Repertory Dance Theatre to Present LEGEND & LORE at Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center

Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) invites audiences to experience the myths, memories, landscapes and legends that have shaped the American West in LEGEND & LORE, October 1-3 at the Rose Wagner. The evocative program brings together historic masterworks and a world-premiere commission. The performance kicks off RDT's Season 61: A Season of Gratitude and launches the company's new Living Landscapes initiative, a multi-year project inspired by Utah's extraordinary landscapes and their power to inspire.

LEGEND & LORE features four works that span more than seven decades of American modern dance: Elizabeth Waters' Castor & Pollux (1956), Margaret Jenkins and Ellie Klopp's Liquid Interior (1994), the Dark Meadow Suite by Martha Graham (1946/2016), and a new work by acclaimed choreographer Penny Saunders exploring the enduring legend of whales in the Great Salt Lake.

Rediscovering Castor & Pollux

Originally choreographed in 1956 by Elizabeth Waters, Castor & Pollux returns to the RDT stage for the first time since 2021. RDT acquired the work in 1970, when Waters staged it on the company and received permission from composer Harry Partch to use his Castor & Pollux music free of charge for RDT's performances in Salt Lake City.

Castor & Pollux draws on the Hanya Holm technique and reflects Waters's exposure to Pueblo ceremonial traditions, exploring the relationship between the mortal and immortal soul. The choreography favors a grounded, ritualistic quality — dancers shape and define the space around them with a weight and deliberateness echoing what Waters observed in the Southwest.

Waters, a former featured dancer with the Hanya Holm Company, founded the dance program at the University of New Mexico in 1946 and directed it until 1973. Her work was shaped by her years in the Southwest, including time living at Zuni Pueblo, where she was exposed to Native dance traditions and to community life surrounding ceremonies such as Shalako.

Liquid Interior: A Landscape in Motion

LEGEND & LORE also revisits a 1994 RDT commission — Liquid Interior, choreographed in 1994 by Margaret Jenkins and Ellie Klopp. The work was the second piece created for RDT's original Centennial Landscape Suite, a series of commissions celebrating Utah's statehood centennial and exploring the state's landscapes through contemporary dance.

Liquid Interior premiered in March 1995, at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City. With music by Phillip Bimstein, the work explores the Great Basin region of Utah and Colorado through a fragmented, dreamlike landscape of memory and place: “A place of indiscernible boundaries, shards of landscapes, and fragments of memories.”

Jenkins is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose career spans more than five decades. She has created more than 90 works and received commissions from leading dance companies and arts institutions across the United States, Asia, and Europe. She founded the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in 1973 and has been recognized with numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, three Isadora Duncan Awards, and the 2015 Sustained Achievement Award.

Martha Graham's Dark Meadow Suite

RDT will also perform Martha Graham's Dark Meadow Suite, arranged by Janet Eilber from Graham's landmark 1946 work Dark Meadow. The suite was created in 2016 and was last performed by RDT in April 2026 as part of ANTHOLOGY.

Set to music by Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, Dark Meadow Suite draws on some of Graham's most architectural, ritualistic, and profound ensemble choreography. Inspired in part by Graham's fascination with the rituals of the American Southwest and Mexico, the work explores memory, identity, connection and the mystery of the human journey.

Graham described Dark Meadow as “a re-enactment of the mysteries which attend the eternal adventure of seeking.” The work remains a powerful example of Graham's revolutionary approach to modern dance and her enduring influence on generations of choreographers. Regisseur Blakeley White McGuire led the staging of the work for RDT.

A New Legend for the Great Salt Lake

The centerpiece of LEGEND & LORE is a new commission by choreographer Penny Saunders, marking the first work in RDT's new Living Landscapes initiative.

Inspired by the company's original Centennial Landscape Suite, Living Landscapes asks a contemporary question: How has Utah's landscape changed, and what stories does it inspire today?

For her new work, Saunders turns her attention to the Great Salt Lake and one of Utah's most entertaining urban legends: the supposed whales of the Great Salt Lake. The Great Salt Lake whale hoax dates to the late 19th century, when newspaper accounts claimed that a British scientist named James Wickham had transported whales from Australia to Utah in an attempt to establish a whale-oil industry. According to the fantastical story, the whales escaped into the lake, survived, and eventually reproduced. While the tale was almost certainly a hoax, reports of the mythical whales have continued to capture the imagination.

Saunders uses this unlikely story as a playful entry point into the Great Salt Lake—its ecology, history, mythology, and ever-changing place in Utah's cultural imagination. With her new commission, Saunders invites audiences to consider what happens when fact, fiction, and landscape collide

Originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, Saunders began her professional career as a dancer before launching her choreographic career in 2011 after winning the International Commissioning Project. Her choreography has been commissioned and performed by companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Cincinnati Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, BalletX, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Tulsa Ballet and Grand Rapids Ballet, where she serves as Resident Choreographer. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Utah School of Dance.

“LEGEND & LORE is an opportunity to look backward and forward at the same time,” said RDT Artistic Co-Directors Nicholas Cendese and Lynne Larson. “These works remind us that Utah's landscapes have always inspired artists, while Penny Saunders' new commission asks us to imagine what stories our landscapes might tell today. Together, these works reveal the remarkable ways dance can preserve history, challenge assumptions, and create new legends.”

Through LEGEND & LORE, RDT continues its commitment to preserving the legacy of American modern dance while commissioning new work that reflects the people, places, and stories of the present.

Tickets & Information:

Repertory Dance Theatre continues its innovative tiered ticket pricing model designed to keep performances accessible while inviting audiences to engage at the level that best fits their passion and circumstances. With options at $17 (Arts Enthusiast), $32 (Arts Supporter), and $47 (Arts Champion), this flexible structure ensures that no one is excluded due to financial barriers while also empowering patrons to help sustain RDT's legacy of innovation, education, and community impact.

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