Archive: Performances and Events

Concerto Dance Fall Fundraiser: Dancing, Drinks, and Dessert

Join Concerto Dance for a night of dancing, drinks, and dessert!

Sunday, November 13 from 6:30-8:30pm at Creo Arts and Dance

The evening includes performances by the company, followed by a social hour with drinks, dessert and a 1/2 swing dance lesson taught by Corey and Betsy Mills. All ticket sales go toward presenting our upcoming performance at the Southern Theatre in March featuring two new premieres by visiting guest artists Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner and Steve Rooks along with repertory by Artistic Director Jolene Konkel.

Get tickets here!

The Snow Queen

Show image of a light skinned dancer in a shimmering blue dress and pointe shoes

Introducing The Snow Queen! Travel to magical lands through this sparkling holiday production that will warm you from the inside out. From the screen to the stage, Ballet Co.Laboratory’s original 2020 ballet made for film will be transformed for the theater with newly expanded scenes and choreography.

Join us December 2-4, 2022 at The Cowles Center for Dance & Performing Arts as we follow Gerda, a little girl filled with moxie on a quest to rescue her brother, whose heart has been frozen by an icy fragment from the Snow Queen’s enchanted mirror.

Tickets are available here: https://bit.ly/BCLSnowQueen

TCB’s A Minnesota Nutcracker is Back – More Minnesotan than Ever

A Nutcracker soldier does a split jump on a black background, with a burst of gold sparkles behind him

The beloved holiday classic with a Minnesota twist returns to Ames Center this December! This year A Minnesota Nutcracker is more Minnesotan than ever, with a number of new costumes and choreography portraying iconic Minnesota characters and landscapes. The result is a fresh, vibrant, and monumentally Minnesota take on the beloved holiday classic. 

Deemed one of the 12 essential holiday events by MPR, A Minnesota Nutcracker is delightful entertainment for the whole family! 

Thursday, December 8 at 10:15am (sensory-relaxed show) 
Friday, December 9 at 7:00pm
Saturday, December 10 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm
Sunday, December 11 at 1:00pm and 4:30pm
Tickets: $31.50-$48.50 through the Ames Center box office or ticketmaster.com

About Our Sensory-Relaxed Show: A sensory-friendly, relaxed performance enables children and people with sensory sensitivities as a part of autism and/or sensory-processing disorders to experience the art of ballet with relaxed theater rules, such as the house lights staying on, theater doors remaining open, and a designated “quiet zone,” and more, to allow for increased comfort. We are thrilled to be able to share the love of ballet with people who may experience difficulties in a traditional theater setting. TCB believes dance is for everyone!

The sensory-relaxed performance will be held on Thursday, December 8 at 10:15am. If you are interested in the sensory-relaxed show, please contact Emily Winn at development@twincitiesballet.org.

About Twin Cities Ballet: Twin Cities Ballet of Minnesota (TCB) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit professional ballet company located in the south metro. TCB’s mission is to connect and enrich communities by making ballet approachable, relatable, and fun, through professional and original productions and educational outreach. TCB creates original full-length story ballets as well as more abstract and contemporary works. TCB is also the first ballet company in Minnesota to develop and present sensory-relaxed performances for families and those with sensory sensitivities, making the art of ballet accessible for many who might not otherwise be able to do so.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Ballet Minnesota’s The Classic Nutcracker

A ballerina in a tutu is suspended above the shoulders of a male dancer

Ballet Minnesota’s thirty-fourth annual The Classic Nutcracker returns to the O’Shaughnessy! Come celebrate this annual family holiday tradition this December 16-18!

For novices to the ballet, this holiday story begins on Christmas Eve. We join a young girl, Clara, her mischievous brother, Fritz, and their family hosting a Christmas party. A latecomer to the party is Clara’s mysterious godfather Drosselmeyer. He presents her with a marvelous gift, a nutcracker doll. As Clara goes to sleep that night, we are transported into her dream of the Rat King fighting the Nutcracker and his army of toy soldiers. The Nutcracker Prince escorts Clara through an enchanted snow-covered forest and on to his Kingdom of the Sweets where Clara accepts the throne from the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Enjoy the return of this classic holiday favorite!

December 16 at 7:00pm
December 17 at 2:00pm
December 18 at 2:00pm
Price: $5-45

Sidekick Theatre Presents Dancing Lessons by Playwright Mark St. Germain

Sidekick Theatre opens its season with the Twin Cities debut of Dancing Lessons, a celebrated play by Mark St. Germain at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center in Bloomington. The play is running now through November 6.

A wonderful combination of comedy and drama, Dancing Lessons tells the story of a geoscience professor and a professional dancer who live separate, solitary lives in the same New York City apartment building. Impaired with an injury that threatens her career and identity, Senga is surprised when her socially awkward neighbor, Ever, knocks on her door in desperate need of dancing lessons. He is determined, and offers to pay an exorbitant fee. These two mismatched souls engage in a series of funny and poignant dance lessons that quickly lead both out of their comfort zones.

