The University of Utah Department of Modern Dance Blog

Thursday, April 17, 2014

UK Exchange & Ugurt

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.

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.”


Support the UK Exchange by eating at Ugurt this weekend. Friday, April 18 from 6 pm – 12:00 am, Saturday, April 19 from 6 pm – 12:00 am. 20% of all proceeds will go to support the Exchange. The UK Exchange also has an online fundraiser here.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Humans of the MCD :: Abby Fiat

"Sometimes the things that are the most vulnerable can be the most empowering."

Modern Dance Professor Abby Fiat has an uncanny ability to get to the heart of something in just a few simple words. In this installment of Humans of the MCD Allison and Abby talk about dance, pedagogy, and the U.

"I love to teach personally, I love to watch teaching, I love to think about it, I love to talk about it. It's been a real passion for me for many, many years, and I knew at a young age that I loved teaching." 

Full interview here.



Monday, April 7, 2014

Screendance Pick of the Month

During my recent interview of Ellen Bromberg she agreed to launch a new blog series highlighting one of her passions; Screendance. For her inaugural Screendance Pick of the Month Ellen has selected Dom Svobode by Thierry De Mey.

"This section (an excerpt from a longer film) directed by Belgian filmmaker and composer Thierry de Mey, demonstrates site, sound, camera (gravity at play), editing  and extreme risk possible only on screen."