Barefoot Boy

Overview

Set against Salt Lake City, Barefoot Boy follows Bill Evans, a pioneering choreographer born in 1940s Lehi, Utah, whose early life in a conservative Mormon community left him isolated as a queer man. Finding refuge in dance, he rises from poverty, serving in the U.S. Army where an ankle injury nearly ends his career, before performing with the Joffrey Ballet in New York. He later founds The Bill Evans Dance Company, becoming one of America’s most in-demand choreographers, before returning to Utah to work with Repertory Dance Theatre. Beneath his success, Bill wrestles with abandonment, shame, and a suppressed identity, having once married and had a child while concealing his sexuality. At 82, he returns to Salt Lake City for a career-defining retrospective, teaching his historic choreography to a new generation. As past and present collide, he must confront whether his legacy can survive generational change and personal reckoning.