Artistic Director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company since 2013, Daniel Charon has been active as a choreographer, teacher, and performer for over twenty-five years. While based in New York City, Daniel maintained a project-based company and primarily danced with Doug Varone and Dancers (1999-2010) and the Limón Dance Company (1997-1999). He is a BFA graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and an MFA graduate of the California Institute of the Arts in Choreography and Integrated Media.

As Ririe-Woodbury’s Artistic Director, Daniel has created numerous original works for the stage, gallery installations, and has designed video for his and other choreographers’ works. As an independent choreographer he has presented multiple full evening concerts in New York City, has been produced by various theaters, and has been commissioned to choreograph new works for many companies, universities, and festivals around the country. Daniel choreographed The Pearl Fishers, Aida, and Moby-Dick at the Utah Opera.

Daniel regularly teaches master classes and workshops nationally and internationally and has taught at the Metropolitan Opera, the Bates Dance Festival, Salt Dance Fest, North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Comprehensive, Varone Summer Dance Workshops, and Limón Summer Workshops. He has been a guest artist and adjunct professor at numerous universities Daniel has staged the works of José Limón, Jirí Kylián, and Doug Varone at schools and companies around the world.

Martha Graham (1894-1991) is recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th Century.  She was named “Dancer of the Century” by Time and has been compared with other creative giants such as Picasso, Einstein, Stravinsky and Freud.  She created 181 ballets and a technique that revolutionized dance throughout the greater part of the past century.  Using the founding principles of contraction and release, she built a vocabulary of movement to “increase the emotional activity of the dancer’s body,” exploring the depth and diversity of human emotion.  Her ballets were inspired by a wide range of sources from the American frontier to Greek Mythology.  She created and portrayed prominent women, including Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Medea, Phaedra, Joan of Arc and Emily Dickenson.  During her 70 years of creating dance, she collaborated with other great artists – Isamu Noguchi, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber and William Schuman, and her mentor Louis Horst among others, and is recognized for her groundbreaking work in all aspects of the theater – use of time, space, lighting, costumes, sets and music.  Her company was a training ground for many generations of choreographers including Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp.  At the Neighborhood Playhouse, she is said to have changed the course of American acting through students such as Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, Tony Randall and Orson Wells.  Her creative genius earned numerous honors and awards, including the Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of the Arts.  Martha Graham’s extraordinary legacy lives on in the work of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Graham 2 and Martha Graham School, and in the students worldwide studying her technique and performing her masterworks.

Virginie Mécène is a former Principal Dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company touring the world and performing many roles in the repertoire from 1994 to 2006. Director of the Martha Graham School, 2007-2015, Program Director since 2015, and Graham 2 Director since 2007, she has been maintaining and developing the school curriculum, sustaining the integrity of the Martha Graham technique, and nurturing the process that continues its development. Her direction has focused on training the next generations of dancers for companies worldwide and the next generations of Graham teachers through her pedagogic instructions. Additionally, she created the Graham Teacher Workshop for teachers of all backgrounds. She has re-staged, reconstructed, and directed numerous works of Martha Graham in Universities and dance companies and taught the Graham Technique™ at multiple national and international conferences.

Ms. Mécène’s choreographic work, including the reimagined Graham’s lost solo, Ekstasis, for the Martha Graham Dance Company, a commission from Buglisi Dance, a commission from American composer Thomas Hormel, and a commission from Neu Records for full-evening-length work, has been presented in venues such as Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, in Tivoli, New York, New York City Center, in New York City, The Palais Garnier, in Paris, France, and L’Auditori in Barcelona.

A native of France, she holds an L.P. Licence Professionnelle in Artistic and Cultural Management from the University of Bourgogne. Ms. Mécène has also served as a Lecturer at Barnard College, NY, in 2004 and served as the president of EFSD (Emergency Fund For Student Dancers).  www.virginiemecene.com

Andrea Miller is the founder and artistic director of GALLIM a movement-based production company out of New York, creating work for stage, film, sites and the visual arts. Guggenheim Fellow and the first woman to be named Artist in Residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Miller has consistently challenged and invited dialogue of where dance can exist and for whom it is created. She has received fellowships from Sadler's Wells, New York City Center, and the Princess Grace Foundation and has been featured in Forbes as an entrepreneur and leader in the dance world. Over a decade, Miller has codified a creative methodology that is at the center of her creative praxis and exchange with students, dancers, collaborators, and presenters. She has been a guest teacher and lecturer at Harvard, The Juilliard School, NYU, Barnard, Sara Lawrence, Wesleyan, Marymount Manhattan, University of the Arts, among others. Throughout the pandemic Miller has zeroed in on the creative and professional development needs within the dance community through GALLIM programs such as Build Your Creative Practice Workshop: Meeting Creatives Around the World, Dancing with The Camera: Fundamentals of Dance Filmmaking, Dancing with the Camera: From Concept to Delivery, SITE: Fundamentals in Site Specific Work, MovingWomen Residencies at GALLIM Studio, Jam and Toast: Free Morning Class on InstagramLIVE, HAPPY HOUR: Conversations with Thought Leaders over Drinks as well as free streaming of repertory works and films. Miller is a graduate of The Juilliard School, currently teaches at Marymount Manhattan College, and is the mother of two.

