about BRIAN BENINGTON

I was born in South Africa, and dance and music have been around me ever since I can remember:  in the dances of African tribes, the folk dances of white settlers, and the ambiance of the ballroom, tap, Spanish dance and ballet that were the pursuits of my mother, step-mother, and ex-wife.

On nights when the family was out and there was no threat of being seen, I would dance wild, insane, improvisational dances.  I remember moving once to the frenzied strains of Stravinsky's "Fire Dance," and the breathless excitement I felt.

Mary, the wonderful black woman who took care of me while my mom was ill, would put on the radio as she went about cleaning our home early each morning.  The house would fill up with the rhythms and harmonies of African music and language.  Sometimes my mother would let me sit beside her at the baby-grand piano and interrupt her efforts at playing Chopin.  I remember unwinding the ribbons of her toe shoes, putting the shoes on my five year old feet, and learning from her that she'd been a dancer.  She died soon thereafter at the age of 29 after a struggle with Lupus.  Family legend tells that when asked what she'd like to do most in the world if she recovered, she replied:  "Dance. Dance!" 

Later, I watched my stepmother compete in the professional Ballroom and Latin-American dance championships. Then on some evenings, after she'd retired, our living room would be emptied of all furniture, the carpet rolled back, and mom would teach ballroom dance to the locals; I learned some of the basics.  By then I'd seen black men dancing their spirited tribal dances -- but cricket, swimming, soccer and rugby ruled the lives of most South African boys.  Dance was definitely something that no self-respecting white man would do.  So locking my bedroom door, I would hold onto the edge of my bookcase and practice whatever skills I could master from the ballet book I stole from the school library. 

A light went on some years later.  I met a young twenty-something American who declared unashamedly that he had studied dance at Brigham Young University (B.Y.U.).  "Wow!" I thought. "If he can do that, so can I."  A few years later, there I was studying dance.  I discovered that the dance faculty at BYU considered the body and dance gifts that could reflect not only one's immediate concerns, but also allow for access to the deepest, most divinely linked parts of oneself—spirit.

With the encouragement of a generous faculty, and in particular, Les Ditson, an alumnus of the Murray Louis Dance Company, my Master of Arts degree in Dance culminated in a very successful solo dance concert.  At the end of that year, 1984, after being in the United States for many years, I returned to South Africa. 

In Johannesburg I founded "Man-in-Motion Solo Dance Theatre" in 1987, as a 'vehicle' for solo dance performance. It was my express determination to "share, express, and celebrate the wonder of the individual persona, and to affirm through the dance a search for positive human values."  There were opportunities to dance in some of the best theatre spaces in the country, and for the next few years, I taught, lectured and performed wherever opportunities presented themselves.  The performances were successful enough that one critic said of my dancing that I had:  "...lightness, speed and an obvious joy in dancing."  That I was: "...a welcome presence on the local contemporary dance front."

I felt caught in a conundrum, though.  I missed the sense of freedom I'd encountered in America—and given the uncertainty of South Africa at the time, and the fact that 2 of our 3 children were American-born—my ex-wife and I decided to return to the United States in 1989. Since then I have performed my own work, and that of others, in New York, Texas, Idaho, and Arizona—which became home between 1992-2004. I danced there with a number of regional dance companies:  A. Ludwig Dance Theatre, Desert Dance Theatre, Center Dance Ensemble, Elina Mooney and Dancers, and Kelly Roth and Dancers.

In 1996, I completed a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography and Performance at Arizona State University with Cliff Keuter being one of my key mentors. 

The dances I perform—my own work and that of others—explore the borders between motion and kinetics, and the spaces where motion broadens into emotion.  I want to convey a range of motions/emotions with both subtlety and boldness, and to affirm the possibility of change—at every juncture of life. 

Currently, I am a faculty member in the Performing Arts Department of Salt Lake Community College in Utah where I teach "Dance and Culture," a fine arts/diversity course.  Previously, I have been on the dance faculty at the University of Idaho (Moscow, ID), the Department of Dance and Dance Education at New York University (NY), and in South Africa at Stellenbosch University, the Performing Arts Workshop (P.A.W.), and for the Jazzart Dance Company and Pace Dance Company.