STUDIO STORIES: REMINISCING ON TWIN CITIES DANCE HISTORY: Recent Episodes
ARENA DANCES
Stories are among our most potent tools. We need to unearth old stories that live in a place and begin to create new ones. We are story makers, not just storytellers. All stories are connected, new ones woven from threads of the old. (Paraphrased- Robin Wall Kimmerer) Join ARENA DANCES every Thursday at noon for Studio Stories, a podcast reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance history. Hosted by Mathew Janczewski, each week will feature a new renowned dance artist who has made an impact on the dance landscape in this big dance town. Know of someone whose connections should be shared? Let us know! Email us at arenadances@gmail.com
Marciano Silva dos Santos is a Brazilian native recognized by the American Folkloric Society as a folk artist of unique and exceptional ability. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Contempo Physical Dance, where his extensive research has culminated in a dynamic fusion of Afro-Brazilian and contemporary dance. His professional dancing and choreography have earned widespread acclaim; he was named “Best Dancer” by City Pages, hailed as “one of the most graceful movers on any Twin Cities stage” by the Star Tribune, and called “one of the hottest choreographers in town” by Minnesota Monthly Magazine. He is also 2020 McKnight Fellowship for Dancers. He has served as a panelist for the Minnesota Sage Awards for Dance, USArtists International, NEA-National Endowment for the Arts and the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Growing up, Rachel trained, performed, and taught primarily with Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. She moved to the Twin Cities to attend Macalester College, graduating in 2018 with a BA in Geography, and has since performed in works by Contempo Physical, Melissa Clark, Leila Awadallah, Off-Leash Area, A Cripple’s Dance, Mathew Janczewski, Javan Mngrezzo, Annika Johansson, Analog Dance Works, Zoë Koenig, Xina, Judith H Shuǐ Xiān, and Black Label Movement.
Rachel’s choreography engages themes of home/place/violence/time/throughline from queer, jewish, diasporist, and surrealist perspectives. Her work has been presented by Alternative Motion Project, Franconia Sculpture Garden, Black Label Movement, Walker Art Center, Threads Dance Project, and Red Eye Theater. Primarily a movement artist, she also enjoys playing with sound, set, and costume design, and in textile and textual arts.
Off-stage, Rachel works as a Program Director at Cow Tipping Press: teaching and publishing creative writing by adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities.
Dance Rec Pickup League is a group of friends who recreate together. Leslie O’Neill, Sarah Baumert, Erika Hansen, Gabriel Anderson, Jamie Ryan-Karels and Eva Mohn design proposals, scores, games and questions as a way to make dances.
A native of the North Chicago suburbs, Ronna Rochell started dancing at age 5. At that young age, she started with creative movement classes, and by the time she was in junior high, she had evolved into a serious modern dance student. She was fortunate to have a fabulous teacher from junior high and high school who taught her the technique of Martha Graham and Alwin Nikolai. Her dance teacher’s name was Carol Walker, who later went on to serve as Dean of the Department of Dance at SUNY Purchase. At age 16, after studying dance for a summer at the American Dance Festival at Duke University, Ronna auditioned and made it into one of the premiere modern dance companies in Chicago, the Joseph Holmes Dance Theatre. She was an apprentice with the company and performed with them as well. After dancing in college at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she went on to pursue her MFA in dance at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, earning her degree in 1989. Right before graduation, she auditioned and was accepted into the New Dance Ensemble apprentice program. So after graduation, in 1989, she moved to Minneapolis and apprenticed with the dance company for one year. Next, inspired by the Nancy Hauser Dance Company, she was invited to join the company in 1991. Ronna was a member of the Nancy Hauser Dance company for two years. She finished her modern dance career dancing in a Walker Art Center sponsored event in Gerry Girouard’s choreography on the beach of Cedar Lake in 1993! Since then she has gone back to her teaching roots and started her own business, BodyWisdom, teaching yoga, Pilates and fitness classes, as well as bringing chair yoga into senior living communities. More recently, she rebooted her dance career by going into musical theatre as she performed with Theatre 55 and had a fabulous time dancing in the productions of Pippin (2019) and A Chorus Line (2023). Now Ronna focuses on continuing teaching yoga and fitness classes, spending time with her three adult sons, tandem biking with her husband Steve, and enjoying cross-country skiing, even racing at the American Birkebeiner. She is proud to say that she skied the Kortelopet at this event- 29 kilometers- and she just received her 10 year plaque for the Kortelopet - quite an achievement for her!
Kaitlyn trained with Loyce and Lise Houlton at Minnesota Dance Theatre and at the School of American Ballet (SAB) in New York City, where she earned the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 2004. She danced with the New York City Ballet (NYCB) from 2006 to 2011 and was named the company’s 2010 Janice Levin Dancer. After leaving NYCB, Kaitlyn became a sought-after freelance artist and began working with Twyla Tharp in 2014. She has since created and performed leading roles in numerous Tharp works, appearing most recently in the 2022 Bessie Award-winning revival of In The Upper Room at New York City Center. After returning to Minneapolis, Kaitlyn founded A Dancer’s Place Productions in 2024 to create meaningful performing opportunities for local dancers. She also continues to stage Tharp repertory around the world and leads the ballet programming at Summit Dance Shoppe in Plymouth, MN. Kaitlyn has previously served on the faculty of the School of American Ballet and as New York City Ballet’s Assistant Children’s Rehearsal Director. She holds a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
A multifaceted dance artist and a practitioner of experiential mechanics, Joe Tennis is an improviser and moment maker based in New York City. Engined by discovery and play, he is viscerally drawn to movement through experiencing it. He is in perpetual research of improvisation in service to attunement, the mechanics of intuition through floorwork and the prolonged effects of subtle integration. Tennis dances to find, and to show.
Betsy Schaefer Roob was born and raised in Elm Grove, WI. Now based in Minneapolis for over fifteen years, she has worked with Rhythmically Speaking, ARENA DANCES, Threads Dance Project, 43X94 Movement Research, Dance & Other Behaviors, faux pas, as well as nationally and internationally based choreographers Sasha Kleinplatz, Salia Sanou, and Pat Taylor among others. Her own choreography for Rhythmically Speaking premiered at the Ordway Concert Hall in February 2026. Prior to landing in Minnesota, Betsy lived and studied in Michigan, Oregon, and El Salvador. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a self-designed Bachelor of Individualized Studies in English, Dance, and Sustainability Studies. Her career path has encompassed the arts, education, and healthcare, and she is mama to one.
Susan Chilcote-Wade Originally from Michigan, I received a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theater and Dance. In 1982 fresh from college, I was one of 7 original members of the New Dance Ensemble, a post-modern repertory dance company in Minneapolis, and in ’89 joined the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco. Those were amazing formative years and deep in my matrix.
Dovetailing dancing was my bodywork practice including Therapeutic and Deep Tissue Massage, Trager, Feldenkrais and Pilates. I loved these beautiful careers and feel they inform me to this day. Family life, with its magical worlds and learning adventures was packing creative energy for all of us. Over the course of our kids lives, I volunteered in the schools, doing arts and crafts and running events with other dedicated parents.
During that time I joined the team of amazing artisans at the Renaissance Institute, which runs the booth called Past Times Garden within the Northern California Renaissance Faire. It was there I created the Venetian Mask Painting Workshop, which became a popular activity during faire. I have always been interested in paper Mache, creating objects and creatures, so working faire wasa perfect blend of teaching and creating.
A decade ago, through local workshops and online learning, I discovered a fresh love for painting with Beeswax! That was a life changer! Seeking a way to blend my new found visual art with my movement and bodywork background, meant a steep learning curve into visual art. While the language of art and performing arts is similar, they are very different and skills don’t exactly translate, so I steep myself in continual learning everyday.
I love working with Encaustic wax, the aroma alone is amazing. Using heat guns, irons and torches to move and fuse the layers, is part of the fun and interesting challenges that working with molten wax offers. It can take many different forms, layers, textures and luminocity. I’m able to integrate the life drawing I love, collage, photography, and the world of botanical arts of cyanotype and eco printing. It all works together so well and keeps me pushing forward.
Thank you for your interest, I’m so happy to share my artwork with you. I’m on Instagram: @susanchilcotwade. Feel free to contact me here for purchases, questions, and comments. susan@susanchilcote-wade.com; and you’ve found me on the web at www.susanchilcote-wade.com
Madeline’s life pursuit is the discovery of how the human body moves. Over 30 years in the field of movement, her curiosity explored all aspects of movement in dance, Pilates, yoga, Gyrotonic®, fitness training and from studies of human biomechanics, human cadaver dissection labs, osteopathic and manual therapies. Madeline is the author of “Centered: Organizing the body through movement theory, kinesiology and Pilates techniques” published by Handspring Publishing. Madeline developed the Madeline Black Method™, a method teaching movement teachers to use assessment skills, movement sequences and manual techniques to help people achieve their fullest movement potential. Her extensive study and widely respected accomplishments in the field of movement and fitness have fueled her rise as an international leader in movement and exercise education. What sets Madeline apart is her intuitive integrity, articulate awareness of the physical body and decades of expertise.
Madeline has filmed many workshops and movement classes for Pilates Anytime and Fusion Pilates EDU Online. She has a private practice in Sonoma, CA USA.
Catherine Jhung is a dancer, actor, teacher and school administrator. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and Denver, CO., she graduated with a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and holds a Master’s degree in early childhood education from Brooklyn College.
Catherine appeared as a featured dancer and royal wife in The King and I on the First National Tour of the Tony Award-winning 1997 Broadway revival. Modern dance credits include Bill Young and Dancers (New York City), Silesian Dance Theatre (Bitom, Poland) and the New Dance Ensemble (Minneapolis, MN), where she performed in the works of many notable choreographers, including Bill T. Jones, Douglas Dunn, Bebe Miller, Doug Elkins and Ralph Lemon. In Minneapolis, Catherine also performed at the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre Company and Theatre Mu (Mu Productions).
As an actor, Catherine appeared on television in ABC’s One Life To Live and All My Children. She was a member of the award-winning Rising Circle Theater Collective, originating roles in the plays Pulling the Lever and American Family Project.
Catherine taught arts-in-education workshops in dance and drama to students of all ages in the New York City area for over ten years for American Ballet Theatre, Queens Theatre in the Park and New York City Center. She served as a Montessori preschool administrator for five years. And most recently taught at the Park Slope Schoolhouse and in NYC Dept of Ed PreK early learning centers.
Catherine enjoys spending time with her family and in nature, swimming, cycling around her neighborhood, cooking and singing. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her musical husband and daughter and the family’s two beloved cats, Fripp and Eno.
Ololade Gbadamosi, also known as O, is a Twin Cities native who is a dancing artist, an educator and administrator. Ololade specializes in the dance styles Krump, Hip Hop and Afro Social dances.
Krump is a street dance that stands for Kingdom Radically Uplifting Mighty Praise. Ololade is mostly self taught in this style and has traveled outside of Minnesota to participate in battles and also take classes from other proven krumpers including the creators of the dance style Chez "Tight Eyez" Willis and Jo'Artis "Mijo" Ratti.
Ololade has been a big supporter in the MN Krump & dance community by teaching krump, hosting events such as The Uprizing and being involved in hip hop based performances such as I'm From Vol. 1; The Mixtape series at the Cowles Center; and Rooted Hip Hop Choreographers' Evening.
He has also performed internationally in Montréal, Canada (Gutta Zone Krump event), Johannesburg, South Africa (One Kasi Arts Summit) and Dusseldorf, Germany (European Buck Session Krump event).
Vanessa Voskuil is a choreographer, director, performer, writer, designer, and teaching artist. Ranging from large community-inclusive performance works to ensemble and solo works for site-specific locations and theater settings, her work has been described as “visually arresting,” “boldly and uncompromisingly moving within its own time and its own logic,” and “interlaced with surrealist sensibility and bracing intelligence.”
Voskuil has received two Minnesota Sage Dance Awards for Outstanding Design and nominated twice for Outstanding Performance. She has been honored twice with a McKnight Fellowship for Choreography (2009, 2015) and awarded “Best Dancer 2015” by City Pages in addition to her cast for “en masse” in 2009. She has been honored by Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine as "Best of the Year 2015." Voskuil has been named one of the “7 Artists to Watch” by Minnesota Monthly Magazine and recognized by the Star Tribune as one of “9 Minnesota Artists to Expect Great Things.”
Her work has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival (NC), Walker Art Center, The Southern Theater, Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, Minnesota Visible Fringe, Red Eye Theater, Off-Leash Area, and Flaneur Productions, and supported by the Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Sewell Family Foundation, American Composers Forum, Moore Family Fund for the Arts of the Minneapolis Foundation, Forecast Public Art, Northern Lights.mn, and Dakota West Arts Council. In 2017, she was awarded a 3-month artist residency and travel fellowship to Japan provided through the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.
From 2003-09, Voskuil served as co-founding, artistic director of award-winning, ensemble-based performance company, Live Action Set. In 2010, Voskuil co-founded the Minnesota Dance Film Festival and served as the festival director until 2013.
As a teaching artist, Voskuil has taught through Zenon Dance school, University of MInnesota, and Live Action Set. She has held choreographic residencies at the American Dance Festival (NC), Carleton College, Macalester College, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Zenon Dance School, International Music Camp, and Guild Incorporated.
As a performer, Voskuil has performed with Emily Johnson’s Catalyst Dances (1998-2005), Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater (2001-2009), Skewed Visions, Theatre Novi Most, and Off-Leash Area.
Voskuil holds a BFA in Dance and a BA in Theater from the University of Minnesota.
Cecil Neal, also known as Virgo and The Final Warning, is an artist born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and based in Minneapolis. His training began in his high school dance program and at SPCPA (St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists), and was refined under the mentorship of Herb Johnson from the age of 16.
Cecil’s artistry has carried him to stages such as the Ordway, the Super Bowl, Walker Art Center, and Orchestra Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra ensemble. Internationally, he has represented with companies like BRKFST and FWKD in Vancouver and Montreal—bringing the spirit of Krump to audiences across borders.
