Archive: Performances and Events

Open rehearsal for James Sewell Ballet’s upcoming show Breathe on Friday, September 30 from 1:00-2:00pm!

Come see excerpts from upcoming new works by choreographers Michael Walters, Arimee Gambill and XINA as well as James Sewell’s work, Grey.

Masks required for visitors.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Q&A and mingling with the dancers and choreographers to follow the sneak peek.

Seating is limited and RSVPs are required. Please send a note to deirdre@jsballet.org to reserve your spot!

Ananya Dance Theatre explores betrayal, dispossession, exile, and the desperate global resistance against great odds that fuels hope and survival in a new piece that premieres at The O’Shaughnessy, Friday-Saturday, September 30-October 1, at 7:30pm. ASL-interpreted on Friday, September 30.

Using the 1978-79 massacre of 10,000 refugees on the Marichjhapi Island in West Bengal, India, as its point of departure, Nün Gherāo: Surrounded by Salt tags and stimulates different sites of memory through meditations on dancing in salt water, where one’s tears meet the rising and warming oceans of our world.

Choreographed by Ananya Chatterjea and performed by the artists of Ananya Dance Theatre, Nün Gherāo (“noon ghey-raow”) becomes activated through shared breath and rhythms, practices of mourning, overlapping time cycles, ritualized movement, dances of liberation, and personal connection.

The choreographic language of Yorchhā employs movement principles of Odissi, Mayurbhanj Chhau, and Vinyasa Yoga to articulate a contemporary feminist consciousness and aesthetic.

This world premiere features the work of an exceptional team of collaborators, including sound artist Spirit McIntyre (performing live), stage director Marcus Young, lighting designer Kevin A. Jones, costume designer Annie Cady, scenery designer Chelsea Warren, properties designer Kezia Florence, writer Mimi Mondal, and filmmaker Darren Johnson.

Ananya Dance Theatre and The O’Shaughnessy are implementing Pay What You Can for these performances with a suggested ticket price of $30.

Learn more about Nün Gherāo.

Join choreographer Chloe Nagle and filmmaker Kym McDaniel for a series of programs including performances, screenings, work-in-progress showings and a dance filmmaking workshop at the Red Eye Theater. Performances and screenings premiere October 7, 8, and 14 at 7:00pm, with a Dance Filmmaking Community Workshop on October 8 at 4:00pm. Doors open at 6:30pm, tickets for purchase at the door. Cash, Venmo, and PayPal are accepted. For more information and to RSVP for the workshop, please visit: https://www.kymmcdaniel.com/red-eye-curated-rental-kym-mcdaniel-chloe-nagle 

October 7 at 7:00pm: Entrance and Exit Strategies 
Chloe Nagle and Kym McDaniel introduce themselves to the Minneapolis dance community in an evening of experimental film and improvisation scores. After developing debilitating chronic pain from a dance injury, McDaniel created the films entitled Exit Strategies. Over the course of five short films, she questions the intersection between trauma, chronic illness, and healing. Nagle’s improvisation score engages audience participation to explore individual and collective choice-making.

October 8 from 4:00-6:00pm: Dance Filmmaking Workshop
In this free workshop open to all ages and experience, participants collaborate in pairs to create a one-minute choreographic one-take video, highlighting the choreography of a body in motion. Final one-take projects will be screened at the beginning of The Language of Gesture! Participants also receive free entrance to the evening’s program. Register for workshop here.

October 8 at 7:00pm: The Language of Gesture 
The Language of Gesture is a hybrid film/dance touring program premiering in Minneapolis for the first time. Curated by Kym McDaniel, the films within the program explore artists who use movement and gesture as a means of communication. Featured film and movement artists include Chanelle Lajoie, Terrance Houle, Martine Syms, Ariana Gerstein, A.M. Baggs, and Chloe Nagle.

October 14 at 7:00pm: Work-In-Progress Showing
Kym McDaniel and Chloe Nagle premiere an immersive, multimedia collaborative work investigating boundary setting and the body’s relationship with trauma. By creating dance and video improvisation structures with elements of unpredictability, the artists seek to translate how pain shapes interaction with ourselves, other people, and the environment. 

Join The Cowles Center on Friday, October 7 from 7:00–11:00pm for our annual dessert and dance party fundraiser to celebrate our wonderful education programs!

With Ricci Milan as the night’s emcee, enjoy the party by indulging in decadent drinks and desserts, showing off your beautiful smile at the photo booth, connecting with fellow dance lovers, funding our Arts in Education programs, and living it up at the late-night dance party led by Rhythm Street Movement.

7:00pm: Social hour with hosted bar and desserts from The Copper Hen
8:00pm: Program and performances featuring our fund-a-need for Arts Education programs
9:00pm: Dance party on stage, prizes, and fun led by Rhythm Street Movement

Learn more and get tickets here!

