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The University of Utah’s dance program has two departments within the College of Fine Arts: the Department of Modern Dance and the Department of Ballet. The heritage of dance at the University of Utah began in 1892 with a program developed by Maud May Babcock, the first female member of the University’s faculty. Babcock founded the University of Utah Departments of Speech and of Physical Education, the original departments to have housed dance majors before they were formally combined into a single department under the College of Fine Arts in 1966. Prior to the integration, the Department of Modern Dance was part of the Department of Physical Education and Ballet was part of the Department of Theatre.

The earliest record of dance courses at the University of Utah occurred in 1906 when dance was offered as a general physical education course. Dance wasn’t established as a major until 1953, when Elizabeth R. Hayes, appointed Director of Modern Dance in 1940, instituted it as a part of the Physical Education Department.

A ballet emphasis was not created until 1951 when William F. Christensen was offered the position of professor of ballet. His career at the University of Utah began in 1949 when President A. Ray Olpin invited him to choreograph the University of Utah’s Summer Festival Productions, a series of musicals and operas performed outside in the University’s stadium. After two years choreographing this program, he was offered the position which created one of the first ballet programs at an American university. Under his leadership, ballet became a “Field of Emphasis” with a departmental major in Speech in 1953 (Habel, 2010, p. 26). In 1962, a BFA degree with a major in Ballet was offered through the College of Fine Arts.

In 1966, the new Ballet and Modern Dance Department was formed with D. Gordan Paxman as Departmental Chairman, Willam F. Christensen as Director of Ballet, and Elizabeth R. Hayes as Director of Modern Dance. The combined department eventually separated in 1977 due to an inability, according to Hayes, to find anyone to chair the combined departments who could satisfy both the ballet and modern dance faculties. The two departments, although separate, are still housed in the College of Fine Arts.

In 1988, Hayes officially retired from the department in June after 48 years, having taught longer than any other woman faculty member at the University of Utah.

HISTORY OF THE NEW AND OLD DANCE BUILDINGS

The Departments of Modern Dance and Ballet are currently housed in the Alice Sheets Marriott Center for Dance, named after the wife of J. Willard Marriott, businessman and entrepreneur for whom the university’s library had been named.

Funding for the much-needed new building was an arduous task, taking over two decades to finally fund. Formally, dance was housed in the old Physical Education complex directly west of the Park Building. The building, constructed around 1905, eventually came to be known as the “Dance Building.” Originally built for physical education, it had been used for varying purposes through the years, including as a student health facility, a university cafeteria, biology and pharmacy laboratories, and as computer science classrooms and offices.

By the mid-eighties, the building was neither safe nor functional. It did not meet building and safety codes, nor did it meet the needs of the growing Departments of Ballet and Modern Dance. Several proposals for a new dance building were submitted to the State Legislature, but they remained a low priority on the building list for twenty-five years until the State Fire Marshall condemned the structure in 1984.

At this point, the Utah State Legislature appropriated $3.04 million for a new dance building, and in 1986, the J. Willard Marriott family contributed the remaining $2 million needed to fund the new dance building.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

M. Ray Kingston and Kip Harris, partners in FFKR Architects/Planners and Interior Design, collaborated on the design for the new facility. Having already designed the Salt Lake City Symphony Hall and the Randall L. Jones Theater for the Shakespearean festival in Cedar City, the firm offered the experience in designing spaces for the Arts. Kingston, lead architect on the project, had studied modern dance at the university in the 1950s while working towards his architectural degree. He was adamant that the building’s design meet the classroom and performance needs of the dance departments and their students. The building was specifically designed with the “comfort, convenience and aesthetic needs of the dancers in mind” (Habel, 2010, p. 400).

The building was constructed of red brick and Utah sandstone, and although architecturally contemporary, it blended with historic campus structures. At the heart of the three-story building are six large dance studios, a 333-seat professional theatre, classrooms on each floor, a faculty preparation studio on the third floor, locker rooms with stage access, a box office, administrative and faculty offices on the second floor, and an outdoor sky deck on the third level.

The formal performance space in the Marriott Center for Dance was named in honor of Elizabeth R. Hayes and Willam F. Christensen, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to dance and the University of Utah.

The 1988–1989 academic year was the last year that classes and performances were held in the old Dance Building. On September 25, 1989, the new 64,400 square-foot Alice Sheets Marriott Center for Dance building opened its doors to students, and ushered in a new era in the department’s history.

NOTABLE ALUMNI

Faculty and graduates of the University of Utah’s Ballet Department were fundamental in the formation and growth of Ballet West, Utah’s major professional ballet company. In 1955, Christensen and the University Theatre Ballet presented the first production of the Nutcracker in the University of Utah's Kingsbury Hall, a production that has become an annual Christmas treat for Salt Lake City audiences.

In the 1960s, two different professional modern dance companies were established by alumni. The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company was formed in 1964 by Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, professors of modern dance at the University. In 1966, the Repertory Dance Theatre was opened which has such dancers as Merce Cunnigham and Doris Humphrey among their professionals.

In 1966, a $370,000 grant was made to the University of Utah by the Rockefeller Foundation to establish the Utah Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), the first full time modern dance company outside of New York City. The grant was the first of its kind awarded to a university by the foundation. The project director was Virginia Tanner, a Salt Lake native, nationally recognized children’s dance educator, and founder of the Utah Children’s Dance Theatre (1949).

Both RDT and Ririe-Woodbury received local and national recognition for their work, participating in educational and community outreach programs throughout the country. Both companies had a symbiotic relationship with the modern dance program at the University of Utah. While the companies offered professional performing opportunities for skilled dance students, the department provided a pool of students from which the companies drew members. Through the years many modern dance students performed professionally with RDT and Ririe-Woodbury.

Several alumni of the Departments of Ballet and Modern Dance became notable dancers and faculty members of the University of Utah’s dance departments.

Bené Arnold

Arnold received both her B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the University of Utah’s Department of Ballet. From 1963 to 1975, she served as the ballet mistress for the future company, Ballet West. In 1975, she joined the University of Utah Department of Ballet faculty. In 1998, Arnold became the first woman and only faculty member from Fine Arts and Humanities to be named Distinguished Professor. When Arnold retired from the University of Utah, she was named Distinguished Professor Emerita. Since 2008, Arnold has served as the Interim Chair of the Department of Ballet.

Phyllis Haskell

In August of 1987, Phyllis Haskell joined the department as the Chair of the Department of Modern Dance. Haskell was a 1971 MFA graduate of the University of Utah. She was also a member of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company from 1971 to 1979, and acted as the company’s Assistant Artistic Director from 1977 to 1979.

Tomm Ruud

After 10 years with William Christensen's Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Tomm Ruud joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1975. Ruud was best known for his role as Drosselmeyer in the Nutcracker.

Donna White

In 1979, Donna White joined the faculty as an Associate Instructor having finished her MFA the previous year. White came to the faculty with a strong performance and choreography background. She danced with Ririe-Woodbury (1971-76); performed and taught with Tandy Beal and Company (1977-87); and founded Donna White and DANCEWORKS in 1979, a company for which she directed, choreographed, and performed with until 1984.

Donna is currently Professor in the Department of Modern Dance at the University of Utah and was the former Chair of the Department from 2002-2010. Donna has been on the Modern Dance faculty since 1996. She also holds the position of Associate Dean of the Graduate School at the University.

Reference List

Habel, S. (2010). History of the Modern Dance Program at the University of Utah. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.