In 2025, Cecil was awarded the McKnight Fellowship for Dancers, marking a milestone in his pursuit of growth and artistic freedom. That same spirit of trust and expression pushed him to victory at the 10-Year Anniversary of House of Dance Twin Cities (All Styles Battle) and continues to guide his leadership as he prepares to judge the 11-Year Anniversary this year. His teaching has also expanded beyond Minnesota, impacting communities in San Diego and Oceanside through classes with Culture Shock San Diego—reaching new levels of connection and inspiring dancers to find their own voice.
At home, Cecil is building new programming for both youth and adults, while continuing to share his artistry at Hot House Studios, Young Dance, and through the YMCA Beacons Program.
At the heart of Cecil’s work is a belief in consistency, hard work, and giving back. Through every performance, battle, and classroom, he strives to create moments of trust, freedom, and transformation for himself and the communities he serves.
Kayla Schiltgen is an interdisciplinary artist based in rural Two Harbors, Minnesota, blending dance and film to cope with and communicate her existence. Guided by her belief that subjectivity and vulnerability serve as an echo palette for others, Kayla creates screen dance, installation, and performance to facilitate exchange that affirms, affects, and inspires both artist and audience. She takes a multidimensional approach rooted in the Rural—working as choreographer/editor, dancer, cinematographer, and sound designer, with place as her collaborator.
Kayla is a 2025 McKnight Choreographer Fellow, 2022 Upstream Artist Fellow, the recipient of multiple Minnesota State Arts Board and Arrowhead Regional Arts Council awards, and recognized as a creative rural leader in the Upper Midwest by Springboard for the Arts.
Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the International Meeting on Video-Dance and Video-Performance (Spain & France), North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival, InShadow Screendance Festival (Portugal), Duluth Superior Film Festival, DanceBARN Screendance Festival, Wolf Tree Film Festival (MI), Arena Dance’s CandyBox Festival, RAD Fest, The Lab at NorShor Theatre, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival, among others.
Kayla’s practice centers the Rural as a site of resilience and creativity. She is currently touring rural Minnesota with performances, workshops, and artist chats of her evening-length work is this magic?. She holds a B.A. in Dance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and continues her studies with screendance artist Katrina McPherson, and courses in filmmaking and improvisational movement.
Learn more about Kayla’s work @kaylaschiltgen or at kaylaschiltgen.com.
Emily Michaels King is a performing artist based in St. Paul, Minnesota exploring authentic expression and human depth through movement, multimedia, and visual compositions for the stage.
Emily is known for her fearless personal work, provocative compositions, and collaged evening-length solo performances, including: her award winning show MAGIC GIRL; multimedia online work DIGITAL; IN PERSON, a companion to DIGITAL; the raucous CHICKEN WING; and the harrowing STAR KEEPER. An in-progress version of her solo, ELECTRIC, was performed at Arena Dance’s 2022 CandyBox Festival. Additionally, her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the Guthrie Theater, and Movement Research, among others. Emily is also a 2025 McKnight Choreography Fellow.
Pairing minimalism and subtlety with cacophony and bared irreverence, Emily’s works employ the lush landscape of the inner world and the power of unapologetic vulnerability. They combine movement with text, graphics, sound, and technology to focus on themes of self discovery and reclamation, womanhood, and bold expressions of personal truth.
Malia Craft is from Hartwell, Georgia and began her training at Hot Shots Dance Company, where she trained in ballet, modern, contemporary, hip hop, and jazz and found her love for performing, as well as teaching. Malia attended the University of Georgia, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance, with a minor in exercise and sports science, and a certificate in K-12 dance education. Malia was also a part of the Georgette’s Dance Team for three years. She is currently an artist with Threads Dance Project, Concerto Dance and Rhythmically Speaking Dance. In addition to training and performing, Malia is passionate about working with young artists. She has choreographed musicals and dance team routines, and has taught at numerous studios throughout Georgia and Minnesota.
Twin Cities–based dancer and choreographer Dominick Burkhardt discovered his passion for the arts early in life, growing up in his mother’s dance studio. Immersed in a creative environment from a young age, he trained extensively in all styles of dance—including ballet, jazz, hip hop, tap, contemporary, modern, and acro—building a versatile and dynamic foundation. He honed his technical and performance skills at both Larkin Dance Studio and the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, graduating in 2018 with a strong focus on both commercial and concert dance. During his time at SPCPA, he also received training in musical theater, further enriching his performance range while maintaining a strong dance core. His diverse training has allowed him to move seamlessly across genres, whether on stage, on screen, or in the studio. Dominick has worked with top artists and global brands, performing and modeling for the NFL and several Fortune 500 companies in a range of commercial campaigns. He is a current company member with Black Label Movement, where he performed at the 2024 American Dance Festival, and has worked with companies and artists including Rachel Lieberman in the Red Eye's NW4W Festival, Cheng Xiong in the Candy Box Dance Festival presented by ARENA DANCES, and Eduardo Navarro in Cloud Museum, performed at the Walker Art Center. In 2025, he was selected as a choreographer for Black Label Movement’s Movers Make 2.0, a platform supporting emerging choreographic voices. In addition to performing and choreographing, Dominick is a dedicated educator who currently teaches all styles of dance at various Twin Cities dance schools. With a deep appreciation for both technique and artistry, he’s passionate about helping dancers of all levels grow in confidence, versatility, and discipline. Outside of the dance world, Dominick holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Upper Iowa University and works as a system administrator in Minneapolis. He also serves as a Staff Sergeant in the Iowa Air National Guard. Whether on stage, in the studio, or in uniform, Dominick is committed to excellence, mentorship, and empowering others through discipline, creativity, and purpose in every area of life.
Growing up, Rachel trained, performed, and taught primarily with Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. She moved to the Twin Cities to attend Macalester College, graduating in 2018 with a BA in Geography. She has since performed in works by Contempo Physical, Leila Awadallah, Off-Leash Area, A Cripple’s Dance, Mathew Janczewski, Javan Mngrezzo, Annika Johansson, Analog Dance Works, Zoë Koenig, Xina, Black Label Movement, and Judith H Shuǐ Xiān.
Rachel's choreography engages themes of home/place/violence/throughline from a queer, american, jewish, diasporist, and surrealist perspective. Her work has been presented by Alternative Motion Project, Franconia Sculpture Garden, Candy Box Dance Festival, Black Label Movement, Walker Art Center, Threads Dance Project, and Red Eye Theater. Primarily a movement artist, she also enjoys playing with sound, set, and costume design, and in textile and textual arts.
For Rachel, dance is a practice of home-making and care-taking. Off-stage, she works as a Program Director at Cow Tipping Press: teaching and publishing creative writing by adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities.
Alex Arce is an Ecuadorian American artist born and raised in Minnesota has been dancing since the age of 5 culturally and socially as well as technically. He focuses his practice within hip hop and Latin diasporic dance forms as well as contemporary/Modern Dance. He is a graduate of Larkin Dance Studio and Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. Upon his high school training he has also been a part of a pre professional dance program known as the Cli Conservatory in Massachusetts where he got to learn from different choreographers all around the states and further pursue his career as a movement artist, choreographer, and educator. After graduating from this program, Alex was accepted as a member of the Cli Company, working as both a choreographer and instructor with Cli Studios. Most recently he has focused his career in collaboration with other companies such as Meridians movement company and Black Label Movement and now as a Company Member with ARENA DANCES Rep Co where he has been able to have the opportunity to further develop his training and dedication to the craft while pursuing his love for creation and performance art.
Doug Hooker graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Dance. He has had a variety of professional performing opportunities, including with the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps, the Broadway show Blast! and the Dancing People Company, and locally with ARENA DANCES, Collide Theatrical Dance Company, Concerto Dance, José A. Louis, Paula Mann, Shapiro & Smith Dance, Rhythmically Speaking Dance, and Threads Dance Project.
Frances Machala Cerro Grew up in Cumberland, Wisconsin, graduated from St. Catherine’s College in 1965. She met Loyce Houlton there in 1963 when Mrs.
Houlton began teaching at St. Catherine’s.
Loyce Houton had started the Contemporary Dance Playhouse in
Dinkytown by the U of M campus. It was an old Masonic Temple above
a Cleaners that later burnt down. Mrs. Houlton took Frances under her
wing and studied, taught and performed with the Contemporary Dance
Playhouse, later the Minnesota Dance Theater until 1972. Some of the
choreographies she was principal dancer in were: Chronicles, Audition,
Bone Lonely, and Troth. She was in the 1 st Nutcracker Fantasy done at
the Moppet Theater and later at Northrup auditorium in many roles.
Mrs. Houlton brought in many teachers at that time, she took classes
from Graham teachers, Francois Martinet and Madame
Pereyaslavec.She performed twice at Jacob’s Pillow and in Spoleto, Italy
where the company went to learn Glenn Tetley’s “Mythical Hunters”.
In 1972 She married Ramon Cerro and lived in Santa Fe, Argentina for
14 years. There she started a school and company called” La Escuela de
Danza Contemporanea”. They performed in Santa Fe, Argentina and in
many small towns in the area. She had the privilege of working with the
“Orquesta de Provincia de Santa Fe” many times, including
choreographing “Peter and The Wolf” and Vivaldi’s “Gloria” with 3
choirs.
The family returned to the United State in 1986 and moved to Tulsa
Oklahoma. There, with other dancers started the Local Motion Foundation to bring in Modern Teachers and choreographers. She worked in the Lincoln Center Institute program for Art in to the Schools.
Kaleena Miller makes sound-focused dance and installation work, rooted in tap dance technique and deep listening modalities. Named one of DANCE Magazine’s 25 to Watch, she has received a McKnight Fellowship for Dance and a Sage People’s Choice Award, and has presented work at the Walker Art Center, Icehouse, First Avenue, Jazz Central and the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, as well as at Arts on Site, Center for Performance Research and Symphony Space in New York. Previously, she co-founded and co-directed Twin Cities Tap with Brenna Brelie, which produced the acclaimed Twin Cities Tap Festival from 2015-2021, and an additional project in partnership with the McKnight International Choreographer Fellowship in 2023. She also directed KMD2, a making-driven pre-professional ensemble for high school and college-aged dancers, from 2018-2023. Kaleena has a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, a Deep Listening certification from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and will graduate this summer with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Dancer and Choreographer Aneka McMullen is an independent performing and teaching artist who lives to dance through life, inspire & connect with all people through her passion for movement of all types. She hails from Minneapolis and holds a BFA in dance from The Ohio State University. Her extensive dance experience spans more than two decades and includes dynamic skills in performance and instruction in the genres of West African, Afro Modern, Modern, Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Lyrical & Liturgical.
Aneka is a co- founder and artistic director of Epitome-No Question, an open Old Skool Hip Hop dance ensemble dedicated to celebrating the community conscious roots of Hip Hop culture through dance theater.
Jennifer Hart - Hailed as a choreographer “with an imagination so exuberant that one could not be sure how one movement led to the next” and “not only inventive but heart-rending,” Jennifer Hart has been commissioned by Ballet Austin, Ballet Austin ll, Ballet Nouveau Colorado (now Wonderbound), James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theater, The Walker Art Center’s Momentum Series, The McKnight Fellowship for Dancers, Metropolitan Ballet Project, University of Kansas, University of Massachusetts, Lawrence Ballet Theatre, Halcyon Dance Project in San Francisco, and Merick Strategies for its production of Leonard Bernstein's “Mass” and “Icons of Broadway Holiday Spectacular.” In July, 2022, Hart was one of four choreographers selected for National Choreographers Initiative.
In 2011, Hart was awarded a New York City Ballet Fellowship and won third place at the Saint-Sauveur International Choreography Competition. She received second place at Ballet Nouveau Colorado’s choreography competition, and was one of three winners of the University of Kansas’ competitive choreography competition. She was chosen three times to present work at Ballet Builders, New Choreographer’s on Point in NYC. She was commissioned by University of Massachusetts in the fall of 2013; the work was chosen for the National College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center, June 2014. In 2024, she was a finalist in the Palm Desert Choreography Festival.
In 2014, she formed Performa/Dance with Ballet Austin dancer Edward Carr. Performa/Dance launched its inaugural show. Ignite: Three Works, in June, 2014. Her work for Performa/Dance was awarded four Austin Critic’s Table awards for Best Short Work (“On Truth and Love”and "Camille: A Story of Art and Love"), Best Choreographer ("Fellow Travelers" and “Murmuration"), and Best Dance Concert (Ignite: Three Works). Along with her work in concert dance, she has choreographed and performed cabaret shorts for nightclubs and television, and has begun working in video. She recently choreographed and co-directed the epic Bernstein's Mass, a work involving 300 performers.
She trained at Minnesota Dance Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. Her performing career includes Minnesota Dance Theater, Ballet of the Dolls, and L.A Chamber Ballet, as well as independent choreographers. She choreographs for Ballet Austin’s apprentices and Fellowship recipients, teaches full-time in the academy and apprentice program, and serves as Curriculum Supervisor of the school where she sets syllabus and leads training for academy teachers.
Sam Aros-Mitchell (he/him) is an enrolled member of the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians and an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and educator. His work spans performance, sound, light and scenic design, choreography, and embodied writing. Rooted in Indigenous cosmologies, his practice activates performance spaces as sacred sites of transformation, remembrance, and futurity. Through embodied scholarship, he interrogates colonial histories, uplifts BIPOC artistic excellence, and envisions just futures. Aros-Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Drama and Theatre from the joint doctoral program at UC San Diego/UC Irvine, an MFA in Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, and a BFA from UC Santa Barbara. He is a 2025 Jerome Fellow and a 2023 McKnight Dance Fellow. Recently, he produced the inaugural Macalester Native Play Festival and will produce a week-long Indigenous arts festival in Mni Sota Makoce in November 2025, supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board. As a choreographer, his works include Ania Bwia Bwia Toochia , performed at Red Eye’s Works in Progress (May 2023), and Finding Sentience , performed by Semaphore Dance Repertory (November 2023). Since 2017, Aros-Mitchell has collaborated with Rosy Simas Danse as a performer, teacher, and community engagement organizer, appearing in Skins (2018), Weave (2019), Simas’ short film yödoishëndahgwa’geh (2021), and she lives on the road to war (2022–2024). He has also performed in Prairie/Concrete with Aniccha Arts (2023), Inner Blades of Grass (Soft), Inner Blades of Grass (Cured), Inner Blades of Grass (Bruised by the Weather) by Alutiiq/Sugpiaq multidisciplinary artist Tanya Lukin Linklater (2024), and Morgan Thorson’s Untitled Night (2024).
