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All Are Connected to Dance in Minnesota

Dear Dance Community and Supporters,

As we find ourselves in currents of change, with movement in many aspects of our lives, dance dynamics fill our hearts and bodies as expressions of our deepest impulses towards unity, purpose and sharing. We at DanceMN hold strong in our vision which aims to uphold and connect all working and engaging in the field of dance in our state.

Working together, you help us to fulfill our vision: All Are Connected To Dance In Minnesota

We at DanceMN wish to express our deep and sincere appreciation for YOU! DanceMN wouldn’t exist without the ongoing support from our dance community. The opportunities that each of you create and publicize in our weekly newsletter and calendar enrich our vibrant dance scene. Your commitment to dance and sharing with us allows us to engage with artists and to sustain our organization. With each year of our operations, we are reminded of the strength and longevity we may achieve as a community of support.

Thank you for being creative forces and change agents in our neighborhoods, communities, and beyond. Here’s to continuing meaningful contributions to the fabric of our shared and caring existence!

As we continue the weaving of deep connections in the dance community, we ask for your financial help. Please DONATE to support our work at DanceMN, now through November 16 as part of Give to the Max Day. We need your dollars to sustain our ongoing work to help connect dance opportunities with dancers and enthusiasts.

DanceMN’s ongoing work includes connecting communities through the weekly e-newsletter, promoting opportunities to engage with dance experiences through a non-curated platform, maintaining and updating the website, and developing our social media presence.

We THANK YOU in advance for your generous contributions. Your financial support will enable DanceMN to continue on the path of vitality and connection for Minnesota dance so that all of our work can be experienced.

Warmly,

DanceMN Steering Committee
Maggie Bergeron
Jarod Boltjes
Ashley Chin-Mark
Rahila Naomi Stadem Coats
Kealoha Ferreira
Joanne Gordon
Sarah LaRose-Holland
Jim Lieberthal
Alys Ayumi Ogura
Eve Schulte

DanceMN Co-Editors
Annie Carlson
Non Edwards

DanceMN Seeks Consultant – Deadline November 3

DanceMN seeks a consultant to assist with creating a survey of the existing membership and to help facilitate three townhall meetings. The survey should help to identify who engages with DanceMN so the organization has a comprehensive understanding of who subscribes to the weekly newsletter. The goal is for DanceMN to learn more about their current and potential constituents.

Who is eligible to respond?
Eligible candidates will demonstrate market analysis expertise; works as a consultant; is organized and responsive; and is interested in user experience and supporting an arts organization.

Goal
The goal of this project is to better understand the DanceMN community so that DanceMN can 1) address gaps in community through targeted development and outreach; and 2) develop new tools/resources in alignment with the desires and needs of the community. By better knowing who our 1700 subscribers and 900 contributors are, DanceMN can better leverage our strengths and address our weaknesses, becoming more accessible/relevant for more artists, audiences, and organizations, and bringing greater visibility and vitality to MN dance.

Proposal requirements
Cover letter, name, address, website, phone numbers, emails, online portfolio (if you have one), client references.
Please provide a sample project that you have completed in the past.
Please specify your fee and provide a budget for this work.

Proposal due date: November 3, 2023
Submit proposals to: admin@dancemn.org – Include “RFP Consultant” in the subject line.

See the full RFP.

Studio Rentals at Collide Theatrical in St. Paul

Need space to rehearse, choreograph, teach, or hold an event? Collide Theatrical has two studios available for rental in our beautiful St. Paul location.

Studio 1 has 1700 square feet of sprung floor, full wall-length mirrors, Rosco Adagio Marley dance floor, high ceilings, sky lights, and 3 chandeliers. Studio 2 has 550 square feet of sprung wood floor.

Both studios have the following amenities:

  • Ballet barres for up to 18 students
  • Free and accessible parking and access to public transportation line
  • Gender-specific bathrooms (non-gender-specific bathroom available in the adjacent building)
  • Free Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth room speakers
  • Cubbies for holding shoes and clothes
  • 2 long folding tables
  • Access to up to 30 folding chairs
  • HVAC heated and cooled spaces with temperature control
  • Hallway drinking fountains
  • Access to kitchenette area available upon request

Single Rental
Studio 1 – $30/hour
Studio 2 – $20/hour

Long-Term or Multiple-Day Rental
Studio 1 – $20/hour
Studio 2 – $15/hour

Payment for rental bookings must be made 48 hours prior to your booking to hold your reservation. A signed rental agreement and certificate of insurance must be provided prior to your reservation. Please contact us at 651-395-7903 or grace@collidetheatrical.org to schedule a visit.

Advanced Drop-In Classes with Collide Theatrical

Join us for class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 9:30am for intermediate/advanced ballet, advanced jazz, and Collide Barre with the company.

Teachers and classes on a rotating schedule.
Pre-registration is required.
View the class schedule and register for class.
Please sign our liability waiver before attending class.

All Welcome
Our welcoming environment stands up to our values of inclusivity and accessibility. Work-study and BIPOC scholarships available.

Our space is located in the Can Can Wonderland building in St. Paul. Parking is free in front of the building – the BLUE lot is closest to our space, in the lots across the street, and in the underground parking garage (follow the Can Can Wonderland arrow).

Class Rates
Adult Drop-Ins: $20 per class or $180 for a 10-class pass.
Passes good for either ballet, jazz, or Collide Barre; must be used within 6 months.
Professional Dancers: $18 per class. Email grace@collidetheatrical.org for a discount code.

