Repertory Dance Theatre delivers world-class dance to Mission Valley

Mission Valley Live wraps up its performing arts season with a splash, courtesy of Repertory Dance Theatre of Utah.  

Members of the nation’s oldest and most successful repertory dance company will bring a dozen programs to area schools and other Mission Valley venues, before taking the stage at the Ronan Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. next Friday, May 16.

Their performance “will be by far our biggest production of this season,” says MVL board president Brian Campbell.

“They are a very professional group that has traveled the world to perform in large, elaborate, sophisticated venues,” he notes. To prepare the Ronan Performing Arts Center for their show, Mission Valley Live will lay a portable Marley dance floor on the stage and also adjust, clean, or replace lights as needed in the stage lighting system.

The company arrives with their own lighting technician who will operate the lighting controls throughout the performance.

According to its website, RDT was established in 1966, and serves as a “living library” of dance, with more than 480 significant works spanning 120 years of history in its repertoire. The company is in residence at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Whether re-staging historic masterpieces or commissioning new contemporary choreography, RDT leverages its vast collection through performances, workshops, classes and residencies and “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.”

RDT’s visit to the Mission Valley also includes a dozen outreach programs in schools large and small. These programs are an integral part of MVL’s performing arts series. This year alone, the nonprofit arts organization will have offered 38 outreach performances (including RDT’s classroom engagement).

“Our school outreach programs reach hundreds of students who may not otherwise ever get the chance to see such high-quality live artistic performances,” said Campbell. That includes several rural schools that may not even have music programs.

“For these young students, the first-hand experience of not only seeing such talented performers, but meeting and interacting with them personally, is visibly awe inspiring,” he says.

In addition to 13 area schools, the outreach has also included performances at assisted living centers, libraries in Ronan and Polson, the Miracle of America Museum, in an effort to “reach more people not able to make an evening trip to a venue.”

Mission Valley Live was established in 2015, and continues a long tradition of bringing performing arts to Lake County that began in 1994 with Chas Cantlon’s Folkshop Concerts, and continued from 2001-2015 with the Big Productions series.

Mission Valley Live picked up that mantle in 2015 and has since brought a breathtaking array of music and dance to local audiences. This year alone, the series included the western stylings of the ever-popular Wylie and the Wild West, an evening of first-rate jazz from the Jazz Legacy Project, fiddle dynamo Mari Black and her trio, and a Valentine show by Kate Voss and The Hot Sauce.

While the evening concerts are ticketed events, the outreach programs are presented at no cost to the schools or the public, thanks in part to grants from the Greater Polson Community Foundation and the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation. This year, Campbell says those two foundations have contributed 25% of MVL’s funding, which pays for the outreach programs.

In addition, the organization receives 35% of its funds from businesses sponsorships and private donors and another 20% from ticket sales. That revenue pays for operations, hiring artists, advertising and promotion.

MVL has also applied for and received grants from Humanities Montana, Montana Performing Arts Consortium and Creative West, funds which in turn flow from the National Endowment of the Arts, and amounted to 20% of its income this year.

The arts agency was established by Congress in 1965 to encourage arts participation and practice across the U.S. Last week, President Donald Trump proposed eliminating the NEA, a move which – if approved by Congress – would directly impact Mission Valley Live’s budget.

“The current political trend will likely eliminate these grant programs and leave Mission Valley Live with the challenge of trying to raise additional funds for next season from the community, local businesses, other foundations,” Campbell said.

Meanwhile, Mission Valley Live is preparing to bring world-class dance to Ronan.

“Put simply: if you want to see some of the best dance in the U.S., it is right here in Utah,” wrote the Utah Review April 29 of the company’s season-ending performance.

And, for one night only, it’s also right here in the Mission Valley.

Tickets are available at the door; visit missionvalleylive.com for more information.

    A dancer from Repertory Dance Theatre leads Dayton School students in an outreach program during the company's visit in 2019. (Mission Valley Live photo)