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After a two-year interruption, the Ray Terrill Dance Group presents the 20th annual Dances at the Lake Festival—two FREE concerts at the Rose Garden at Lake Harriet, open to the public.

Friday and Saturday, July 15 and 16
7:00pm

The festival features a variety of dance forms performed by both professional adult and youth companies. The “stage” for the shows is the large grassy area between the two fountains near the Rose Garden at Lyndale Park Garden. Audience members are invited to bring a lawn chair or blanket and some snacks, drinks or a picnic to enjoy the unique opportunity of seeing dance performed at the Rose Garden.

This year’s festival showcases professional artists and youth dance groups originating from Minnesota:

• Anda Flamenco Company and School, Twin Cities, MN — Kristina de Sacramento, Artistic Director
• Ashley Ballet Arts Academy, Golden Valley, MN — Lisa Conway, Artistic Director
• Christopher Watson Dance Company, Minneapolis, MN – Christopher Watson, Artistic Director
• eMartin Dance — Erica Martin, Artistic Director
• Freshwater Dance Collective, Duluth, MN — Doris Ressl Acosta, Artistic Director
• Jawaahir Dance Company, Minneapolis, MN — Lauren Olson, Artistic Director
• One Dance Company, Saint Paul, MN — Clair Curren, Artistic Director
• Open Dance Project, Minneapolis, MN — Jennifer Mack, Artistic Director
• Kinetic Evolutions, Minneapolis, MN — Sarah LaRose-Holland, Artistic Director
• Plymouth Youth Dance Program, Plymouth, MN — McKayla Murphy, Artistic Director
• Ray Terrill Dance Group, Saint Paul, MN — Ray Terrill Artistic Director
• Sansai Yonsei Kai, Japanese Dance Company, Saint Paul MN — Linda Hashimoto, Artistic Director
• Youth Dance Ensemble, Burnsville, MN — Dixie Rairamo, Artistic Director

Off-Leash Area presents Minotaur, in which we behead the patriarchy and delve into the world of the violent and labyrinth-bound creature, half-bull half-man, with dance, mask performance, live music, and live animated projection.

With Minotaur, OLA Co-Artistic Director and Choreographer Jennifer Ilse leads a gender diverse, multi-generational, and fiery cast to take audiences on a thoroughly interdisciplinary and utterly imaginative journey exploring the possibilities laid bare by the metaphorical beheading of the patriarchy. With this production, the artists ask: Once the patriarchy is laid asunder, and after knowing nothing other than a labyrinthine system of oppression, how do we know when we are free of a hierarchical system’s seductive power?

Dancers Nieya Amezquita, Gabby Garcia, Jennifer Ilse, Jesse Schmitz-Boyd, and Joseph Wurm will perform Minotaur with contemporary dance and mask performance. Accompanying the performers and immersing the entire audience will be a live music and sound score by Dameun Strange, and a live animated projection design by OLA Co-Artistic Director Paul Herwig. All together, Off-Leash Area will take the audience to an otherworldly space where ancient myth, dreams of a future, and our urgent present collide.

Thursday-Sunday, July 14-17, 2022
All performances 7:30pm
Tickets: Admission is $10-30, sliding scale.

COVID-19 Precautions: Masks required; N95, KN95, or other high-filtration masks encouraged. Audience will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 72 hours at the door.

Acknowledgements: 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.

The Tango Society of Minnesota is a member-supported, non-profit social club organized in 1999 to foster the genesis of Argentine Tango in the Twin Cities. TSoM established a monthly milonga which it still hosts today. It also encourages the invitation of bona fide, tango-teaching talent from around the world.

It exists now as an umbrella organization committed to supporting the community of teachers, event promoters, DJs, and dancers, to grow a thriving tango dance scene. TSoM is the face of Argentine Tango for tango dancers visiting the Twin Cities and interested parties from the community at large.

Wednesday, July 20
12:00pm
Free

Back by popular demand, Live @ The Shed brings together 27 of the Twin Cities most vibrant dancers for an outdoor dance event featuring the world premiere of Au, choreographed by members of the cast along with artistic directors Berit Ahlgren (HoneyWorks) and Helen Hatch (Hatch Dance).

Through vulnerable acknowledgement of how each artist finds strength in the face of adversity – including the oft unspoken necessity to lean into both learned and innate coping mechanisms – Ahlgren, Hatch, and the ensemble contemplate how these behaviors shape who we are, and how we show up for ourselves and others in trying times. A multi-talented and multi-generational cast bring their energies and experiences together in the creation of this new and timely work.

The Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue (“Precious Mother Earth”) is a Kalpulli (“learning community”) of Indigenous people who perform traditional Aztec and Indigenous dances from Mexico. KetzalCoatlicue pursues this spiritual, mental, and physical vocation with music from the sacred drum, conch shells, seeds, and other instruments. KetzalCoatlicue’s cultural learning center is located in South Minneapolis.

The dancers are rooted in cultural understandings of the environment weaving together the Nahuatl cosmovision and creation stories of Mexican ancestors. These presentations by Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue provide a basic understanding of the Nahuatl/Aztec representations of life through dance.

Wednesday, September 7
12:00pm
Free