Back from the dead: Odyssey’s ‘Thriller’ returns to the stage after hiatus
Sep 8, 2024, 5:30 PM | Updated: Sep 9, 2024, 9:45 am
An Odyssey dancer performs a Frankenstein's monster-inspired dance during dress rehearsal for Odyssey Dance Theatre's "Thriller" on Sept. 22, 2022. (Lily Farrar and Lea Kosterlitz, Odyssey Dance Theatre)
(Lily Farrar and Lea Kosterlitz, Odyssey Dance Theatre)
SALT LAKE CITY — Odyssey Dance Theatre’s popular Halloween-themed dance show “Thriller” is rising from the grave two years after the company decided to close.
Odyssey founder and artistic director Derryl Yeager and his wife, Cheryl, the costume production director, announced in July 2022 that they were retiring and closing the company after 28 years because they were headed on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It was my dream that (Odyssey) would become what it has become … it’s been a great ride. It’s been a wonderful Odyssey,” Derryl Yeager said in 2022. He explained that the company was left open-ended because he and his wife weren’t sure if they would return to it.
The Yeagers served at the Martin’s Cove historic site in Wyoming, where they helped with pioneer treks, worked at the visitor center and did many hours of manual labor chinking log cabins and building fences.
“It was pretty massive the amount of work we did … so while I’m sitting there chinking a log cabin, I’m thinking ‘You know, I’m really better at this dance stuff. Maybe I should think about that,'” Yeager joked.
So when the Yeagers returned, they decided to resurrect the company.
