Ballet West Kid Tours – Discovering the Backwards Towns of Rural Utah

 

Going through old pictures, I discovered some snapshots of our yearly journeys with Ballet West on our School Programs.

Utah was unique in that the state government was very proactive in wanting to bring the arts into the schools to introduce a variety of artistic possibilities to the students.
This yearly journey made up about a third of our budget for the year. Nutcracker being a third, other performances and donations being a third but also the State Arts in the Schools Programs being another third.

So, each year we would put together a program designed to include children on the stage and to bring education in the form of various arts programs and performances.

I always thought that such a thing was so incredibly valuable to introduce art to kids and show them that there were other ways to inspire creative expression and open eyes and hearts to the joys of music, dance, and singing.

The Utah Symphony and the Opera also did school programs.
The first thing I would like to say is that while in the 1980’s, Salt Lake City was about 40% Mormon, when you got out of the Salt Lake Basin, the rural areas of the state are about 90 plus percent Mormon.
In my day, we would even go into the towns and schools that were in the polygamist areas.
While many are known in the Hildale area of southern Utah, they are peppered around the entire state.
I remember going down a dirt road, with the bus we were on, and seeing a sign indicating to not cross the road if there was rain because the road crossed many arroyos or a “washs” where a dry creek or stream can suddenly and temporarily fill and overflow a roadway.
It is amazing how many remote and desolate places are still to be found in Utah.

This one particular town looked like a throwback to the 1800’s with the ladies in old time clothing, with their hair up and under a bonnet. The men were few and far between. (Because it was a polygamous group and there did not need to be many men.)
As we drive in … the whole town has shown up to meet us. There are about 80 children of all ages, that all look the same, about 20 women, all dressed in the old style, and about 8 men had shown up with serious scowls, large rough farming hands, and long burly beards.

We go to the school and set up for our performance as the town is excited and there is much talking and commotion happening in the audience.
Our program includes, explaining what ballet is, why we do it, asking children to come up on the stage and dancing with us, showing the strength of the men in how they can lift a woman over their head (a demonstration of power, timing, and working together), and a performance.
This particular show was fascinating for many reasons. The first was that there were few men in the audience, many more women (who were very excited to see anything different), and a ton of children that all looked alike.
In fact, everyone seemed to be a carbon copy of another. The inbreeding was fascinating and there were a disproportionate number of children with obvious signs of genetic problems such as Down’s Syndrome, foot drop, ticks, and various forms of retardation.
My sister had done part of her residency at Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah, and she said that there were many genetic studies done in Utah because of the high proportion of genetic disorders because of the inbreeding.
The second (very interesting thing) was that the show started with a very Mormon Prayer and sermon.

My first year doing these programs, I was stunned because I thought we were supposed to have a separation of Church and State! But clearly in Utah no one cared or bothered with such things.
In fact, that happened (more often than not) in the small, remote schools of western, southern, and eastern Utah.

And regardless of what we believed we had to act in accordance with the rules and beliefs of that area.
I tried my first year to whisper softly my concern and say something to the other dancers … and I was shushed!
Utah was a place that (at the time) was behind the rest of the country (that I knew) by at least 20 years. It has since caught up on many levels, but it still struggles with the huge influx of people from other places, spaces, countries, and beliefs.
It is learning to become a melting pot and I believe is doing it fairly well considering how backwards it was when I got here in 1982.

The school tours were brutal because most dancers start class at 10 am. Such a lovely and reasonable time to get going and working.

But the schools wanted us there for their first period classes, which meant that we were up often at 5 am to drive to the school in remote areas that often did not have a hotel large enough to accommodate us back then.
Getting dancers up at that hour was … difficult. We are tired, exhausted from daily performances, not in our own beds, and without our comfort foods …. Mainly coffee!

If you are going to get a dancer up at the crack of dawn … coffee is helpful.

But in rural … Mormon … Utah, Coffee is a “no-no!”

The Mormon religion does not allow coffee or caffeinated drinks.
I am sure most of the world does not know that it was in the Utah market that, caffeine free Coca Colas were invented!

Yep! The Mormon Church owned a lot of stock in Coca Cola and had a pull to produce the first caffeine free drink manufacturing plants in Utah.
So, here you have exhausted dancers, performing on very small stages that the floors are often hard as a rock or cement which makes our legs take a pounding and feel like lead, our joints are aching, and we are sleeping in unfamiliar beds (that are often not the most comfortable), sitting for long hours in buses, and still trying to get everything together to give a good show that is inspiring to young people.

Oh, and No Coffee!

After a week of early morning risings, it was our ongoing joke to try to manipulate the bus driver to go to the truck stops so we could get coffee.
Which they often smiled and accommodated our whining and cajoling.
I remember, going into a school and smelling the amazing aroma of baking cinnamon buns.

Being the eater I was, I go following my nose to find the cafeteria and run up excitedly to the women baking these amazing huge rolls and ask if we could buy cinnamon buns!!

They smiled and said, “Of course!”

I thought I had won the lottery! To the point that I inadvertently asked them, “Oh, My Goodness! That is so great! Do you have coffee to go with those amazing rolls?”

Only to watch them shut down hard and in a retreating and astounded way, they immediately say horrified, “No! We don’t ever have coffee here!”

