Archive: Performances and Events

Ragamala Dance Company

Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy’s Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim

Rooted in the expansive South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam, Ragamala Dance Company manifests a kindred relationship between the ancient and the contemporary. In their latest evening-length performance, Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim, eleven dancers conjure a realm where time is suspended and humans merge with the divine.

Award-winning creators Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy imagine a metaphorical crossing place that enters into a ritualistic world of immortality, evoking the birth-death-rebirth continuum in Hindu thought to honor immigrant experiences of life and death in the diaspora. This work is the culmination of a two-year partnership with Northrop that included a reimagined 2020-21 Ragamala Rooted residency with free monthly engagement activities.

Merges in March Week One – Chitra Vairavan and Valerie Oliveiro

Chitra Vairavan and Valerie Oliveiro offer two dances created through a year-long merging of energies, practices, conversation, ancestors, memories, breaths, places, sounds, and “Asian-nesses.” This performance brings the intentional and unintentional intersections of their diverse art forms to the surface.

Covid19: Effective September 1, 2021, all visitors to the Cowles who are attending a performance/event in our theater spaces are required to show either proof of a full course of COVID-19 vaccinations administered at least 14 days prior to the show or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of the performance/event. Masks are required throughout the Cowles. For more information about our health and safety guidelines and getting to The Cowles Center, click here.

Merges in March Week Two – Herb Johnson III and Lieutenant Sunnie

This untitled work will share the joy of “beating the odds.” Lieutenant Sunnie and Herb Johnson III come from different backgrounds but have reached similar outcomes thanks to resilience and perseverance. Through adversity, they found focus, and each accomplished goals that led them to where they are currently.

Covid19: Effective September 1, 2021, all visitors to the Cowles who are attending a performance/event in our theater spaces are required to show either proof of a full course of COVID-19 vaccinations administered at least 14 days prior to the show or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of the performance/event. Masks are required throughout the Cowles. For more information about our health and safety guidelines and getting to The Cowles Center, click here.

Tickets on Sale Now for TCB’s The Wall: A Rock Ballet

Twin Cities Ballet’s groundbreaking hit show makes its St. Paul premiere at the historic Fitzgerald Theater, with live music by popular local band, Momentary Lapse of Floyd—a first for all three organizations. Based on Pink Floyd’s iconic 1979 rock opera, TCB’s The Wall: A Rock Ballet is an ingenious fusion of genres that will captivate ballet patrons, music fans, and the artistically curious alike.

TCB’s ballet interprets the original Pink Floyd rock opera’s music, themes, story arc and lyrics on a personal, rather than political, level. It explores the life and various relationships with the main character, “Pink,” and follows his transformative journey of loss, isolation, insanity and redemption. Through its insightful original interpretation of the emotion and power of Pink Floyd’s story and music, TCB brings this classic rock masterpiece to life like never before!

March 12 at 7:30pm
March 13 at 2:00pm

Tickets: from $37.50–52.50, available at twincitiesballet.org/tickets.

These activities are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through an operating support grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Black Label Movement presents Canary, Crimson then Emerald

Our newest evening-length experience built off of our repertory work Canary and our two newest creations Crimson and Emerald.

We’re crafting an energetic sense of past, present and future in orbit with our company’s personal experiences with lockdowns and navigating what it means to come back together physically.

THERMAL Work in Progress Artists Talk

Thursday, February 3
5:30-6:30pm

Free virtual program; registration required.
https://asimn.org/event/thermal-artist-talk/
Registrants will receive a link to view the program the week of the event.

Co-Presented by the American Swedish Institute and The Great Northern Festival.
All ages.

Thermal is a dialogue – through movement, form and sound – centered on Earth’s changing environment. Moderated by Kyle Samejima, the Executive Director of Minneapolis Climate Action, hear from ARENA Dances’ Founder and Artistic Director Mathew Janczewski, sculptural paper artist Kim Heidkamp, and composer Joshua Clausen – the creators of this multidisciplinary installation – on their collaboration process and get a sneak preview of the performance before it opens to the public later in the month.

Black Light a re:Search Performance – Alanna Morris and Collaborators

Black Light is a multi-year collaborative performance directed by Minnesota-based dancer-choreographer, Alanna Morris. This work explores birth, creation, death, and life transitions while honoring noble ancestry. It ventures into the nobility of black-ness; the divinity of feminine creative energy; and the harnessing of sensual expression.

Black Light a re:Search performance is an expression of season and interwoven local and global identities.

In-person and livestream tickets: $20-$30, fees included. This work contains frontal nudity and may not be suitable for persons under the age of 16.

Black Light a re:Search performance is presented by The Great Northern, Northrop, and The Cowles Center as part of The Cowles Center’s 21/22 Season.

Covid19: Effective September 1, 2021, all visitors to the Cowles who are attending a performance/event in our theater spaces are required to show either proof of a full course of COVID-19 vaccinations administered at least 14 days prior to the show or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of the performance/event. Masks are required throughout the Cowles. For more information about our health and safety guidelines and getting to The Cowles Center, click here.

Pop-Up WINTER Sound Garden on West River Parkway

Dancers Leslie O’Neill, Megan Mayer, Sarah Baumert, and Erika Hansen perform their site-specific, roving, durational movement scores across a three-acre site along West River Parkway as part of composer/director JG Everest’s immersive WINTER Sound Garden sound and performance installation event. With a parallel performance score by SuperGroup.

The roving movement scores will begin by 1:00pm and will come and go throughout the space until 3:00pm.

The fourth of four seasonal “pop-up” Sound Garden events along West River Parkway in 2021-22, the WINTER Sound Garden features layers of site-specific dance, music, poetry, and visual art among some of the oldest trees in Minneapolis, on the bluff above the Mississippi River.

Sound Gardens are designed as durational, self-guided experiences intended for audience to connect more meaningfully to a particular place and the natural world. The spatial sound score and live dance and musical elements are meant to accompany the sounds and physical elements that are already there – the birds, the trees, the wind, the shadows, the sunlight, the snow. Audiences are encouraged to both circulate and linger at their own pace, following their own impulses for what to pay attention to.

This event has been rescheduled from the original date of January 22.

Pop-Up Dance Party with Cassandra

Like bubbles that pop up from percolating coffee, this POP-UP party will energize you! Drink it down and dance dance dance your night away!

This party is held LIVE on Zoom only.

$5 reservations, open until noon (CT) the day of the party.

Saturday, February 5 at 6:00pm