Press Releases
Not Just Another Lake Discussion: Rowland Hall Students To Present Immersive Great Salt Lake–Inspired Dance Concert in Partnership With Utah Nonprofits
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FEBRUARY 7, 2023
Not Just Another Lake Discussion: Rowland Hall Students To Present Immersive Great Salt Lake–Inspired Dance Concert in Partnership With Utah Nonprofits
SALT LAKE CITY, UT—Rowland Hall is proud to present Submerge, a unique dance concert experience, this Friday, February 10, and Saturday, February 11, at the Larimer Center for the Performing Arts. Inspired by the current challenges facing Great Salt Lake, the concert will:
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Increase audience members’ understanding of the urgent situation facing Great Salt Lake through student-choreographed dances and informative video clips
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Connect attendees with representatives from five Utah nonprofits committed to saving the lake: Brolly Arts, FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake, Great Salt Lake Collaborative, Save Our Great Salt Lake and The Nature Conservancy
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Provide a student-centered perspective on a pressing local issue, including why these young leaders are inspired to do their part to protect their communities
With a vision to develop people the world needs, Rowland Hall has deepened its longstanding commitment to giving students authentic learning opportunities in which they can shape solutions to the world’s toughest problems and to connecting them with community partners to create real, lasting and far-reaching change. A focus on Great Salt Lake’s climate crisis has given students a variety of opportunities to learn and inspire change in a variety of disciplines, including the arts.
"We are inspired by these students' efforts to make dances that carry purpose and activate social change,” said Sofia Gorder, arts chair of dance education at Rowland Hall. “While it is a tall order, I do believe this concert will have an impact even for an audience unfamiliar with these students. It is a call to action, it connects to the human experience, it states the facts and it illuminates solutions.”
Performance Details
Date: | Friday, February 10, and Saturday, February 11, 2023 |
Time: | 7 pm |
Cost: | Recommended $10 donation per person |
Location: | Larimer Center for the Performing Arts 843 Lincoln Street, Salt Lake City |
Information on community action will be provided by nonprofit partners during intermission, and a panel featuring students, faculty and community partners will follow the show.
About Rowland Hall
Rowland Hall is Utah's oldest independent coeducational college-preparatory day school, serving more than 1,030 students in 3PreK through twelfth grade. Driven by our vision of developing people the world needs, we believe in a transformational education that gives students agency and purpose, connects them to their global community and empowers them to make the world a better place for all.
Contact
Stephanie Orfanakis, Director of Marketing and Communications
stephanieorfanakis@rowlandhall.org
Office: 801-924-2960 | Cell: 801-244-2862
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Nonprofits
Save Our Great Salt Lake
We proclaim Great Salt Lake’s inherent right to exist and flourish. We recognize and uphold the sentience, intelligence, and sovereignty of this essential water body.
We hold Utah lawmakers accountable for taking measures to match the terrible urgency of this crisis. We demand changes that will reverse the active collapse of our irreplaceable ecosystem.
By holding space for collective learning and engagement, we work to protect and restore the lake.
We invite every person in this bioregion to share responsibility for equitable, long-term water stewardship and to cultivate their own reverent and reciprocal relationship with water.
FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake
The mission of FRIENDS is to preserve and protect the Great Salt Lake ecosystem and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the Lake through education, research, advocacy and the arts.
The long-term vision of FRIENDS is to achieve comprehensive watershed-based restoration and protection for the Great Salt Lake ecosystem.
Great Salt Lake Collaborative
The Great Salt Lake Collaborative is a group of 23 news, education and media organizations that have come together to better inform and engage the public about the crisis facing the Great Salt Lake — and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late.
We will answer the question: During a time of drought, climate change and major population growth, how can Utah better support a critical body of water?
We will do this through rigorous journalism, innovative storytelling and unique community outreach that focuses on how agencies and people are responding to the challenges facing the lake.
The Nature Conservancy
To conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.
Brolly Arts
Brolly Arts is dedicated to creating meaningful art and vibrant communities through artistic and civic collaboration and experimentation. As a non-profit umbrella arts organization, Brolly is committed to increasing the opportunities and impacts of artists and arts organizations in Salt Lake City and Utah. The focus is on developing artistic, civic and corporate partnerships to increase awareness and change around major issues of the day with local relevance, increase access to the arts, innovative arts programming, and support for local and national independent artists. Brolly Arts facilitates collaborative opportunities for independent artists, established organizations (artistic and civic), and fledgling arts groups.
Panelists
Laura Briefer
Director, Department of Public Utilities
Andrea Nelson*

Volunteer and Outreach Manager, The Nature Conservancy
Sylvia Twahirwa
Student Artist, Rowland Hall Class of 2025
Sophia Cutrubus ’18