For more information, visit www.samarosmitchell.com
Mathew Janczewski’s inquisitive, immersive and heartfelt approach to contemporary dance reaches beyond the surface and holds the viewer in its embrace. With over 40 works in his repertoire and more than two decades of experience as a choreographer, Mathew has cultivated a highly diverse and personalized style of movement. Increasingly, his performances explore pressing social issues, providing a platform for dialogue and action.
Mathew’s work has garnered praise in the Twin Cities and beyond. He has created commissioned works for companies such as Minnesota Dance Theater, Cleveland Repertory Co., aTrek Dance and Zenon Dance Company. He was the Bates Festival choreographer (2001), received the Sage Award for Outstanding Performance (2005) and won the McKnight Choreographers Fellowship (2005). In 2008, Dance Magazine named him as one of their “25 to Watch.”
Shortly after receiving his degree in dance at the University of Minnesota, Mathew founded his own non-profit dance company, ARENA DANCES, in 1995. ARENA serves as the vehicle for his body of work and provides young, aging and underserved segments of the Twin Cities community with opportunities to experience the transformative power of dance.
More about only the perverse fantasy can still save us here:
https://walkerart.org/calendar/2025/mathew-janczewski-arena-dance-only-the-perverse-fantasy-can-still-save-us
and an article in the Walker Reader here: https://walkerart.org/summer-reader/
Cheng Xiong is a local artist, teacher, and community leader. Xiong grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and received his Bachelors of Art in Dance at the University of Minnesota. Though he began his journey as a street dancer, through his studies, he was able to broaden to different styles and professional skills. Xiong is also a Hmong dance artist/researcher who is among the first in Minnesota to fuse forms of Breaking, Contemporary, and acrobatic dance styles. He is currently a company member of Black Label Movement and have recently worked with local professional companies such as STRONGmovement, BRKFST Dance, and Minnesota Timberwolves’s First Avenue Breakers.
As a dancer, choreographer, and a 2022 McKnight Dancer Fellow, Xiong has presented many new works throughout his career; Saint Paul Conservatory Performing Arts’s J-Term Projet: Dance Repertory Concert, Arena Dances presents CANDY BOX as a Happy Hour artists, Mixtape 6: Cypher Space, Minneosta Orchestra’s annual Young People’s Concert: “Sounds of the Harvest,” and Black Label Movement’s Inaugural Mover’s Make.
Alongside his repertoire of performances, Xiong is also a Breakdance instructor and educator. Xiong is currently teaching at the University of Minnesota Theater and Dance Program and Macalester College.
Description of the work:
“Off the beaten path… a solitary act”
explores the emotional landscape of solitude and the courage needed to choose the road less traveled. It may be a lonely road, but it is where you will find your truest self—away from the noise of the world—peace carved to reflect, redefine, and grow. You must embrace a journey that diverges from conventional routes, requiring a willingness to step into the unknown. It is about seeking unique experiences, following intuition, and finding new perspectives undefined by societal expectations. Completing this journey equates to discovering personal truths, challenging comfort zones, and forging a distinctive path that reflects one’s true self.
Joe Chvala (Artistic Director/Flying Foot Forum) is the founder and artistic director of the highly-acclaimed percussive dance company, the Flying Foot Forum. In addition to the Flying Foot Forum, Chvala has directed, choreographed, and been commissioned to create new works for a variety of theater and dance companies including the Guthrie Theater, the Walker Art Center, the Ordway Music Theater, the Minnesota Opera, Chicago Shakespeare, Children's Theater Company, Arkansas Repertory, Theater Mu, Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, the History Theater, The Alpine Theater Project, Park Square Theatre, and The Boston Conservatory. He has been the recipient of both Ivey and Sage awards for theater and dance as well as numerous “Best of the Year” honors from various US newspapers and periodicals and numerous choreographic and interdisciplinary awards, fellowships, and grants from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the McKnight Foundation. His recent film work as a director/writer has been featured in a number of European and American film festivals.
Description of Work
Footfall—Choreographed by Joe Chvala, “Footfall” features a mixture of Flying Foot Forum’s signature hybrid percussive dances with traditional clogging, folk music and dance to celebrate the passing of time, the ephemeral quality of life and the joys, struggles, strengths, longings, passions, and melancholy that are a part of it all. This piece will appear in its entirety in our upcoming concert May 8-18 at Park Square Theater. NOTE: The a cappella clogging duet “One Hundred Dead Dollars” was choreographed by founding company member, Clayton Schanilec.
Under the direction of Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Doma Dance Theater creates dance works for the stage and screen that explore the body as a tangible site of culture.
Doma, the Carpatho-Rusyn word for “at home,” cultivates a sense of belonging, curiosity, and exuberant self-expression for its performers and audiences. Doma’s cross-cultural approach creates powerful contemporary dance works that examine shared experiences of diaspora and displacement.
Informed by Bodnarchuk’s pan-Slavic cultural upbringing in Pittsburgh, PA, Doma’s work incorporates cultural influences, circular spatial patterning, and intimate partnering. As the first Carpatho-Rusyn American choreographer to make contemporary work with a folk lens, Doma’s works blaze a trail for Slavic representation in contemporary dance, demonstrating the enduring necessity of unearthing the cultural legacies each of us carry.
Founded in 2024, Doma represents an evolution of Alexandra Bodnarchuk Dance Projects (ABDP), founded in 2017. Building upon Bodnarchuk’s past focus on body identity and societal expectations of womanhood, Doma continues to unfold the embodied experience in an ongoing search for the elusive feeling of home.
Doma’a inaugural season includes performances at Candy Box Dance Festival, and Thistle & Rose at Celtic Junction. For more information visit domadancetheater.org or follow them on Instagram @domadancetheater.
Doma Dance Theater’s new work for the 2025 Candy Box Dance Festival is set against an aural backdrop of Carpatho-Rusyn folk songs from the Šambron and Poloniny regions of Eastern Slovakia. Featuring dancers Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Non Edwards, Odessa Rain, and Yukina Sato accompanied by Mila Vocal Ensemble, the women weave in and around each other in syncopated harmony.
NERVOUS THEATRE is a nomadic theatrical collective creating ensemble-driven productions. Their work celebrates and exploits the ‘liveness’ of theatre for all its physical and communal possibilities. Founded by artistic director Connor Berkompas, NERVOUS THEATRE has been hailed as "Ambitious and Fabulous" by The San Diego Reader and recognized as "an electrifying company to keep a close eye on" by The Arts Business. Their eclectic body of work has been presented by arts organizations across the nation including Tinworks Art, Gloucester Stage Company, The Boston Conservatory, Westside Theater and Surel’s Place.
NERVOUS THEATRE will make their Minneapolis debut with the full-length work DANCING ANIMALS at The Southern Theater as part of their Performance Partnership Program in June of 2025.
HH showing Friday, 4/24/25 5:30pm
dance with me, baby is a celebration of communal movement and its transformative power. On this night, with this audience, what is the conversation that only we can have? In rediscovering each other, can we envision new ways of being together?
There are four of us… and many more of you.
Why are we all speaking at the same time?
When did we start dancing?
Where do we go from here?
Nervous Theatre presents a work-in-process ahead of their evening-length premiere at The Southern Theater in June of 2025. dance with me, baby is created by artistic director Connor Berkompas in collaboration with Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Marcela Michelle, and Yukina Sato.
Dive into a world devoid of time that witnesses two people attempt to navigate their relationship while questioning their boundaries, perceptions of reality, and conflict resolution skills within the confined space of a growing cardboard set.
Nieya Amezquita is a Minnesota-based artist currently working with Threads Dance Project, Rhythmically Speaking, Elayna Waxse Movement Projects and eMartin Dance while collaborating with independent artists like Kaitlyn Hawkins. She has also performed works with Concerto Dance, Yuki Tokuda, Off-Leash Area and Alexandra Bodnarchuk Dance Projects. Nieya earned a BFA in Dance from the University of Georgia. There she had the opportunity to perform nationally and internationally with founding company CADE:NCE before studying in Portugal with the Addo Platform. Most recently, Nieya has been a featured artist in the Blackness Is Arts festival produced by the Guthrie Theater, choreographed for Threads Dance Project and Alternative Motion Project, and launched her own dance company in 2023, Amez Dance.
KAITLYN HAWKINS (she/her) is a freelance dance artist and choreographer based in NYC who likes to research an endless list of questions with movement and conversation. She has performed with TU Dance, Shapiro & Smith, Honeyworks, Hatch Dance, Contempo Physical, Doma Dance, and Black Label Movement. She has self-presented work in Minneapolis, MN and Brooklyn, NY, and participated as a choreographer in the Movers Makeshowcase and the Candybox Dance Festival in Minnesota.
Yukina Sato is a Japanese dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker whose work explores the dynamic interplay of movement, identity, and culture. Her artistic practice delves into the liminal space of hybridity, capturing the unique experiences of living between two countries and navigating overlapping cultural landscapes. Yukina has collaborated with acclaimed performing artists and companies, including Abby Zbikowski, Crystal Perkins, Bebe Miller, and Diavolo – Architecture in Motion – among many others. As the co-founder of YY Dance+Media, she is passionate about creating innovative multimedia performances that merge dance, technology, and storytelling. Her recent work, Motion of Seeing, premiered at the Detroit Dance City Festival and earned the National Exchange Award in 2023, leading to performances at the RAD Festival in 2024. Yukina holds an MFA in Dance from The Ohio State University and a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Central Oklahoma. Currently, she serves as an Assistant Professor of Dance at Minnesota State University Mankato. In this role, she shares her passion for movement, creativity, and choreography with students.
Marge Maddux was born on December 28, 1944 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
She graduated from Oak Hills High School in 1962 following a successful
stint as a baton twirler and majorette.
She graduated from Denison University in Granville Ohio in 1966 with a
Bachelor of Arts degree.
She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1968 with a Master of
Arts degree, following her studies under Bessie Schoenberg.
She taught dance at Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota from
1969 until 1972.
Marge was a founding member of The Ethnic Dance Theatre in 1974,
and remained with the company for 30 years as a performer, while also
assisting in the production of performances and in running company
rehearsals.
In 1972 she opened The Yarnery, a retail yarn store in St. Paul selling
supplies for knitting and weaving.
In 1973 Nadine Jette Sween hired Marge to teach folk dance at the University
of Minnesota.
Marge was the director of the dance program from 1998 until 2004
She taught her last class in the Fall of 2007, before retiring as an
associate professor.
Marge worked with architect Joan Soranno on the design and
construction of a new building to house the dance program. The
Barbara Barker Center For Dance opened in 1999.
She worked to have the dance program receive its initial accreditation
with the National Association of Schools of Dance in 1991.
After retiring Marge moved to Ashland, Oregon with her family.
Jennifer Glaws is an artist who makes body-based work, who believes in elevating a deep-rooted felt experience for the audience, performer, and participant with the presentation of her work. She probes the physical psychology of SPACE and EFFORT, scrutinizing these elemental contemporary dance themes to recognize human and humane connection, time, push the proscenium, and inspire inquiry. Jennifer works as a choreographer, contemporary performance artist, educator, producer, and curator, serving as Artistic/Executive Director for Jagged Moves, Curator for RADFest Kalamazoo, MI, and Assistant Professor of Dance at Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction. She specializes in the creation of multi-disciplinary danceworks and cross-disciplinary collaboration, and has been recognized nationally with commissions, residencies, and invitations for her work by Red Eye Theater (MN), Southern Theater (MN), Gustavus Adolphus College (MN), Hamline University (MN), DanceBARN (MN), Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, Peck School of the Arts - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association, Sans Limites Dance (NY), RADfest (MI), Cohesion Dance Project (MT), The Generating Room: Cowles Center (MN).
Nancy J. Duncan has had an eclectic career spanning over 50 years of experience in the performing arts as a dancer, educator, producing director, manager, and arts management consultant.
Nancy’s dance training started under Nevorah Adams in South Dakota and it was through Nevorah’s hosting of a summer dance residency taught by Loyce Houlton and two of her dancers, Frances Machala and David Voss, that her passion for dancing fully ignited. Under the tutelage of Houlton and her beautiful, diversely
skilled dancers and many guest artists at the Contemporary Dance Playhouse in Minneapolis, later renamed Minnesota Dance Theater, Nancy developed her skills as a dance teacher and performer.
Upon moving to New York City in 1981, Nancy began forming her own artistic vision and mission greatly inspired by Loyce Houlton’s vision. Working in partnership with composer Scott Killian and dancer Jackie Goodrich, and in consultation with Lawrence Rhodes, esteemed dancer, teacher and Chair of the New York University Tisch School for the Arts Dance department, Nancy conceived and founded CoDanceCo (collaborative dance company).
Nancy and her team established CoDanceCo as a production company devoted to nurturing the creative development of dance artists and providing audience access to outstanding dance artistry that reflected the creativity and eclecticism of contemporary dance. CoDanceCo was designed as a highly flexible organizational model that could adapt to the ever-changing world of dance creators, performers, collaborators, educators, presenters, and audiences.
From 1982-1991 Duncan commissioned and presented works created by 28 choreographers, 14 composers, and 50 dancers. Choreographers commissioned over the years include Eiko & Koma, Ralph Lemon, Susan Marshall, Bebe Miller, Mark Morris, Charles Moulton, Ohad Naharin, Doug Varone, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, among others. Duncan’s work through CoDanceCo garnered Duncan a 1991 New York Dance and Performance Award Citation (aka Bessie).
