2017 Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities performances to offer music, dance and storytelling

Friday, Apr. 14, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY — “We’re thrilled to be performing at the Cathedral of the Madeleine,” said Linda Smith, artistic director for Repertory Dance Theatre, which will kick off the 2017 Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities on April 23. “It’s a wonderful feeling to perform in that lovely architecture, in front of so many wonderful people. … We think of the cathedral as a sacred place, where you present ideas and art, where the community gathers. … To perform and look up at the Rose window and be surrounded by beautiful sculptures and paintings, it’s very inspiring for the performers,” she said.

RDT has performed at the Cathedral of the Madeleine several times; this year, the troupe will begin the Madeleine Festival with a collaborative performance with 3hattrio, a trio of musicians from Utah that have toured the world, playing American Desert music. 

For the Madeleine Festival, RDT have choreographed a dance set to 3hattrio’s “Crippled Up Blues and Other Tales of Deseret.” “It’s a witty, poignant, wonderfully entertaining piece,” Smith said. 

The musical talent that will be on display for the Madeleine Festival doesn’t end with RDT. The second performance on April 30 will be by Sam Payne, a radio personality, storyteller, singer and musician who has wrapped all his talents together into one performance. 

When he started his singing career, the songs he wrote had a lot of history and meaning to them that he wanted his audience to understand, so “I did a lot of explaining on stage,” he said, and he was surprised to find that “the audience enjoyed the spoken work aspect as much as the songs.” 

Since then, he has incorporated storytelling, particularly tales on middle-class Americans whom he finds interesting, in his performance.

Payne said he is looking forward to performing at the Madeleine festival. “The Cathedral of the Madeleine is a Utah icon,” he said. “I lived in St. George with Mormon friends who had fond tales of Bishop Scanlan holding Mass at St. George Tabernacle. I go to the Cathedral as much as I can to (experience) the wonderful art and music.”

Father Lawrence Scanlan, later the first Bishop of Salt Lake, celebrated the first high Mass in southern Utah on May 18, 1879 in the newly completed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints St. George Tabernacle; according to Salt of the Earth by Bernice Maher Mooney, 3,000 people attended the Mass while the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang.

Four other acts will perform during the five-week Madeleine Festival. Among them will be the Tablado Dance Company, which will display Flamenco dance and music at their performance on May 14. 

Solange Gomes, founder and lead dancer of TDC, emigrated from Brazil in 1997. She had been practicing Flamenco for years in Brazil, and although she is not Spanish, “I have my own culture” which creates a special “fusion” of Flamenco, she said. 

The Madeleine Festival will be “a good opportunity to reach other audiences,” Gomes said. “Many people will come because they’ll say, ‘Oh, Flamenco? What’s that?’ The more I can spread Flamenco in Utah, I will.”

The Cathedral of the Madeleine’s excellent acoustics will have the TDC’s dancers and musicians at their best, she said.

The Cathedral of the Madeleine has hosted the Madeleine Festival annually for 29 years. 

“Historically, the cathedral was in the center of a city symbolizing the cathedral being at the heart of each person,” said Father Martin Diaz, rector of the Cathedral of the Madeleine. God touches people’s hearts in many ways, such as through liturgy or charity, he said, but there’s a special kind of spiritual itch that can only be scratched through music. 

“The Madeleine Festival and other concerts minister to the need for art and beauty in each person,” he said.

 

April 23: Repertory Dance Theatre

April 30: Sam Payne

May 7:  G Brown Quintet

May 14: Tablado Dance Company

May 21: Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine

All performances begin at 8 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, 309 E. South Temple, SLC. Free and open to the public. For information, visit http://utcotm.org/component/k2/item/212-2017-madeleine-festival-of-the-arts-and-humanities.