One year after company’s debut, DanceAspen looks to ‘New Horizons’

If you had told Laurel Jenny Winton a year ago that DanceAspen would sell out its inaugural show, perform at the international Vail Dance Festival, put on its first fundraising gala and create multiple premiere works, the dance company’s founder said she would’ve never believed it.

Yet in its one year of existence, DanceAspen has indeed accomplished all of this and more. And the resilient crew of local dancers continues to look toward “New Horizons” — a fitting title for an upcoming performance at the Wheeler Opera House on Sept. 23-24.

“We came across the phrase ‘New Horizons’ because we’ve done so much in a year that we just want to take a breath and say, ‘OK, where do we want to go from here — where do we really want to take the image of the company — and how do we want to cultivate this and create our own identity?’” Winton said. “So this program has a lot of the DanceAspen personality in it.”