Latest post for Salt Lake Magazine....

I recently became an Arts Contributor for Salt Lake Magazine... check out my latest story...

Click in the title of this post, or on the link below:
http://saltlakemagazine.com/blog/2012/02/backstage-access-to-classical-music-dance-with-vivace-studio-d/

Hope you enjoy!!

   

45th Anniversary of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

Last week was the final show of Ririe-Woodbury's 45th Season. There was a big dinner to honor the 2 founders of the company - Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury. The dinner was hosted by Zion's bank and held at their offices, with beautiful decor by Every Blooming Thing and delicious food from Cuisine Unlimted. A few people gave some short speeches, there was a slide show and then it was time for all the introductions. There were so many important people in attendance - dancers from all 45 years, former and current staff, former and current board members, friends of RW, etc. It was an excellent way to honor the legacy that Joan and Shirley have worked so tirelessly to build.

And of course I came home with flowers, just as I do from every event we attend... haha!Then we had three nights of shows, including a special Alumni piece at the beginning of the Thursday night show. It was so wonderful to see all of the past dancers participate. Troy and I both felt so honored to be a part of all of it!

We also have one dancer who is retiring this year.... we will miss Jo VERY much! He is a great guy, and an amazingly talented dancer. The Saturday show was his last official performance with the company, but hopefully he will still be around a lot!

After the show we also had a Studio D party and we had a great turn out! The party was at Flemings... very yummy food! After the party at Flemings, we headed over to Caine's for a "going away" party for Jo. Caine and his roommate Audry were excellent hosts and we had a wonderful time hanging out with the dancers, their friends and a few of the other board members as well. It was a very fun night!

Back in action...

Yeah! I am back in action.... working computer with a nice big screen, a battery that holds a charge and a touch pad that works... LIFE IS GOOD! :)

So.... more updates will come very soon, but in the meantime we had a great weekend! The Symphony on Friday was beautiful! The Cedar Lake Ballet show on Saturday was great! It was more contemporary dance than ballet but we LOVED it!!! The Studio D After Party was a bit of a bust but we still had a good time. :)

Then of course Sunday was Paul and Pat's mission farewell and lots of time hanging out with that whole family.... which Troy and I always love. The kids were especially loving to use Troy as a jungle gym today... Haha! We will miss Paul and Pat when they head to New Zealand... perhaps we'll have to go visit. :)

Here is Troy entertaining Emi, Nellie, JJ, William, and at times Peter, and Andrew as well. Haha! Last of all we had Troy's birthday dinner with his family. It was great to see everyone and Troy received awesome gifts, as always. :) Thanks again, Colleen (and all the Hickmans) for including my Dad in the fun!

Our “stay-cation”... It’s a silly term, I know…

Last week was Troy’s fall break from the U, so we decided to have a little mini-vacation. I took a couple days off work and we spent some time goofing off… It was great! We haven’t had a lot of free time during this semester – it’s been a bit brutal – so we tried to forgot about school for a couple days (worked better at some times than others.. haha!) and tried to just enjoy ourselves. We didn’t manage to get to a few of things we had planned – i.e. the zoo, a play, a movie, etc – but we still enjoyed the break!

Here are a few highlights –

- We had a lovely dinner with our friend Kathleen Gardner (formerly of the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera). She has become a dear friend to both Troy and I and while we miss seeing her at the Symphony and Opera, we were happy to find that she seems to be enjoying her new job with Odyssey Dance Theatre. It was wonderful for us to visit with her a bit and we “talked shop” a bit too…. It’s funny how many of our discussion lately revolve around Vivace, Studio D, Ririe-Woodbury, Odyssey, etc etc.

- The next night we attended Odyssey Dance Theatre’s Thriller… it was a fun Halloween themed show. There wasn’t as much focus on dance as Troy and I would have liked, but the show is very entertaining and the audience loved it. Many of them attend the show year after year and cheer very enthusiastically for their favorite numbers. After the show we attended the cast party and met several of the dancers, as well as, the Company’s Founder and Artistic Director, Derryl Yeager. We enjoyed the evening very much.

- Next on the agenda for the stay-cation was for me to do one of my favorite things…. SLEEP IN! It was Heaven!! :)

- Our 3rd Annual Charity Halloween Party is coming right up on the 25th, so a portion of the weekend was spent doing prep work for the party… getting decorations, finding volunteers, picking up food and candy, etc. Everything seems to be coming together quite nicely! And we can’t wait to don our Globetrotter costumes! (Thanks again for the loan Pand!) The party this year is a combination food drive for the Utah Food Bank, and a fundraiser for cancer research/care. We are looking at a couple different options now for the donation to go to, but I think a portion at least will go to the Cancer Wellness House.

