Two-day audition process blending modern, contemporary, and improvisational skills. We encourage you to attend both days, but it is not required.
Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26 from 12:00-3:00pm
Auditioning for two project ensembles:
- ARENA DANCES seeks experienced dancers with strong technical, artistic, and creative abilities for Erased Steps.
- Choreographers Taja Will and Mathew Janczewski seek artists for a new “Merge” collaboration.
Erased Steps – ARENA DANCES’ artistic director, Mathew Janczewski, and fellow collaborators Dustin Haug, Leslie O’Neill, and Laura Selle Virtucio seek dancers for a new ensemble work of 12-15 dancers that will premiere August 24 and 25 at Union Depot in St. Paul and tour to Rochester, MN to perform August 26 at the Rochester Civic Center. Professional dancers of all ages, backgrounds, and experiences are encouraged to apply. Applicants will be asked to improvise, as well as learn phrase work. We are looking for diverse performers who are creative, collaborative, and expressive. Must be available starting May to August, 2023. Rehearsals to be determined amongst the ensemble.
Merge – Choreographers Mathew Janczewski and Taja Will seek dancers for a new ensemble work that will premiere in March 2024 on the Goodale Stage, at the Cowles Center. Taja (they/them), is a QTBIPOC, disabled artist whose process is rooted in a restorative justice pedagogy, healing, and disability justice foundations and proposes structured improvisation as a performance modality in a collaboratively authored process. Their studio ethos is one of emergence and care work, focus and rigor, ritual and magic. Will and Janczewski meet at their shared passion for witnessing one’s self-expression through movement and their longtime friendship for the creation of this new work.
Participants will be asked to engage with rigorous attention to improvisation as a technique and performance modality as well as to work collaboratively on spontaneous choreographic choice-making. Must be available for an intensive 3-week rehearsal process September-November, 2023, and again February-March, 2024. Rehearsals to be determined amongst chosen cast within time frame listed above. No call back required, will follow up with conversations via email.
You may audition for one or both projects. In-person auditions are given priority.
RSVP is appreciated, please do so by 5:00pm, Thursday, March 23 through this form.
If you are unable to audition in person, you may submit a short video (under 5 minutes) in your registration form. Please include improvisation as well as performance footage.
Compensation: Dancers are paid $20/hour for rehearsals and a flat performance run of $500.
Questions about Erased Steps? Please contact Mathew at arenadances@gmail.com.
Questions about “Merge” project? Please cc Mathew at arenadances@gmail.com and/or Taja at tajawill@gmail.com.