Highlights from 1991-2003 include serving as the artistic director for London Contemporary Dance Theatre; producer of a four-week British dance festival in New York City, project management for Arts International, and Community Outreach Programs Director for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project production PastForward, touring both nationally and internationally.
From 1996-2003, under the umbrella of CoDanceCo, Duncan managed to keep producing projects to support dance artists and their audiences through her membership in the New York State DanceForce. The projects were accomplished in partnership with NY state artists, presenters, and educators. In 2003 Duncan
relocated to Long Island and established a new home base for her work through CoDanceCo. During this time Duncan also served as a member of the Suffolk County Citizens Arts Advisory Board, became a founding member of the Patchogue Arts Council, served on the Board of the Patchogue Theater, among other opportunities.
In 2006, Duncan was introduced to Pierre Dulaine’s arts-in-education, social-emotional in-school residency program titled “Dancing Classrooms.” Working in partnership with Dulaine, Duncan secured a two-year grant from the Dana Foundation to have CoDanceCo become the licensed national network affiliate site on Long Island. Pierre and his staff trained Duncan and a team of teaching artists in the Dancing Classrooms syllabus and the company launched its first in-school residencies in the winter of 2008. Since the founding of Dancing
Classrooms on Long Island, CoDanceCo’s teaching artists have touched the lives of over 30,000 youth, adults, educators and families with the transformative power of Dancing Classrooms. For youth and adults alike, the program creates meaningful social connections, inspires respect for diversity, and instills self-confidence all through the joy of social dance.
Susan Delattre was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She graduated from
Barnard College and earned an MFA in Dance from the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro. She continued in the academic world
teaching in the University of Minnesota’s Dance Program. As a member of
the Minnesota Independent Choreographer’s Alliance, she choreographed
and produced dance pieces, including a solo evening and collaborations
with other performers. Through the MN State Arts Board, Susan traveled
throughout the state doing Artist in the Schools residencies. With Heck
and Delattre: Story Dance Theater, she performed in school assemblies. She
also performed with At the Foot of the Mountain women’s theater and the
Women’s Performance Project. She co-authored two fables, The Woman Who
Lost Her Heart and The Woman Who Found Her Voice. She has also self-published
a collection of her poetry, Such Days as This.
Susan currently lives in Minneapolis, working with hope for the healing of our planet from climate change.
Justin Leaf is a Minneapolis-based ballet teacher, choreographer, and performance artist whose multifaceted career spans over two decades. A graduate of The Juilliard School with a BFA in Dance Performance, Justin’s training also includes The Kirov Academy, School of American Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School.
As a dancer, Justin was a company member with James Sewell Ballet and Minnesota Dance Theatre, and has also performed works by Ernesta Corvino, John Kelly, Morgan Thorson, George Stamos, and others through independent engagements. Critics have described them as “a fascinating and beguiling dancer—so lanky, loose, and idiosyncratic that [their] fine-tuned ballet chops take you by surprise” (Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice).
In their extensive teaching career, Justin has worked with various schools and companies, including Ballet Hispánico, James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Ballet Co.Laboratory, and Minnesota Ballet. Their teaching is influenced by their professional experiences and mentorship under master teachers Andra and Ernesta Corvino.
As a choreographer, Justin has created works presented by organizations such as Minnesota Dance Theatre, James Sewell Ballet, and Minnesota Orchestra. Their performance work currently encompasses dance, theater, and vocal artistry. Since 2006, they have frequently performed as Mistress Ginger, a glittering cabaret persona. As Ginger, they authored Mistress Ginger Cooks!: Everyday Vegan Food for Everyone (2014).
Justin is honored to have received awards such as the Zaraspe Prize for Outstanding Choreography, a Minnesota SAGE Award for Best Performance, a McKnight Fellowship for Dancers, and a Next Step Fund Grant.
Scott Killian has composed scores for Zvi Gotheiner (over 30 works), Shapiro & Smith Dance, Cherylyn Lavagnino, David Dorfman, Susan Marshall, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis. His works have been performed with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Limon Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, PACT Dance (South Africa), et al. Venues include The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City Center, New York Live Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, The Annenberg Center and many regional venues. As a dance musician, he is a regular accompanist at NYC’s Gibney 890 Studios and NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
As a composer and sound designer for theater, Scott has created works for over 120 professional productions in NYC and at many regional theaters. NYC theatrical venues include Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, MCC, Red Bull Theatre, Primary Stages and Rattlestick Theatre. Regional theatres include George Street Playhouse (over 25 productions); Berkshire Theatre Group (Resident Composer--over 50 productions), Alley Theatre (Houston), Shakespeare Theatre (DC), Seattle Repertory Theatre, A.C.T. (San Francisco). Cleveland Playhouse, Shakespeare and Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Huntington Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Born in Chicago, Wendy began dancing with nuns who taught from ballet records. Her vast experiences in dance crossed the country from UCLA to Colorado College to NYU and landed her in Minnesota where she taught at Carleton College and served as a Roster Artist for the Minnesota State Arts Board, teaching in hundreds of schools across the state. Always a fighter and an advocate for a better tomorrow, she served as Board member during the transition from the Minnesota Independent Choreographer’s Alliance (MICA) to the Minnesota Dance Alliance (MDA). With a committee of K-12 and college educators, she created and presented the Dance/Theatre license to the MN Board of Children, Families and Learning; with Michael Engel she wrote a K-8 Scope and Sequence in Dance and Theatre for the Minneapolis Public Schools; and with her charter school colleagues at Community School of Excellence, she led the courageous conversations to vote in the first ever wall-to-wall MN Charter School Union in which she served as Union President.
Sarah McCullough (she/her) is a Minneapolis-based movement enthusiast, freelance performer, yoga practitioner/teacher, and educator in contemporary forms. Originally from Virginia, she attended James Madison University as a Madison Achievement Scholar, and earned her BA in Dance and Mathematics. As a student, she performed works by Doug Varone, Netta Yerushalmy, Christopher K. Morgan, Rubén Graciani, and others.
Since joining Minneapolis’ dance community in 2018, she has had the pleasure of performing in works choreographed by Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Berit Ahlgren, Carl Flink, Helen Hatch, Marisol Herling, Mathew Janczewski, Taja Will, and more. She has toured with Minneapolis based dance companies Black Label Movement and ARENA DANCES to the greater Minnesota area, Florida, and New York. She is a highly collaborative artist who is passionate about aliveness in performance, and seeks to perform works that center humanity, complexity, and play.
She currently teaches contemporary classes at Zenon Dance School, Hothouse, and Minnesota Dance Theater. Sarah has offered classes at the Limón Twin Cities Intensive, ARENA DANCES' Instinct Intensive, The University of Winchester (UK), North Carolina State University, and several high school dance programs throughout the Twin Cities. She is also a 200-hour accredited yoga teacher and offers a holistic approach to mindful movement as a personal and artistic practice.
Ruby Josephine Smith is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and founder of new company Ruby Josephine Dance Theater (RJDT). She is passionate about movement as a form of emotional expression, story-telling, and language. This passion was molded from having two artist parents, getting involved in both theater and contemporary dance in her early years, and by her unconventional dance training, traveling around the world from the age of 20 to learn from a variety of artists at intensives and residencies. In 2014 she landed in Tangier, Morocco which became her home for the next 7 years, working with contemporary dance as an emerging art form in the city.
In Tangier, Ruby’s choreography was commissioned and sponsored by the US Embassy of Morocco, l’Institut Français, the American Language Center Network, and the American Legation. She also had opportunities to perform and work with international artists at festivals around Europe.
Ruby returned to her hometown of Minneapolis, MN in 2020 and has since choreographed works for Collab Arts, Zenon Zone, Threads Dance Project, and more recently two full-length productions under her company’s umbrella. She performs with Analog Dance Works and has appeared in work by Jennifer Mack and Jagged Moves.
Ruby has been a teaching artist for over 10 years and currently teaches regular contemporary classes at Hothouse and WestMet Classical Training. She also offers artist residencies and dance program consultation to the American International School Network where she has taught in France, India and Vietnam.
Throughout all of this work, Ruby believes strongly in the power of dance to tell stories, explore personal processes, and form strong human connections.
Brenna Mosser (she/her) is a dance artist based in Minneapolis, MN. She seeks to illuminate the awe in her surroundings by sculpting falls, stumbles, and asymmetries gracefully. She spent two years in the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa, where she faced the reality of climate change and has since dedicated her work to dissect and digest this crisis with her community.
She earned her bachelor’s in dance performance at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK. She supplemented her degree at le Centre national de la danse Contemporaine in Angers, France where she spent two years learning intensively from world-renowned dance companies and their artists. There, she earned an L3 licence in dance performance and in arts management.
Brenna founded founded Analog Dance Works in 2019, a dance company whose mission is to explore the intersection between dance and science through choreographic works and roundtable discussions. Alongside Analog, she currently dances for Threads Dance Project, Ruby Josephine Dance Theater, 43x94 Movement Research, and Zoë Koenig.
Elayna Waxse (she/they) is a St. Paul-based choreographer, dance educator, and performer who prioritizes emotional attunement, identity and risk taking in their work. They facilitate an environment of empathy, compassion and witnessing in which artists feel empowered to bring their full social and cultural identity to the work. Elayna has been commissioned by Minnesota Dance Theatre, University of Minnesota Dance Department (2022 Cowles Visiting Artist), Carleton College Dance Department, Threads Dance Project, St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, and the University of Minnesota Opera Theater among others. She was a 2023 alternate selection for the Ann and Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow, and a 2024 finalist for the Carmel Dance Festival Choreography Fellowship. In 2023, her work was selected for the National Gala Performance at the American College Dance Association’s National Conference in Long Beach, CA. In 2024, she was invited to join the inaugural cohort of ChoreoTech: Immersive Dancemaking with AI and VR at The School at Jacob’s Pillow.
Professionally, Elayna has danced with Minnesota Dance Theatre, Colorado Ballet/Colorado Ballet Studio Company, Black Label Movement, BodyCartography Project, and with Cie. Ismael Ivo at ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival and in São Paulo, Brazil.
She was a member of TU Dance from 2012 to 2019, performing works by Alvin Ailey, Dwight Rhoden, Jawole Willa Jo Zoller, Katrin Hall, Francesca Harper, Stephanie Batten-Bland, Gioconda Barbuto, and Gregory Dolbashian among others. They were part of the original creation team of Come Through, the collaboration between TU Dance and Grammy-award winning musical group Bon Iver. Through this collaboration Elayna performed at the Hollywood Bowl (LA, CA), the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.), and at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival (Manchester, TN).
Elayna is 2019 recipient of a McKnight Fellowship in Dance, through which they worked with choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith on an original solo.
As a dance educator, they have taught ballet and contemporary dance at the University of Minnesota, Minnesota Dance Theatre, TU Dance, and Macalester College. In 2024, they served as Interim Artistic Director for Minnesota Dance Theatre & School and they are currently the Dayton Hudson Visiting Artist/Teacher at Carleton College.
Javan Mngrezzo(he/him) is a dance creator, instructor, and performer – in that order. He relocated to Minnesota in 2021 by way of Portland, OR. Oregon was his second home state, after CA, where he graduated from Western Oregon University in three years, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science in Dance and Sociology. As a creator: past credits include AMEZ Dance, James Sewell Ballet, and Minnesota Dance Theater – to name a few. As an instructor: currently teaching at Out on a Limb, and has previously taught at studios such as Lundstrum and HotHouse – to name a few. As a performer: past credits include AMEZ Dance, Rhythmically Speaking, ARENA Dances, and James Sewell Ballet – to name a few. He is presently investigating the convergence of dance and other mediums that will slowly find a home within his new creative art hub ZzoZzo.mn.
Lily Conforti is a performer, choreographer, and dance teacher from the Twin Cities. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with degrees in dance and physiology in May 2021. She is interested in articulation of movement with music, and creating multimedia dance works that are new and exciting for audience members. Lily is the founder and choreographer for Corpus Dance Works. She started the group in 2019. They have performed in the MN, Indy, and Calgary Fringe Festivals, Candy Box Dance Festival, Inbox at Artbox, DanceBarn's Vol III CollabArts, and in other local festivals. The group creates under a collective goal of combining dance and other artistic genres such as Dance and Theater in their most recent hour long show 'All the Hullabaloo'. Lily looks to push storytelling, whimsy, and artistry to the forefront of her work and also to remind audiences that art can be serious while also being a silly, fun time. Along with her own dance choreographies, Lily has performed in work by Kjara Wurst, Gallim Dance, Honey Works Dance, Black Label Movement, and Alternative Motion Project. She will be performing with Threads Dance Project this coming November 2024!
Nieya Amezquita is a Minnesota-based professional dancer working with Threads Dance Project and Rhythmically Speaking. She has also performed works with Concerto Dance, Alexandra Bodnarchuk Dance Projects and many others. Nieya earned a BFA in Dance from the University of Georgia. There she had the opportunity to perform nationally and internationally with founding company CADE:NCE before studying in Portugal with the Addo Platform. Most recently, Nieya choreographed for Threads Dance Project and Alternative Motion Project, was a Happy Hour Artist in the CandyBox Dance Festival hosted by Arena, and launched her own dance company, Amez Dance.
Alexandra Bodnarchuk is a Carpatho-Rusyn American choreographer and cultural activist based in Minneapolis, MN. As the Artistic Director and choreographer for Doma Dance Theater, Bodnarchuk creates original works for the stage and screen that draw together her ethnic heritage with contemporary movement practices. Centering the body as a tangible site of culture, Bodnarchuk explores questions of self-expression, community, dispossession, and cross-cultural identity through works that range from solo pieces to ensemble works.
Bodnarchuk is a 2021 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow at Jacob’s Pillow and a 2022 & 2020 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow Finalist (Jerome Foundation). Her second evening-length work, Rock, Paper, Scissors, was presented by The Southern Theater in March 2023.
