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The SOTA Movement

The SOTA Movement is a three-day festival dedicated to connections, dance, and culture. Featuring the award-winning ROOTED: Hip Hop Choreographers’ Evening; dance workshops with some of the most talented choreographers from Minnesota and across the country; and the highly anticipated Krump battle, Uprizing; The SOTA Movement is an all-ages event you won’t want to miss.

Join us June 11-13, 2021, as supporters, artists, and creators from Minnesota for this one-of-a-kind event.

Brought to you by Maia Maiden Productions & Uprizing creators Herb “FairWarning” Johnson III & Ololade “O” Gbadamosi-Alashe.

For more information, go to www.thesotamovement.com

Nexus Grand Opening

Come celebrate the Grand Opening of the Threads Dance Nexus as we officially open our doors to the community!

Thanks to your support, we are in our new home in the Focus Arts Building and cannot wait to thank each of you for helping us make this dream possible.

We will be offering staggered tours of the space, sample dance classes, and a chance to view our custom glass Donor Wall, where capital campaign contributors can find their name.

We invite everyone who supports the work we do to come celebrate with us!

Alternative Motion Project Presents On the Verge with Special Guest Dameun Strange

Join Alternative Motion Project for a delicious beverage as we return to live performance with the premiere of On The Verge. A cast of 9 movers enter a turbulent world to experience the multiverse of limits, possibilities, and connections of the body, space, and identity. Choreographed by Kristin Howe and Joanna Lees with original composition and performance by award-winning Sound Artist, Dameun Strange.

Safety precautions for COVID-19 will be observed.
To follow local guidelines and ordinances, mask wearing will be mandatory.

June 19: 3:00pm and 7:00pm
June 20: 3:00pm and 7:00pm

On The Verge
Live outdoor performances at The Shed

Tickets on sale soon: $17-$20*
Seating is limited. Reservations strongly encouraged.
*No one turned away for lack of funds. Email AMP for any financial requests or general questions.

https://www.alternativemotionproject.org/619–620—on-the-verge-outdoor-performance.html

Twin Cities Ballet Open Company Positions

Twin Cities Ballet has an open position for a male company dancer, Soloist and Principal level. Competitive salaried position, 34-week season. Strong classical ballet and contemporary technique required. 

Submit the following audition materials by email:

  1. Your resumé.
  2. Two photos: first arabesque; and a headshot showing at least 3/4 face. Either attach small format photos or provide a link.
  3. Video link showing classwork or performance clips, clearly demonstrating your classical ballet technique.
  4. State whether you are currently eligible to work in the United States.

Please send information to info@TwinCitiesBallet.org. We will contact you after we have reviewed your audition materials to set up an audition.

 

Darrius Strong Teaches Professional Classes with Moving Practice

Brown-bodied dancer leaning back with arms curved overhead

Moving Practice is a weekly class series for professional dancers. As a collective, we aim to offer classes that prioritize rigor, diversity of contemporary aesthetics, variety of class content, and commitment. Professional level dancers of all styles are welcome

Tuesdays, 9:30-11:30AM
at Saint Paul Ballet

Darrius Strong teaches in May

This movement practice will take form in a Modern dance class. Using elements of Alexander and Horton technique, Strong will be focusing on stretching and strengthening the body as well as focusing on releasing tension in the body as we move. Class will also be followed with phrase work/choreography as we explore avenues on how to best embody movement in the most authentic ways. Come learn some of the techniques Strong uses in order to find and discover his own voice through choreography!

Pre-registration required – https://www.arena-dances.org/class-payment/
Flexible pricing and free parking!

Mulier Dierum – Outdoor Live Performance at Caponi Art Park

Mulier Dierum (Chronicles of Woman) is an epic project that mirrors the strength of cumulative generations of women. Mulier Dierum faces our fears and fulfills desires with ferocity and vulnerability, sharing generational wisdom and wildness of women and femme power. The voices of forty choral singers and the bodies of eight dancers affirm together: Women build, honor, persevere, and flourish.

Directed and choreographed by Off-Leash Area Co-Artistic Director Jennifer Ilse, Mulier Dierum is being created in collaboration with See Change Treble Choir under the direction of Allyss Haecker, singing an original score by Linda Kachelmeier, with performances by dancers Gemma Isaacson, Christine McGinnis, Parisha Rajbhandari, Julie Warder, Heather Klopchin, Rachel Lieberman, Jennifer Mack, Esther Ouray, and Jennifer Ilse; with Off-Leash Area Co-Artistic Director Paul Herwig‘s immersive live animation projection design and sound design, edited and mixed by Reid Kruger.

Mark your calendars!

The final production of Mulier Dierum will be presented live under the stars at the center of a beautiful oak grove woodland on the gorgeous outdoor stage at Caponi Art Park in Eagan, MN on June 25 and 26 at 9:00pm.

The final production will feature the voices of all 40 members of See Change Treble Choir mixed into a gorgeous sound score, a small live vocal ensemble, and eight dancers, all bathed in multi-layered projected imagery and staged on a multi-platform set emphasizing a safe and physical distanced audience. You won’t want to miss it!

Tickets available soon!

