Barefoot Boy

Barefoot Boy traces the extraordinary life of Bill Evans, a trailblazing choreographer who transformed early adversity into a lifetime of dance innovation.

Born in 1940s Lehi, Utah, an ultra-conservative farming town outside Salt Lake City, Bill found in dance an escape from isolation, a form of self-expression, and eventually, a career. He danced his way from the U.S. Army to the Joffrey Ballet in New York City, and back to Utah, where he helped launch the influential Repertory Dance Theatre before founding his own company, which became the most-booked dance company in America. Yet beneath the acclaim, Bill spent decades reconciling his queer identity with his Mormon community, suppressing who he was by marrying and raising a child long before he felt free to live openly.

Now 82, Bill returns to Salt Lake City and the Repertory Dance Theatre for the performance of his life: teaching his time-capsule choreography to a new generation of dancers, even as echoes of his past threaten to derail it.

Directed by Stéphane Glynn, Barefoot Boy is a story of resilience, reckoning, and what it costs, and finally gains, to live an authentic life in the open.

Followed by a live Q&A with Bill Evans and director Stéphane Glynn, moderated by Ellen Bromberg.