Archive

Join Threads Dance Project at the Alliance Française on June 10 at 6:00pm for a performance of “Objet de Desir Inaccessible”!

$15 Members, $20 non-members. Purchase at https://bit.ly/tdpaf06.

Originally choreographed in 2019 as a site-specific work at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) Objet de Désir Inaccessible (Unattainable Object of Desire) features Charles’ interpretation of the renowned painting Portrait of Madeleine (formerly known as Portrait of a Negress) and utilizes research about the artist (Marie-Guillemine Benoist), her subject, and their relationship to explore racism, feminism, identity and concepts of beauty.

This work transports us through time to juxtapose these ideas, both in the 1800’s when the painting was created and today. The audience follows the dancers from the classical portrait galleries through to contemporary art galleries. This intimate performance reveals the “in-between” – a place these women existed both then and now – seeking to find resolution on questions of identity and difference.

“I created this dance after seeing the Portrait of Madeleine in the Louvre. I was walking through the museum, and I kept seeing paintings of white male persons, and suddenly there was this portrait of a black woman. I felt proud to see this in the Louvre, and then I started becoming curious because of the way she is posed and the look on her face; it haunted me.” -Karen Charles

This trio explores the intersectionality of feminism and race via a depiction of Marie Benoist and her subject, Madeleine, in both the past and present. Did they have an intimate relationship? Did Madeleine resent posing for the portrait? What prompted Benoist to create a portrait of a Black woman at a time when this was not the norm? What would the relationship be like between these two women today? The dance takes the audience on a journey from the past to the present extrapolating ideas about race and sex through the lives of these two women.

Choreographer: Karen Charles
Dancers: Nieya Amezquita, Karen Christ Aalgaard, Sara Karimi

On Wednesday, June 15 at 7:00pm, textile artist and performer D. Allen will show “tap root tap,” a new solo work-in-progress from their ongoing project, NET/WORK.

June 15, 2022
7:00pm
Streaming open to the public!

From D.: “So many of us living with disability and chronic illness regularly get the message that we don’t belong among the living, so I’m going underground. But guess what? It’s cozy and full of life down here. I started this piece back in January with so much disabled rage, access anxiety, ableism fatigue (personal and collective), and when I first got in this big beautiful studio I just wanted to hide in a corner in the dark. Now, exploring subterranean realms feels expansive, energizing, freeing, supportive, and full of possibility. Movement happens differently under there. So does communication. And resistance. When I reemerge, I’m going to haunt the systems that want us dead, cornered, isolated, powerless. Join me in the dirt?”

Due to our previous venue’s inability to uphold our Covid standards, we have moved the performance to the Tek Box Theater at the Cowles Center, which has also necessitated new dates. Don’t miss this captivating exploration by 7 talented artists!

Seven artists share their captivating takes on the theme “Organ Recital” in the Off-Kilter Cabaret! Using dance, storytelling, theater, spoken word, puppetry, and performance, artists with disabilities explore the theme in wildly different ways, ranging from hilarious and thought-provoking to heart-breaking and profound.

Featuring the following artists:
Braille
Atlas O Phoenix
Daniel Reiva
Amy Salloway
Pat Samples
Scott Sorensen
Young Dance

Off-Kilter is Off-Leash Area’s new cabaret performance program designed to highlight and support artists with disabilities, which makes space for and gives voice to artists with disabilities in the design and leadership of the program. Curated by the Off-Kilter Leadership Group, the inaugural year is organized around the theme “Organ Recital.” Off-Leash Area is excited to partner with Young Dance this year, whose mission is transforming lives through movement.

June 16, 17, and 18 at 7:30pm
June 19 at 2:00pm

Friday, June 17 performance will be followed by a Q&A with the artists. Admission is $5-30 sliding scale, suggested donation.
Tickets available at https://off-kiltercabaret.eventbrite.com

Accessibility: All performances will have audio description available. Friday, June 17 and Sunday, June 19 will be ASL-interpreted. Saturday June 18 will have live captioning. Performances are held at the fully accessible Tek Box. If you require an accommodation not listed here, please reach out to Off-Leash Area at offleash@offleasharea.org at least two weeks in advance of the show.

COVID-19 Protocols: Audience will be required to show proof of vaccination or negative Covid test within 48 hours at the door. We will provide physically distanced seating and require participants to wear masks as they are able, and otherwise follow CDC and state guidelines at the time of the performances.

Acknowledgement: This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Young Dance’s All Abilities Dancing 2 is excited to be part of Off-Kilter Cabaret, where seven artists will share their captivating takes on the theme “Organ Recital”! Using dance, storytelling, theater, spoken word, puppetry, and performance, artists with disabilities explore the theme in wildly different ways, ranging from hilarious and thought-provoking to heart-breaking and profound.

Please join us June 16-19 at the fully accessible TEK BOX Theater in the Cowles Center.

Featuring Braille, Atlas O Phoenix, Daniel Reiva, Amy Salloway, Pat Samples, Scott Sorensen, and Young Dance.

Tickets are available now: https://off-kiltercabaret.eventbrite.com

Free event on the Northrop Plaza
Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm

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.

Continental Ballet Company is bringing ballet to the park on Tuesday, June 21 at 7:00pm.

We have combined our student recital with performances from our current company members in a program that will delight and entertain!

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.

Back for the third consecutive summer, Live @ The Shed, produced by Hatch Dance and HoneyWorks, returns to the Lab Taproom, July 30-31, 2022.

Twenty-seven of the Twin Cities most vibrant dancers come together for an outdoor dance event choreographed by members of the cast along with artistic directors Berit Ahlgren (HoneyWorks) and Helen Hatch (Hatch Dance). Through analyzing each artist’s means of finding strength in the face of adversity, and considering the necessity for all forms of 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 work. Program begins with works-in-progress presentations from members of the cast.

Featuring Berit Ahlgren, Helen Hatch, Hannah Benditt, Jeremy Bensussan, Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Nicole Brown, Morgan Cogley, Non Edwards, Elissa Fonseca, Kaitlyn Hawkins, Elena Hollenhorst, Alejandra Iannone, Gemma Isaacson, Juliana Johnson, Sarah Jordan, Kendall Kramer, Isaiah Langowski, Da’Rius Malone, Sarah McCullough, Kelli Miles, Jacob Nehrbass, Solana Temple Nelson, Sally Rousse, Tessa Russ, Hettie Stern, Darrius Strong, and Yuki Tokuda.

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.