principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company for twenty-six years, she became associate artistic director in 1997 and from 2002 to 2005 served as artistic director, with Christine Dakin, seeing the organization and its dancers through the rebirth of the company. A torchbearer and driving force of Graham's work for nearly three decades, she is now Artistic Director Laureate.
Susan Marshall is an American choreographer and the Artistic Director of Susan Marshall & Company. She has held the position of Director of the Program in Dance at Princeton University since 2009.
Virginia Tanner was an American dance instructor and founder of the University of Utah Children's Dance Theatre. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, she began her formal dance training at the University of Utah. She studied with Doris Humphrey in New York City before returning to Salt Lake City in the early 1940s to establish her school for creative dance for children.
Molissa Fenley is an American choreographer, performer and teacher of contemporary dance.
Ann Carlson is an American dancer, choreographer and performance artist whose work explores contemporary social issues. She has performed throughout the United States and internationally and has won a number of awards.
Marilyn Wood (1929-2016) was an American choreographer, intermedia artist, and dancer. She was an internationally renowned creator of contemporary, city-scale intermedia performances known as “Celebrations” that have taken place worldwide. As a dancer and choreographer who “choreographed cities,” Marilyn Wood's Celebration Events brought communities together to celebrate their vitality and diversity in a unique experience of spectacle and participation in urban environments. Her work has been recognized as reinventing the spirit and drama of the ancient festival in contemporary life.
Carolyn Carlson is an American born French nationalized contemporary dance choreographer, performer, and poet. She is of Finnish descent.
Bill Evans is a choreographer, performer, teacher, administrator, writer and movement analyst. More than 250 of Evans' works have been performed by professional and pre-professional ballet, modern dance and tap dance companies throughout the United States, including his own Bill Evans Dance Company, Repertory Dance Theatre, Concert Dance Company of Boston, Ballet West, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Ruth Page Chicago Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater, Stars of American Ballet at Jacob's Pillow, Chicago Tap Theatre, Rochester City Ballet, FuturPointe Dance and many other companies. He has also created works for companies in Canada, Mexico and New Zealand.
Mitchell Rose is an American director of short films known for comedic work and dance film. He began his career as a choreographer and performance artist and became known at "the dance world's Woody Allen" after being so dubbed by The New York Times. He then migrated to film and his works have won numerous awards, notably Elevator World, Modern Daydreams, and Learn to Speak Body. He tours a program called The Mitch Show which features his films and audience participation pieces.
Beverly Schmidt Blossom was an American modern dancer, choreographer and teacher. She was an original member and soloist with the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theater, a modern dance choreographer for Illinois Dance Theatre, Blossom & Co. and others, and a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Janis Brenner is an American dancer, choreographer, singer and is artistic director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in New York City.
The Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center is a three-venue arts complex in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah that is home to various performing arts organizations, such as Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, Plan-B Theatre Company, and the Sundance Film Festival. It is part of the Salt Lake County Center for the Arts.
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, which was founded in 1968 by Dayton, Ohio native, Jeraldyne Blunden, is the oldest modern dance company in Ohio, and one of the largest companies of its kind between Chicago and New York City.
Abdel R. Salaam was born in Harlem, New York City. He is a choreographer, director, producer, mentor, and educator. He has been active in the arts since 1955. He is the co-founder and director of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre located in New York City. He is also the artistic director of DanceAfrica. DanceAfrica was founded by Chuck Davis (dancer). DanceAfrica festival has become one of the largest African American dance, music, and art festival in the United States of America. Thousands of people attend the yearly festival which takes place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music during the Memorial Day holiday. The festival includes an outdoor bazaar, films, music, and workshops. It is one of Brooklyn Academy of Music's longest running festival.
Maida Withers is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. Withers is the founder and artistic director of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (1974) of Washington, D.C. She is a Professor at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Gladys Bailin is a choreographer, dancer, and instructor. She studied and worked at the Henry Street Playhouse in New York, joined the avant-garde, modern dance company of Alwin Nikolais and later taught at and became the first female Distinguished Professor at Ohio University.
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