Archive: Performances and Events

Paul Taylor molded the dance company that bears his name into one of the preeminent performing ensembles in the world, leading it until his death in 2018.

In this program, the company premieres a Northrop Centennial Commission by Peter Chu, paired with two classic Taylor works, the sublime masterpiece, Airs—hailed as “a  treasure” by The New York Times—and Promethean Fire, set to three keyboard works by Bach richly orchestrated by Stokowski.

Join us for the Sixth Annual Right Here Showcase, the community’s only annual juried program supporting Minnesota-based, mid-career performing artists who create original performance work.

Founding Artistic Producer Paul Herwig, 2008 McKnight Theater Fellow and 2005 City Pages Artist of the Year, steers the Showcase. Four artists are chosen through an annual public call and a panel review, to be awarded financial commissions plus technical and promotional support to present a new work of contemporary performance especially for the Showcase.

This year’s Right Here Showcase will occur February 24-27, at the Tek Box Theater on the second floor of the Cowles Center, with two artists performing each night.

Featuring these four powerhouse performance makers:

Benjamin Domask-Ruh– physical theater artist

Jess Forest – dancer, choreographer, and visual artist

Sam Johnson – performance maker

Queen DREA – musician and composer

Thursday, February 24: Benjamin Domask-Ruh and Jess Forest at 8:00pm
Friday, February 25: Benjamin Domask-Ruh and Jess Forest at 8:00pm
Saturday, February 26: Sam Johnson and Queen Drea Reynolds at 8:00pm
Sunday, February 27: Sam Johnson and Queen Drea Reynolds at 5:00pm

Stay tuned at righthereshowcase.weebly.com.

Covid Protocols: Proof of full vaccination required for attendance. Hard copy or digital copy of proof of vaccination must be presented at the door for entry. NO exceptions. Masks and physical distancing in the theater and lobby required at all times. Please, let’s all keep each other safe.

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.

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.

Saturday, February 5, 2022: 7:30pm
Sunday, February 6, 2022: 2:00pm

Da’Rius Malone (previously ChiArts, Boston Conservatory at Berkley, JSB dancer in his fourth season), Kerry Parker (previously Pacific Northwest Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, and Ballet of the Dolls), and Michael Walters (previously Netherlands Dance Theater, Frankfurt Ballet, and Lyon Opera) collaborate, create, and craft with our company dancers.

Mesmerizing physical feats and nuanced moments combine to transport you to three bold new places.

Malone builds a texturally-rich environment that thrums with intrigue and vulnerable honesty. Parker’s quiet, powerful Viriditas (working title) is inspired by the women of the 12th and 21st centuries, with devotion manifest in doing (singing, dancing). Walters combines his learned and self-determined savvy from a career in both dance and theater with the utmost potential of each dancer to extract their personal exquisiteness. The three new works, from process to product, all embody agency and voice.

Photo credit: Erik Saulitis

In a burst of creative filmmaking, the University of Minnesota Dance Program students, faculty, and guests responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the call for social justice catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd.

Curated by UMN dance professors and choreographers Joanie Smith (Shapiro & Smith Dance) and Carl Flink (Black Label Movement), Dancing Our Way Out brings forward some of the truly unique and poignant cinematic visions produced by its community of embodied art makers and learners during the COVID winter, celebrating their rich diversity of perspectives, identity, and aesthetics.

Available as a livestream and on-demand.

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.

The 17-member, multi-ethnic company performs a forward-thinking repertoire that includes treasured classics, neoclassical works, and innovative contemporary works that use the language of ballet to celebrate African American culture.

This program includes the Northrop co-commission Higher Ground, with choreography by Robert Garland and music by Stevie Wonder, Balamouk choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa with music by Les Yeux Noirs, and Passage choreographed by Claudia Schreier with a commissioned score by Jessie Montgomery.

Tickets on sale NOW to celebrate Chinese New Year season with the best locally produced Chinese dance program, featuring original choreography by Jinyu Zhou, CAAM Chinese Dance Theater’s new Artistic Director and former Artistic Director Hangzhou Dance and Song Theater.

Inspired by a millennium of Chinese beloved melodies; playful mythical animals, heroic figures, historic artists and more will dance into audiences’ hearts in an all-age performance. Set to Chinese music across millennia, CAAM Chinese Dance Theater retakes the O’Shaughnessy stage with zeal and artistry never before seen anywhere.

Black Light is a multi-year collaborative performance directed by Minnesota-based dancer-choreographer, Alanna Morris (formerly Morris-Van Tassel, City Pages‘ Artist of the Year, Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” and 2021 McKnight Choreographer Fellow).

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 a natural world-inspired expression of interwoven local and global identities.

Please note: This work contains frontal nudity and may not be suitable for persons under the age of 16.

Paul Taylor molded the dance company that bears his name into one of the preeminent performing ensembles in the world, leading it until his death, and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Novak.

In this program, the company premieres a new work by Peter Chu, a Northrop Centennial Commission, paired with two classic Taylor works, the sublime masterpiece, Airs—hailed as “a treasure” by The New York Times—and Promethean Fire, set to three keyboard works by Bach as richly orchestrated by Stokowski.