DanceAspen delivers a captivating debut at Vail Dance Festival

The press release came to my inbox with the headline: “Two ski town rivals come together through dance,” which nailed the truth of the Vail Dance Festival: It’s all about collaboration. Any “rivalry” between the two towns is completely set aside as dancers create together, learn and inspire each other to take dance to its highest level.

And that’s exactly what DanceAspen accomplished Sunday night at the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek. The newly formed company, founded in 2021 after the devastation of the pandemic led the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet to disband its professional performing company, embodies the spirit of resilience, passion and immense talent. As Vail Dance Festival artistic director Damian Woetzel pointed out, DanceAspen is “reinventing how ballet companies can work and prioritize dancers … with a small but mighty company.”

Though just nine dancers make up DanceAspen, their evening performance was full and rich, embodying the ideal beauty, grace and strength of dance.