THE ESSENTIAL A&E PICKS FOR APR 17 - APR 23 

• Andrew Alba

Nepantla: Border Arte @ Finch Lane Gallery
Identity is no simple matter; for each one of us, it's a complex interplay of place, ethnicity, faith, gender, sexual orientation and so much more, defying attempts at creating simplistic binaries. That's a concept recognized in the Nahuatl word "nepantla" which recognizes a quality of "in-betweenness" for individuals who define themselves occupying a space between identities. Curator Roxanne Gray and 801 Salon explore that concept in the multi-disciplinary group show Nepantla: Border Arte, which finds artists exploring their own particular borderlands.

As examined by artists including Andrew Alba (whose "La Matriarca As a Young Girl" is pictured), Bianca Velásquez, Jazmin Guzman, Maru Quevedo and Miguel Hernandez, that concept of a border can be geographical, psychological or cultural, with the works investigating subjects including cultural assimilation, erasure, discrimination and the immigrant experience. As Gray describes it in a press release, "These artists exist in nepantla, exploring identidad through autohistória, testimonio, and the never ending pláticas [conversations] surrounding who tells the stories and what stories and histories are told. ... Each piece contributes to a collective identity and a liberatory space for healing and social change."

Nepantla: Border Arte runs April 18 – May 30 at Finch Lane Gallery (54 Finch Lane) in conjunction with Matalyn Zundel's show No Woman Is an Island). A dance performance will also be featured on select evenings, including one by Gray and Masio Sangster during the Gallery Stroll receptions on Friday, April 18 and Friday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m. Visit @801.Salon on Instagram for additional information. (Scott Renshaw)

• Orion Pictures

Utah Symphony: Mozart's Requiem
It's been more than 40 years since director Milos Forman's adaptation of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus won multiple Academy Awards, but it still looms large in creating the cultural image of the life and work of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. That includes the famed scene in which a dying Mozart dictates the score for his "Requiem" to rival Antonio Salieri, leaving the work incomplete. In real life, however, the story gets even more interesting, as the popular version of Mozart's "Requiem" that had been performed for nearly 200 years—as completed by Franz Süssmayr—was given a tweak by composer Robert Levin, incorporating notes discovered by musicologists only in the 1960s. Levin's completion was premiered for the bicentennial of Mozart's death, in 1991.

It is Levin's version of Mozart's "Requiem" that headlines a program of work that was all featured prominently in the film version of Amadeus. Opening the evening is the overture to The Magic Flute, the beloved fanciful opera that also premiered in 1791, the year of Mozart's death. The evening also includes Symphony No. 25—the "Little G Minor Symphony"—which underscores the opening sequence of the film. For devotees of this great movie—guilty as charged—it's an evening that is not to be missed.

Utah Symhpony and conductor Christopher Allen present this amazing Mozart program at Abravanel Hall (123 W. South Temple) on Friday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 19 at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $18.50 - $72, and availability was limited at press time. Visit utahsymphony.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)

• Stuart Ruckman

Ririe-Woodbury: Re-Act
Twelve years ago, Daniel Charon arrived during the 50th anniversary of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, launching a tenure as the company's artistic director that has been full of remarkable work. In October, Charon announced that he would be stepping down from his role this spring—but he's not leaving without giving us one final treat. As part of RWDC's season-closing Re-Act program, we get a brand-new work co-created and choreographed by Charon, and in which he will also appear as a performer.

From Code to Universe—a dance-theater piece co-directed by local veteran theater professional Alexandra Harbold—incorporates a new play written by Connor Nelis Johnson and performed by Charon along with actors Nicki Nixon, Ben Young and Mack Barr. It's a narrative that touches on the notion of being able to preserve one's consciousness for eternity in digital form, investigating what it means to be human. Also on the program is another world-premiere work, this one by Atlanta-based choreographer Annalee Traylor, which comes as the inaugural presentation from RWDC's newly-created Choreographic Canvas program, part of a juried selection process. Even as one chapter in Ririe-Woodbury's history ends, another one begins.

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company's Re-Act program comes to the Rose Wagner Center's Leona Wagner Black Box Theater (138 W. 300 South) on April 18 – 19 at 7:30 p.m., with an additional abbreviated, sensory-friendly, ASL-interpreted "Moving Parts" performance on April 19 at 1 p.m. Tickets for the evening performances are $35 general admission, $10 general admission for "Moving Parts." Visit saltlakecountyarts.org for tickets and additional event information. (SR)