Utah ballet legend Bené Arnold, who helped guide Ballet West in its early days and taught dance to children and college students, has died.
Arnold died Thursday, at age 88, according to a news release from Ballet West. The Utah dance group did not give a cause of death, or say where she was when she died.
Arnold began her ballet career in California, joining the San Francisco Ballet School in 1948, according to the release. She became a soloist in the company under the direction of Harold Christensen.
While traveling with San Francisco Ballet, Arnold told The Salt Lake Tribune in 2009, she got her first look at Utah in the 1950s. “We all were impressed with the passion that we found here, and how much enthusiasm there was for the art form,” Arnold said.
After moving to Salt Lake City to study at the University of Utah in 1961, Arnold joined Ballet West — then called Utah Civic Ballet, and founded by Harold’s brother, Willam Christensen — as the company’s first ballet mistress in 1964.
“We didn’t have a budget,” Arnold said in 2009. “We desired it, we wanted it, and it was important. We wanted to make professionalism happen here, and everybody just went for it.”
(courtesy Ballet West) Bené Arnold, left, with the choreographer Dmitri Romanoff, during a 1968 rehearsal for Ballet West's production of "Giselle." Arnold, Ballet West's first ballet mistress and a fixture in Utah dance for decades, died Jan. 25, 2024, at age 88.
Willam Christensen, known as Mr. C, established the first American production of “The Nutcracker,” according to the Corps de Ballet, and Arnold served for many years as Ballet West’s rehearsal director for young dancers in the performance. As Christensen’s representative, Arnold also staged his works for Ballet West and the Cincinnati Ballet. She also choreographed performances for Utah Opera and Arizona Opera, the release said.
While still directing Ballet West, Arnold joined the faculty of the University of Utah’s Department of Ballet in 1975. She retired in 2001, but returned as the department’s interim head from 2009 to 2011, before she moved to St. George.
Arnold was commended by the Utah State Senate for her contributions to the state in 1984, according to the release. Arnold also performed as a guest artist in various character roles with Ballet West — starting with her portrayal of Fatme in the company’s “historic reconstruction” of the Romantic ballet “Abdullah,” according to the New York Times.
She also performed such roles as Carabosse, the evil queen, in “Sleeping Beauty,” Giselle’s mother in “Giselle” and the nurse in “Romeo & Juliet.”
At her first rehearsal for “Sleeping Beauty” in 2007, according to a Tribune report at the time, Arnold — at age 72 — entered by cartwheeling across the floor and doing the splits.
“Bené Arnold was a brilliant and passionate artist and dance educator,” Adam Sklute, Ballet West’s artistic director, said in a statement. “When I joined [Ballet West], we became good friends and she educated me on BW history, Mr. C, and the development of the company through the decades. I will always be grateful to Bené for all she brought to Ballet West and the entire dance world.”
In 1997, Arnold received the Chamber of Commerce Award and the Governor’s Award for the Arts. Arnold also received the University of Utah’s College of Fine Arts Excellence award, and was named a Distinguished Professor Emerita upon her retirement, the release states.
“She was instrumental in guiding and shaping the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of dancers through Ballet West’s history and University of Utah Dance Department,” Peter Christie, Ballet West’s director of education and outreach Peter Christie, who has been with the company for 40 years, said in a news release. “The amount of passion that she brought to sharing and developing dancers and the art form, was uniquely remarkable.”
No information was immediately available on survivors or memorial services.
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