Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company is an American contemporary dance company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in 1964 by University of Utah dance faculty members Joan Woodbury and Shirley Ririe the company is dedicated to furthering contemporary dance by creating and performing original works of modern dance, and promoting the understanding of and appreciation for the art form of dance through educational outreach programs in public schools and in universities.

Before founding Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in 1964, Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury helped create Choreodancers, a company of professional dance performers and teachers. After the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company name became permanent, the company choreographed and performed in Utah and throughout Arizona, California and Colorado.

While at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis in 1968, Joan accepted a Minnesota Arts Council invitation to perform at four colleges. Woodbury returned to Salt Lake City where she and Ririe choreographed a performance and lecture for the Minnesota tour. In 1971, the show was seen in Canada by members of the first US-Canada dance conference.

A breakthrough came in the following year when the company performed at The Space in New York City through director Alwin Nikolais. Representatives of the National Endowment for the Arts attended the performance and accepted the company for the Endowment's Artists In Schools and Dance Touring Programs.

The company's acceptance in these programs offered full-time touring as a national company and the most "Artists In Schools" performances in the United States of any company for 12 years. Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company was chosen to be part of the Dance On Tour state-touring program from 1990 to 1994 and performed in South Carolina, Kentucky, Montana and New Mexico.

The Company continued to perform internationally. In 1977, the International Congress of Girls' and Women's Sports invited the Company to South Africa for an extended tour of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Pretoria, marking the first time that a nationally and racially diverse performing group had performed in those areas. In 1978, they were chosen by the United States as representatives to the first Dance and the Child International meeting in Canada.

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