Archive

Threads Dance Project Presents Tapestries 7.0

Threads’ annual Tapestries series introduces Twin Cities’ communities to three local emerging choreographers. Tapestries 7.0 features new and reprised works showcasing the perspectives and talents of this year’s selected choreographers: Erinn Liebhard, Julie Warder, and Brenna Mosser and Artistic Director Karen L. Charles.

Charles is remounting her piece, Uncertain Reality (2017), which explores the concept of Chaos Theory as it relates to the world we live in. Complexity and the beauty of chaos through movement and interactive technological imagery, in collaboration with projection artist Miko Simmons.

May 5 at 7:30pm – Pay as able, minimum $10
May 6 at 7:30pm
May 7 at 2:00pm

Tickets: $25; students: $20.

An Evening of Bharatanatyam by the Legendary Alarmél Valli

Experience a rare, unparalleled performance by the legendary Bharatanatyam dancer/choreographer Padma Bhushan Smt. Alarmél Valli, guru to Ragamala Dance Company’s Artistic Directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy since 1983. Ms. Valli is widely recognized as one of India’s greatest living masters and practitioners. Ranee and Aparna’s training with Ms. Valli has formed the foundation of their aesthetic and has been fundamental to the work of the Ragamala, now celebrating its thirtieth season.

Presenting an evening of diverse poems in Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu, Alarmél Valli’s dance is uncompromisingly classical but is, at the same time, an undeniable language of self-expression. Her work blurs the boundaries between tradition and individual talent, inheritance, and invention. A sublime evening of dance by one of the world’s greatest soloists, this is an experience not to be missed.

May 6, 7:30pm

MIXTAPE 6: Cypherspace

Dance into the next chapter of hip hop…

Cypherspace is a place of unlimited possibilities that allow for the reshaping of reality through various embodiments. The MIXTAPE Collective travels to the future through cyberspace to offer multiple perspectives on the next millennium. MIXTAPE’s work reveals generative strategies for sharing power and access to resources by weaving together choreography, videography, and musical compositions.

Sunday, May 7 performance includes Pay As You Are ticketing!

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.

Ballet Minnesota’s 34th Annual Minnesota Dance Festival

Ballet Minnesota is thrilled to present the 34th Minnesota Dance Festival at E.M. Pearson Theater at Concordia University May 13-14.

MDF will feature the classic ballet Paquita restaged by Cheryl Rist and Andrew Rist’s new work Friends, while sharing the stage with many guest artists including CAAM Chinese Dance Theater, Elena Hollenhorst, Eva Igo, Jim Lieberthal, Juliana Johnson, Kala Vandanam, Keane Sense of Rhythm, O’Shea Irish Dance, and Universal Dance Destiny.

You won’t want to miss this eclectic show!

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

Movement as Language Workshop Series

Movement as Language poster, featuring a blue sky with a crescent moon and three white geese flying overhead

Movement as Language: Workshop Series and Performance Opportunity

This workshop will provide an introduction to dance and choreographic tools. This 2023 workshop series will focus on the theme of migration. Participants will be guided through movement exercises and encouraged to develop their own choreography as a way of storytelling. We will examine migration from our unique perspectives as a transition or transformational experience in life. Workshops focus on using your body as an instrument for expression and are open to adults of all abilities and levels of dance experience. All workshops are free!

At the end of the workshop series, 5 participants will be invited to complete the cast for a community performance at the Southern Theater, June 16-17. All workshop participants who are interested are invited to apply to join this creative process! These artist positions are paid. BIPOC, LGBTQ+, ESL, and community members with disabilities are encouraged to participate. No dance experience required.

