ENCORE: The Joffrey Ballet Cast Party

Tickets: $55 (A $20 donation is included in your ticket price.)
January 20 at 9:30pm

Celebrate with the dancers of Joffrey Ballet after their performance! Join us for the ENCORE: Joffrey Ballet Cast Party, an insider event including drinks, live music, and delicious bites while meeting the dancers—plus remarks from The Joffrey Ballet’s MBE Artistic Director, Ashley Wheater.

These celebratory fundraising events support Northrop Centennial Commissions to create new dance works, elevate artists, and bring extraordinary presentations to our stage. You can be part of ensuring that artists’ creative works will be seen by audiences and youth in our community for years to come.

In this decade, leading up to Northrop’s 100-year anniversary in 2029, the Northrop Centennial Commissions project helps create new dance works to ensure that there will be amazing performances far into the future.

With your support, Northrop’s Centennial Commissions program provides:

  • The creation and presentation of exquisite new works
  • Opportunities for students, youth, and communities to experience transformative arts
  • Connections through art that will be shared for generations
  • Arts programming for youth arts and education programs
  • A deeper understanding and insight into art, self-expression, and communication through discussions with artists, inspiring the community and young people

Critical Conversations Series – Art of Business: The World of Grants

Grants are a substantial part of maintaining one’s self as an art business, that is unique to Minnesota. With that process arises a lot of questions: How do you fit yourself into the application process? How do you make sure you are reading the requirements right? How do you put together work samples, what different types of work samples? What makes a strong resume? How do you articulate yourself as a person, artist, and your vision in a digestible way? What grants are you eligible for and how can you understand if you are not?

Join us in conversation as we gather to unpack the world of grant writing. This discussion will be open to all. Come to share your thoughts or just listen.

Art of Business: The World of Grants
January 22, 2023
2:00-3:30pm
The Cowles Center, Tek Box, Second Floor
Free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.

Moderators
Jessi Fett, The Cowles Center Director of Programming and Education
Colin Edwards, Programs Coordinator and McKnight Artist Fellowship Programs Assistant for Dance and for Choreographers

Participants will include:
Dana KasselMcKnight Artist Fellowship Programs Director for Dance and for Choreographers 
Mirella EspinoMetropolitan Regional Arts Council

Au, The Film

Please join Hatch Dance and HoneyWorks on January 22 for the showing of Au, The Film. Directed by Berit Ahlgren (HoneyWorks) and Helen Hatch (Hatch Dance), this live performance was captured and edited by Arlo Myren (Endless Page Productions) at its August 2022 premiere in St. Paul. Refreshments will be available for donation. Please arrive early for socializing. The film will start at 5:30pm and runs just over an hour. A discussion with the ensemble will follow the screening. Tickets: $10-15.

Sunday, January 22
5:00pm

Au, a dance in two acts, brings 26 dancers together for a highly physical contemplation of learned and innate coping mechanisms. Through vulnerable acknowledgment of how each artist manages life in the face of adversity, Ahlgren, Hatch, and the ensemble look at how these behaviors transform and reform, shaping who we are, and how we show up for ourselves and others. Set to a collection of various and recognizable tunes, a multi-talented and multi-generational cast bring their energies and experiences together in this timely work.

Can’t make it in person? AuThe Film is available on demand starting on January 23, 2023. Select an on-demand ticket to see the film on your own device!

Ashwini Ramaswamy and Kevork Mourad: Invisible Cities

Bharatanatyam choreographer and dancer Ashwini Ramaswamy (Ragamala Dance Company) deepens a choreographic methodology she began in 2019 with Let the Crows Come—named a “Best of the Year” in The Washington Post and a critic’s pick in The New York Times. This collaborative reimagining of Italo Calvino’s metaphysical novel interweaves cultural perspectives with a dynamic group of dance artists—Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy (Bharatanatyam), Berit Ahlgren (Gaga), Alanna Morris (Modern), Joseph Tran (Breaking)—and visual artist, Kevork Mourad, who creates Invisible Cities’ interactive, immersive projections in real time.

Ashwini Ramaswamy and Kevork MouradInvisible Cities is a Northrop Centennial Commission.

January 27 at 7:30pm
January 28 at 7:30pm

Ben Frost: Cold Air Rises

World premiere of the first section of the forthcoming opera, commissioned by The Great Northern
Performed by MPLS (imPulse)
With dancer Amanda Sachs
Libretto by Robert MacFarlane
In partnership with Minnesota Opera’s Luminary Arts Center and American Composers Forum

Saturday, February 4
2:00pm and 4:00pm
Luminary Arts Center

Drawing upon J.A. Baker’s prophetic 1967 book The Peregrine, Australia-born/Iceland-based artist Ben Frost presents a new choral performance and installation Cold Air Rises. This new work in development is a collaboration with acclaimed British nature writer Robert MacFarlane. Local ensemble MPLS (imPulse) and dancer Amanda Sachs will perform this first movement of what will eventually form Frost’s next opera, commissioned by The Great Northern at Minnesota Opera’s newly renovated Luminary Arts Center. Join us for a sound experience like none other, a beautiful story of obsession and transformation.

