Repertory Dance Theatre

Rdt's 56th season concluded with our goals and expectations for the year having been met and, in some cases, exceeded. Rdt was able to rehearse, prepare, and present five outstanding season performances: north star (oct. '21), compass (nov. '21), emerge (feb. '22), six songs from ellis (apr. '22) and regalia (may/june '22). Each home season concert was made up of 3 or more public performances, along with a digital performance, and showcased outstanding contemporary choreography, new commissions, and historical masterpieces never seen in Utah. We are pleased to have met our ticket and income goals for these performances and, despite only selling 50% of the seats to help keep patrons socially distanced, we were only 11% off our pre-covid ticket sales numbers with six songs surpassing pre-covid totals. The success of our hybrid in-person and digital programs offer clear evidence that patrons and audiences are eager for outstanding arts and cultural experiences. Other areas of rdt's mission-driven programs showcased stability and growth such as the rdt Dance center on broadway with 1,471 individuals in attendance after a year and a half closed due to covid and rdt's arts-in-education programs offered around the state of Utah serving 75,667 students and teachers through in-person and digital programs. Finally, thanks to the generosity of individual donors and private foundation such as the eccles, rdt reached 129% of our fundraising goals during 2021-2022 season. Concert highlights re-scheduling a season that needed to be offered virtually required flexibility and many guest artists were asked to postpone their rdt projects until a future date. Because rdt has a vast and varied Repertory, we were able to redesign a season filled with both commissions and encores. Thanks to the shop in Utah program, rdt was able to implement our "art is essential" campaign lowering all rdt digital tickets by 50% for the entire season. This included free tickets for rdt's ring around the rose - which offered monthly digital experiences for kids and families exploring various art styles and groups from around Utah. We are proud to have reached 111,440 individuals including 64,406 students and teachers and offered 2,727 arts-in-education instructional hours of service. Those engaged were also from a larger geographical area than ever before. This represented enormous growth in the scope and impact of rdt's programs. It also gave us a clear idea of how to build future seasons. With the close of rdt's 56th season on june 30th, 2022 the company has been able to serve 93,530 individuals through our various mission-driven programs and activities. These account for 2,695 service hours and 1,101 individual events. (note: rdt re-evaluated and updated how we tracked statistics between the time we submitted our interim report and the end of our season. The statistics here are update and reflect the change in tracking methodology.) Rdt currently shows the following breakdown of our home season patrons: 87.2% white, 1.5% black/african american, 0.7% native american 3.4% asian, 0.7% pacific islander, 3.8% other, 2.7% two or more races. Rdt's patron base is 50.2% male and 49.8% female with an average household income of 62,718. As usual, a large part of rdt's yearly activities take place through our aie program which offers services to Utah's k-12th grade students and teachers. Statistics collected during the past year show that we have served 62,100 students and 13,567 teachers across around the state of Utah. This accounts for 100% of Utah school districts. The total engagement number above includes: - 30,251 individuals engaged with rdt's online video resources including Dance lessons for k-12 students, Dance master class of the week series for junior high and high school aged dancers, and cultural Dance spotlights that took place in conjunction with black history month, women's history month, latin american history month, etc. And other educational content uploaded to rdt's blow embark. - 11,247 students and teachers engaged at rdt's school matinees both in person and through the use of new, interactive, fully-digital study guides that include performance videos, lesson plans in written and video format, supplemental information and links to outside resources for further learning. - 616 local artists participated in rdt's 56th season - these included dancers, guests, artistic experts and coaches, choreographers, technical crew, costume designers, graphic designers, website developers, etc. - 117.5 hours editing, filming, and producing digital content to extend the reach and scope of rdt's in person activities. The ongoing covid-19 pandemic continued to present the greatest challenges to rdt's mission-driven activities. Rdt addressed these ever-changing issues by - limiting the seating capacity of our in-person performances to 50% and mandating socially-distanced seating at all performances. - requiring masks at all in-person events including performances, classes, and workshops. While rdt did not require proof of vaccination for attendance at in-person concerts, in january 2022 rdt implemented a proof of vaccination requirement for rdt Dance center on broadway classes and maintains that requirement. - moved dancer-contracted weeks around in late winter/early spring 2022 to navigate the omicron variant and resulting surge. - moved two season performances (emerge, january 2022 and regalia, march 2022) to fully online programs in response to the omicron variant and resulting surge. - tested rdt dancers and staff for covid-19 weekly from september 2021 to january 2022 when supplies were no longer made available to community organizations. Since then, rdt has secured and purchased new covid tests on its own; adjusting the fy22 budget to free up funds for this unexpected cost. Rdt is proud to have honored our commitment to all contracted weeks for staff and dancers without the need to fire or furlough anyone. Rdt executive staff and board of directors worked to increase the size of our endowment and are set to establish a new legacy fund thanks to a generous bequeathed gift from a long-time rdt patron and board member. With these two funds, rdt looks toward the future and continues its commitment to being a financially stable institution while also increasing the scope and impact of our artistic plans each season. Rdt continued its commitment to building relationships with outside Dance partners such as Utah valley university, which saw the implementation of a two week residency in orem, ut that included the re-staging of two martha graham classics: steps in the street (1938) and ekstasis (1934/2018). Rdt is proud to have increased the financial stability of rdt dancers by increasing their weeks of pay from 35 to 52 weeks, with 17 weeks offered at partial pay of 350 per week and is excited to be launching a brand-new arts-in-education website devoted to providing teachers with educational resource material. This new website was launched in september 2022.