Workshop 1: April 14-15
CM’s Fitness and Dance
6706 Penn Ave S, Richfield, MN 55423
Day 1: Friday, April 14, 6:00-8:00pm
Day 2: Saturday, April 15, 12:30-3:30pm
Free street parking is available.
Register

Workshop 2: April 22-23
The Shawngrām Institute for Performance and Social Justice
1197 University Ave W, St Paul, MN 55104
Day 1: Saturday, April 22, 3:30-5:30pm
Day 2: Sunday, April 23, 10:30am-1:30pm
Limited free parking is available.
Register

Workshop 3: April 28-29
Zorongo Flamenco
3715 Minnehaha Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Day 1: Friday, April 28, 6:00-8:00pm
Day 2: Saturday, April 29, 3:00-6:00pm
Street parking is available on 37th Ave and surrounding streets.
Register

AMP Hosts Master Classes – Part of ELEVEN

AMP is hosting a series of three master classes that engages Twin Cities dance artists as part of our eleventh season performance. During show week, three of the ELEVEN choreographers will lead a master class. Join us in moving on the Southern stage with three distinct movement experiences in a welcoming atmosphere!

Master Class Schedule:
Friday, April 14: 10:00-11:30am – Joanna Lees
Saturday, April 15: 10:00-11:30am – Brianna Rae Johnson
Saturday, April 15: 11:45am-1:15pm – Khary Jackson

Class Rates
Take more classes and save money!
Single Master Class – $18
2 Master Classes – $30 ($15/class)
3 Master Classes – $39 ($13/class)
Pre-registration and -payment preferred.*
Cash, Venmo, credit card, and check accepted at the door.
*If not pre-registered, please arrive at least 10 minutes early.

No one turned away for lack of funds. Email alternativemotionproject@gmail.com for low/no cost options.

About the Workshops

Joanna Lees/Contemporary Movement Practice: Move BIG, sweat and play in an energizing atmosphere supported by pop hits in this Contemporary Movement Practice. Participants will build awareness and explore expansive possibilities within their own individuality and identities. Through improvised and structured movement vocabulary, participants will be encouraged to research freedom, 3-D expansion, mobility, rigor, presence, and agency in choice-making and empowerment with each individual’s own unique body.

Brianna Rae Johnson/Flying and Falling: With weight and momentum as our guides, we’ll begin low and slow to gradually ease joints into dynamic and athletic movement.

Khary Jackson/Embodying the Music: We will explore movement while listening in detail to the many sounds present in any given song. While isolating instrumentation, layering sonic textures, re-contextualizing lyrics and imagining fresh connections between music and movement, we will play and share as dancers and/or choreographers.

Email AMP with any questions. We look forward to moving BIG with you soon!

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.

Paula Mann/Time Track Productions Present a New Workshop

Paula Mann, Founder of Time Track Productions swings an arm overhead as she steps across her body with the opposite foot

Speed, Force and Timing

4 Saturdays: April 15, 22 and 29; May 6
2:00-4:00pm
at The Cowles Center, Studio 5B

Class will include a modern/contemporary warm-up based on Mann’s 30 years of teaching Limon technique, improvisation/creative process practice exploring these principles, and learning new movement ideas for Mann’s next work with phrases based on speed, force and timing.

$10 for each 2-hour workshop.

Candy Box Master Classes

April 24-28
Monday-Friday, 4:00 – 5:15pm

Monday, April 24 – Shane Larson
Tuesday, April 25 – Cheng Xiong
Wednesday, April 26 – Megan Mayer
Thursday, April 27 – J’Sun Howard
Friday, April 28 – Berit Ahlgren

$10 per class or $25 five-class package.
Walk-ins welcome.
Cash/check/card accepted at the door.
All Masterclass ticket income and Masterclass donations goes directly to the artists.

National Tap Dance Day Workshops

Join us to perform or cheer during the National Tap Dance Day Celebration at Como Park Pavilion!

Saturday, May 27
Learn more.
Workshops from guest faculty and more!

Workshop: Adult Tappy Hour
12:00-1:00pm – Free!

Community Performance
2:00-4:00pm

Want to perform? Fill out this form to submit a piece for consideration.