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Twin Cities Tap Festival Showcase and Concerts

The seventh annual  Twin Cities Tap Festival (TCTF) celebrates the incredible breadth, depth, and artistry of the ever-evolving American art of tap dance. This year’s concert features live music accompanying the best in local and national tap artists, including Jumaane Taylor and Max Pollak!

Celebrating John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme with live jazz and tap dance, Jumaane Taylor’s Supreme Love displays the spiritual, artistic and historical values that infuse human life, using a symbol of nature to transcend hope.

Max Pollak will perform All in One, an unaccompanied solo performance of uniquely arranged drum rhythms, songs, dances and stories that outline Pollak’s artistic evolution. All music is created live by Pollak, only using his body.

On Thursday, the first night of the Twin Cities Tap Festival kicks off with the annual Showcase, featuring phenomenal local and emerging tap artists and ensembles including this year’s Elite Tap Feet – some of the best teen tap dancers in Minnesota!

Thursday, October 21 – Showcase Performance
Friday and Saturday, October 22-23 – Concert Performances

Paula Mann/Time Track Productions Creative Process Workshop – October 23 and November 20

Paula Mann and the company members of Time Track Productions invite you to attend two new workshops this fall!

Develop your unique creative process in this upcoming workshop with choreographer Paula Mann and the company members of Time Track Productions! Open to all levels of creators.

Saturday, October 23, 2:00-5:00pm
and
Saturday, November 20, 2:00-5:00pm

Workshops are free of charge, and space is limited. Please wear clothes to move in and bring a notebook/journal.

Please register today by emailing pmann102@gmail.com.

This year, choreographer, dancer, and teacher Paula Mann marks her 40th year of movement making. Her newest work, Toward Utopia, is currently in development and will be her 60th work to date. Mann has taught Improvisation and Composition for movement since 1993.

Twin Cities Ballet Presents World Premiere of Dracula

Celebrate Halloween with Twin Cities Ballet!

TCB will present the world premiere of Dracula at Ames Center on October 27 and 28.

This new ballet features an original story adaptation by TCB Artistic Director Denise Vogt based on the classic novel, and an original musical score written for this production by Minnesota composer Simon Sperl. Also featured in the evening are RED, a ballet inspired by The Handmaid’s Tale, and the premiere of a new Halloween-themed work choreographed by TCB company dancer Micah Chermak.

October 27 and 28 at 7:30pm

Ames Center in Burnsville

Tickets can be purchased in person at the Ames Center box office, or via Ticketmaster.com.

Starting Next Week: AMP Offers Weekly Contemporary Movement Practice

Move BIG, sweat, and play in an energizing atmosphere each week! Movers will build awareness and explore expansive possibilities within their own individuality and identities. Through improvised and structured movement vocabulary, participants will be encouraged to research freedom, 3-D expansion, mobility, rigor, presence, agency in choice-making, and empowerment within each individual’s own unique body.

Led by AMP Co-Director, Joanna Lees. Knee pads recommended. Suitable for advanced/professional movers.

Curiosity, Connection, Community, Choice

Wednesdays, 10:00-11:30am
October 13–December 15

In-person and synchronous Zoom/virtual options.
In the newly renovated Center for Performing Arts.
Masks required unless otherwise specified.
Registration strongly encouraged for in person, but not required.
Registration is required for Zoom Option.
To receive the Zoom link via email, you must register no later than 30 minutes prior to class time.

Rates
Single Practice: $15
5 Practices: $70
10 Practices: $130
No one will be turned away due to lack of funds. Please email alternativemotionproject@gmail.com for low/no cost options.

To register or learn more: alternativemotionproject.org/1013—1215-wednesday-weekly-movement-practice.html

New Studio Stories Episode with Joanie Smith

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories Podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, we sat down with Joanie Smith to learn about her journey.

Founder and Choreographer of Shapiro & Smith Dance, Joanie Smith has been commissioned by companies as diverse as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Phoenix Dance Company of Leeds, UK; and the PACT Dance Company of Pretoria, South Africa.

Smith was recognized as an “Artist Of The Year” in 2011 by City Pages (Minneapolis), and was named a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Dance to Helsinki, Finland. Smith holds the Barbara Barker Endowed Chair in Dance at the University of Minnesota, an MA in Dance from UCLA, and toured the world in the companies of Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais before founding Shapiro & Smith Dance.

Visit http://www.arena-dances.org to listen, or check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

Florence Cobb Celebration at MSU Mankato: Photos, Videos and Stories Needed

Florence was a passionate, caring, and beloved dance educator at Minnesota State University, Mankato for 22 years, from 1968 (then called Mankato State College) to 1990, and passed in 2016 at the age of 95.

