Before moving to Salt Lake City Modern Dance Assistant Professor Shaun
Boyle spent three years in England studying, teaching and making dance. While an
undergraduate student at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts she danced in Austria at the Salzburg Academy of Dance for a semester. These international dance
experiences inspired her to think about dance on the international stage. “I want to create forums for international
collaboration.” Shaun explained to me when we met. "How do we exchange dance across borders and nations?"
Shaun has collaborated with Janet Smith, Principal of The Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) in Leeds, England to build one such forum for dance exchange. The exchange is for 12
undergraduate dancers; six dancers from NSCD and six from the University of
Utah’s Department of Modern Dance. The UK dancers will travel to Salt Lake City
for Salt Dance Fest, and our dancers will travel to NSCD in the beginning of
July for two weeks. The dancers have already begun connecting via Facebook and are looking forward to meeting in person soon.
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| Assistant Professor Shaun Boyle (left) & University of Utah dancers |
“The NSCD is a good fit for the U because of their cutting
edge, forward-thinking movement invention.” Shaun told me. She explained that
in England dancers don’t know much about the emerging choreographers we are
interested in at the U and vice versa. “This is a chance to broaden
perspectives for students on our side of the pond and on their side of the
pond.”