I politely accept the warm, cinnamon buns and slink out of the cafeteria. Then I run to the bus driver and give him $20 to go get as many coffees as he can at the truck stop!

Which he instantly does because I promise a warm cinnamon bun when he gets back!

I remember stories from other dancers that during their programs, they were to do a variation of Graduation Ball during the competition scene in which two dancers compete in a turning sequence that is hard on a good floor but on a bad floor, it was not just difficult but dangerous!

The two dancers (one of them being my friend Mary Ann Lind) got into cahoots with each other and decided to take out the difficult turns and instead change the choreography to a dance competition rather than a turning competition.

A fabulous idea but not the plan or the sequence that was planned.

They carried it off brilliantly but Sondra Sugai, came up afterwards and Mary Ann smiled sweetly and said, “Are we fired!”

To which Sondra said, “Not … Quite!”

So much for trying to do something different.
I remember doing a show where I was the master of ceremonies, meaning that I was the one talking rather than dancing. I engaged the audience and brought them up on stage to dance with us and asked questions to the audience for them to respond.

But this particular show was in the western area that is part of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservations in Utah. This is one of the most remote and desolate places and the roads are barely there.

The principal at the school told us that the school buses had to start picking kids up for school at 5 am and because of the terrible poverty in the area they fed the kids breakfast, lunch, and they gave them a sack bag to take home with them because without that food, the children would have trouble concentrating and learning. They found when they did the three meals a day as part of their budget, the testing scores improved immensely.
We begin this show and in non-native American schools, it is often the young girls that want to come up onto the stage and dance with us.

So in the format of the performance I ask for the girls to come up that want to dance with us.

But no one moves!

Confused, I try again, saying, “I know there are girls out there that would love to dance with us a show us some of the native dances that they know. Come on up and let’s share and dance together!”

Again, no one moves!

Then it dawns on me that in the native American tradition, it is mostly the men that dance.

So I switch gears and say, “How about some of you boys! Will you come up and show us your dances?

Suddenly there is a rush of young boys to the stage. The audience starts clapping hand and feet to the beat of Indian drums and the young boys take over the stage, excited, happy, showing off, very serious about their dances, and a form of joyful bedlam ensues.

After the show, it was the young men that wanted autographs from our male dancers.

I learned a lot that day about cultural norms and biases that I held. I learned that from that point on, I always invited both girls and boys up.
I believe that such programs are very important to educate young people on the beauty, joys, skills, and ways of artists. I commend the Utah State Government for recognizing that value and making it a priority for their state. I think it gives opportunity and the hope of more balanced diversity to their state.
And we got to see a lot of the beautiful countryside of Utah. Areas I would have never known about. Including a few roads that were really only one way roads and we were taking a bus down. While all the dancers were praying for no one to come towards us from the opposite direction.
And those prayers were gratefully answered.

I remember getting to the bottom of a very steep decline and we got down just in time to finally not be a cliff, only to see (a half mile away) a truck coming towards us.
Those times I remember less about all the individual schools but more about the companionship and rambunctiousness of all the dancers.
Perhaps it was because we were all young and so full of energy.

Perhaps it is because Ballet Companies are like a giant dysfunctional family.

Perhaps ballet attracts a certain type of individual that loves to play, be wildly expressive, and creatively unruly.

I am sure it is all the above.

It is a unique expression that is always raw and authentic. One cannot be a dancer and not realize that everyone knows your every weakness, flaw, talent, and abilities.

We cannot hide anything … after all, we are practically naked with each other all day, every day.
One learns as a ballet dancer to move in extremes. We can move from highly focused and very determined and serious to ridiculously playful, silly, teasing, sensually engaged, and willing to be foolish and look foolish.
We are a very tactile group. We are constantly bumping into and touching each other. We are not so fearful about our bodies or the bodies of others. We share one heart and one mindset even though we have our own unique individual expressions.

We are wildly carefree and will push the envelope if it seems unfair. But we will also work overtime and not expect to get paid what we are worth.

We know that no one can really afford to pay us for what we are really worth. The effort, training, skills, coordination, talent, determination, and ability to move with and through many forms of music and styles is a passion and a purpose.

I have learned (being retired from ballet) that the joy is less in watching ballet … because the greatest bliss comes from actually doing ballet.
I am a junkie to the expression of this art and form of movement through my own body. While I can appreciate the tremendous beauty and skill of another dancer. It is not the same as feeling it deep inside my soul. If they are very good … they can take me for a ride through their movement, grace, skill, and spirit.

But it is not the same as feeling my soul gift that deepest authentic part of my sensual passion to others.

Ballet offers up a type of euphoria and grace that is nothing less than a prayer to the divinity inside us. It is an attempt to touch that greater divinity that is outside each of us and we become the conduit that attempts to bring fleeting beauty, uplift spirits, and give hope in a world that so desperately needs it.
I hope my words are doing that for you now.

I have traded in my point shoes for a ball point pen.

And I practice every day, diligently with that same artistic grace and passion … to open a doorway into your mind and heart so you can feel that within you right now, is a power and depth there for you to tap into at any point and time.

While my art has changed its form, it did not change its purpose, message, or gift.
Thank you for joining me in this dance of lyrics, and feeling into the rhythms of the verses in my soul.

~Suzanne Wagner~

 

 

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