- Along with the shopping for the party, and what seemed to be a never-ending quest for a new suit for Troy… haha! (The real challenge was finding a place that could have it done by Saturday! Yikes) We managed to have a delicious dinner at one our new favorite restaurants… Fratelli. It’s a little Italian Restaurant in Sandy that is just yummy! On Friday we met one of the owner’s (his brother and the other owner is the chef) and were introduced to his whole family via the photos on the wall (ancestors who came through Ellis Island, etc). The photos were great! We are excited to head back on November 1st, the night where they are celebrating an annual tradition by donating their proceeds to the Utah Food Bank. I love when I get to see company’s giving back to their communities! I am looking forward to the dinner and to being a part of their event.

- Saturday was the Season Opener for the Utah Opera – Madame Butterfly. Along with the opera we attended a dinner before the show, and a Soiree after the show. What a fun evening! The dinner was especially fun because we were seated with the Peterson Family. Glade Peterson is one of the Founder’s of the Utah Opera and while he has passed away, his lovely wife Mardean (I hope I spelled that right!) was there. Their daughter Michelle is the Company Manager for the Opera and their other daughter Leslie is the Director of Development for the Symphony/Opera. Kelvin, their son, happens to work with Troy at Continental (and so does his wife, Robin) so it was just a fun evening for us! We always enjoy chatting with Robin and Kelvin, but it was great to meet Mardean and Michelle, and to see Leslie again as well. We felt privileged to be a part of their family for the evening!

The Opera was amazing! Troy has seen Madame Butterfly many times, but this was my first time and I very much enjoyed it! I can easily understand why it is the most frequently performed opera in the United States. I just loved it and Troy did too! And the little boy just stole the show - He was great!

The Soiree was great fun as well! It was officially a Vivace Party, but we also had several of the opera donors attend, as well as, a large number of the cast and orchestra. Troy’s sister Tamara also joined us at the party and as always, we loved seeing her. There was great food, all with an Asian theme (dessert sushi, spring rolls, etc). There was a costume showcase featuring new designs from two of the seamstresses from the Opera Costume Shop (one of them being our friend Jennifer – go Jen!). The new USUO CEO (Melia) was even wearing a gown designed and created by someone from the costume shop. She joked about the company starting a new line of business “Gowns for Galas”. Troy and I have met Melia on a few occasions now and also met her husband, Mike that night. Mike was very entertaining and so far we like Melia too. We hope that she does an excellent job with USUO.

I hope to have pictures from the Opera Soiree soon! :)

- And thanks to all the Hickman Clan for a great dinner on Sunday! It was wonderful to see everyone (everyone that's in Utah... we missed those in Idaho)!

Merry Christmas to me! :)

Ok... so its no where near Christmas yet, but I was so happy that we finally have FALL WEATHER that I got out my new Ugg slippers.... hooray! I love them!! I purchased them MONTHS ago and have just been waiting for weather cool enough to get them out. It's finally here! :) We have fresh snow on the mountain tops and some cooler temps in the valley.... and even a few changing leaves! This weekend (while I am away in ABQ) we may even get our first snow in the city... I hope not! I don't want to miss the first snow! And it will make Troy really grouchy.... he really doesn't like the snow.

This past weekend we had our first Studio D event of the season... after Repertory Dance Theater's "The Messengers." The show was very good and the after-party turned out well. We were a little worried about the party - a new person planned it and there wasn't as much marketing as we have had in the past... but it turned out ok. It was a little smaller crowd, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and that was the most important part. Thanks for the help Darren! The show had some pieces that we really liked and some we didn't care much for, but overall it was quite enjoyable. PF Chang's catered the after party and the food was delicious! Hopefully we will have some photos to share soon.... Troy was in a lot of them and making funny faces in all of them, I am sure. Haha!

Tomorrow I head out to Albuquerque to join the family for our Hot Air Balloon Festival Vacation... I can't wait to see all the balloons! And I also can't wait to see all the nieces and nephews! :) And since I know there is no fun going on without me (yeah, right!)... I can't wait for the fun to begin! :)

Troy is skipping the vacation, sadly... this semester is just brutal! And with Colleen in the middle of chemo, etc... he just wants to be closer to home this week, which I fully understand. Still makes me sad though... I always have more fun when he is with me. [ Troy - I will miss you tons, mi amorcito! But next week hopefully we can find a little time to play and goof off! You need at least a small break from homework and classes! ]

As for the rest of the weekend and this week....