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence is a solo performance by Kata Juhasz, Hungarian dancer and choreographer, which is articulated in verbal speech and movements simultaneously in a short personal reckoning with some historical outlook on the possibilities of an authentic artist willing to preserve her independence in a politicized public life on the shifting borderline of the EU.

Kata is a Budapest-based dancer, choreographer, teacher, and physician who has been performing throughout Europe since 1996. Her works have been funded by Summa Artium, the National Cultural Fund, and The Ministries of Human Capacity of Hungary.

Her performance will be accompanied by bassist, composer, producer, and educator Alexis Cuadrado of Brooklyn, NY. He has released six albums as a band leader, composed for many venues, and is on the faculty of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He has composed works for films, podcasts, NPR, and many other performances throughout his career. We are indeed fortunate to have these internationally known artists coming to Minneapolis.

Declaration of Independence will be preceded by Sleeping Giant, a new piano composition by Maura Bosch performed over a video projection of photographs on lumbering and mining on Minnesota Native lands by Vance Gellert. Jim Lenfesty will read his poetry.

Friday, October 27 at 7:30pm
Saturday, October 28 at 7:30pm
Donation-based.

Nacera Belaza: L’Onde

“[Nacera Belaza] explores the boundaries between embodied presence and the ecstatic emptiness toward which dance, and movement, can lead us.” —New Yorker

Internationally revered for her powerfully abstract work, Nacera Belaza draws a path between shadow and light, using a rigorous focus to create a bond between performance and ceremony. In L’Onde, the French Algerian choreographer immerses five dancers in a darkened theater for a mesmerizing meditation on the body’s capacity for transformation. A hypnotic soundscape pairs with spellbinding, minimalist choreography that nods to Algerian ritualistic dances while blending tradition with modernity for a captivating and encompassing piece.

Friday, October 27
Saturday, October 28

Dance Roots: Minnesota’s Movers and Shakers Exhibition Opening Reception

Come to the opening reception of Dance Roots: Minnesota’s Movers and Shakers, celebrating Minnesota’s dance community drawn from the University of Minnesota’s Performing Arts Archives.

Friday, October 27 from 5:00-7:30pm
Enjoy refreshments, mingle, and explore the exhibition.
Stay for Georgia Finnegan-Saulitis’s talk about her new book Grace & Grit at 6:30pm.

The Exhibition, curated by the PAA’s new director Deborah Ultan, displays a fascinating network of choreographers, companies, dancers, teachers, dance photographers, and dance spaces over the last 100 years.

There will be guest speakers at the exhibition through January 31, 2024, including Mary Easter. Mary will read from her autobiography, “The Way She Wants To Get There, Telling on Myself,” on November 8 at 12:00pm – a brown-bag lunch event!

Dance Roots: Minnesota’s Movers and Shakers will be open during library hours: 9:00am-5:00pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and 9:00am-7:00pm on Wednesday and Thursday.

James Sewell Ballet: In the Shadows

Frankenstein, zombies, and characters of Edgar Allen Poe come to life in this family-friendly performance steeped in spooky delight and tragic majesty.

Anchoring the performance is a new choral ballet titled Unfashioned Creature, featuring Twin Cities beloved artists Timothy C. Takach (composer), Penelope Freeh (choreographer), and the MPLS (imPulse) choral ensemble. The work is poetically rooted in Shelley’s Frankenstein, and explores key aspects relating to personhood: otherness, abandonment, despair, and hopeful yearning. Music includes cello, percussion, and the stellar singers of MPLS who will perform a fractured libretto comprised of Shelley’s text.

Also on the program, remounts of two Sewell fall favorites: excerpts from “Takes on Poe” (2012); and “Grave Matters” (2011), which combines undead charm and morbid wit in a playful zombie ballet.

Saturday, October 28
2:00pm and 7:30pm

Tickets: $5-34

The Arena – Workshop with International Artist Kata Juhasz

This Saturday, October 28!

Sensing the Flow
10:00-11:30am

Pricing: Suggested donation of $25
Register via email: cie.ooops@gmail.com

Workshop Description
After an exhilarating release technique-based technical warm-up, which allows flowing movements in space, we will have a short phrase followed by some creative improvisation tasks. The exercises open up and disrupt movement vocabulary and composition methods to propose an unprecedented dance language and help dancers explore non-habitual, spatial, dynamic, and body-level choices.

In addition to the work on the individual body, we’ll focus on composing the movement of a group. The movement of individuals within a group can be connected and united. Shapes or positions in space can be related and given the visual equivalents of harmony or dissonance. As dancers, we can create connections referring to past or future events, like melodies, rhythms, and dynamics. As a result of the workshop, a short joint group choreography will be created.

Kata Juhász is a dancer-choreographer from Budapest, Hungary. She has presented her own choreographic works internationally since 2005. Read more about her background here.

Fallen Leaves Dance and Social

We bring the steaming cauldron, you bring your broom!

It’s time to reprise the Wolfshager Hexenbrut witch dance.
If you haven’t had a chance to see this fun, spirited dance – here is the original choreography: https://youtu.be/BjUV-byB8ls

Dance outdoors in the spirit of Halloween, Oktoberfest and Dias de los Muertos. No partner or dance experience needed!

Enjoy a welcoming, encouraging and fun session as we learn the Wolfshager Hexenbrut Witch Dance (bring your broom) along with dances from Mexico, Germany and more.

I will teach the dances, step by step.
No need to sign up – just show up!

Sunday, October 29
Dancing: 6:30-8:00pm
Social to follow