(bright upbeat music) - Experience dance up close with "Traverse," Ririe Woodbury's winter production, showcasing new works by company dancers and guest artist Annie Rigney.

Leslie Krause, artistic director, joins us to share more.

Hi, Leslie.

Welcome.

- Hi.

Thank you so much for having me.

Welcome to Utah.

- Thank you.

I appreciate it.

- You're with the company five months, and you're learning about Salt Lake.

- I am, I am, and it's been really exciting, a whirlwind, big growth experience, and I feel just very fortunate to have gotten this position at such a important and legacy company.

Very appreciative.

- [Laura] Where do you come from?

- I come from a lot of places, but I spent most of my professional career in New York City.

- Oh, well, we're glad you landed here at such a reputable company like Ririe Woodbury.

- Oh, absolutely.

I knew about it long before I applied for this job, and I am truly honored to be leading this company into a bright new future.

- Now, you have this exciting showcase coming up, choreography by the company dancers, as well as a guest choreographer.

- Yes, so our guest choreographer is Annie Rigney, and she is the recipient of our Choreographic Canvas program, which is a national search for choreographers to work for the company, and since she got that, she actually has gotten three awards or more that are really celebrating her choreography.

One is a Bessie nomination, and if you're in the dance world, you know that that's a really high honor, so we're really excited that she's here working with us currently.

and her work will be in "Traverse" as well as the dancers' work, which is exciting for the community to see.

You know, these six amazing dance artists are often doing the work of others, so it's a sneak peek into their minds and their choreography, and I'm super excited for the community to see that.

- Now, this performance is a little bit different.

We were talking earlier that the audience is literally up close, so tell us what that setup looks like.

- Yeah, so we're placing the audience on the stage, so they are literally closer to the action and a little bit more in relationship to it, and so the seats will be in the round on the stage, and the performance will happen in the center, and then before that, I just wanna make sure everyone knows that there is a happy hour each night, and there will be drinks, concessions, board games, and it'll be really fun, and we have a collaboration with Fisher Brewing that we're excited about.

- Sounds amazing.

Well, thank you so much for telling us about it.

- Great.

Thank you.

- If you'd like to learn more about "Traverse," Ririe Woodbury's winter showcase, it's January 15th through the 17th at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.

Get your tickets at ririewoodbury.com.

I'm Laura.

Thank you for watching "Contact."

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