The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company will spend 51/2 weeks in South Carolina, presenting modern dance in nine cities under sponsorship of the South Carolina Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts Dance on Tour program.
The company will be in York, Columbia, Beaufort, Greenville, Conway, Charleston, Greenwood, Aiken and Georgetown from Feb. 6 to March 11, bringing multifaceted residencies to both major metropolitan cities and small rural communities, through teaching in elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities. In each city the company will dance a formal program, with choreographies by artistic directors Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury and other significant modern composers.Dance on Tour is a new initiative of the NEA, and this is the first such sponsorship by South Carolina. Ririe-Woodbury has already been chosen for the l992-93 Kentucky State Dance on Tour Project.
"The benefit of Dance on Tour is that the company can work in depth throughout an entire state," said Joan Woodbury. "We can have a major impact on many areas in one tour, with the potential for exciting long-term repercussions."
UTAH OPERA has received an award from the Utah Association for Gifted Children, recognizing the company's Opera in the Schools program. The Association recognizes several organizations or individuals each year for their excellence in community contributions.
Since 1977, its first year in the schools, Utah Opera has performed one-act operas and operatic programs in every Utah school, regardless of size and location, and is into its second round of school visits. During an average year, Utah Opera performers will visit more than 75 communities, singing in some 140 schools, with a population of 70,000 children in elementary, junior high and high school.
During 1991-92, Opera in the Schools is presenting "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Douglas Moore for elementary schools; Menotti's "The Telephone" for junior high and middle schools; and Seymour Barab's "Fortune's Favorites" for high school students. Opera in the Schools is funded by the Utah Legislature, with additional aid from the George S.& Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation and the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation.
DURING February and March, 10 fifth-graders will have a power trip - the chance to conduct "Colonel Bogey's March" with the Utah Symphony in Symphony Hall.
The 10 have been chosen to represent the more than 25,000 fifth-graders who will travel to Symphony Hall to hear symphony concerts on Feb. 24, 25 and 26 and March 30 and 31. The programs, with the theme "The Evolution of the Orchestra," are part of the Symphony's Fifth Grade Outreach program.
Utah Symphony assistant conductor Kory Katseanes will prepare the young conductors and conduct the programs, to be attended by students from the Alpine, Davis, Granite, Jordan, Murray, North Summit, Park City, Salt Lake City, South Summit and Tooele school districts as well as private schools in the area.