Salt Lake Tribune · Apr 23, 2018
Letter: Really, Ballet West? A white guy as Othello?
(Courtesy photo by Beau Pearson) Ballet West Principal Artist Rex Tilton and First Soloist Allison DeBona perform in the company's triple-bill concert, "The Shakespeare Suite." On April 18, I attended your production of “Return to a Strange Land,” “Summerspace” and “The Shakespeare Suite.” As a Shakespeare scholar and lover of dance, I appreciated the pairing of the larger-than-life characters with the Duke Ellington score.
However, I cannot stress how disappointed I was to see a white dancer take the stage to portray Othello. As the importance of representation comes to the forefront of our national and international conversations, I felt this was a grave misstep on the part of Ballet West.