Archive: Performances and Events

Saturday, June 1
12:00-2:00pm
RSVP is appreciated.

This June Floorwork will continue the March 4, 2024 Dance Town Hall conversation with emphasis on creating a specific advocacy group for the dance community! Please come prepared with developmental needs and action steps in response to the recent survey, March 4 Dance Town Hall, and previous Floorwork discussions.

Floorwork: a communal conversation and shared meal. 
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. Floorwork was developed to hold conversations, knowledge-sharing, and a supportive space for dance artists and people who like to move. Attendees are asked to fill out a new RSVP form for each monthly Floorwork event.

Can’t attend, but would like to join in the conversation?
Join us via Zoom
Meeting ID: 828 9636 5545
Passcode: 341960

Come see Hopkins Dance Company’s Spring Recital!

Saturday, June 1
12:00pm and 6:00pm

Get tickets here.

On Saturday, June 1 Borealis Dance Theatre presents the 4th annual Dance Camera North International Film Festival screening at the Center for Performing Arts in Minneapolis at 7:00pm.

Dance Camera North provides space for dance filmmakers to challenge choreographic storytelling through film. This innovative platform creates the opportunity to expand the dynamic performative art of dance to larger audiences while pushing the envelope to what is possible through film. This year, the festival is presenting innovative films from dancers, choreographers, and filmmakers in Australia, United Kingdom, Iran, Canada, Germany, Slovenia, and Russia as well as the United States.

The 2024 Festival “Best of” winner, Liudmila Komrakova of Russia, directed “Cats. Why do we Need Them?” The screening will include a behind the scenes look at the creation of this beautiful film, and the audience will hear a few words from the director.

Saturday, June 1
7:00pm

Tickets: $10. Available online or at the door.

Experience unique storytelling through ballet performance, choreography, solo piano and two-piano works, and the world premiere of an original composition. Award-winning choreographer Yuki Tokuda will showcase her choreography presented in a program inspired by Japanese folklore, “The Legend of the Feathered Robe – 羽衣伝説,” featuring a new work created especially for this project by internationally recognized composer Asako Hirabayashi.

Program

• “The Legend of the Feathered Robe” by Asako Hirabayashi – world premiere
• “The Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky
• “Signes de Blanc” by Edison Danisov – presented under license from G. Schirmer Inc. and Associated Music Publishers, copyright owners
• “Daphnis et Chloé Suite No.2” by Maurice Ravel

Artists
Choreographer: Yuki Tokuda
Dancers: Andrew Lester and Yuki Tokuda
Pianists: Rie Tanaka and Koki Sato

Saturday, June 1
2:00pm

This show is free to the public, but please register ahead of time for arts board verification of audience attendance.

Yuki Tokuda is a fiscal year 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

At once dreamlike, unsettling, and absurd, Off-Leash Area’s new show, The Knave of Knives – The Duchess of Dawn, introduces two strange and haunting figures from an otherworldly court who engage in a fantastical struggle for power over the multiverse. Taking place in an immersive installation surrounding both stage and audience, the show is performed with movement and music/sound, inspired (loosely) by string theory, and is populated with melancholy stuffed animals and mysterious trophies, dispersed among the fragile threads of a clandestine karmic history.

Created and performed by Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig, co-artistic directors of Off-Leash Area.

June 7-9, 7:00pm
Tickets on sale now.

Admission is by suggested donation between $10-$30. Seating is limited to approximately 40 seats and the garage fills up fast, so make your reservation early! You can also make your donation at the door by cash or card via Square.

Stick around afterward for popcorn, drinks, and conversation by the fire!

BRKFST Dance Company presents two wildly different works of art in celebration of their 10-year anniversary. BRKFST continues to “show us the future of dance” (Star Tribune) with STORMCLUTTER, a world premiere co-commissioned by The Cowles Center and Northrop, with composition by company member Renée Copeland. Their unique style of breaking and storytelling shines through in a restaging of Dancers, Dreamers, and Presidents by composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. 

STORMCLUTTER is an exploration of relationships and ongoing efforts to resolve opposing states of interpersonal tension. Misunderstanding, compassion, resentment, egoism, love, loss, betrayal—moving through or attempting to compartmentalize complex dynamics between family and friends and the emotional baggage collected over time becomes an overwhelming task, while maturation requires people to accept that which they cannot change. BRKFST members illustrate the efforts individuals may take when working to resolve the inner chaos that triggers feelings of dissociation, paralysis, and isolation.

