(upbeat music) - Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company's, "Synthesis: A Young Artist Showcase," is an eclectic and electrifying dance event that brings together dedicated educators with energizing young artists.

Education Director Ai Fujii Nelson is here to tell us more about the performance.

Hi Ai, it's great to have you on.

- Thank you so much.

- Yeah, you do so much with the education part of Ririe-Woodbury.

So tell me how this concert came to be.

- Sure, so this is our 60th anniversary as a company, which is super exciting.

And we wanted to make sure that young dancers, the next generation is part of the celebration.

So you might know our co-founding director, Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, they impacted so many people's lives, right?

Like, dance education has been a big part of our company over 60 years.

So many of their students have become dance teachers themselves and dance administrators, dance professional choreographers.

And now their students are growing up to be aspiring dancers and dance educators.

So by having this multi-generational dance concert, we can come together to celebrate this legacy, shared legacy and the lineage, you know, the connection between each other and also connection to the past and the future.

And the young artists, the dancers, can shine today.

And they can also realize they're not just dancing in isolation, you know, in their neighborhood, but they're part of this big legacy and a community of supportive dance teachers and dancers.

- It's so great.

And I know now they're from how many different schools?

Like 11 schools?

- 11 schools from six districts.

So you can kind of feel their impact, it's everywhere, all over Utah.

But we have 11 schools from Davis, Granite, Canyons, Alpine, Provo, Salt Lake.

Yeah.

All over.

- Oh, it's so wonderful what you're doing.

And thank you so much for being here.

Thank you.

- Thank you so much, Mary.

- And if you'd like to know more about Ririe-Woodbury's upcoming production, "Synthesis Young Artist Showcase," it will be December 13th, 14th, and 15th at 7:30.

Just go online to ririewoodbury.com.

That's ririewoodbury.com.

I'm Mary Dickson, thanks for watching, "Contact."

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Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

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