Archive: Performances and Events

Floorwork: June – Conversations and Knowledge Sharing Potluck

Floorwork: a communal conversation and shared meal.

Every first Saturday! Floorwork was developed to hold conversations, knowledge sharing, and supportive space for dance artists and people who like to move.

The next Floorwork is:
Saturday, June 3
12:00-2:00pm – New Time!
RSVP by Thursday, June 1

This June Floorwork will focus on the question, “How do we improve our creative practice with thoughtful and critical feedback?” – conversation assisted by Arwen Wilder of Hijack. 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.

Critical Conversations – Technical and Production

Our next series of Critical Conversations will focus on the technical and production side of dance! These workshops are designed to provide a baseline for working with production teams and venues in Minnesota and abroad and to give artists the language to talk about tech. Come to one or both – the workshops are independent of one another and will be both presentation and conversation based amongst the panel and any artists attending. Both workshops are moderated by Cowles Co-Director (and Production Manager), Joseph Bingham, who will be joined by several panelists at each event. These discussions are free and open to all. Come to share your thoughts or just listen.
 
Building a Production Team
Tuesday, June 6, 6:00-8:00pm

Finding the right people for your creative project is paramount for success. Depending on the needs of your project, you may need a stage manager, production manager (no, the two aren’t always the same), lighting designer, sound designer, video designer, or more. Just like artists, different production folks have different aesthetics and ways of collaborating. Hear from several seasoned folks from these disciplines about their working styles, big-picture things you as a choreographer should consider when building out your team of collaborators, and the do’s and don’ts of tech week.

Putting your Show in a Venue and Touring
Wednesday, June 7, 6:00-8:00pm
Whether you are producing a show at a local theater or touring, there are many factors, logistics, and ways of working and planning to consider. Venues with crew requirements versus those who just turn the keys over require different approaches when it comes to working with the venue’s production person or team. The technical elements of your work will require different planning depending on the venue and the people available to support it. This workshop brings seasoned production folks together to discuss how different venues locally and nationally require artists and production teams to plan. You’ll walk away knowing what to consider for your project.

Give Ear

From Dancer/Choreographer Berit Ahlgren (HoneyWorks) and Actor/Director Nathan Keepers (The Moving Company), Give Ear is a dance/theater collaboration focused on the means of listening or being listened to, and what might happen if we tune in more intentionally to what’s around us.

Give Ear was commissioned by The Cowles Center as part of their MERGE Program. Slated to premiere March 2020 but cancelled due to the pandemic, the piece is a reimagining and evolution of the original work so it might resonate for audiences today.

A pillar of HoneyWorks mission is to provide opportunities for its dance-artists to share their own choreography within a HoneyWorks program. In addition to the performance of Give Ear, please join us as we welcome works-in-progress by cast member Christian Warner (NYC) featuring dancer Amanda Sachs and musician Andrew Bocher.

Thursday, June 8: Doors 6:45pm; Show 7:30pm
Friday, June 9: Doors 6:45pm; Show 7:30pm – Q&A to follow performance.
Saturday, June 10: Doors 6:45pm; Show 7:30pm
Sunday, June 11: Doors 1:15pm; Show 2:00pm – Pay-what-you-can

Run time: 1:15. No intermission.

Tickets
General Admission: Advance $25, Door $30
Student/Senior: $18

Two by Two – Live Music and Dance Performance

Join us for one of the two special nights of two pianos and two dancers! The dynamic program will feature two-piano works by Sergei Rachmaninov, Takashi Yoshimatsu, and John Adams.

Artists
Choreographer, Dancer – Yuki Tokuda and Shohei Iwahama
Piano – Rie Tanaka and Koki Sato

Program
Suite No.2 Op.17 for Two Pianos by Sergei Rachmaninov
Random Bird Variations Op.23 by Takashi Yoshimatsu
Hallelujah Junction by John Adams
By arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey and Hawkes company, publisher, and copyright owner.

Performances
Tuesday, June 20 at 7:00pm
Wednesday, June 21 at 7:00pm

Tickets
Adult: $20
Under 18 years: $15
At the door: $25

Any additional donations will be greatly appreciated here.

