Ririe-Woodbury: Author, architect inspire choreographer's 'Cipher'

Choreographers are always looking for something new — a new way to look at the world and a new way to express things through dance.

For Charlotte Boye-Christensen, artistic director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, that different form of expression came in the form of collaboration with an author and an architect.

The premiere of their multimedia project, "Touching Fire," will be Friday at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City.

"Touching Fire," the final piece in the dance company's program "Cipher," features dance, the spoken word and scenic design in space.

When Boye-Christensen started working on her project, she already knew she wanted to work with architect Nathan Webster, but she still needed an author. Joan Woodbury had worked with author David Kranes before and suggested Boye-Christensen look into his work. The choreographer was intrigued by Kranes' "poetic" writing, which she says comes from a dark and mysterious mind.

It's a fear of the unknown that became the premise of "Touching Fire," Boye-Christensen told the Deseret News.

It "explores that 'place' creative individuals must go, which is a place of uncertainty: uncharted territory, the unknown, terra incognita," Kranes explained further. "One only 'breaks ground' when one risks 'losing ground.' One only reaches a greater personal clarity when one risks losing one's bearings."

The three elements — dance, words and scenic design — came together organically, Boye-Christensen said. The piece features five different tableaus that are connected through the ideas of self-reflection and duality without being a linear story line.

Webster's structure in space transforms the stage and how the audience views it. His work transforms each scene visually through the utilization of two very large pieces of glass. The glass almost functions as a mirror, Boye-Christensen said, but you also can see through it, so it's translucent as well as reflective.

Kranes' stories, or "ruminations" as he calls them, are "voices caught in the drift of remembering, imagining."

Kranes' words have manifested themselves quite strongly in the choreography, Boye-Christensen said. His reflections became a point of departure and "have been very crucial for me in terms of building the vocabulary, the movement vocabulary."