Luke Swenson
Founder, Board Member
Pronouns:
A native of Utah County, Luke Swenson is co-founder and librettist for the Deseret Experimental Opera Company. Swenson’s work with DEXO began with the short epistolary libretto for Strawberries in the Hive, a story of love lost in space. His first first full length opera, A Parking Lot for Hyacinths, received a grant from the BYU School of Music and premiered at the Nelke Experimental Theater. In 2015, Swenson laid the blueprint for the improvised opera The Heavenly City about the migraines of the 12th century composer, poet, scientist, and visionary Hildegard von Bingen.
Apart from his work with DEXO, Swenson is the author of the self-published chapbook Proportion and Ornament and his poems have been published in the journals Inscape, Lost Sparrow Press and Likewise Folio and are forthcoming in the journal Porcupine. His work as a performance poet has been featured at Red Butte Garden’s Garden After Dark, Avant GaRawge and 12 Minutes Max. Swenson has a B.A. in German from BYU. He currently lives in Salt Lake City and loves reading, writing, and working for the Salt Lake Public Library.
Emmett Wilson
Artistic Coordinator, Board Member
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Emmett Wilson is a dance artist, choreographer and director for DEXO. Born and raised in Houston, Emmett moved west to complete a BFA in Modern Dance at the University of Utah, minoring in Environmental Studies and Portuguese. Emmett’s involvement with DEXO began when they performed a dancing migraine in The Heavenly City (2015). They have since choreographed and directed Red Lake (2016), and is excited for future DEXO productions.
Emmett also jams with the improvisational dance and music ensemble, Porridge for Goldilocks, and has a solo performance project, LadyPrince is Yung&Bizzy. Wilson’s work has been presented at the The Barn (Houston), 12 Minutes Max (SLC), Mudson (SLC), Speakers Corner (SLC), Dumke Blackbox Theater (SLC), Jupiter XI Apparel (Chicago), and The Pilot on Navigation (Houston). Their writing can be found published in loveDANCEmore and 15 Bytes. Emmett is thrilled to choreograph in an operatic context in which various artistic languages simultaneously speak: making nonsense and creating meaning.
Meagan Bertelsen
Secretary, Board Member
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Meagan Bertelsen is a movement artist based in Salt Lake City. A 2016 graduate from the University of Utah, she has a BFA in Modern Dance and an Honors Degree with a thesis in solo improvisation. Alongside her personal research, she has been a longtime member of Porridge for Goldilocks, a group of performance improvisers of various disciplines. For her, collaborating across mediums is a challenge of the relevancy and abilities of her craft.
Joining forces with DEXO for Red Lake was a dream come true. Meagan has danced in other intersectional works including Porridge’s Wood In Nails, an evening-length commission, The Mists, a site-specific dance theater across Red Butte Gardens, and her curatorial debut, The Museum of Nobody. Her stage performances include choreography by Scott Wells and Steve Koester, as well as independently produced shows by peers Dat Nguyen, Natalie Gotter, and Erica MacLean. She is currently working with an all-woman cast on Dollhouse, an immersive evening of dance throughout a local historical home.
Dominic Caputo
Treasurer, Board Member
Pronouns: He/Him
Carly Schaub
Grant Coordinator, Board Vice President
Pronouns: She/Her
Carly Schaub is originally from Benson, UT and graduated with an M.F.A. in Modern Dance from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and a B.F.A. in Theatre and Dance, from the University of Wyoming. She has performed in numerous dance and musical theatre productions, studied many dance forms, including Baroque and Renaissance dance, addition to spending time studying in London. She has worked with many choreographers including Bill Evans, Peter Pucci, Yoav Kaddar, Keith Saunders, Patricia Tate, Marsha Knight, Thomas Shoemaker, and Netta Yerushalmy to name a few.
Prior to attending graduate school Carly worked with Northern Plains Ballet, in Bismarck, ND, serving as Education Coordinator as well as teaching Ballet, Modern Dance, choreographing, and performing in their season. She also taught and performed as a guest artist around the ND, MN areas including Grand Forks, Jamestown, and Fargo/Moorhead. Her favorite role she performed was “Lise” in La Fille Mal Gardée, with North Dakota Ballet. She choreographed numerous musicals for Bismarck State College, and Sleepy Hollow Summer Theatre, and some of her favorites were Mary Poppins, Chicago, Cabaret, and Urinetown.
Carly’s research while at the University of Utah encompassed dance technique theory and practice, and Dance for Parkinson’s Disease. She has also continued historical dance research and reconstruction on her own spending several summers at the International Baroque Institute at Longy, Boston. Carly currently wanders as a guest artist in a variety of places, runs an early Ballet group called Dance Balletti in Salt Lake City, teaches Ballet and Modern on the staff of Wasatch Arts Center, costumes small dance productions, and teaches Dance for Parkinson’s in partnership with the University of Utah and Repertory Dance Theatre.
Peter C. Larsen
Production Manager, Board President
Pronouns: He/Him/They/Them/She/Her
Peter C. Larsen is originally from the cold plains of North Dakota. He moved to Salt Lake City in 2011 and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Modern Dance from the University of Utah School of Dance. He is currently the President of Deseret Experimental Opera, a Salt Lake City arts nonprofit, and works as a local freelance dancer and light designer. Notable companies he has performed with include Municipal Ballet, Dance Balletti, Indie Kumari, VaVaVoom Cabaret, and the House of Stephens with artists Gia Bianca Stephens and Kay Bye. In light design and technical stage work, Peter has worked with many local artists including Molly Heller (founder of the Heartland Collective), Dat Nguyen (Co-founder of Queer Spectra Arts Festival), Deseret Experimental Opera, Nichelle Woods, and NYC based artists Rey and Maya Ciarrocchi.