Join us Saturday, October 8, 2022 from 4:00-7:00pm at the Ballet Co.Laboratory studios for our first performance of the 2022/23 season, Dirty Dancing – a benefit performance for Ballet Co.Laboratory.

You’ll have the time of your life at Ballet Co.Laboratory’s fifth annual benefit performance and celebration. Take in a Dirty Dancing-inspired performance that will make you want to sway your body and move those hips. Proceeds will directly benefit the company dancers, students, and outreach efforts of Ballet Co.Laboratory.

Enjoy a performance by dancers of Ballet Co.Laboratory, themed sips and bites, as well as mix and mingle with the company of Ballet Co.Laboratory.

Saturday, October 8, 2022
4:00-7:00pm
At Ballet Co.Laboratory’s Studio Theatre
Learn more or purchase your tickets here: https://bit.ly/BCL5thanniversaryseason

Off-Kilter is Off-Leash Area’s new cabaret performance program designed to highlight and support artists with disabilities both on stage and in the leadership of the program. Through Off-Kilter, Off-Leash Area makes space for and gives voice to artists with disabilities in the design and leadership of the program.

Curated by the Off-Kilter Leadership Group, the inaugural year is organized around the theme “Organ Recital.” Off-Leash Area was excited to partner with Young Dance, whose mission is transforming lives through movement.

Tickets are $5-30 sliding scale, suggested donation. Get your tickets online at OffKilterCabaret.eventbrite.com.

When you purchase a ticket, you’ll be emailed a link to the filmed performance of Off-Kilter Cabaret, which you can watch anytime between now and September 30 from the comfort of your own home! No matter what date you buy the ticket for, you can watch any time you choose before it closes at the end of September.

Seven artists share their captivating takes on the theme “Organ Recital” in the Off-Kilter Cabaret. Using dance, storytelling, theater, spoken word, puppetry, and performance, artists with disabilities explore the theme in wildly different ways, ranging from hilarious and thought-provoking to heartbreaking and profound.

Featuring the following artists: Braille, Atlas O Phoenix, Daniel Reiva, Amy Salloway, Pat Samples, Scott Sorensen, Young Dance

Acknowledgment: This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

If you missed the opportunity to see Minotaur in person, here’s your chance to catch what some audience members are calling “our best work yet.”

Buy a virtual ticket for an online viewing of the performance film, and you will get the link to the video, which you can watch anytime you choose between now and September 30. No matter what date you buy the ticket for, you can watch any time you choose before it closes at the end of September.

With Minotaur, Off-Leash Area Co-Artistic Directors, choreographer Jennifer Ilse and production designer Paul Herwig, lead a gender-diverse, multi-generational, and fiery cast to take audiences on a thoroughly interdisciplinary and utterly imaginative journey exploring the possibilities laid bare by the metaphorical beheading of the patriarchy. With this production, the artists ask: Once we’ve chopped off this monster’s head, can we really avoid its seductive power and finally be free of this labyrinthine system of oppression?

Dancers Nieya Amezquita, Gabby Garcia, Jennifer Ilse, Jesse Schmitz-Boyd, and Joseph Wurm perform Minotaur with contemporary dance and mask performance. Accompanying the performers and immersing the entire audience is live music and sound score by Dameun Strange, and a live animated projection design by OLA Co-Artistic Director Paul Herwig, with costume design by long-time OLA collaborator, Kym Longhi.

Altogether, Off-Leash Area takes the audience to an otherworldly space where memories of ancient myth, our urgent present, and dreams of an uncertain future collide.

Online now through September 30
Tickets: $10-$30 sliding scale

Get your tickets online at Off-LeashAreaMinotaur.eventbrite.com.

Acknowledgment: This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

The Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue (“Precious Mother Earth”) is a Kalpulli (“learning community”) of Indigenous people who perform traditional Aztec and Indigenous dances from Mexico. KetzalCoatlicue pursues this spiritual, mental, and physical vocation with music from the sacred drum, conch shells, seeds, and other instruments. KetzalCoatlicue’s cultural learning center is located in South Minneapolis.

The dancers are rooted in cultural understandings of the environment weaving together the Nahuatl cosmovision and creation stories of Mexican ancestors. These presentations by Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue provide a basic understanding of the Nahuatl/Aztec representations of life through dance.

Today at 12:00pm – free!

THE SHOW, a new contemporary performance by E/D, is a glitter bomb of feminine force that rips off the bandaid of pretense and lets the mess flow. Featuring E/D’s signature combination of journey, abstraction, and unforgettable imagery, THE SHOW is inspired by the angst of girlhood, the women we’ve always wanted to be, and how ugly things are always ugly, even when you cover them in sequins.

It’s loud. Unapologetic. Undeniably exciting. And is proudly made by women artists for everyone.

About E/D
E/D is the collaboration of Emily Michaels King and Debra Berger that creates provocative and visually stunning performance centered on the female experience. E/D is by women for everyone.

All tickets to THE SHOW are Pay What You Choose.