Editor’s note: This is one of two stories in the eighth installment in a series highlighting arts organizations around Utah.
As she stood in her Detroit kitchen with her 3-week-old son in one arm and the telephone in the other hand, Linda C. Smith received the phone call that would set the course for her entire career.
It was December 1965 when the Rockefeller Foundation called to say it was looking to fund a dance company in Utah and wanted to interview her to be a part of it.
“I thought it was a prank call,” Smith said. “It was a dream come true.”
Seven months after the phone call, Smith joined with seven other dancers to become a founding member of Repertory Dance Theatre — a modern dance company in Salt Lake City.
Almost 50 years later, RDT is still a thriving dance company “dedicated to the creation, performance, perpetuation and appreciation of modern dance,” according to the company’s mission statement.
Approximately 150 choreographers and 100 company members have passed through RDT, performing more than 370 pieces.
Each person has contributed to building the company within the community, a process exemplified by Smith’s history. Now as executive/artistic director for RDT, Smith considers herself a steward with the responsibility to help the company thrive, and her experiences with the company illustrate what RDT is all about.
A 'living museum'
Jet-lagged from hours of flying, Smith arrived in Vienna, Austria, with Repertory Dance Theatre in 1992. The company members decided to take a walk in the middle of the night since sleep evaded them.
They rounded a corner during their stroll to see a 30-foot-high banner over the famous Ronacher Theater, advertising the three sold-out shows the company would perform.
A little bit of history repeated itself as Smith danced “The Incense” by Ruth St. Denis in front of the crowd. St. Denis, who choreographed the piece in 1906, had danced the same steps on the same stage decades before.
“To think that I was standing in the same theater that she (danced in) — it was an amazing memory that I was a connection with that history,” Smith said.
Not only has dancing historical pieces been important to Smith, but it is also one of the principles the company was founded upon.
When the Rockefeller Foundation first funded the company, it gave the founding members the charge to honor and preserve the history built by modern-dance pioneers as well as to commission and create new work.
The result is “a living museum representing 100 years of dance history,” according to RDT’s website.
“We’re a repertory company,” Smith said. “We commission, we acquire, we preserve.”
The program for RDT’s first performance of the season, “Portal,” scheduled for Oct. 2-4, exemplifies the company’s dedication to history and new work. It will feature everything from “By the Snake” — a world premiere by Noa Zuk and Ohad Fishof — to “Passengers,” which was choreographed in 1970.
Spreading joy
RDT has performed in some of the world’s most well-known venues in front of hundreds of people, but it was during a teacher workshop that Smith truly saw the company’s impact.
After a few hours of training a small group of teachers, Smith and her fellow RDT dancers gathered everyone in a circle and invited each of them to “boogie” one at a time in the middle of the circle.
Smith watched as one shy teacher entered the circle, began to dance and then burst into tears.
All of the participants gathered around the woman to comfort her and ask what was wrong, to which the woman replied, “It’s just the first time I have felt joy.”
And spreading that joy is among the primary reasons why RDT conducts its community outreach programs, including teacher workshops such as this.
The company founders recognized the ability of arts in education to cultivate happiness, confidence and creativity.
“It built emotional strength and physical strength and spiritual strength, but it also built audiences for the future,” Smith said.
With the help of donations, Salt Lake County’s Zoo, Arts & Parks tax and other government funding, RDT is able to offer an assortment of educational programs, including performances in schools, in-depth residencies, mini residencies and teacher and student workshops.
The company also presents free lecture demonstrations and adult dance classes and is involved in the Rose Wagner’s Ring Around the Rose program, which offers a family-friendly, interactive introduction to a variety of performing arts groups.
A golden anniversary
With Repertory Dance Theatre’s 50th anniversary coming during the 2015-16 season, Smith hopes to use the opportunity to remind others what the company can do.
Smith said that as it moves forward, the company will continue to honor the past and also seek to use new ideas and media to reach out to the community in ways it never has before.
“It will be a chance, I think, to celebrate who we are and maybe who we want to be,” Smith said. “We’re just trying to keep our ear to the ground and see what’s happening in the community.”
If you go …
What: Repertory Dance Company’s “Portal”
Where: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South
When: Oct. 2-4, 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $30
Phone: 801-355-2787
Web: arttix.org
Email: wbutters@deseretnews.com, Twitter: WhitneyButters