In 2024 she released her second dance film Mamko Moja L’uba, which is named for a folk song popularized by Carpatho-Rusyn singer Maria Mačoskova, and featured costumes inspired by traditional clothing from the Zemplín region in Eastern Slovakia. She also completed a commission for The Museum of Russian Art, responding to Serbian sculptor Zoran Mojsilov’s surrealist exhibition, The Dry Neck of the Pig. She is currently working on two commissions to premiere in Spring/Summer 2025, including being a Featured Artists in Arena Dance’s 2025
Candy Box Dance Festival.
Bodnarchuk is the daughter of first- and third-generation immigrants. She was raised in Pittsburgh, PA, where she studied European folk traditions, including classical ballet and Slavic and Balkan folk dance. Southwestern PA, which hosts an active community of Eastern European folk organizations, has the largest concentration of Carpatho-Rusyns in the United States. As a member of the North Hills Junior Tamburitzans, Bodnarchuk was taught by the renowned Željko Jergan with a primary focus on Croatian dances. She also performed with the now-shuttered Slavjane Folk Ensemble, the sole Carpatho-Rusyn children’s dance ensemble in the United States. Under the direction of Jack Poloka she toured Slovakia, Poland, and Ukraine, exploring the diasporic homeland and cultural landscape of the Carpatho-Rusyns.
Bodnarchuk graduated from Bodiography Contemporary Ballet’s College Preparatory Program and then earned a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography and BA in French from Ohio University (OU). During college, she spent a semester in Avignon, France, training at the Conservatoire d’Avignon under Cyrille de la Barre. She also studied Ghanaian dance and drumming under the direction of Paschal Yao Younge and Zelma Badu-Younge and was a
member of their group Azaguno African Dance Ensemble.
Embracing her role as a cultural activist, Bodnarchuk has continued to deepen her study of and connection to Carpatho-Rusyn cultural traditions by visiting her ethnic homeland and learning the Rusyn language. By amplifying her ethnic heritage and probing the connections among the Carpatho-Rusyn experience and diasporic communities around the world, Bodnarchuk offers a potent invitation to rediscover the unrecognized histories embedded in each of us.
Cheng Xiong is a local Hmong dance artist, choreographer, teacher, and community leader. Xiong was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, sponsored by family in the United States, and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. Xiong started picking up Hip Hop dance, particularly Break(dance)ing, through family and friends. With his journey as a street dancer, he continued his studies in dance at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and was able to broaden to different styles and professional skills. Xiong became the first in his family to receive a Bachelor of Arts. He is currently a company member of Black Label Movement. He recently worked with local professional companies such STRONGmovement, BRKFST Dance, and Minnesota Timberwolves’s First Avenue Breakers. He is also a Breakdance instructor and educator, teaching at Cypher Side Dance School and the University of Minnesota Dance Program.
Xiong is also a Hmong dance artist/researcher who is among the first in Minnesota to fuse forms of Breaking, Contemporary, and acrobatic dance styles. His integrated movement practice consists of floorwork, high physicality transitions, and rigorous dynamic movements that thrive on integration and cross-training. Developing a new personal style that pushes athletic skills to their highest and at the same time challenges the creative process by drawing from his background, allowing movements forming together in unique ways. His overarching aim is to continue to use the body as a medium for communication.
Some highlights of his work were in 2018, when Xiong participated in the “I’m From…Vol. 2” show at the Southern Theater, where he debuted his solo in collaboration with Tou Saiko Lee, called “Being Hmong, Being Free.” That same year, Xiong was one of the choreographers to present work for Saint Paul Conservatory Performing Arts’ J-Term Project: Dance Repertory Concert, where he debuted his new work “Locomote” in The O'shaughnessy theater at St. Catherine University. In 2022, Xiong was awarded as one of the McKnight Dancer Fellows. The following year, Xiong debuted his new work “Penumbra” at the Southern Theater, for Arena Dances presents CANDY BOX as one of the Happy Hour artists. Right after that, he also debuted his new work called “Breaking Breaking” for the Mixtape Collective show, Mixtape 6: Cypher Space, that was held at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. Later in fall of 2023, the Minneosta Orchestra commissioned Xiong to create a duet called, “Stories of the Harvest,” with composer Jocelyn Hagen’s excerpt of “Shoua and the Northern Lights Dragon,” for their annual Young People’s Concert: Sounds of the Harvest. In 2024, Xiong presented his new work “Polarity” at the Barbara Barker Center for Dance for Black Label Movement’s Inaugural Mover’s Make series.
Alongside his repertoire of performances, Xiong is a Breakdance instructor and educator. He has taught at after-school programs such as Washington Technology Magnet Middle, Hazel Park Preparatory Academy, and Ramsey Middle through the East Side Arts Council. At present, Xiong is currently teaching at the University of Minnesota Minnesota Theater and Dance Program and Cypher Side Dance School.
Born and raised in Minneapolis Minnesota, Jake is a teacher and performing artist in the Twin Cities. Having danced since the age of three, and being trained in tap dance, ballroom dance, jazz dance, modern dance, as well as having an interest in physical therapy and yoga, Jake graduated from St. Olaf College with a BFA in Dance and Exercise Science.
Alongside being a company member of Black Label Movement, Ruby Josephine Dance Theatre, and Rhythmically Speaking, Jake has worked with or continues to work with Arena Dances, Contempo Physical Dance, Concerto Dance, Buckets and Taps, Mixtape, Threads Dance Project, Flying Foot Forum, Katha Dance Theatre, Eau Claire Dance, STRONGmovement, and has performed in Stephan Koplowitz’s Northfield Experience. Jake has also danced in Au, a Live at the Shed work created by Hatch Dance and Honey Works.
Jake currently teaches at Prairie School of Dance as well as Ballare Teatro Performing Arts Center.
Julie Kerr-Berry retired in 2023 after 35 years at Minnesota State
University, Mankato (MSUM). In 2020, she became chair of the
Department of Theatre & Dance. Throughout her tenure, she helped to
build multiple degrees in Dance. Julie is Editor Emerita of the Journal of
Dance Education. Her scholarly publications focus on the intersections of
dance, race, and history specific to whiteness. Recently she was named
of Minnesota Dance Educator of the Year and was the recipient of
a Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award at MSUM (2019). From the National
Dance Education Organization, she received a Top Paper Citation (2011),
an Outstanding Leadership Award (2012), Executive Director’s Award (2020),
and Presidential Award for dedication to the National Dance Education
Organization’s, Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Project/JDEI Project
(2022). The American College Dance Association (ACDA) recognized her
creative research. War Story was the 2nd Alternate for ACDA’s 2014 National
Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center. Julie taught in a federal prison for
women which she hopes to continue. As a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia,
she became an advocate of international dance education, which later
motivated her travels to Nigeria, Australia, New Zealand, Cuba, and
France. In France, Julie co-led a study abroad course to Paris and Dijon on
several occasions where students danced, performed, traversed both
cities, and the French countryside. She is an avid practitioner of Vinyasa
yoga. Currently, she is writing a book that is a cultural critique of American
dance history through the lens of whiteness. Julie earned her EdD and
MEd in Dance from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
Steve Paul received his BA in English from the University of Iowa in 1983, then immediately moved to Minneapolis.
In 1984 he joined Red Eye Collaboration, where he was the resident “all things tech” until 1989.
In 1989 he joined the Minnesota Dance Alliance, taking over the “Dance Production Clearinghouse”, building and running of the Studio 6A performance space until 1997. During those years he was privileged to join and work with the extraordinary community of performing artists that flourished in that amazing time and place.
While there, he also began to use early CADD, 3D, and video software for stage design.
On leaving the Dance Alliance, he has worked as a Designer, Production and Stage Manager,Video Producer and Editor, 3D visualization and animation expert, educator, and artist.
In 2002, he and Paula Mann consummated their artistic relationship with the formation of Time Track Productions. As co-Artistic Directors of Time Track, he and Paula have created and produced work that is dedicated to exploring the relationship between humanity and its projections.
In 2012 he received his MFA in Interactive Media Design from the University of Minnesota.
In 2014 he took on the direction of the Visualization Team for AECOM in the Americas, creating 3D renderings, animations, video, web, and Virtual Reality for the global Architecture, Engineering, and Construction firm.
Ray Terrill | Dance Group has been performing in and around the Twin Cities since Ray relocated in 1994.
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he has extensive experience as performer, choreographer, teacher, presenter and arts program administrator.
He started his professional modern dance career as a member of Martha Graham-based Repertory Dancers Northwest in Seattle Washington until relocating to Portland Oregon to work with the Mary Wigman-based modern dance company Oregon Dance Consort. In Portland, he eventually became co-artistic director of the company where he choreographed numerous original works, taught extensively and produced the contemporary dance season Pulse/
Impulse for five consecutive years. He also served as guest artist with many well known regional dance companies and choreographed original dances for regional producing organizations.
While in Portland, Ray collaborated with other dance professionals to found the statewide Dance Coalition of Oregon, a dance service organization, for which he served as Executive Director from 1991-1994.
After relocating to the Twin Cities, Ray spent five seasons as a member of the Christopher Watson Dance Company while establishing the Ray Terrill Dance Group.
Proficient in classical modern dance technique he has evolved a choreographic aesthetic described by critics as uniquely spiritual and lyrical on one hand while irreverent and quirky on the other. Aesthetically, Ray is inspired by wide-ranging music styles and is attracted to exploring provocative subject matter and complex emotion. He works hard to mine his material to expose the universal human experience. His more recent work has incorporated video, animation, and text as a backdrop to extend his choreographic ideas.
In the Twin Cities, Ray has served as Board President for the Christopher Watson Dance Company, board member for Off-Leash Area, and advisor to the Walker Art Center’s Tour Guide Council. Ray is also the sole producer of the annual Dances at the Lake Festival, a free open to the public performance, presented at the Lake Harriet Rose Garden in Minneapolis.
Recently retired from his day job, Ray enjoyed a parallel career in the role of executive producer/management consultant to develop media-rich interactive communications and distance learning solutions for top 100 global
corporations.
Numerous government, foundation and corporate arts funding agencies have generously supported his choreography over the years and his dances have been presented in many venues including Seattle's On the Boards, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Portland Art Museum, International Firehouse Cultural Center,
Artquake, Festival of Physical Comedy, Walker Art Center, Weisman Art Museum, Lakeville Performing Arts, Art on the Edge, and Dances at the Lake Festivals. Over the years, Ray has taken advantage of the Fringe Festival performing circuit and has presented his dances at many including Minnesota, Chicago, Providence, Tucson, Salt Lake City and Denver.
Rebecca Frost, CMT, MSMT, MFA (she / her) After her career as a modern dancer, she's moved into life as a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, somatic therapist, educator and activist.
Rebecca earned a BA in Theater and an MFA in Writing and is certified in a number of modalities. As an adjunct faculty member, Rebecca taught Body-Mind Centering in the University of Minnesota Dance and Theater Department. She created the course, Writing and Emotional Currency at The Loft Literary Center, taught experiential anatomy to UMN Medical students and at the Mpls Yoga Center, and body-sourced writing at Shakopee Women’s Prison’s recovery program for inmates. She recently served on the Board of Directors of the International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association (ISMETA), serving on the Government Relations, Research and Publication, and Equity, Justice and Accessibility committees. Through ISMETA, Rebecca is registered as a Master Somatic Movement Therapist.
Her poetry and fiction have been published in journals and anthologies. Her MFA thesis was a novel, and she is intermittently at work on a creative nonfiction manuscript. She co-founded the popular "Dancers Who Write" reading series (with Linda Shapiro), won the Verve Spoken Word grant, and co-created The Women's Performance Project (convened by Diane Elliot) which received two McKnight Fellowships in Choreography. The groundbreaking work of The Women’s Performance Project is described in a textbook, Dancing Female, lives and issues of women in contemporary dance in a chapter entitled Fire and Ice: Female Archetypes in American Modern Dance (pg. 117), published by Harwood Academic through Swarthmore College, editors Sharon E. Friedler and S. B. Glazer.
A few of the performance projects Rebecca has contributed creatively to in the past decade include: Angry Black Woman and Well Intentioned White Girl (at Intermedia Arts and touring), a hilarious and necessary play by Amoke Kubat; The Revolution Will Not Be Culturally Competent (for the National Evaluator’s Conference, and in collaboration with Pangea Theater), conceived and directed by Vidhya Shanker; and in residence as the writer for Waterlines (at the Gremlin Theater) by Summer Hills-Bonczyk, a ritual performance piece with 3,000 pounds of clay on stage which transformed through the evening, culminating a group intensive week of yoga-informed healing.
Rebecca helps people become the best version of themselves. She is is an advocate for all things related to human development, consciousness, and how we express it. As a Somatic Therapist, her passion lies in helping each person take his/her/their next step, providing support for that exhilarating reach beyond one's own edge. In her private practice she works with you to assist in identifying and moving through your personal growing edges, to enhance performance of all kinds, to overcome fears, to heal. She is particularly skilled at working with dancers and other performers, including rehab from injuries, moving through trauma, expanding your range, embodying your whole self in all the settings. Rebecca is one of half a dozen certified teachers of LearningMethods / Anatomy of Wholeness in North America (created by David Gorman) which brings sharp focus to human structure, function and use, and how we bring our awareness to any given problem!
Rebecca has provided Circle Keeping to Urban League High School, taught mediators at the Mpls Conflict Resolution Center and University of MN Law School, served on Restorative Justice panels for the prison diversion program of Hennepin County, and been hired to facilitate conflict in a variety of settings.
Rebecca prioritizes racial justice and LGBTQIA liberation in the work she chooses, works with humans of all ages (pre-birth to elders), and welcomes everyone. Find out more: www.embodiedarts.com
Erika Thorne has been a progressive activist, writer, facilitator and cultural worker since 1974. She focuses on cross-race coalition-building, anti-racism work with other whites, and diversity work. Erika has worked with environmental and media justice groups, undocumented immigrants, Hmong organizations, domestic violence activists, housing projects residents, the national education department of a large US union, and a full range of non-profits, organizers and rabble-rousers. In 2012, she collaborated with local training organizations to co-facilitate four workshops for 98 Burmese nonviolent activists in northern Thailand. She trains multi-racial groups of trainers in the UK through Campaign Bootcamp, and in northern Europe with Vredesactie. Erika is on the core organizing team of SURJ-MN (a white co-conspirator group.) She also loves to facilitate training of trainers, hate-crimes response, conflict waging, ethical grassroots fundraising, and meetings – especially real sticky ones! Erika was the Managing Director of MN Friends for a Nonviolent World for nearly three years, and coordinated the Alternatives to Violence Project-MN, offering intensive workshops in prisons and jails, for five years. As a former dancer for social change, she brings joyful physicality to her facilitation.