Lar Lubovitch is one of America’s most versatile, popular and widely seen choreographers. Based in New York City, Lubovitch’s company founded in 1968 has performed throughout the world, and his dances have also been performed by many other major companies, including American Ballet Theater, Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and many others. His work on Broadway includes Into the Woods (Tony Award nomination), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award) and the Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I. Lubovitch has also made a notable contribution to choreography in the field of ice-dancing, having created concert dances for Olympic skaters John Curry, Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming, Brian Orser, JoJo Starbuck and Paul Wylie. In 2013, the American Dance Guild honored him for lifetime achievement, and in 2014 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by The Juilliard School in New York City. In 2016, he received the Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement and the Dance Magazine Award; he was named one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition; and he was appointed a Distinguished Professor of Dance at UC/Irvine.

Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), founded in 1966 in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a professional modern dance repertory company dedicated to the creation, performance, perpetuation and appreciation of modern dance. For over 55 years, RDT has pushed the boundaries of modern dance, while preserving and celebrating its legacy.

Known worldwide for its collection of dance treasures, RDT is both a museum and contemporary gallery representing the scope and diversity of modern dance, past and present. From the early pioneers of the art form to today’s cutting-edge choreographers, the company maintains one of the largest collections of modern dance classics in the world. As a repository for this rich heritage, RDT is a resource center and laboratory for contemporary dancers, choreographers, visual artists, writers and composers.

In addition to public performances, RDT produces a variety of community-based programs and has a long-standing commitment to arts-in-education. Outreach activities include lectures, informal performances, teachers’ workshops, open rehearsals, annual summer workshops and year-round classes which all serve to train and ignite the creative voice in people of all ages. At its home in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, the company contributes to the cultural, social, and economic vitality of the community. RDT remains committed to building bridges of understanding that de-mystify the art of dance, making it a meaningful part of the cultural environment regionally, nationally and internationally.

A native of Utah, Linda began her career in dance at the age of four with Virginia Tanner's Children's Dance Theatre. In 1966 she became a founding member of Repertory Dance Theatre where she fulfilled her dream of becoming a performer, teacher, choreographer, writer, producer and eventually, in 1983, the Artistic Director for the company. Her pursuits have led to the development of the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, to the establishment of the RDT Community School, to providing commissions for established and emerging choreographers, and to the creation of multi-disciplinary activities that focus on the dance history, the environment, social issues, multi-ethnic history, sustainability and community. Linda's performing experience spans over 90 works. She has taught in over 1500 schools bringing the magic of dance to students and teachers with her unique demonstrations, lectures, classes and professional development workshops. She is most at home encouraging audiences of all ages to imagine, create and communicate with the language of movement.

Linda is a graduate and an Adjunct Associate Professor of dance at the University of Utah and is a certified Movement Specialist in the Utah Artists-in-Education Program. She has received numerous honors including "Honors in the Arts" awards from the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, the "Outstanding Achievement Award in Art" from the YWCA, “Community Builders “Award from Utah Women’s Alliance for Building Community, Utah Business Magazine “One of 30 Utah Visionaries; The University of Utah’s College of Fine Arts 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award; One of Utah's 15, The State's Most Influential Artists Award from 15 Bytes; Utah Business Women of the Year; UNA Outstanding Nonprofit Leader of the year. UCA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019; Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to Arts and Humanities (2020).

Since 1966, Repertory Dance Theatre has been dedicated to performing and preserving the “masterpieces” in modern dance history. Many of the treasures from the past require large casts of performers, and it gives RDT the opportunity to partner with community dancers as well as with university dance departments to re-stage “classic” works.

RDT and Utah Valley University have enjoyed many opportunities to collaborate on the restaging of important works such as Dance For Walt Whitman by Helen Tamiris, Commonplace by Susan Hadley, and Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor by Doris Humphrey.

These valuable partnerships strengthen the ties between universities and professional dance companies, and provide mentoring opportunities and career development to students while building community.

This season, RDT is again working with the UVU Dance Department to restage and perform two masterworks choreographed in the 1930’s by Martha Graham…Steps in The Street and Ekstasis.

During a three week artistic residency at UVU, the RDT dancers and staff offered classes in technique, composition, improvisation and history. A select group of gifted students joined with RDT dancers to prepare a concert for the Noodra Center in Orem and also for RDT’s home season performances in Salt Lake City, Nov 17-20, 2021 This project was funded in part by support from the Office of Engaged Learning and the UVU School of the Arts Department of Dance. It could not have been possible without the vision of UVU’s outstanding dance department and one of their professors, Angela Banchero-Kelleher who also happens to be a former RDT dancer who continues to believe that… “You can’t know where you are going until you know where you have been.”