James Sewell Ballet and Ahn Trio – EMBRACE

EMBRACE with the Ahn Trio

James Sewell Ballet reunites with the extraordinary Ahn Trio in a program featuring a reimagining of 2018’s Connections. Like the best embrace, there’s known comfort and new spark combined. The three sisters of the Ahn Trio – Lucia on piano, Angella on violin, and Maria on cello – were born in Seoul, Korea, and educated at the Juilliard School in New York City. These growing-up experiences in two cultures, along with their extensive international touring, infuse their celebration of 21st-century classical music with a particular flare and style.

Friday, March 17 at 7:30pm
Saturday, March 18 at 2:00pm

This performance runs approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with one intermission.

Collide Theatrical Presents SKOL!

Collide Theatrical Dance Company presents its first dance musical with an original score:
SKOL! plays at the Southern Theater March 23–April 9, 2023.

When a mysterious illness befalls a Viking clan, a young woman is called to fulfill her destiny as a great warrior leader in a battle for the cure with the Christian army. Inspired by the Norse gods, her journey tests the boundaries of her faith, shakes the ground of the relationships with the men dearest in her life, and causes her to question the definition of female strength.

Inspired by recent evidence of the grave of a female Viking holding the accoutrements and injury marks of a prestigious warrior, a discovery that cast a new light on gender roles in Scandinavian history. Collide explores this fascinating story with an original pop rock/rap score composed by Twin Cities musician Mike Michel (Bill Mike Band), with lyrics by vocalists Rush Benson (Ordway) and Katie Gearty (Dakota Jazz Club).

Created by Collide Artistic Director, Regina Peluso, the production stars Renee Guittar and Jarod Boltjes. For tickets visit www.collidetheatrical.org/skol or call 651-395-7903.

TU Dance Center: Dancing Together Workshop

This eight-week workshop is designed for children ages 2-4 and their parent/caregiver who is interested in a shared movement experience that engages the senses of curiosity and play.

Both child and caregiver will participate in developmentally appropriate movement exercises that incorporate elements such as effort, shape, and tempo. Music will play an essential role in the class as students will be asked to respond to sounds as well as make sounds themselves. Participants will be encouraged to join at their own comfort level with the understanding that observation is often the best form of learning with younger children. This class will give children and caregivers the opportunity to learn more about themselves and one another through the art form of dance.

January 14-March 4
Saturdays, 9:00-9:45am

To register, please complete the four-step registration process:

1. Please find the online pre-registration below under the specific level you are interested in and select a payment option
2. Make a tuition payment (in full or by selecting a payment plan)
3. If requesting a payment plan, please submit the 2022-2023 Payment Plan form
4. Click here to submit the 2022-2023 Children and Teen Program Online Registration form

The Arena – Drop-in Moving Practice with Benny Olk

Moving Practice is a weekly class series for professional dancers. Classes prioritize rigor, diversity of contemporary aesthetics, variety of class content, and commitment.

Benny Olk teaches Moving Practice in January:
Tuesdays, 10:00-11:30am

Professional-level dancers of all styles are welcome.
Pre-register here.

Suggested $17 per class; however, there is a pay-as-able option on all classes – we would rather you join us than not be able to attend due to financial limitations.

Class description: This class will offer an introduction to Cunningham technique, emphasizing rhythmic, directional, and physical clarity in order to organize movements with efficiency and at the same time making room for discovery. The class begins with exercises for the torso, then moves to legwork, then across the floor, and finally into jumping. Each class will contain something everyone can do and something no one can do. “The only way to do it is to do it,” as Cunningham himself said.

Benny Olk (he/him) is a performing artist and teacher based in Minneapolis with an interest in contemporizing and contextualizing American modern and post-modern dance. As a member of Lucinda Childs Dance Company, he performed reconstructions of pieces such as Dance and Available Light. He performed in reconstructions of Crises and Suite for Five among others by Merce Cunningham, and has premiered works by Moriah Evans and Anthea Hamilton. Benny holds a BFA in Dance from NYU and an MA in New Performative Practices from Stockholm University of the Arts.

Zenon Dance School – Youth Jazz Workshop with Hannah Pierce

Hannah Pierce offers a great 4-week workshop series for new and continuing jazz dancers who love to move! Students will learn fundamental techniques and choreography while expanding their knowledge of rhythm and movement.

This class is a great foundation for any young dancer ages 7-10 years. All levels of experience are welcome!

Youth Jazz Workshop – Sundays, 12:00-12:45pm
January 22
January 29
February 5
February 12

Full enrollment: $55
Single class drop-in: $15
In-person only; limited space available. Drop-ins welcome.

Register today!