Archive: Performances and Events

After postponing for two years due to the pandemic, Analog Dance Works presents its inaugural event, Tellus. Two premiere dance works bring the company’s commitment to the exploration of the intersection of dance and science to the pressing theme of climate change, moving from Minnesota backyards by means of whitetail deer to a broad look at the psychological effects of the global crisis. These choreographies are accompanied by an interactive exhibit from the University of Minnesota’s Outreach through Science and Art Group that reveals the science behind the art. The theater becomes a laboratory as Tellus embraces experimentation and play, investigating the rapid shifts shaping the world today.

May 13 – 7:30pm (post-show reception)
May 14 – 7:30pm
May 15 – 2:00pm (post-show artist talk)

Interactive Exhibit open 6:00–9:00pm, May 13 and 14; 1:00–4:00pm May 15.
Tickets: $5-$20, sliding scale in advance and at the door.

Photo credit: Bill Cameron

Join us for this celebratory event supporting Northrop Centennial Commissions for the creation of new dance works, elevating artists, and bringing extraordinary presentations to our stage. Featuring exquisite performances by Limón Dance Company and GALLIM, your evening will also include delicious food and drinks, live music by the Bluewater Kings Band, dancing, and special guests. Plan to attend with friends—you can help ensure that artists’ creative works are seen by audiences and youth in our community for years to come.

$75 All-inclusive Ticket

$125 VIP Ticket | All-inclusive plus backstage Meet and Greet Artist Reception with Limón Dance Company soloist, along with Artistic Director, Dante Puleio.

Brownbody is excited to announce that tickets are now on sale for our newest production, ‘Tracing Sacred Steps’!

Performance Dates:

June 3, 7:30 pm
June 4, 2:00 pm
June 4, 7:30 pm

About Tracing Sacred Steps

Brownbody’s newest evening length work Tracing Sacred Steps (TSS) blends modern dance, social justice practice, figure skating, and Ring Shout. In her essay, “Hoodoo Religion and American Dance Traditions: Rethinking the Ring Shout” Katrina Hazzard-Donald states:

“It was from the African sacred circle, that the first truly African American dance was born: the ‘Ring Shout.’ The Ring Shout was a counterclockwise, sacred circle dance that appears to have been done universally among [enslaved Africans] and later among freedmen. […] In the sacred circle, the center was a vortex of spiritual energy and power which represented a separate and sacred realm, one not of the material realities of enslavement. It represented a reality which connected one to the ancestors and reconfirmed a continuity through both time and space. Within the circle, the interaction between the individual and the community was mediated by sacred spiritual forces evidenced in spirit possession.”

Within an on-ice modern dance framework, TSS engages elements of this practice to illustrate how it continues to serve as a pathway to healing within so many Black spaces. Intent is two-fold: 1) to illustrate how this practice continues to be relevant, 2) to pay homage not only to these important cultural rituals, but also its practitioners: forcibly displaced Africans that found a way, amidst grave adversity, to work towards restoration and wholeness.

Tracing Sacred Steps features an all-Black cast of fpur professional skating artists and actor/vocalist Thomasina Petrus.

About Brownbody

Grounded in African diasporic perspectives, Brownbody’s mission is to build artistic experiences that disrupt biased narratives and prompt audiences to engage as active participants in the journey. Brownbody accomplishes this through a blend of modern dance, theater, social justice, and figure skating. For more information on Brownbody, visit Brownbody.org.

Katha Dance Theatre is pleased to announce the upcoming revival of one of its classic repertory works, Black Candle. The new production is set to premiere at the Southern Theater June 3 – 5, 2022.

Based on the award-winning poetry of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and featuring all-new choreography by Rita Mustaphi, Black Candle combines the elegant medium of Kathak dance with text and music to evoke female joy, love, pain and resilience. Telling stories of triumph and bravery, it pays tribute to the strength and tenacity shown by the women of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan in the face of adversity such as sexism, misogyny and repressive cultural norms.

The final performance will be accompanied by an ASL interpreter and a post-show discussion. Tickets on sale beginning May 9 at southerntheater.org. Gen. admission: $25 ($20 in advance). Student and seniors (65+) with valid ID: $18.

Performances:
Friday, June 3 at 7:30pm
Saturday, June 4 at 7:30pm
Sunday, June 5 at 2pm (ASL-interpreted; post-show discussion)

Learn more about the production at https://kathadance.org/black-candle-announcement/

Photo by Erik Saulitis.

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 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. It is also made possible by general operating support from the RBC Foundation and the Archie D and Bertha H Walker Foundation, and by the generosity of KDT’s private donors.

Come to Hopkins Dance Company’s annual Spring Recital on Saturday, June 4! Performances at 12:00 and 6:00pm.

Tickets available at: https://buy.tututix.com/hopkinsdancecompany

In honor of Earth Day and while waiting for Tellus (May 13–15 at the Tek Box Theater), join the choreographers of Analog Dance Works for a roundtable discussion on the role art can play in responding to, representing, and coping with climate change.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022 from 6:30 – 7:30pm CST. This is a free event held via Zoom.

COLLIDE Theatrical Dance Company presents Class of ’85, a revised and reimagined version of our original 2014 production. New dancers, new music, new stories…same nostalgia fun!

Class of ’85 explores the secrets hidden behind high school stereotypes, while celebrating the need for inclusion, acceptance, and friendship.

Featuring dancers Jarod Boltjes (James Sewell Ballet), Renee Guittar (Chanhassen Dinner Theater), Rachel Seeholzer (Ballet Co Laboratory), Patrick Jeffrey (Ordway Music Theater), Javan Mngrezzo (Black Label Movement), Grace Kidder, Megan Carver and Ben Siglin.

Created by Regina Peluso and assisted directed by Heather Brockman, the production runs for three weeks at St. Paul’s Gremlin Theater.

Saturday night costumes contests – dress in your favorite 1980s attire and win prizes!

Performance Dates/Times:

• Friday, April 22 – 7:30pm
• Saturday, April 23 – 7:30pm
• Sunday, April 24 – 2:00pm and 5:00pm
• Friday, April 29 – 7:30pm
• Saturday, April 30 – 7:30pm
• Sunday, May 1 – 2:00pm