Melanie Lien Palm
Currently: Body Wisdom LLC as owner, practitioner, instructor, presenter, perpetual student (I would LOVE to offer a 6 hour class of BodyTalk Access and/or a 1.5 hour class of EmotionalResolution for DANCERS! I’d be combining my love of dance with my love of energy medicine. BodyTalk is very helpful in operating at peak performance, preventing and recovering more quickly from injuries, and reconnecting lines of communication within your body. EmRes is very helpful in resolving emotional upset within 60 seconds. Contact me if you’re interested in coordinating a class for a group either in-person or on Zoom.) www.BodyWisdomMelaniePalm.com
Current certificates: Advanced BodyTalk and PaRama Practitioner, BodyTalk Access and MindScape Instructor, HelioSol Practitioner, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy and International Yoga Therapist, Emotional Resolution Practitioner and Instructor, ElectroDermal Stress Analysis, Holistic Health Practitioner
Homeschool: Founded, owned, administered and taught in Sunrise School serving infant through 2 nd grade, combining Montessori, Waldorf, Peacemaking and Creative Arts ~ 5 years Homeschooled our children and other’s children ~ 10 years
Presented at several homeschool workshops and wrote articles for international magazines Dance Performance: Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal ~6+ years in ‘80’s touring in 11 countries, performing in 13 pieces, involved in creation of 3 pieces
Wild Space, U Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Minnesota Dance Theater, Black Hills Dance Theater, U of Utah, Creighton U, Omaha Opera Ballet, Academy of Dance, amongst others
Teaching and Choreographing: Various Universities ~ 7 years
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee ~ 2 years full time
Guest residencies at Creighton U, South Dakota State, North Carolina – Greensboro, New York U Tisch School of the Arts, U of Montana, Vassar, Northwestern, amongst others
Public School residencies through NY and SD Artist-In-Schools K-12 ~ 15 years
Various dance schools and companies ~ 15 years including Johanna Meier’s Opera workshops, Wild Space Dance Co WI, CoDanceCo NY, Dance Masters of WI, Montana Dance Arts, MidAmerica Dance Network, MN Dance Alliance, Dahl Fine Arts SD, “I Have a Dream” Program for Underprivileged Children NY, Lind Dance, Abbot Hospital for Emotionally Disturbed Children, Young Audiences MDT, SD School for Visually Impaired, amongst others
Numerous Panels and Adjudication, Recipient of Grants
Interests: People, nature, languages, joy, inspiration, gratitude
jess pretty is an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and the current artistic director of AUNTS; a punk/DIY performance series that hosts events/festivals/shows to highlight the works of experimental dance makers in NYC. she has shown her work at La Mama Experimental Theater Club (2017 La Mama Moves Festival), New York Live Arts (as a 2016/17 Fresh Tracks artist), CATCH!, Gibney Dance Center, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, the CURRENT SESSIONS, panoply performing arts space, Green Street Studios, three ACDA conferences, and the Chocolate Factory Theatre. pretty has been an artist in residence at Kent State (2017), the Chocolate Factory Theatre, and the Center for Performance Research (2019-2020) and was also a 2020 member of the Queer Art Fellowship. pretty has collaborated and been a part of the works of: Will Rawls, Claudia Rankine, Kevin Beasley, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peter Born, Catherine Gallasso, David Thomson, Katie Workum, Niall Jones, Jennifer Monson, Cynthia Oliver, Leslie Cuyjet and Dianne McIntyre.
call and response is a methodology for building connection and community; a celebration and appreciation for black life; an archival tool; and lens for embodiment. this work is personal and archival; calling on me to turn towards my own story, lineage and memory as the site of choreographic creation. in looking at myself, i aim to build a black queer archive to provide proof of life (instead of the constant images of black death we experience) for future generations.
how do we come together? how do we see each other? how do we care for each other? how do we make space for pleasure, joy, ease and non-urgency? how do we 'get free' using the body as the site for radical transformation? taking place somewhere between an improvised self portrait and the middle of the dance floor, call and response directs our attention inward to the deep histories our bodies hold. calling us to say ‘yes’ to "the encounter”, to vulnerability, to the collective, to the moving body, to change and to transformation.
Tristan Koepke (he/him) is a dancer, choreographer, and educator based in Portland, ME. He holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park, and is currently Assistant Professor at Bates College and Associate Director of the Young Dancers Intensive at the Bates Dance Festival.
Benny Olk (he/him) is a performing artist based in Minneapolis with an interest in contemporizing and contextualizing American modern and post-modern dance. As a member of Lucinda Childs Dance Company, he performed reconstructions of pieces such as Dance and Available Light. He performed in reconstructions of works by Merce Cunningham, and has premiered works by Moriah Evans and Anthea Hamilton. He is part of the Isolated Acts 2024 cohort at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis. Benny holds a BFA in Dance from NYU and an MA in New Performative Practices from Stockholm University of the Arts.
There’s More Than One Bedis the second collaboration between Tristan Koepke and Benny Olk. Inspired by the creative and amorous relationship between Merce Cunningham and John Cage, Instagram thirst traps, speculative masculinities, and romance novel tropes, Koepke, Olk, and their collaborators interrogate what devotion and commitment to love, longing, and process can look like when you make room for more than two.
Paula Mann has been creating dances for 44 years and is a graduate of New York University. She was full time faculty at the University of Minnesota Department of Theater and Dance from 1993-2013. She is co-artistic director of Time Track Productions.
APRIL 25-27, 2024 CBDF Featured Artist Work:
Nothing
A trio: performed by myself, Leila Awadallah and Roxane Wallace. We question and interrogate our understandings of our realities through movement. Building a focused movement vocabulary since November 2022, we are intent on shifting the structure of the movement and its qualities, hoping to convey that assumed constructs of our perceptions might not be truth. Imagery projected onto our bodies at the end of this section (part one), will contrast speed, timing and content. The meaning of those images and their relationship between the movement and the piece will amplify and articulate our physical vocabulary. Our movement/physical vocabularies will reflect our formative perspectives and perceptions -- the realities we grew into. Ranging from black and white broadcast for the oldest of us, to online mobile devices for the youngest, the streams of our understanding begin here.
Sound score by Tarek Abdelqader
This is part (one) of the trilogy and will be performed at The Candy Box Festival in April 2024 at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Everything and Nothing is a three-part series of dance performances, each 25 minutes in length, that will be performed over a two-year period in venues throughout Minneapolis/St Paul Minnesota. In 2026, all three parts will be performed together as an evening-length work.
For over forty-five years I was a movement educator, dancer and choreographer devoted to the exploration of the expression of the mind through the body. I graduated from the Juilliard School in 1971 and my first professional job was working in dance pioneer Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Projects. I continued to dance and perform professionally until 1995. My creative work as a choreographer and dancer always focused on how movement could fully express the states and conditions of the mind and heart. The objectification of movement has never been my interest; rather my concerns were always about excavating and exposing the roots of the subjective
experience through my work. As a director of two dance companies and an independent
choreographer I received numerous grants from private foundations, the states of Indiana and Minnesota and a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship. I was a dance teacher throughout my dance career and taught all over the United States and Canada. I was on the faculty at the University of Minnesota from 1980 –1988 and then again from 1996 through 2019.
In 1990 I began my transition from dancer, choreographer and dance teacher to body-worker and movement educator. I graduated from the School for Body-Mind Centering ® in 1994 and became a Certified Practitioner and Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator. As a bodyworker and movement educator I help individuals discover and use the body's intelligence as they journey towards health and balance. My practice served women and men who wanted to find fuller physical presence, compassion for themselves and freedom from movement or behavioral patterns that are recapitulations of past trauma. Although much of my practice concerned psychotherapeutic application, I also worked with individuals (lots of dancers)
recovering from physical injury, surgery or living with chronic pain. A small but important part of my practice included children who had developmental challenges.
An important dimension of my work in the world was and is my ongoing practice in Buddhist mindfulness meditation. I integrated the methodology of mindfulness both in my private practice and in my coursework at the University. Teaching clients and students how to clarify the direct experience of mental activity and body sensations through awareness lead to a much fuller embodied presence in the here and now, whether that was dancing, performing or just living your life.
I began teaching Body-Mind Centering at the University of Minnesota in 1996 first at the introductory level and advanced levels. These courses included an Introduction to Body-Mind Centering, graduate level courses covering a five-semester series, (the graduate level courses in Body-Mind Centering were discontinued in 2009 due to draconian budget cuts that affected the entire University) and The Articulate Body, a required course for Dance Majors enrolled in the BFA program.
In 2018 I retired from private practice and then in 2019 I taught my last class at the UM, mostly due to hearing loss and a reluctance to do so much driving. I have lived in the country north of Elk River for over twenty-five years, am an avid gardener with a large vegetable patch, perennial gardens and borders, growing food and flowers. I have three children, nine grandchildren and much beauty in my life for which I am deeply grateful.
Joe Chvala has created over 30 original works for the stage that have toured from New York to Paris and from Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival to Litle Falls, MN. He is the founder and artistic director of the highly acclaimed percussive dance company, Flying Foot Forum. Articles and reviews of his work have appeared in national and international magazines and newspapers including the New York Times, La Monde, the Chicago Tribune, Dance Magazine, and the Village Voice. The range of his work has been described as "somewhere between Sammy Davis, Jr. and Samuel Becket" and has
earned such accolades as "Fred Astaire on acid" and "the Agnes DeMille of the tap."
Chvala has also choreographed, directed, and/or been commissioned to create new work for a variety of venues including the Walker Art Center, The Ordway Center, the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota Opera, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, The Children’s Theatre Company (to name a few). He has received Ivey and Minnesota SAGE Awards for theater and dance, as well as numerous other awards, fellowships, and grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, Target, and McKnight Foundation. Chvala also choreographs and directs dance for films. His first short film, COOKAPHONY, has been chosen as an official selection at 14 film festivals, winning four awards at various festivals including Paris Short Film Festival, Sedona International Film Festival, Vasteras International Film Festival (Sweden) and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Internatonal Film Festval.
Swan Song Studies marks Zhauna's 6th full evening length production.
Previous productions: The Dream Channel- Episodes 1 & 2 at The Ritz Theater, Episode 3 (in 3D) at Open Eye Figure Theatre, Her Hysterical Nostalgia (Open Eye Figure Theatre) and Beauty and the Beast (Minneapolis Fringe- Best Dance Production-Audience Choice Award).
In New York Zhauna was featured in over 500 shows spanning 3 years with the award winning off-broadway immersive productions Sleep No More- Punchdrunk and Then She Fell- Third Rail Projects. She was an original member of Ballet of the Dolls for 25 years and Associate Artistic Director for 8 years, appearing in over 100 original productions.
Kathryn (Thern) Anderson started her dance training at the U of M in 1968 with Margret Dietz, Heidi Hauser and Judith Mirus. In 1971 she joined Margret’s Company, Choreogram ,and danced there until 1976. She then moved to Port Townsend, WA to work with Meg Robson, then to Portland Oregon to dance with Spira, and started Oregon Dance Consort with other dancers from the Wigman tradition.
She was in New York from 1980 to 1987, studying at the Erick Hawkins studio, Floor Barre with Zena Rommet, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Anatomy and Kinesiology, Ideokinesis at NYU, Subtle Self with Judith Blackstone and Klein technique with Barbara Mahler.
In Washington D.C. from 1987until 1993 she taught through Liz Lerman’s Dnce Exchange, working with senior adults, psychiatric outpatients and hospitalized children. In addition, she taught many children’s Creative Movement classes at Jane Bittner Dnce Studio in Olbey MD.
Back to Minnesota since 1993, she has performed with Sharon Varosh, Maureen Koelsch, a children;s show with Linda Aus,”Seca” by Marciano Silva dos Santos, “Orphans” with Off leash Area, Pam Gleason,, “Invisible” with Paula Mann and as a guest artist with Christopher Watson Dance Co.
In the Twin Cities, she has taught at Zenon, TU Dance, “Dancing your Story” with Mary Waster through TU Dance and Aroha Philanthropies, Patrick’s Cabaret and currently teaches Modern Dance at Tapestry.
When Cathy was 15, she fell in love with dance and mime while studying at the Children’s Theater School with Myron Johnson and Wendy Lehr. She went on to dance with Zoe Sealy’s Minnesota Jazz Dance Company where she met aspiring choreographer Ken Delap. As an original member of Ken Delap’s Ozone Dance Company, Cathy performed across the Midwest and in New York City at the American Theater Laboratory.
Other performance highlights include playing the lead in Kenneth Robbins’ production, “Accidently Exalted” at St. Paul’s Landmark Center, numerous productions at Chanhassen Dinner Theaters, Minnesota Opera, Kentucky Opera, and Minnesota Orchestra’s Summer Pops Concerts, and live business theater events. Choreography credits include Chanhassen Dinner Theater, Minnesota Opera, Theatre Exchange, History Theater, Skylark Opera, Target Corporation, as well as colleges and high schools.
As a mime, Cathy was an artist in residence through the Minnesota State Arts Board’s Artists-in-Education Program, co-authored “The Mime Alphabet Book” with her sister, Nina, and performed as a Yoplait mime in New York and New Jersey.
Since 1996, she’s been working as a marketing writer for Twin Cities-based creative agencies and corporate clients. She still enjoys performing but now as a storyteller at The Moth, Minnesota Fringe Festival, Patrick’s Cabaret, TEDx, Story Club, and Island of Discarded Women podcast.