BRKFST interprets Dancers, Dreamers, and Presidents as a commentary on American life that is filled with a mix of ambition, passion, blame, justice, hope, and love. And while this country is deemed the “land of the free,” it is riddled with systemic problems that seem impossible to overcome. For many, the “American Dream” remains just that—a dream.

Saturday, June 8, 7:30pm
Sunday, June 9, 2:00pm

Rescheduled from April 27-28 at The Cowles Center.

Katha Dance Theatre (KDT) is pleased to announce the world premiere of Ganga: A Choreographic Odyssey at E.M. Pearson Theatre!

With this production, director/choreographer Rita Mustaphi is premiering a film screening and live Kathak dance combination to create a unique cultural spectacle. The dance film, Ganga to Mississippi, was filmed in both India and Minnesota. The Minnesota section was created in collaboration with Sharon Day, an Ojibwe leader and Indigenous activist, artist, and writer, and Jane Ramseyer Miller, former artistic director of One Voice Mixed Chorus. In Ganga: A Choreographic Odyssey, the brand-new live component, North Indian Kathak dance will be performed with a non-traditional South Indian Carnatic music accompaniment; the show’s composers come from South Indian Carnatic and North Indian Hindustani classical music traditions. Set to live music by these and other acclaimed guest artists, the live portion will be performed by KDT’s Company dancers and apprentices.

Ganga uses Kathak to convey the universal importance of protecting and conserving water sources. It portrays the mythological creation of the river Ganga (or Ganges), depicting Ganga as a nourishing river of life, a source of religious significance, but also as one of the world’s most polluted rivers that needs saving from environmental destruction. Using the storytelling artform’s trademark rhythmic footwork, pirouettes, and gestural and facial expressiveness, Ganga emphasizes how the crucial role the Ganges plays to Asian Indians is similar to the role the Mississippi plays to Minnesotans – especially to indigenous communities. Using these mythological and real-life frameworks, Ganga calls for systemic change and urges audiences to take action against pollution.

A roster of acclaimed guest musicians accompanies KDT’s Company on the live portion of the performance. They include Nirmala Rajasekar (vocals), Satyaprakash Mishra (tabla), Jayanta Banerjee (sitar), and Sriram N. Iyer (Mridangam), with percussion by Abhinav Sharma (MN).

June 14, 7:30pm
June 15, 7:30pm
June 16, 2:00pm (ASL-interpreted)

Tickets
General Admission: $35
Students and Seniors 65+: $20

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. This activity is also made possible by a grant from New Music USA.

JSB performs as special guests with the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, June 21 and 22, 7:30pm.

Step into a world of inclusivity, artistry, and self-expression with This is Me, a captivating concert experience brought to you by the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (TCGMC) with special guests. Set against the majestic backdrop of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, this event promises to be a celebration of diversity, acceptance, and the transformative power of music.

James Sewell Ballet is thrilled to be performing as special guests in Every BODY, a groundbreaking commission led by TCGMC featuring over 200 singers on stage and professional dancers, exploring the complexities of body image, identity, and self-acceptance.  From the graceful movements of a dancer to the soaring melodies of a choir in harmony, Every BODY celebrates the inherent worth and dignity of every individual. It challenges societal norms and embraces the idea that our bodies are not something to be ashamed of, but rather, gifts to be cherished and celebrated.

For more information about this inspiring collaboration, click here.

Purchase tickets.

Concerto Dance presents The Adventures of Peer Gynt, a new theatrical jazz dance work that follows the story of the self-absorbed Peer Gynt in search of meaning and significance through his wild adventures, only to return home to realize he wasted his life searching for something he already had… the love he was longing for.

Don’t miss this spin on a classic tale set in the American jazz era told through Concerto’s signature style of theatrical and classical jazz dance, featuring Doug Hooker playing the role of Peer Gynt, Rush Benson in the role of Death, and Betsy Nelson playing Solveig, along with the full company of Concerto Dance.

Thursday, May 16 at 7:30pm – Preview Performance, pay-what-you-can
Friday, May 17 at 7:30pm
Saturday, May 18 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm

Tickets: $25-$30 – on sale now.
Run time: 60 minutes with no intermission.

All ticket holders to this weekend’s performance can attend our open company class at the Bloomington Center for the Arts on Saturday, May 18 for free! This week’s class is Jazz Funk Emphasis.

Jazz Funk Emphasis – Age 14+
Open Level: 9:00-10:00am
Intermediate/Advanced: 10:00-11:30am