Following a preview performance at the Rose Wagner Center on July 30, New York choreographer Karole Armitage explained that the personality of the six Ririe-Woodbury dancers helped to shape the work she had just finished setting on them.

The piece, which she would later name "It's Gonna Get Loud," features the dancers paired in male-female couples. In the first couple, Armitage said, Lehua Brown is very feminine but has a kind of "decidedness" to her, whereas Caine Keenan has a flexibility usually found only in women. In the second couple, T.J. Spaur is a "midwestern rebel" paired with Andrea Dispenziere, a "New Jersey tough kid." And in the third couple, Armitage said, Prentice Whitlow is "quite visceral," while Betsy Kelley Wilberg is "quite refined," creating an erotic opposition.

Where did this "refinement" come from, I wondered?

During a rehearsal break on Sept. 10, the 26-year-old Wilberg told me how her fate as a dancer was sealed at the age of 5 when her mother took her to see the daughter of a friend in a dance recital. "I loved it," Wilberg said. "I couldn't sit still. I was dancing in the aisles, and my mom was like, 'I think we might just need to sign her up for a dance class.' "

They lived in Anchorage, Alaska, so opportunities weren't as plentiful as they are in some places, but Wilberg started with acrobatics and tap, later incorporating jazz. But she wanted to study ballet, so when she was in the seventh grade she began studying at Alaska Dance Theatre. "When they say 'dance 24/7,' that was totally me," she said. "I had the T-shirts that said 'eat, breathe, live, dance.' "

As touring companies came to Alaska, they offered master classes, allowing Wilberg to learn from companies like the Moscow Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company. She always got especially excited about working with the modern choreographers, and while she liked ballet, by the time she was a high school senior, she was "ready to retire the pointe shoes."

She chose the University of Utah's dance program because two of her teachers had gone there. While a college student, she interned with Jena Woodbury, learning about arts administration. She's now in her third season as a Ririe-Woodbury company member. While she dances full time, she said, it's not quite 24/7. "Now it's my job and it's my love, but I also have other passions and other loves," she explained.

One of those loves is her husband, Jake, who enjoys bicycling and is currently in school for accounting. They met as freshmen in the U. of U. dorms and were married last year.

Another of Wilberg's loves is cooking. "Cooking is my stress reliever. It lets me forget everything else," she said. She particularly loves making pasta, and even has a part-time job working at Sur La Table, where she likes working with people, exploring all the kitchen gadgets and getting exposure to cooking classes.

She follows new restaurant openings and enjoys going out to eat with her husband; Oasis is a favorite. She's a wine aficionado, and the couple like to travel. They honeymooned in Santa Barbara, where they enjoyed wine-tasting and cycling. Wilberg sees herself staying with Ririe-Woodbury for at least another year or two, and thinks she might enjoy a second career as an arts administrator, making the transition from dancing on tours to booking them.

Wilberg said she particularly enjoys dancing the work of Ririe-Woodbury's artistic director, Charlotte Boye-Christensen, because it challenges her with its physicality and sometimes its aggression. The antagonism that's sometimes seen in Boye-Christensen's work doesn't resonate in Wilberg's own romantic relationship, which she says is "very equal," but she enjoys playing a character.

For Ririe-Woodbury's performance of "Equilibrium" from Sept. 24 through 26, Boye-Christensen will present a new work called "Turf." Wilberg says it began with an improvisation which included the dancers competing to get out in front of the group. Wilberg said it was interesting to see how the men and women competed differently for their turf, noting that the men were more physically aggressive, while the women were more coy and psychological.

The program also includes a different kind of competition. Four Utah choreographers set their work on the Ririe-Woodbury dancers during their summer workshop, and the audience will get to vote for their favorite work at "Equilibrium." The works are "Unlikely Ritual" by Weber State's Erik Stern, "Past Life" by U. of U.'s Eric Handman, "Carpet Diem" by UVU's Doris Hudson de Trujillo and "Flavor of the Day" by SUU's Kay Andersen.

"Equilibrium" will also include Carolyn Carlson's 2004 work "Down by the River," which Wilberg says has a moment where the women spill their long hair over the men's backs and imitate the action of coming up from a river to gulp some air.

But the showcase piece will be Armitage's "It's Gonna Get Loud," which deals with male-female dynamics in its own way.

In a July 29 interview, the 55-year-old Armitage said that she's been updating the image of the ballerina. "It used to be this unobtainable romantic [idea], from the man's point of view," she explained. "True love. Going for the perfect woman. Even 'Swan Lake.' The idea of this perfect woman that you're chasing, and can you ever find it? So now, if you see a couple, it's not about chasing something unobtainable, this woman who's almost an ephemeral idea. It's about two people. They both have a will power, they both are interacting with each other, they're equals. In that way, what we put on stage evolves in the same way that the culture evolves."

Armitage, who was once referred to by Vanity Fair as "a punk ballerina," has a style known as "contemporary ballet" -- a fusion of modern dance and ballet. "I think that ballet is like a supermodel, in a way," she said. "You have these long lines and elegant body. And I love that. And then I love something that's really visceral rock 'n' roll, absolutely the opposite. I think the contradiction is what's really interesting. I think human nature actually is full of contradiction. Maybe we don't want to talk about that, but we all have such contradictions in our way of being and living and interacting with each other."