For Immediate Release: Vanessa Cook Named Winner of the 2025 Ariel Bybee Endowment at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts
The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts is pleased to announce British choreographer Vanessa Cook as the 2025 recipient of the Ariel Bybee Endowment, which this year honors dance. Established in 2021, the Endowment celebrates the legacy of distinguished mezzo-soprano Ariel Bybee by commissioning new works across nine rotating disciplines associated with various highlights of Bybee’s career. The winning piece will be developed in collaboration with Utah Metropolitan Ballet and will premiere in the spring of 2026 at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah.
The prize winner was selected by a notable jury:
Angella Vernon (President, Utah Metropolitan Ballet)
Devon Teuscher (Principal Dancer, American Ballet Theatre)
Jacqueline P. Colledge (Artistic Director, Utah Metropolitan Ballet)
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)
Rick Robinson (Director for American Leadership Academy; Former Dancer, Odyssey Dance Theatre)
Vanessa Cook, an accomplished choreographer, dancer, and aerialist based in Switzerland, has performed with leading companies such as Motionhouse and Wired Aerial Theatre and contributed to the London 2012 Olympic ceremonies. She founded Vanessa Cook Dance in 2016, creating emotionally resonant, thought-provoking works that blend movement, humor, and human connection.
Her winning choreography proposal, A Brief Collection of Humans, explores the power of a single voice to inspire collective movement and creation. Set to original music by composer Dylan Findley, the work features live vocals to honor Ariel Bybee’s guest performance with the New York City Ballet in 1985. The contemporary ballet gradually builds in intensity before dissolving back into a solitary voice in the dark. The work promises to be a poignant reflection on the possibilities and potential of the human spirit.