She established the Dance Education Minor in 1976, which has since grown into a program with multiple Dance Major tracks and a Dance MFA within the Department of Theatre and Dance. We are beginning to make plans to celebrate her amazing life on our campus in the spring (details coming soon) and hope all those whose life was touched by this amazing woman will be able to join us.

We would love to include your connection to Florence: we are searching for photos of Florence, videos of her teaching or choreography, and stories about Florence that we can include as part of the celebration. If you can share any of these, please contact Daniel Stark at daniel.stark@mnsu.edu.

We will share the details of the event soon so you can make plans to attend.

Thank you!

Space at The Arena

Need a space to create?

Located in the heart of the LynLake neighborhood, The Arena is available to rent for your rehearsal, class, and event needs!

Our space offers 1,305 square feet, 30’×40′ of sprung floor, Marley dance flooring, wall-length mirrors (with curtains to cover if preferred), free wifi, and a changing room.

We are situated on multiple bus lines, including the 21, 4, 23, 612, and 18; with plenty of free street parking around the building.

To request space, please email arenadances@gmail.com

TU Dance Center: Renting TU Dance Center

TU Dance Center is available for rental when not in use by the school.

TU Dance Center features:

Reception area and front desk for check-in or event use; access to adjacent dressing room and green room with kitchenette are available upon request.

Both studios: sprung dance floor with Marley-type surface by Harlequin, wall of mirrors, portable ballet barre units 10′ in length, room-level sound system with CD and mini-jack inputs, 50′ LCD TV cart for presentation and videoconferencing. Large windows providing ample natural light.

Studio 1 only: a curtain that can be drawn on entire mirror, wall-mounted ballet barres of 27′ and 33′.

Studio 1: 60′x34′
Studio 2: 46’x21′

TU Dance Center: Adult Beginning Ballet with Tina Anderson Wallum

Provided by Tina Anderson Wallum, the class work is based on the principles of classical ballet technique, including turnout, distribution of weight, counter pull, plumb line, balance, squareness, alignment and stance, transfer of weight, lift, and counter balance. Also it is based on centering, core strength, flexor tone, extensor tone, muscle currenting, cogwheeling, coordination, and musicality. By the end of the workshop students should understand a basic level of vocabulary and be able to execute it with ease and confidence. Students are intellectually, emotionally and physically supported with validation, engagement, and a sense of belonging.

Session Two: October 26–December 7
Six weeks. No classes November 22-27.
Tuesdays, 10:00-11:30am
Cost: $85/workshop per session

For more information and to register please visit: https://www.tudance.org/fall-2021-adult-beginning-workshops/

Run With Me: Moving Us Through the Connective Power of Dance

ARENA DANCES kicks off its 26th season of favorites with LIVE dance at The Southern Theater!

Mathew Janczewski brings his subtle, rich and viscerally honest choreographic voice to the historic Southern Theater stage for performances by ARENA DANCES. Noted for their unique physicality and humanistic performances, this bill of favorites is a complimentary array of ARENA’s diverse talents. As the company gears up for a fall of touring, be a part of this celebratory home kickoff with five moving dances.

Run With Me
The show’s title work is a popular work from the past—revitalized for today. Opening the show, this lush, sinuous men’s quartet is a display of immense endurance, inspired by the writings of David Wojnarowicz. Lightsey Darst for MN Artists called it a “…vivid whirl, densely layered and evocative…with moments of crystalline clarity. Melancholic, romantic, dramatic and lovely.”

One Room
One Room is an all female sextet that surges with the central theme that personal viewpoints shared among collective power will prevail. As the dancers negotiate the space around them, and each other, the movement builds layer by layer, working toward a powerful resolution. The movement is a meditation on the need to join together in one room, coming to the table to face conflict, negotiation, compromise, and strength as one voice.

hold my hand
hold my hand is built on the score “Requiem” by Minnesota composer and 2018 McKnight Fellowship recipient, Joshua Clausen. The score and work is inspired by Sophie Chou’s sonification of gun violence statistics.

Open Eyes
A symbiotic relationship of two movers melting and embracing into one another with technical prowess and risk that only can be obtained with pure trust in each other. This duet was originally choreographed with long-time ARENA dancer and muse Amy Behm Thomson with artistic director, Mathew Janczewski.

Quartet
An angularly stark, white-hot cool quartet driven by the music of Four Tet. The full body movement of each dancer must fit within the group pushing, pulling and fitting together. Quartet was honored to be selected for performance through the American College Dance Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

Performance Details 
Thursday, October 28 and Friday, October 29 at 7:00 p.m. Two nights only!

Tickets are general admission.
$20 in advance, if purchased by October 24.
$24 week of show and at the door.
Available for purchase at: https://www.showtix4u.com/events/runwithme2021