Celebrate Dance with the SOD Gala

Next week, the University of Utah School of Dance will close out its 2025-26 season with The School of Dance Gala, a collaborative concert reflecting the past, present, and future of the dance community in Salt Lake City. 

Joining the concert is Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), as part of their diamond anniversary season. The RDT dancers will dance alongside U Dance students in Helen Tamiris’ Dance for Walt Whitman, staged by RDT Director Emerita and U Professor Emerita Linda C. Smith. (The U Dance students will also perform in RDT’s concert Anthology in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center on April 23-25) This piece, from 1961, utilizes Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass to create a piece that celebrates freedom and the human spirit. Narrating the piece is U Music’s Visiting Assistant Professor James Bobick, and accompanying the piece is the U Philharmonia, conducted Dr. Robert Baldwin. 

The U Philharmonia will also accompany “A Slash of Blue,” choreographed by Associate Professor Melissa Bobick and set to “Bright Blue Music” by Michael Torke. The piece is inspired by the Emily Dickinson poem of the same name and explores feelings of joy and release. 

Guest Artist Ching Ching Wong, recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Dance, says her work, “is a forever research on the paradoxes of life.” Wong has choreographed an original work on U Dance students titled “koan,” which is defined as a Zen paradox not meant to be solved by intellect ,or a question not to be answered. 

Finally, U Dance MFA Alum and 2025 Grand Prize Winner of the Palm Desert Choreography Festival Kellie St. Pierre has choreographed her new piece “Indigo Hour” on U Dance students. The piece looks at the time between light and darkness and the clarity that “in-betweens” can bring. 

These pieces are all testaments to the spirit of collaboration in the local dance community. Co-concert Directors Daniel Clifton and Soph Cardinal say the gala “celebrates physicality, humanity, and our enduring connection to the right history of the Salt Lake City dance community.” We hope to see you there.

The School of Dance Gala is April 17 and 18 at Kingsbury Hall (performances will be live-streamed for those unable to attend) . Tickets can be purchased in advance HERE or at the door. University of Utah students get free access with their student ID thanks to the Arts Pass program, which makes hundreds of arts experiences accessible to U students each year.