Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company is one of the longest running dance companies in the United States. Learning about a 50+ year old dance company is truly inspiring and informative as we build our own companies. 

Here is a section from Joan Woodbury's artist profile on the blog this week. Joan Woodbury and Shirlie Ririe founded their company in 1964. 

About forming a company today:

I would always say, "Go for it!!" Just don't expect things to happen all at once. When we first started Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, encouraged by Alwin Nikolais (by the way), it took almost 10 years before the company became a full time company. And that only really happened because of the formation of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1972, which through an audition, selected Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company for two major National Programs. As I mentioned, when we began the Company, Shirley and I were teaching at the University of Utah, which meant that we each were salaried (though not spectacularly). We were working in our chosen art form, were both married with children, and had husbands who were very supportive. We worked with gifted students and semi-professional dancers in the late evenings (working in the upstairs dance studio in the gym building after the students were finished with their own rehearsals, which meant we started at 10:00 pm.); we also worked on weekends. Thankfully, we were not charged for those rehearsal spaces. None of the talented dancers with whom we worked expected to be paid. They worked together with us because they loved dance and wanted to be a part of a fledgling company. Shirley and I became our own managers and booking agents, and scheduled performances of the small, new company with a series called the Granite Arts Series in Salt Lake City. We also performed at the University of Utah and at BYU, where Shirley had previously taught, and arranged tours with dancer friends of ours who were teaching in various colleges and universities throughout the Western States. At the end of the first year, we remember paying each of the six dancers $100 after all of our travel and housing expenses were paid…everyone was very excited about that. And then, as we had done to get started, Shirley and I each put $500 into a kitty to pay for the costumes for the next year.

Just remember that in those days, there were no modern dance companies in Salt Lake City. Willam Christensen had arrived at the University of Utah the same year I arrived in 1951, at which time the ballet was housed in the Theater Department. So, Ballet West had its own growth period as well as did we. The dance company which we started in 1964 was very new to Salt Lake City. Now, 50 odd years later, it is a very different time, though also very exciting. All sorts of small new dance companies are forming and finding their own voice and niche in the City, and there are also many new venues around the city in which to perform. It is very gratifying and offers the sort of variety which is enlivening and pleasing to the appetites of today’s dance/music/theatre lovers.

—-

Related links:

Joan Woodbury's artist profile: http://blog.lifeasamoderndancer.com/2015/10/artist-profile-112-joan-woodbury-salt-lake-city-ut.html

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company: http://www.ririewoodbury.com/

A Modern Dancer's Guide to….Salt Lake City: http://blog.lifeasamoderndancer.com/2015/06/a-modern-dancers-guide-tosalt-lake-city-utah.html

————————