Maria Genné is a dancer, choreographer and educator, recognized as a pioneering leader in the intergenerational interactive participatory performing arts, and arts and health fields. Her national award winning work to create interactive dance, music and story programs for intergenerational participants is designed to tap into the artistry and creativity of older adults and invite them to be central collaborators in the artistic process of dance, music and storytelling. It models a new and vital role in society for the community based professional performing artist, and new possibilities of intergenerational community enjoyment and understanding. Her 65+ choreography works are recognized for their ability to highlight the beauty of human experience through movement and story.
In 2001, Maria developed The Dancing Heart™, a nationally recognized, evidence-based program which engages older adults of all abilities in weekly, interactive arts participation and health education. It was featured in the 2012 PBS documentary, Arts & the Mind, and is recognized as a model arts involvement program by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), and winner of awards for program innovation by the American Public Health Association, American Society on Aging, and others.
Rita Mustaphi is choreographer, dancer, educator and a disciple of the living legend
Pandit Birju Maharaj in Kathak style of Indian classical dance. She is known for her
visionary approach and innovations in dance, her multi-disciplinary productions
incorporating spoken word, live and commissioned music, and the utilization of
production elements. She is Founder and Artistic Director of Katha Dance Theatre (est.
1987). Under her vision and leadership, the company has become renowned for its
dynamic productions, distinctive movement style and technical virtuosity. Her work,
intelligently crafted storytelling, is recognized as being profoundly moving and
effortlessly intimate.
Ms. Mustaphi is a recipient of three McKnight Fellowships (1998, 1992, 1988) for
choreography, and recently received the forth McKnight Fellowship for Choreography
(2023). She received a Leadership award from the Council of Asian Pacific
Minnesotans, a Lifetime Achievement award from the India Association of Minnesota
and an Education award from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in the
category of Excellence in Vision.
With a career and a commitment to Kathak dance spanning 35+ years, over 500
performances, and 50+ original choreographic works, she still revels in the process of
directing bodies in space, creating movement on her own body and exploring what
“moves” an audience to become engaged emotionally, intellectually and musically. Her
works have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State
Arts Board, The McKnight Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and many
others. Ms. Mustaphi has been commissioned by the Ordway Center for the Performing
Arts and toured her productions throughout the US, Canada and India.
Christian Burns is a Teaching Artist, Performer, and Choreographer. His body of work is built upon interdisciplinary projects relating to the intersection of Improvisation, Choreography, and Training.
Some of his collaborators include Hope Mohr, Bobbi Jene Smith, Alessio Silvestrin, Chris Aiken, Ray Chung, Eric Beauschsne, Shinichi Lova-Koga, and Kirstie Simson among others.
He was a guest artist with The Forsythe Company and a member of Alonzo King Lines Ballet and James Sewell Ballet among others. He helped create burnsWORK, The Foundry, and Parsons Hall Project Space.
His formal training from The School of American Ballet has been complemented by 25 years of Contact Improvisation and Somatic movement practice. He has been commissioned for his choreography and master teaching by dance companies and universities throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.
He has been awarded numerousfellowships, residencies, grants, and commissions, as well as being a contributor for When Men Dance; Choreographing Masculinities Across Borders (Oxford University Press).
He is currently expanding his new virtual 1:1 coaching program for Improvisational research and continues to be a long-standing faculty member of Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program, an Adjunct Professor for Lines Ballet BFA at Dominican University, and in 2023 was a Guest Lecturer for the Stanford University Dept. of Theater & Performance Studies.
Myo-O Marilyn Habermas-Scher has an extensive background in the performing arts, including choreography, opera, vocal improvisation, performance art and story telling. She is trained in Qi Gong and Body Mind Centering TM, as well as practicing yoga and Gyrotonics. She is the originator of VoiceWork, a somatically based voice training, which she has offered in private practice for nearly fifty years. She has taught at several colleges and universities. She has received a number of grants for her choreographic work, and founded a vocal improvisation group, AWAKE! In addition, she has offered Voice Healings at Pathways, a complementary healing center in Minneapolis, for three decades.
Myo-O has practiced meditation in the Zen tradition since 1975 when she began practicing with Dainin Katagiri roshi, founder of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. She was fully ordained and given permission to teach in 2012 by Dokai Georgesen, Head Teacher at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community in SE Minnesota. She has taught classes and led retreats and lectured in many settings from Unitarian Societies to maximum security prisons. From 2006 to 2021 she worked as an inter-faith chaplain at Hennepin County Hospital and the University of Minnesota Medical Center, MHealth Fairview. She is also a mom and grandma to two little boys.
Pam has been creating, teaching and performing dance for over 40 years. She was involved with the Nancy Hauser Dance Company/Hauser Dance from the mid-1980s to 2011 as an apprentice, company member, teacher and choreographer, along with freelancing in the community. As director of MotionArt (cofounded in 2013 with Diane Moncrieff), she is dedicated to providing opportunities for people - no matter their age or ability - to move, express, learn, create and find community in dance – whether
through the Ageless Dance class she initiated with Heidi Hauser Jasmin twenty years ago, or through other adult and children’s classes, monthly improvisation gatherings, somatic workshops andperformances. Her collaborations with professional and nonprofessional dancers spanning nine decades in age, along with musicians, composers, visual artists and film makers have resulted in over 50 choreographed pieces, eight theater productions and four films. She has taught, performed and/or
presented dance in many Twin Cities venues, several US cities, in Taiwan, Japan, Russia and Ireland, and her work has been supported by grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Commission. In 2019, she was a “50 over 50” honoree by AARP/Pollen for her contributions and achievements in the arts and for disrupting outdated beliefs about aging.
Pam received a BS in Community Health Education with minors in Dance and Psychology from UW-Madison, where she first delved into the study of Modern Dance. She holds an MA in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota and has been a Pilates instructor and personal trainer since 1999. She taught “The Articulate Body“ (Dance Kinesiology), Pilates and Modern Dance in the University of Minnesota Dance Department, was a faculty member in the Physical Education department at North
Hennepin Community College, a community health educator for research in the Epidemiology Department at the University of Minnesota and has been a guest artist at several Midwest colleges.
As a teacher, Pam draws from her strong interest in both the art and science of the body in motion to offer biomechanically sound classes infused with individual exploration and improvisation. As a choreographer, inspirations are as varied as life itself, planted in her psyche and often manifest when she’s not looking. These seeds of inspiration have resulted in a wide body of work - from abstract to theatrical, solo to large ensemble, melancholy to slapstick and are reflective of her fascination with universal principles of motion and universal aspects of being human.
Paul Herwig has been working for over 40 years as a professional visual and performing artist. Paul is the founding Co-Artistic Director/Manager of Off-Leash Area, a dance and theater company creating original interdisciplinary performance work, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA, which is now in its 25th year, and has presented 30 original productions. Paul is a graduate of the Ecole Jacques Lecoq (1981-1983), and regularly performs lead and ensemble roles in the company’s productions, as well as having designed and built sets for all its 30 productions. Paul is a self-taught visual and digital artist, working in live animated projection art, and projection mapping.
Paul has received many awards, including a McKnight Theater Fellowship, 5 MN State Arts Board individual artist grants, a Jerome Travel grant, among others. His set designs and performances have been listed in the Minneapolis press’ Best of the Year lists eighteen times since 2002. In 2019, Paul was chosen among a group of US designers to exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance and Design.
Recently, Paul has been working in public art. Earlier this year he presented Facing the Fire (2), a public art project that wrapped the ruins of the former 3rd Police Precinct building with projections and sound. This building is located in the heart of the Minneapolis neighborhood where Paul has had a home for twenty years, and formerly housed the officers who murdered George Floyd, a traumatic event which set off an international movement for racial justice. Most recently, Paul was commissioned by the MN State Fair, and created Canopy/Calliope, a fantasia of carnival rides, farm animals, and musical instruments.
Jennifer Ilse grew up in rural northern Wisconsin, and first studied dance in a professional setting in Duluth, Minnesota. She then moved to Eugene, Oregon to continue her studies at the University of Oregon. In Eugene she also studied with the Eugene Ballet under Susan Zadoff of Ballet Russe, at the Musical Feet school of tap, and performed four seasons with the Dance Theatre of Oregon.
After moving to Minneapolis in 1997 she co-founded the dance/theater/visual art hybrid company Off-Leash Area, for which she has performed lead roles, choreographed and directed most of its 30 original full-length interdisciplinary productions. She was a City Pages Artist of the Year, has been featured on TPT’s MN Original, received 5 Arts Board Artist Initiative grants, was chosen among a group of local choreographers to participate in the NEFA RDDI Dance initiative, and her production work with OLA has garnered 2 Ivey Awards.
Her work as a dance educator has included professional and pre-professional programs at Zenon and TU Dance, to children community education programs in Oregon and Minneapolis, and at studios throughout the Twin Cities.
Toni Pierce-Sands (Founder & Artistic Director) Prior to co-founding TU Dance, Minnesota native Toni Pierce-Sands performed with Minnesota Dance Theatre, Tanz Forum in Germany, Rick Odums in Paris, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where she was a featured soloist in such signature pieces as Revelations, Cry and Rainbow Round My Shoulder. Her command of the Horton Technique has led to teaching posts throughout the United States and Europe. Toni directs programming and teaches classes at TU Dance Center in Saint Paul. She was a full-time core faculty member at the University of Minnesota for twenty years and also served as Director of University Dance Theatre. Toni has been featured in COSMOPOLITAN Germany and GQ publications, the American Express Alvin Ailey commercial, and the Lester Horton Technique instructional DVD series. She has written columns for Dance Studio Life magazine on various pedagogical approaches for modern dance. Toni was awarded a 2004 McKnight Artist Fellowship in Dance, named the Sage Awards’ “2011 Leadership Training and a panelist for the 2018 Dance Miami Choreographers’ Program. She currently serves as a member of the University of Minnesota’s Northrop Advisory Board.
Deneane Richburg (Choreographer, Dancer, former Competitive Figure
Skater, Founder/Artistic Director of Brownbody) grew up a competitive figure
skater—in spaces where she had to check her blackness at the door, as world
skating was dominated by whiteness and rooted in values that subjugated her
ancestry’s truths; to quote Zora Neale Hurston, she always felt “most colored
when [she was] thrown against a sharp white background.” Richburg realized
the need to carve out space for her ancestral history hence her decision to
establish Brownbody.
Since 2013 Brownbody has honored complex narratives of U.S.-based Black
communities by disrupting assumptions, and disenfranchising ideologies,
around blackness. She received her MFA in dance and choreography from
Temple University in 2007, an MA in Afro-American Studies from UW
Madison, and a BA in English and African American Studies from Carleton
College. Richburg has been choreographing work for both the stage and ice
since 2007 most recently completing an evening-length work called “Tracing
Sacred Steps” which brings ring shout onto the ice. Deneane was a recipient
of a 2017 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist
Fellowship, and a Dance/USA Fellowship to Artists made possible with
generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
The scope of Nic Lincoln’s choreographic career is comprised of 29 works, and he dancedprofessionally in the Twin Cities for over 20 years. His pieces have been commissioned by James Sewell Ballet, The O’Shaughnessy Theater, Hope College, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, DITA in Michigan, and the Human Rights Campaign. Most recently, he received the Cowles Center’s Generating Room: Open Proposal Initiative (2020), Minnesota State ArtsBoard Artist Initiative Grant (2015), a prestigious commission from Momentum for the Southern Theater, funded by the Walker Arts Theater, the Jerome Foundation, and the Cowles Theater (2015), and was Named One of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine (2013), and a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Dance (2011).
As a dance artist and activist he has teamed with OutFront MN, The Red Door Clinic, Transforming Families, The MN AIDS Project and The Human Rights Campaign. For his most recent work, “Escalade”, he is teaming with RECLAIM. RECLAIM works to increase access to mental health support so that queer and trans youth may reclaim their lives from oppression in all its forms. Follow Nic on Instagram @popartseeker
SUZANNE COSTELLO joined Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater in New York City in 1979 and became its Artistic Co-Director in 1984. During her career with the company, she has been highlighted as a performer, choreographer, teacher, and rehearsal director. As Director of Arts & Education and Arts & Healthcare Programs for the company, she creates and facilitates the many community-inclusive projects SPDT has come to be known for nationally and internationally.
Over the past decade she has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts for programs across the country that give voice to those whose stories have not been heard. Currently, she is developing a national performance project for persons with spinal cord injury, From Where I Sit, which will be premiered in Birmingham, AL in 2025. Recently, she directed the NEA project I Believe / The South Dakota Prison Project. This five-week program engaged men at the Sioux Falls Penitentiary in creating performance through writing and movement to express their non-carceral stories. Past NEA community performance projects include Our Country’s Keepers at the Walter Reed Military Center, Bethesda, MD, engaging active military and veterans; Raising Our Voices for the Birmingham cancer community; and LISTEN / Stories of Cancer told through Movement, Music & Voice, commissioned by Gilda’s Club of the Twin Cities, with participants impacted by cancer. https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/389513015
Ms. Costello has been invited to present on this body of work at the International Conference on Culture, Health, and Wellbeing Conference in Bristol, UK, and at the International Conference on Parole & Probation in Ottawa, Canada. National presentations have included the National Organization for Arts in Health, Austin, TX; Expressive Therapies Summit, NYC, NY; and Performing Arts Alliance, Atlanta, GA; among others.
Ms. Costello’s choreographic work has been honored with three Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and has been commissioned by national dance companies and individual artists. She directed and choreographed CATS for Broadway at Iroquois, Louisville; Go, Dog, Go! for Metro Theater Company, St. Louis, and Stage One, Louisville; and choreographed Grimm Tales for Children’s Theatre Company, Minneapolis. She has been a Guest Artist at colleges and universities across the U.S. and abroad and has twice been a Cowles Guest Artist as well as Affiliate Faculty for six years at the University of Minnesota.
In New York City, Costello performed with several companies, including David Gordon Pick Up Co. and Billy Siegenfeld & Dancers. She has also worked with colleague Joe Goode in San Francisco who created a solo for her, Movie Star Life. Ms. Costello began her study of dance under Annelise Mertz at Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Dance.