Kaleena Miller Dance Presents KMD2 in Concert

An evening of tap dance with new and classic choreography by Leon Collins (as taught and shared by Dianne Walker and Lia Spirka), Naomi Funaki, Kaleena Miller, Bobby Hamilton, Tony van de Light, and KMD2 Company Members. The show will also feature Random Motions in Nature and Dance, a very special collaboration with UMN Civil Engineering Professor Vaughan Voller that illuminates the patterns that emerge from random motions.

With performances by KMD2 Company Members Leah Chamaty, Anna Curtler, Evan Guffey, Grace Fabienke, Anika Kachmarek, Shelby Lee, Nina Maxwell, Delaina Thill, Ruby Thill, and Allie Wing and KMD Apprentices Bobby Hamilton, Abby King, Emma Parker, and Tony van de Ligt.

KMD2 Company Members and KMD Apprentices are pre-professional, creative incubation groups for emerging tap dance talent in the Twin Cities.

Thursday, May 11 at 7:30pm
Friday, May 12 at 7:30pm

Get tickets here.

Leslie Parker Dance Project’s Divination Tools: imagine home

“Leslie Parker’s work-in-progress at Pillsbury House Theatre was electric.” —Star Tribune, Best Dance of 2021

St. Paul–based choreographer Leslie Parker continues her multiyear project and leads a powerful collective of Black visual artists, musicians and femme dance artists in a liberating world premiere performance. Through collaborative improvisation and dance experimentation, the artists explore Black pedagogy, conjuring, and activism while emphasizing remembrance to cultivate community. Reflecting on divinity and lineage, Divination Tools: imagine home draws from Blackness in music, dance, and storytelling in real time and is the latest iteration of Parker’s epic work Call to Remember.

On Friday and Saturday, the performances begin with a processional from the Hennepin Lounge at 7:15pm.
Doors to the McGuire Theater open at 7:30pm.

Walker Commission/World Premiere
Co-commissioned and copresented by the Walker, Pillsbury House Theatre, Pangea World Theater, Danspace Project (NYC), and Counterpulse (SF).

The 3-Women Project by TU Dance

The 3-Women Project will feature choreographic works from a group of three internationally renowned black female artists who will each work individually within their own creative processes while simultaneously seeking to explore and discover synergistic and unifying themes throughout the process. The project will incorporate educational opportunities and culminate in live, in-person performances in May 2023.

The choreographers include Stephanie Batten Bland, Alanna Morris, and Yusha-Marie Sorzano. TU Dance seeks to create artistic space for these three dynamic and award-winning dance artists to share their distinctly strong voices in choreographic work and their deep investment and investigations into their own artistic practice and identity as black women. TU Dance looks forward to engaging with our community to share and celebrate the perspectives of these three women through this exciting and ambitious project.

May 12 and 13, 2023 at 7:30pm (CST)
Ticket price: $35. Discounts for students and seniors.

Tickets can be purchased online here or by contacting The O’Shaughnessy Ticket Office at 651-690-6700.

Collide Theatrical Presents Our Stories

Collide Theatrical Dance Company presents Our Stories, Chapter 2: The LGBTQIA+ and Non-Binary Experience

Join us for an evening of original dance storytelling centered on the non-binary and LGBTQIA experience that seeks to inform, educate, and entertain audiences of all ages. Enjoy dance theater in an intimate setting with cabaret-style seating.

The production, directed by Jarod Boltjes, will be emceed by local cabaret diva Mistress Ginger. Our Stories, Chapter 2 features Grace Kidder, Javan Mngrezzo, Michael Mossucco, Ben Siglin, and Connor Simone.

For tickets, click here or call 651-395-7903, ext. 701.

Friday, May 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday, May 13 at 7:30pm
Sunday, May 14 at 2:00pm

Kaleena Miller Dance Presents QUARTET

A sound-focused dance work in 4 parts. A series of structures for exploration, collaboration, listening, and sounding.

Choreographed by Kaleena Miller.

Featuring guest performers from the East Coast including Benae Beamon from Philadelphia, Madison Hilligoss from New York, and Michael J. Love from Princeton, alongside Minnesota-based dancers Audrey Bartley, Bobby Hamilton, Abby King, Nina Maxwell, Emma Parker, and Tony van de Ligt.

Saturday, May 13 at 7:30pm
Sunday, May 14 at 2:00pm

Get tickets here.