(Cedar City, UT) - The legacy of celebrated Utahn Helen Foster Snow and the journey undertaken by Southern Utah University’s College of Performing and Visual Arts faculty and students continues as the creative team behind Dream of Helen rehearse a newly revised version of the dance drama. The collaboration between China’s Hubei Opera and Dance Drama Theatre and SUU inspired by the life of Helen Foster Snow has recently gone back into rehearsal on the university’s campus for a new production that will be featured as the opening performance of the Hubei Province Arts

Festival in Wuhan, China, October 15th-17th.

Shauna Mendini, Dean of SUU’s College of Performing and Visual Arts and Co-Director of Dream of Helen, explains, “In the year since the premiere our creative team has looked at all the footage and mulled over several revisions in telling Helen’s story. When the opportunity came to do the dance drama again in China, we all agreed to take a fresh perspective to the material and developed the revisions we felt were needed. Our creative partners came to cedar City from Wuhan, China, to work with our students before our fall semester begins.”

Working in the SUU dance studios, the team from the Hubei Opera and Dance Drama Theatre includes Fan Liu, Ping Yi, Yuanjie Wu and Cheng Zhang. They are joined by Dean Mendini, Kay Andersen, Theatre Arts & Dance Chair and co-choreographer, J.P. Tenuta, guest artist playing the role of Edgar Snow, Bethany Hess, 2012 SUU graduate playing the role of Helen as well as students who either performed in the world premiere or are experiencing the opportunity for the first time. Xun Sun, Associate Professor of Music and original music director for the production, is assisting with translation.