James William Evans or Bill Evans (1931-) is a performer, teacher, choreographer, lecturer, administrator, movement analyst, writer, adjudicator and dance advocate. Evans was a scholarship student at the University of Utah, where he danced in Orchesis, directed by Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury and in the Utah Theatre Ballet. He received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in English and a BA-equivalent in ballet from the University of Utah in 1963. He moved to New York City on a scholarship as a student at the Joffrey Ballet School.
Evans first danced professionally in 1966 with the Briansky Ballet in New York City.[citation needed] After dancing with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and touring nationally with Ruth Page's Chicago Ballet, he returned to Utah in 1967, where he joined the Repertory Dance Theatre. Evans was awarded a master of fine arts degree in modern dance from the University of Utah in 1970. The same year, he founded the Bill Evans Solo Dance Repertory. He remained with the Repertory Dance Theatre working full-time as a dancer, choreographer and one of three artistic coordinators until 1974, the year he formed his own professional ensemble, the Bill Evans Dance Company (BEDCO).
More than 300 of Bill Evans' choreographic works have been performed by professional and pre-professional ballet, modern dance and tap companies throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Europe and New Zealand. Evans has created or restaged numerous works for regional ballet companies and for college and high school performing dance groups throughout the United States.
For many years he was choreographer/director of the University of New Mexico Contemporary Dance Ensemble, for which he created 23 works. He led that group to Kobe, Japan, when they were selected by the National Dance Association as the only group to represent the U.S. at the first International College Dance Festival in 1993.
In 2002, Evans established a certification program for dance teachers called Bill Evans Teachers Intensives (BETI). He currently resides in Port Townsend, Washington, where he continues to write and teach.
Sources: About Bill Evans. (2024). The Evans Somatic Dance Institute. Retrieved October 28, 2024 https://www.evanssomaticdance.org/aboutbillevans Bill Evans (Dancer). (2024). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 28, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Evans_(dancer)
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Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Donated by Bill Evans in 2023.
Processed by Kristina Barksdale in 2024.
The Bill Evans papers (1956-2023) contain correspondence, certificates, clippings, teaching materials, schedules, programs, reviews, and promotional materials relating to Evans' career as a performer, writer, choreographer, lecturer, and founder of the Bill Evans Dance Company (BEDCO). Materials related to other theaters found in the collection include Dance Theater Seattle (DTS); Repertory Dance Theater (RDT) in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers in Canada. Materials related to universities and colleges found in the collection include Colorado University, Cornish College of the Arts, Indiana University, the University of Idaho, the University of Kansas, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Utah.
Includes correspondence from Eliot Spitzer, David Pierpont Gardner, Gert Reinholm, Eleanor King, Walter Terry, and Anne Huot. Consists primarily of thank you letters and greeting cards from friends and family.
Utah Symphony, Ballet West
Article in Spanish, re: anniversary of founding of Antares group
Bill's "dance mother"
Includes Colorado College and Indiana University
Includes Des Moines Civic Ballet
Photocopies from 1972-1973, 1985-1988, 1997