Rowland Hall Dance Teacher, Brolly Arts Representative
Katie Newburn*

Education and Outreach Director, FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake
Rob Wilson

Rowland Hall Biology Teacher and Coordinator of Climate Studies, Founder of Evaporation Project
Sofia Gorder

Rowland Hall Arts Chair of Dance Education, Brolly Arts Representative
Mikel Lawlor
Student Artist, Rowland Hall Class of 2023
Heather May
Project Manager, Great Salt Lake Collaborative
Chandler Rosenberg

Co-Founder, Save Our Great Salt Lake
Graphics
Videos
Videos are property of Rowland Hall and shared only to provide a visual understanding of this event. Do not use without permission. Please contact stephanieorfanakis@
Student Essay
Rowland Hall Senior Reflects on Arts’ Role in Activism as Dancers Prepare for Unique Concert Inspired by Great Salt Lake
It’s clear: Rowland Hall students are inspired by the Great Salt Lake—and, in turn, they are inspiring others through their tireless work to educate themselves on the crises facing the famous landmark and their actions to save it. This dedication extends to the school’s middle and upper school dancers, who have spent the school year creating original pieces about the lake. As Submerge, the culmination of their months of work, approaches, senior dancer Anna Hull reflects on the vital role the arts play in activism.
Art and Activism: A Student's Interrogation
By Anna Hull, Class of 2023
I’ve been in a Rowland Hall dance concert every year of high school, and each one brings unique feelings of anticipation, pressure, joy, and the knowledge of success.
However, this year’s dance concert—titled Submerge, which will be performed on February 10 and 11—has a different purpose and relevance than our past shows. When Rowland Hall decided to apply the thematic focus of Great Salt Lake’s climate crisis to the 2022–2023 school year, the dance department adopted this matter as well. This thematic shift meant that along with dealing with costuming and choreography, we’ve been asking questions of the role of activism within the arts. Specifically, how do we address the depleting Great Salt Lake through dance and, at the end of the day, can we actually make an impact?
When we worked on our first Great Salt Lake–inspired piece during the summer workshop, a weeklong intensive for all Rowland Hall dancers that takes place each August, we loved the ways that Great Salt Lake, an integral feature of our childhoods in Utah, was integrated into the choreography: the number of people on stage reflected a change in elevation, echoing the declining water level of the lake, and the multiple scores intensified the piece over time. Despite the fact that the Advanced Dance students understood these elements and their reasoning, we were constantly questioning if the dance accurately portrayed the impending crisis—and did it do so to an extent that it would cause an audience to change their behavior, join the activist cause, or simply care?
When we finished the dance, we were shocked to see tears in the eyes of the audience. Despite our apprehension, our short performance had created a massive impact. Since then, we’ve been trying to recreate this outcome.
Our first time performing one of the dances inspired by the lake, “In Form Memoriam,” was at the Great Salt Lake outdoor auditorium following a University of Utah academic forum. We expected this performance to be a throwaway and felt largely unprepared both as dancers and as agents of change. However, when we finished the dance, we were shocked to see tears in the eyes of the audience. Sofia Gorder, our dance teacher, informed us that despite our apprehension, our short performance had created a massive impact. But what caused it to be so moving? Was it the kind of audience, the setting of the lake, or simply the experience of watching young adults perform? Since then, we’ve been trying to recreate this outcome and the relationship that occurred between us and our audience.
Our second showing, at the Rowland Hall Deliberate Dialogue event Aridity, did not quite succeed at this goal. Although the arts played a role in this event, they were placed as a finalé to speeches full of alarming facts and calls to action. And although the speakers eloquently conveyed their message, our glances toward the audience told us that the information was crushing, rather than motivating. We realized that the art needed a place at the forefront of the event in order to create a context, gain the audience’s attention, and establish an emotional connection rather than a cerebral one.
I hope that Submerge succeeds in representing our efforts as artists and activists, and that it doesn’t only leave the audience with a collection of information, but a desire to truly be a part of the solution.
So in preparation for Submerge, we’ve strategically recorded informative video clips conveying the magnitude and timeline of Great Salt Lake’s evaporation to accompany the dances, allowing logic to complement the art instead of overwhelm it. Moreover, each piece in the concert has a clear story that displays a human experience as an on-ramp to the dense material, rather than coercing a sudden wave of activism. This, to me, is the best way to use the arts to make social change. Performance has the unique ability to quickly and profoundly reach an audience, and only by using that connection can art be successful as advocacy.
Thus, I hope that Submerge succeeds in representing our efforts as artists and activists, and that it doesn’t only leave the audience with a collection of information, but a desire to truly be a part of the solution.
Update March 2023: Thanks to the efforts of students like Anna, Submerge became the school’s best-attended dance concert ever. View photos from the event.
Student Voices