I think I must have decided that I was feeling left out with all the school stuff for Troy so... I applied and got accepted to the NonProfit Academy for Excellence at the U of U, and I enrolled for another Spanish class. Fun, fun!

I took my first NPA class yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it! It was a great experience and I met some wonderful people! I even learned a few things that I think will really help RWDC, Vivace and Studio D.

Spanish starts tomorrow and I am VERY rusty! I hope I can get through class ok! yikes!

As for the part of the weekend that wasn't spent at the zoo.... we had so much fun! We went to the Gallery Stroll on Friday night and had a wonderful time visiting with everybody! We also made another stop at the UMFA for one last tour through Monet to Picasso so that Troy could really spend some time on it.. we were so rushed last time. He was very happy that he got to go see it again. :)

One of the coolest things we did all weekend was go on a tour of a private collection that a couple in the Federal Heights area has in the their home. It was really neat! They had a ton of paintings, etchings, photographs, etc - but the BEST part was hearing their stories of how they acquired them, the story behind each piece, etc. It was such a wonderful experience and they were just the neatest people. We both thoroughly enjoyed the evening!

Sunday we also had the privilege of seeing TJ (Troy's nephew - Tommy's son) be ordained a Deacon. It was great to be there to show TJ our support - we are proud of him! It will be fun to see him pass the sacrament when we visit their ward!

OK... now I am off to practice my Spanish and get some stuff ready for the RWDC intermission parties this weekend... ahh, the joys of being on the Board... Haha!

The crazy life we lead...

Thursday - the Dance Koester Dance show was AMAZING! and of course school for Troy!

Friday - the Monet to Picasso Exhibit was just as good the 2nd time around and we even went out for Sushi with some friends after... Great times! And I ran into my old roommate from BYU Freshman year at the dorms.... SMALL WORLD!! and of course school for Troy!

Saturday - Jessica and Ben's wedding... great fun, beautiful place!

Monday - Ballet West's Curtain Up (preview of the new season and premiere of the new dances that may be selected for the Innovations show in May) - lots of good potential in the new pieces and a fun evening! and of course school for Troy!

Tuesday- working on my lesson for Relief Society and still have NO CLUE what I will say! Why exactly did I agree to substitute??????? and of course school for Troy!

Wednesday - Paulette was in town for her Grandfather-in-law's funeral and so she stopped by the office for a quick visit with me... it was WAY too short but we had a great time none-the-less. Atlanta is just too far away! :( Then Troy and I headed off to our RWDC Board meeting... my first meeting as the official vice-chair and I am also taking a larger role in the planning of the annual fund-raiser (March). Troy is also more involved this year... he is the co-chair of the Hospitality Committee. He and Tracy(co-chair) have some great ideas of new things they want to try and I know it will be wonderful! and of course school for Troy!


And still to come....

Thursday - Stitiches coming out! Yuck! and of course school for Troy! (AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DARREN AND TJ!!)

Friday - 70's Party----- I really wish I still had Shelly's purple suede fringe vest!! No clue what to wear....... and of course school for Troy!

Saturday - Opening concert for the Utah Symphony... can't wait!

Sunday - sub for Relief Society..... have no clue what will be said....

Monday - Studio D planning meeting/party... looking forward to it! and of course school for Troy!

Is it the weekend yet???

OK.... my brain is just too fried this week to write much of anything... Haha! It's been a crazy week with book edits, cover designs, print bids, web site launches, partner agreements, etc. While its always challenging, and fun in a work-a-holic kind of way... I am very happy that the week is ALMOST over! Tonight we are off to the Symphony and tomorrow night we are going to the Ballet with a fun after-party for the Studio D crowd. Can't wait! :)

So... since I have very little brain power left today... I am simply posting a funny joke that Mom emailed me today. :) It cracked me up and reminded me of a little trip that Troy and I made to Home Depot just last week. Haha!
____________

Three men were hiking through a forest when they came
upon a large raging violent river. 

Needing to get on the other side, the first man prayed,
"God, please give me the strength to cross the river."
Poof! God gave him big arms and strong legs and he was
able to swim across in about 2 hours, having almost
drowned twice.

After witnessing that, the second man prayed,
"God, please give me strength and the tools to
cross the river."
Poof! God gave him a rowboat and strong arms
and strong legs and he was able to row across in
about an hour after almost
capsizing once.

Seeing what happened to the first two men, the
third man prayed, "God, please give me the strength,
the tools and the intelligence to cross the river.
Poof! He was turned into a woman. She checked the map,
hiked one hundred yards up stream and walked across
the bridge.