The Ariel Bybee
Endowment 2025
This Year’s Discipline Prize: Dance
Neylan McBaine announces the 2025 Prize and shares her mother Ariel Bybee’s special connection to dance.
One artist’s legacy.
Nine rotating disciplines.
The Ariel Bybee Endowment at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts was established in 2021 to honor the legacy of distinguished mezzo-soprano Ariel Bybee (American, 1943-2018). Each year, the Endowment grants a prize/commission for the creation of new art or original scholarship by Latter-day Saints as a result of a call for submissions. The disciplines represented by the Endowment correspond to her career highlights and passions in one of these nine, rotating categories: opera, dance, scholarship, art songs, youth education, hymns, visual arts, collaborative arts, and choral music.
2025 Prize: Dance
In its fourth year, The Ariel Bybee Endowment is turning its sights to dance. The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts invites choreographers to submit proposals for a contemporary ballet work that, in performance, includes a component of live vocal music.
In Partnership With
We are pleased to announce that the winning choreographer will work with the Utah Metropolitan Ballet company to create a contemporary ballet that will premiere in the spring of 2026 by the company at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah.
The premiere in May 2026 at the Covey Center for the Arts will be part of a mixed works program, and the duration of the piece should be approximately 10-15 minutes in length. UMB performances are to live music, and the winning work can feature anything from vocal soloist and piano, to chamber music, mixed ensemble, to orchestra—but must include voice.
The winning entry will receive a $5,000 award. $1,000 of that amount will be awarded upon the announcement of the prize and the remainder at the premiere of the work, May 2026.
Applications were open until January 12th, 2025 and have now closed. An announcement of a selected winner will be forthcoming.
Meet the 2025 Jury:
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Angella Vernon
President, Utah Metropolitan Ballet
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Devon Teuscher
Principal Dancer, American Ballet Theatre
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Hannah Neeleman
Founder, Ballerina Farm
Graduate, The Juilliard School -
Jacqueline P. Colledge
Artistic Director, Utah Metropolitan Ballet
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Jan Dijkwel
Artistic Director, Joffrey Ballet School
Founder and Artistic Director, Civic Ballet -
Katie Daines Lindsay
Governing Board member, Ballet West
Former Dancer, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet -
Lisa Hess Jones
Founder & Artistic Dir. Aspire Ballet Center
Former Soloist, New York City Ballet -
Neylan McBaine
Ariel Bybee Endowment
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Rick Robinson
Director for American Leadership Academy
Former Dancer, Odyssey Dance Theatre
Dance &
Multitalented opera singer Ariel Bybee had a lifelong love of dance. During her career, she lived close to Lincoln Center with her family. They attended many New York City Ballet performances and knew many of the dancers there.
In 1985, she performed as a guest vocal artist with the New York City Ballet. Dressed in costume, she sang while sharing the stage with the ballet dancers’ performance. To acknowledge Ariel’s connection to and love of dance, the Endowment is commissioning an original dance work that incorporates live vocal performance.