MAJOR MAITENANCE

MAJOR MAINTENANCE is an opportunity for 6 self-defined, LGBTQIA+ and/or BIPOC, Minnesota-based, dance makers to have access to 200 hours of generative incubation space, for one year (up to two years).

What is our relationship to newness? As a society, we participate in a manufactured, late-capitalist and technology driven (innovate-no-matter-what) culture that prioritizes innovation and the new. As a dance field, what is the cost on our bodies? We are already implicated in multiple systems that consistently guide us to invest most of our energies and resources into the next new thing or work. Is there a way to make all aspects of dance-making supportable and wholesome to ourselves and cultivate a balance? MAJOR MAINTENANCE is the invitation. It is time and space to build up resources, methods and practices that can live in relationship with the existing paradigms of innovation or newness.

This invitation is open to dance makers who are not new to their craft.

How to apply: Artists who are interested will sign up for one 15-minute Zoom meeting with Valerie and Morgan. This will be followed by one 30-minute meeting at MOVO SPACE, for those shortlisted. There is no written application, though shortlisted artists may be asked to prepare or send previously created work samples, resumes or other writing. To indicate your interest and schedule a meeting, please email: movospace@gmail.com by June 1. Please include MAJOR MAINTENANCE in the subject line.

 

Call for Proposals for Off Leash Area’s Off-Kilter Cabaret

Image of a set with police tape crisscrossing the set

Off-Leash Area’s new community program, Off-Kilter Cabaret, is designed to highlight and support artists with disabilities. Seven artists will be selected by a panel of leaders in the disability community to perform their works in the inaugural Off-Kilter Cabaret. The theme of this year’s Cabaret is “Organ Recital,” which we hope will provoke artists to propose risky, unapologetic, and entertaining performances using their body organs and systems as inspiration.

The Off-Kilter Advisory Group and Selection Panel are: writer and storyteller Amy Salloway, former VSA Executive Director Jon Skaalen, dance artist Mike Cohn, host of the Disability and Progress program on KFAI Sam Jasmine, and Off-Leash Area co-artistic directors Paul Herwig and Jennifer Ilse.

The Off-Kilter Cabaret will be presented in the outdoor rail court at the Mill City Museum on August 19, 20, and 22. Locally known as the site of the Mill City Farmers’ Market, Off-Leash Area will construct an accessible elevated stage with full lighting, sound, and projection capability, and retain the steampunk vibe of the reclaimed industrial site. We will require physically distanced seating, masks, and other protocols using CDC and state COVID guidelines at the time of the performances as the minimum baseline for requirements.

Artist Proposals: We are looking for live performances, 5-10 minutes in length, original and unique, challenging and provoking.

The Call for Proposal Form will be publicly available on the Off-Leash Area website on May 20. 

Applications due by June 14.

Questions can be sent to Paul Herwig at offleash@offleasharea.org.

EURYDICE: In-Person Outdoor Production Forged in Music, Dance, Film, and Fire

What, or who would you sacrifice to achieve eternal greatness? Critically acclaimed Vox Medusa with Infiammati FireCircus breathes new life into this time honored dilemma with EURYDICE – a reimagining of the Orpheus myth from his mysterious wife’s viewpoint of her harrowing journey. Follow Eurydice’s epic odyssey over land and sea, through true love, death and a fiery underworld in order to discover herself not just as a muse of Orpheus, but as her own inspiration for rebirth.

EURYDICE is a collaborative creation born of provocative contemporary dance by Vox Medusa, powerful original electronic music by Jeremy Christensen and moving vocal score by Emily Colay, potent spoken word by Desdamona Ross, breathtaking fire performance by Infiammati FireCircus, stunning video environments and dynamic light design by Tony Biele, and cinematic film debut by Jeremy Christensen and Vox Medusa.

Experience live performance once again! EURYDICE is created by a cast of 20 performers led by Grace Fredell (Eurydice), Leviticus Martin (Orpheus), Rah Diavola (Hades), Emily Colay (Persephone), and Desdamona Ross (Oracle), as they take you on an ethereal and visually stunning journey guided by muses, goddesses and creatures of the Underworld.

Social Distanced Outdoor Seating: Ample audience area for socially distanced seating is available on both flat ground for chairs and raked hillside for blanket seating. 

Please Note: All audiences should bring their own blankets or camp chairs for personal seating.

Deborah Jinza Thayer as Special Guest on Studio Stories this Week

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 Deborah Jinza Thayer to learn about her journey.

Jinza Thayer received her BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from George Mason University. Recognitions include being a two-time semi-finalist for France’s Rencontres (Bagnolet); a 2010 SAGE Award; and support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, American Composers Forum, Jerome Foundation, and McKnight Artist Fellowship. She has created over 60 original works and presents her work as Movement Architecture – a blend of dance and theater in structured environments. Jinza is a registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Movement Educator (ISMETA) and has taught somatic movement re-patterning and modern dance training for the past 20 years.

Studio Stories will air each Thursday at noon with new guests joining the host to reminisce and share their memories and history with our dance scene.

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

http://www.arena-dances.org/studio-stories-reminiscing-on-twin-cites-dance-history/