Contempo Physical Dance is offering free advanced-level Brazilian contemporary dance classes for pre-professional and professional level dancers this summer. Taught by Marciano Silva dos Santos, the classes will feature live percussive music and be influenced by Marciano’s background in Afro-Brazilian and contemporary dance styles. Dancers can enjoy the entire series of classes or drop in for a single class. After the series of summer classes, an audition will be held for Contempo’s upcoming fall project and these classes are intended to prepare dancers’ physicality for the audition. However, all professional dancers are welcome regardless of their intention to audition.

Tuesdays and Thursdays – August 11, 16, 18, 23
9:30-11:00am

This activity is made possible by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Concerto Dance is hosting our second annual Summer Dance Intensive! Open to professional, pre-professional and advanced dancers ages 16 and up.

Monday-Thursday, August 15-18 from 1:30-4:00pm at Creo Arts and Dance Conservatory.

Technique classes each day alternating between Modern (Monday and Wednesday) and Jazz dance (Tuesday and Thursday) along with choreography and company reperory taught by Artistic Director Jolene Konkel.

Cost: $150 or $45/day if registering a la’ carte.

For registration and more info go to: www.concertodance.com/classes

Register by TODAY, August 10!
Join ARENA DANCES for one week of movement classes taught by guest artist Shane Larson, member of the renowned Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Participants will practice contemporary dance technique and learn a new original work as a part of this intensive. Targeted for the high-intermediate to advanced level dancer.

August 15-20, 2022
Monday–Saturday, 10:00am-3:00pm
Class: 10:00-11:30am
Rehearsal of new work: 12:00-3:00pm

Culminating in an informal showing of the work on Saturday, August 20, with the possibility of a performance showing aligned with the Happy Hour Artists in the seventh annual CANDY BOX Dance Festival in April 2023 at The Southern Theater!

ARENA DANCES’ Artistic Director, Mathew Janczewski will be present for pre-professional dancers to have career chats and be considered for ARENA apprenticeships during the creation of a new work by ARENA, Erased Steps, rehearsing March 2023-August with performances at Union Depot and Rochester Civic Center in August 2023.

Tuition: $550. Payment installment options available.
Registration must be completed TODAY – August 10.

Ages 16+.
Intensive capped at 15 participants.

Learn more about Shane.

Been curious about what classes are like at the Threads Dance Nexus? Come join us this summer for our Summer Sampler Series! The summer sampler will offer participants a chance to try out fall classes before registration begins in September.

Building on the success of our first Summer Sampler, we’d like to invite you to join us for a taste of Beginning/Intermediate Adult Ballet. The class will be an hour long, taught by Threads Artistic/Executive Director, Karen L. Charles.

Wednesday, August 17
6:30-7:30pm
Ages 18+
Pay what you can, $10.00-$40.00
Click here to register.

A dedicated performer, teacher and creator, Karen Long Charles received a BFA Ballet/BS Computer Science from Texas Christian University and M.Ed. in Administration from Georgia State University.  Charles has performed with numerous dance companies including Room to Move Dance Company (Atlanta, GA), Susan Warden Dance Company (Kansas City, MO) and was awarded a fellowship to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Charles served as Director at Perpich Arts High School and was the founding Principal/Executive Director at Main Street School of Performing Arts. Charles has created/presented works for James Sewell Ballet, Carleton College, Macalester College, University of Georgia, University of Iowa, Main Street School of Performing Arts and Perpich Arts High School. Charles founded Threads Dance Project (Threads) in 2011 where she is presently Artistic/Executive Director. Threads has been nominated for a MN SAGE Dance Award (2015), co-hosted McKnight International Choreographic Fellow Salia Sanou (2017), and toured nationally to Atlanta and Philadelphia. Threads now teaches and works in their new Minneapolis home – Threads Dance Nexus – to further expand their mission to examine, expose and celebrate the Threads that connect us through dance.

Visit www.threadsdance.org for additional information about Karen Charles and Threads Dance Project.

Concerto Dance is excited to welcome long-time Minnesota teaching artist and choreographer Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner back to the Twin Cities! Join us for an open jazz dance master class at the Cowles Center.

Sunday, August 28 from 12:00-1:30pm
Cost: $20

Class is open to professional, pre-professional/college students, and advanced dancers ages 16 and up.
Space is limited. Please pre-register by visiting www.concertodance.com/classes.

Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner is a choreographer and dance educator committed to inclusion, representation, and social consciousness in both pedagogy and creative practice. She received her B.F.A. at the University of Minnesota, and her M.F.A. as an Advanced Opportunity Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. She has served as the Choreographer in Residence for the Minnesota Dance Theater and is a four-time winner of the Arizona Choreography Competition’s Professional Division. Original works by Gutierrez-Garner have been commissioned by numerous colleges and universities across the United States. Additionally, she has enjoyed commissions by professional companies including the Minnesota Dance Theater, Dulce Dance Company, Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Zenon Dance Company, and Los Angeles-based Jazz Antiqua. Gutierrez-Garner’s work has seen support from organizations such as the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Walker Art Center, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and Lane Arts Council. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Western Oregon University and is the Artistic Director of Company Movimiento, based in Eugene, OR. Cynthia will be creating a new jazz premiere for Concerto Dance this upcoming season.

The doors to The Cowles Center are wide open and waiting for all dancers, choreographers, and movement artists to join the Programs and Advisory Committee and staff for a morning of connection. This is an opportunity to get to know the building, the people within it, and the programs you might be interested in. A $5 parking/transportation subsidy will be available for attendees.

We’ll have a light breakfast, get to know the ways you can be engaged with The Cowles, hear from some artists, as well as demystify grant writing, intellectual property, and unions.

Oh! And we’ll have photographer Canaan Mattson joining us to take professional headshots for the first 20 artists who sign up.

Whether you’ve been dancing on stages for years or just learned to point your toes, we’re excited to meet you!

Saturday, September 10
9:00am-12:00pm
Free!