Tag: university of utah

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Education Director Ai Fujii Nelson Believes Dance Is for Everyone

Ai Fujii Nelson is carrying Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s educational mission forward through imagery and enthusiasm as the organization’s current education director. Her biggest priority? Providing dance opportunities to anyone, and everyone. Nelson began dancing at 4 years old at a modern dance school in Japan called Hiromi Watanabe Dance Studio. She studied there for eight […]

Soundformovement.com: A Music Website With Free Licensing for Online Dance Teachers

Love electronic music? Calming notes of a piano? Smooth, rich trumpet? Want music in clear meters of 3, or in 7? This week is the ideal time to check out musician Michael Wall’s abundant website soundformovement.com. I myself have enjoyed getting to experience his music over the past five years—whether to use in a teen […]

6 Strategies to Boost Performance Quality From Your Dancers

University of Utah professor Molly Heller choreographs works that demand 100 percent commitment from her dancers. Her most recent piece Very Vary saw her cast of six speak, scream, laugh, cry and make a range of radical facial expressions in movement that was technically challenging, dynamic and highly expressive. Getting that level of commitment from […]

After Juggling Positions at University of Utah and Ballet Arkansas, Michael Bearden Lands in Norman, Oklahoma

“I was asked many times by other artistic directors, from Devon Carney to Peter Boal, ‘Wait a minute, you don’t live there? How is this working?’” says Michael Bearden about directing Ballet Arkansas in Little Rock. For the past four years, he has lived a double life—one part artistic director of the up-and-coming regional ballet […]