“Dancing Lessons is the perfect play for this moment in time,” says director Tim Stolz, “and a delightful antidote to the feeling of isolation many have experienced during COVID. It’s about two people who have been living remote lives to learning how to connect with each other in ways that are surprising. Charming, touching, funny and life-affirming, you’ll find yourselves laughing and moved – often in the same moment in this tender-hearted sweet comedy.”

Collide Theatrical Presents The Seven Deadly Sins

A light-skinned dancer walks through a red door frame, smoke hovers around her

The Seven Deadly Sins
October 21–November 6, 2022

Wall Street investment trader Laura Oxford has spent most of her life in pursuit of power and wealth. Reaching a tipping point, she stumbles through a series of doors illuminating her path through The Seven Deadly Sins.

Enjoy our immersive dance theater performance told through a variety of dance styles and popular music.

Audience members will be seated in a cocktail table–style setting surrounded by haunted house elements. Enjoy your favorite guilty beverage while nibbling on sinful treats provided.

ARENA DANCES’ Floorwork – Dance and Community in the Twin Cities

Floorwork was developed by Mathew Janczewski and ARENA DANCES to hold conversations and knowledge sharing spaces for creatives. Join ARENA DANCES’ Founder and Artistic Director, Mathew Janczewski, for a shared meal and communal conversation on the culture and climate of dance today in the Twin Cities.

Saturday, October 22, 12:00-2:00pm
RSVP here by Wednesday, October 19.

The eighth Floorwork will focus on Dance and Community in the Twin Cities. We will ask these questions together:

  • How do we “show up” for one another within the dance community?
  • What needs to change in the Twin Cities presently to support a dedicated career in dance?
  • What does the landscape of being a dance artist in the Twin Cities look like today?

Conversation will be held over a communal meal – bring your own dish to share in our potluck! ARENA DANCES will supply beverages, plates, napkins and utensils.

SSF + RS Jazz at TCFF: A Jazz Dance Films Screening

Rhythmically Speaking is thrilled to share SFF + RS @ TCFF with Twin Cities audiences! What are all those acronyms, you say? RS is, of course, Rhythmically Speaking. SSF is Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (CO), one of the longest-running and most reputable of screendance organizations, and TCFF is the Twin Cities Film Fest (MN), our area’s premiere film screening organization!

This year, Rhythmically Speaking has worked with Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (CO) to curate a collection of jazz and American social dance-inspired short films, which screened at the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop (CO) in July and will be screening here in Minnesota this weekend!

The Cohort 2022: Screen – SFF+RS Jazz @ TCFF
Sunday, October 23, 12:15-1:45pm
At the Minneapolis Showplace ICON Theater through Twin Cities Film Fest.

More information and tickets!

One of our filmmakers – Jody Oberfelder (NYC) – will be in attendance at the screening: catch our red carpet interview at 11:45am before our screening, and stick around for our Q&A immediately following!

Jody will also be teaching a workshop at Zenon on Friday (see the Friday Morning Jazz announcement in this week’s newsletter), and will also be performing a site-specific dance at the Stone Arch Bridge on Saturday while she is in town.

This event is part of the new screen component of The Cohort, our long-running and recently reimagined annual summer program that supports and presents new work by local choreographers while providing opportunities for artists based outside of Minnesota to show their work here. 2022 marks our first year of offering both stage and screen components of this program.

We hope you can join us to view this delightful, thought-provoking and vibrant collection of films!

You’re Invited – Join ABDP for a Space Warming and Fundraiser Event

Join the Alexandra Bodnarchuk and the artists of ABDP for an afternoon at their new space in the Cowles Center!

Event will include a short performance, refreshments, and mementos.

Sunday, October 23
2:30pm

All proceeds will support the premiere of their new work, Rock, Paper, Scissors, at The Southern Theater in March 2023.

Kyiv City Ballet

Be a part of history when Kyiv City Ballet comes to Northrop on its first United States tour.

“We are honored to share the beauty of ballet with US audiences, through Ukrainian artists,” said Ivan Kozlov, Artistic Director, “touring the States for the first time with a range of ballets makes an important global statement. It demonstrates the resilience of the Ukrainian people” (Broadway World). Kyiv City Ballet will perform three works: Ivan Kozlov and Ekaterina Kozlova’s Tribute to Peace, a neoclassical work set to familiar music themes by composer Edward Elgar; Pavlo Virsky’s Men of Kyiv, showcasing traditional folk dance with a competitive force; and Classical Suite: a trio of wedding pas de deux from such famed classical ballets as La Bayadère and Don Quixote. Step out in welcome and solidarity.