Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Cendese.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started dancing with Tanner Dance in 6th grade and spend my teenage years dancing with Children’s Dance Theatre. I was lucky to be offered the Elizabeth R. Hayes scholarship as an incoming freshman in the University of Utah’s Modern Dance Department. After spending four years in their program and graduating with a BFA in modern dance, I doubly lucky to be offered a full time position with Repertory Dance Theatre in 2002 – where I have been in one capacity or another since.
As a young dancer in Salt Lake City, I was keenly aware of the artistry, impact, and outstanding art that Repertory Dance Theatre was bringing to town. I considered myself to be a young, teen, RDT junky often seeing their programs several times. I participated in high school workshops offered by the company, summer workshops, any opportunity I could find to dance with the RDT dancers. This paid off my junior year of college when I was asked to spend the summer as an understudy for the company. While it wasn’t a paid opportunity, it was a unique and special offer that allowed me to get to know the company AND let the company get to know me. I was able to not only understudy but also perform with RDT as part of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
After dancing with RDT for 11 years, Linda C. Smith RDT’s Executive/Artistic Director and I talked about the needs of the company. At that time, and for several years, I had been an RDT Artistic Coordinator: working alongside Linda and the dancers to help manage company tasks, plans, and needs. In 2012 it was decided that I would be of most help to the company by transitioning from a performing role into an administrative/office role. It was at this time that Lynne Larson and I were made Artistic Associates and started the process of training, learning, discovering how RDT was run and managed. In 2018, I stepped into the role of Development Director while continuing on with the role of Artistic Associate and learning how to manage the day-to-day needs of the company. From 2012 – 2024 Lynne and I served as part of the “trifecta” that lead RDT helping making artistic and administrative decisions. In 2024, in anticipate of a larger succession goal, Lynne and I were raised to the role of Associate Artistic Directors. In July 2025, we were approved by the board as the next leaders of RDT and are now Executive/Artistic Co-Directors.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been an interesting road – one filled will many opportunities, some road bumps, and a lot of patience. I think what stands out to me is not the struggles along the way but the many ways my past experiences have informed each other, building a foundation upon which the next stage of the road is built. More specifically, as I look back on the road that has brought me to where I am today, I can see that I said YES to many opportunities that informed and supported the longer term goal than I realized at the time. I think it is this YES attitude that has made where I am possible today.
Sometimes saying YES did lean to more difficulties, hard work, struggle – – – but those moments still deeply informed and continue to inform the kind of administrator, leader, and person I am today. So, without the YES moments, I wouldn’t be who I am today or have the skills I draw upon to do my job.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
In my own work – both as a creative artist and an administrator – I value hard work, clear thinking, creative problem solving, and collaboration. As a teacher and artist, I have taken the skills and tools I learned as a young dancer and built a diverse system for teaching young dancers about choreography. Using improvisation and spontaneous creativity along with fun games and use of random/chance methods, I have been able to teach young artists how to trust their own ideas, support their own voice, and turn their ideas into movement, dance, and choreography.
I have loved being a choreographer over the years – both for pre-teens, high schools, and professional dancers. I love teaching composition and choreographic principles and continue to find new ways to explore essential concepts that help build the foundation of a strong choreographer.
Beyond my own art, one thing that stands out to me is my ability and love of collaboration. In almost everything I have done over the span of my life, I have had a wonderful collaborator with me. It is this sense of teamwork, co-work, comradery, and support that fulfills me. I am now working in a similar situation with an amazing co-director, friend, and colleague Lynne Larson. Being able to work along side someone like Lynne, learn from her, share my ideas with her, listen and talk that makes each day so excited.
I also value, in all things, kindness and compassion. I think the world is too difficult a place to lead with anything other than kindness. I value and have build a life based on honesty and direct communication… I have worked hard to be someone who is both honest with critical and successful feedback and have found that doing so builds meaningful trust and support in all my relationships.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
As I said in the last question, kindness and compassion are key elements in everything I do.
This is kindness and compassion for others: in their own journey/path, in my attempts to understand their point of view, in dealing with conflict, frustrations, or problems. I also have made a clear choice in my own life to try and set aside the institutional/dance-field “trauma” that many of us went through. This means the practices of the past that were demeaning, cruel, rude, or harsh are not perpetuated by myself as a leader or my company as an institution. Compassion and kindness demand that we set aside those traumas and find ways to engage artists as whole people.
Kindness and compassion also have to be extended to myself – something I find much harder to do. But offering myself these same things allows me to make mistakes as a leader, to try things without too much fear of failure, to practice grace and understanding with myself as I continue to grow and develop as a leader.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rdtutah.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rdtutah/?hl=en