JANE SKINNER PECK is a researcher, choreographer, dance historian, teacher, writer/playwright and performer. She has worked across the U.S., Canada, and France for over thirty years. She found that dance history enables her to combine her love of history with her love of dance. She has extensive training in both modern dance and dance history, directing performances with her company Dance Revels Moving History since 1990. Jane’s period choreography conveys varied past cultures and economic classes of the Upper Midwest as well as Europe in a most immediate and authentic way. She has created work for St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, MN History Center, Sibley Historic Site, Mpls. Institute of Arts, Macalester College, NY Baroque Dance Company, Carleton College Theater, U of MN , Luther College. Her work has been seen at the Long Island NY Fringe Festival, Long Island University NY , Winnipeg's Festival de Voyageur, Ordway Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, and Intermedia Arts among others. Jane studied Renaissance and Baroque dance in California, NY, and France. She studied French-Canadian dance with Jean-Paul Cloutier of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Metis dance with Sandy Poitra of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwe Reservation of North Dakota.
Jane’s dance theater shows involve characters, stories, and live music. Dance Revels toured Jane’s show of MN Metis history through dance throughout MN schools and museums for 15 years. Since 2015 she annually writes and directs new History Alive! Lanesboro Pop-up Plays , with her original scripts about small town history, dance, and music staged in the streets of historic Lanesboro, MN.
Jane is a highly regarded dance educator, having taught school residencies for 20 years and has mentored teachers in the arts across the state for years through the Perpich Center for Arts Education. She is a frequent grant recipient and has taught at Winona State University, U of MN, UW Madison, Gustavus Adolphus, and Bemidji State. An historian, she is published by MN Historical Society.
Matthew Keefe has served the dance field for over 20 years as a dancer, teacher, choreographer, administrator, production & stage manager, non-profit consultant, board member, and artistic director.
He holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa and a non-profit management certificate from Rutgers University. Matthew has danced with James Sewell Ballet, Louisville Ballet and BalletMet Columbus, Charleston Ballet Theatre, has appeared as a guest artist for dozens of performances across the US and abroad including productions with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Minnesota Opera, and MN Orchestra’s 2015 production of Carousel.
He has choreographed over 50 ballets for professional and student ensembles. Matthew served on the board of Dance/USA for six years, chairing the Trustee Committee and a member of the Executive Committee. He served as the Artistic and School Director of the Rockford Dance Company where he led an increase in enrollment and reduction of deficit while creating several innovative productions with the performing company.
He was the stage manager for the 2010 and 2016 Youth America Grand Prix and appears (briefly) in the documentary, “First Position”. Matthew directed multiple productions for Children’s Dance Theatre in Rochester, MN including: The Mermaid (2016), The Jungle Book (2017), Cinderella (2018), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2019), and Alice in Wonderland (2021).
Matthew is proud to work at the University of Minnesota Extension as a Development Associate.
Brittany Fridenstine-Keefe danced with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Ballet Memphis, Minnesota Dance Theatre, James Sewell Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Terpsicorps Dance Theater, Terra Firma Dance Company, Chamber Dance Project, Collide Theatrical Dance Company, at the National Choreographers' Initiative, and with Morphoses. She performed in a solo improvisation show in Germany and Italy under the direction of Luca Veggetti, and was selected to be an American ambassador at the international dance festival in Cali, Columbia.
Administratively, Brittany is the Marketing and Communications Director and Young Dance and previously served as the School Coordinator of the Rockford Dance Company.
Brittany is certified in the GYROTONIC® exercise system and runs a home-based studio, My Spiral Motion, helping people to “live better in their own bodies!”
Jess Forest (Jesse Neumann-Peterson) is a dancer, theater performer, choreographer, and visual artist residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a nationally touring company member, teacher, and community outreach worker with Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater (SPDT) for eight seasons he has performed in the following company repertory works, Tales From the Book of Longing, Matinee, Bohemian Grove, Walking, Singing and Other Habits, Ways to Be Hold, You and The Others, Sentry, The Listen Project, and Terra Incognita.
He studied dance at the University of Minnesota, and the University of Minnesota Duluth. Before joining SPDT he was a company member, performer, and teacher with Intergenerational dance company Kairos Dance Theater (Kairos Alive!). As an independent dancer he has performed with Flying Foot Forum, Christopher Watson Dance Company, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Dance Theater, Zenon, Rosy Simas, Vanessa Voskuil, Sharon Picasso, Off-Leash Area, Tino Sehgal, Claude Wampler,
and many others. As a choreographer he has created works for Sally Dixon, 16 Feet, 9X22, Cities Ballet, and the 2022 Right Here Showcase.
Jesse is a 2014 Sage Award Recipient for Outstanding Dance Performer, awarded for his performances in The Student by Vanessa Voskuil, Under the Current by Sharon Picasso, and Azalea Nights by Christine Maginnis.
Stephen Yogi Rueff grew up in Minneapolis collecting comic books in the 1960s and loves his role as co-founder of SuperMonster市City!, where he is a curator and managing director.
SuperMonster市City! places American monsters, superheroes, and villains as represented in toys, games, posters, and more, into social and political contexts. Through informative texts, artist profiles, and commentary, these fun and engaging exhibitions feature America’s iconic mythical figures from America’s Golden Age of toys.
SuperMonster市City! was co-founded by master collector David Barnhill and curator Rueff. The traveling exhibits are derived from Barnhill’s collection of 200,000 toys, posters, games, and films. Rueff, as Managing Director and Curator, places the objects in social and political contexts through reflective and informative texts, artist profiles, and commentary. Barnhill and Rueff enjoy sharing America’s iconic mythical figures from America’s Golden Age of toys.
Rueff has worked in the arts as a performer, designer, manager, and producer, touring around the globe with performing artists such as MacArthur Genius Award Recipients Meredith Monk and Bill T. Jones, as well as Blue Man Group, Karen Finley, and many, many other artists and creatives. As an Account Manager and Executive Producer for global corporate communications companies Jack Morton Worldwide and BI Worldwide, he produced events throughout the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Czech Republic, and Bahrain.
Rueff now enjoys coaching business start-ups and is Chair of the Arts Entrepreneurship department at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His academic research explores American culture and the role of fear in play, and through toys, monsters, superheroes, and villains.
Rueff earned his MBA with an emphasis in Leadership and Sustainable Business from Presidio Graduate School. Rueff’s BA from Empire State University, the same college attended by Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man! ‘Nuff said.
Megan Mayer
I am an award-winning Minneapolis-based artist working with choreography, dance, experimental video and photography. My work pulls from minimalism, transposition, mimicry, grief, tenderness, wry humor, loneliness, social anxiety, fake bad timing and exacting musicality. By exposing tiny emotional undercurrents, I find virtuosity through vulnerability and gesture. Drawn to the edges of the experience of performing: the anticipatory rapid heartbeat before going onstage, and the regretful relief after exiting, my work often reveals where that switch lives in the body. I make deeply personal dances that celebrate the people performing them.
For 35+ years I've always held a full-time job in addition to being an artist. My job and dancemaking are so intertwined that I can't consider one without the demands of the other. I make art work amidst the inequities and confines of late-stage capitalism and try to use my privilege to advocate for fellow artists and employees.
My work has been generously supported by two McKnight Foundation Choreographic Fellowships, residencies at the National Center for Choreography (Ohio), Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (Florida) and several local arts organizations, grants from MRAC, MSAB and Jerome Foundation, a Sage Dance Award and numerous choreographic commissions. www.meganmayer.com
J’Sun Howard is a Chicago-based dancemaker. He holds an MFA in Dance and a certificate in World Performance Studies from the University of Michigan. He is a 2020 3Arts Awardee, a recipient of their inaugural Esteemed Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), and a 2019 Asian Cultural Council Fellow. A Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellow, a Ragdale Foundation Sybil Shearer Fellow, 2017 3Arts Make A Wave Awardee and 2014 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist. His works have been presented at Links Hall, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Defibrillator Performance Gallery, Patrick’s Cabaret (Minneapolis, MN), Danspace Project (NYC), Center for Performance Research (NYC), Detroit Dance City Festival (Detroit, MI), New Dance Festival (Daejeon, South Korea) where he won Best Dance Choreographer and the World Dance Alliance’s International Young Choreographers’ Project (Kaohsiung, Taiwan), among others. He has been commissioned by Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, World Dance Alliance, and The Art Institute of Chicago.
Native to St. Paul, MN, Berit Ahlgren trained at Minnesota Dance Theater with Loyce and Lise Houlton, and was a founding company member of TU Dance, performing between the years of 2006—2016. Receiving Metropolitan Regional Art Council’s Next Step Grant in 2011, Ahlgren studied the Gaga Movement Language in Tel Aviv, and shortly thereafter moved to Israel to pursue an intensive, yearlong teacher certification. Ahlgren transitioned to New York City in 2014 to obtain her MFA in Dance from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, developing ties in the community while teaching Gaga at both Gibney and Mark Morris Dance Centers. Returning to Minnesota late 2016, Ahlgren has been working as dance educator, performer, choreographer, and collaborator across the U.S. and abroad, using her relationship with Gaga as a lens to define her artistic process. Ahlgren established the organization HoneyWorks in 2019 to house her creative work, and most notably co-created “Live at the Shed” in 2020 with Helen Hatch (Hatch Dance), an annual, summer, outdoor dance production with a rotating cast of 25+ dancers from the community.
Maria Gomez Tierney has been choreographing, dancing and teaching in the Twin Cities since 1989. She received a B.A from the University of Minnesota and an M.F.A. from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Tierney has directed Gomez Dance Group since 1998. Her dance work has been presented at many venues throughout the St. Paul and Minneapolis area. She was a faculty member at Gustavus Adolphus College and Hamline University, where she directed and co-directed the dance company programs. Tierney has taught Creative Dance and Dance for All Abilities for Young Dance, where she also served on the board of directors. In 2011, She completed the Master’s-level Holistic Health Studies Graduate Certificate at St. Catherine’s University, and became a certified Master Reiki practitioner. Tierney is also a certified yoga teacher and has taught since 2004. All of these endeavors would not be possible without the support and love of her family, Joe, Dave and especially Tom.
Mariusz Olszewski, ballroom artist, coach and choreographer whose work has been presented at the biggest ballroom venues, dance festivals, theaters and television around the world. He choreographed for the World, American, Polish and Ohio Star Ball Champions and other top ranking ballroom couples including Blackpool Dance Festival American Smooth finalist.
Mariusz, moved to Minneapolis in 1996 to join Jazzdance! by Danny Buraczeski and danced with the company for 5 years performing at the most prominent stages and dance festivals such as Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theater, Ordway Center for Performing Arts and The Guthrie Theater as well as Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival as well as American Dance Festival among others.
Prior to Jazzdance, Mr.Olszewski was a lead dancer and assistant to artistic director of The Silesian Dance Theater, the first professional modern dance company in his native country Poland.
During his 5 seasons with The Silesian Dance Theater he had performed and worked with such renown choreographers and dance legends as Anna Sokolow, Gerri Houlihan, Teresa Freedman, Melissa Monteros, Avi Kaiser, Mark Haim, David Dorfman, Wendell Beavers, Stephanie Skura, Risa Jarolow , Sam Costa and company's artistic director Jacek Luminski among others.
For his roles created in that company he received Silesia’s President’s Award for Outstanding Artist in 1995.
He is a founding member of Beyond Ballroom Dance Company and served as its Artistic Co-director and Rehearsal Director.
Mariusz’s work is driven from his modern, jazz ,ballroom dancing and theater experience.
He choreographed and collaborated with Minneapolis prime dancers and companies such as Zenon Dance Comapny, Minnesota Dance Theater and James Sewell Ballet's Sally Rousse , Cathy Young Dances, Robin Stiehm's Dancing People Company.
Mariusz graduated from The Institute of Culture Theater Department in Opole, Poland.
He was a guest choreographer on popular television show "Dancing With the Stars" and featured choreographer for 8 seasons on "So You Think You Can Dance”/ Poland creating a record number of over 35 routines in contemporary, modern jazz and ballroom dance styles.
In 2016 he was invited to choreograph two ballroom shows “ Rhythm Divine” and “Grace” for Hong Kong’s biggest Dream Cruise Line.
Mariusz is a recipient of 2005 McKnight Artists Fellowship for Dancers.
Megan Flood danced for over a decade as a member of Zenon Dance Company, was a founding member of Wynn Fricke's Borrowed Bones Dance Theatre, performed as a guest artist with Bill Young and with Wil Swanson, and collaborated with a myriad of independent choreographers in the Twin Cities. In collaboration with guitarist/composer Dean Magraw, Megan created improvisation-based work, including the dance/music duet "Eva Arriving," and in 2005 was awarded a McKnight Fellowship for lifetime contribution to the field of dance in Minnesota. As a member of a hospital-based Integrative Therapies Department, Megan provided massage therapy and Reiki for oncology, palliative care, and surgical patients. Megan is a graduate of St. Catherine University's master's program in occupational therapy; her love of movement and her commitment to facilitating a felt sense of safety for clients and colleagues inform her current work as an occupational therapist working in mental health. Megan is a Reiki master, a Global Somatics practitioner, and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and she finds joy in getting outdoors as often as possible.
Duncan C. Schultz, born and raised just outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota, received his early dance training at Metro Dance Center. After completing his B.A. in Dance at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities he worked with Mathew Janczewski’s ARENA Dances, Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad’s BodyCartography Project and Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands’ TU Dance.
While in the United States, he has had the privilege of working with choreographers Dwight Rhoden, Alonzo King, Gioconda Barbuto, Camille A. Brown and Gregory Dolbashian. Following his time working in the Twin Cities, he moved to Kaiserslautern, Germany to work at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern under the direction of James Sutherland. Currently he is a member at the GöteborgsOperan Danskompani in Sweden with Artistic Director Katrín Hall.
While in Europe, he has created and performed works by Sharon Eyal, Damien Janet, Crystal Pite, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Maxine Doyle, Alexander Ekman, Ohad Naharin, Roy Assaf, and Marina Mascarell to name a few. He received the Sage Award for Dance in 2014 as an Outstanding Performer and in 2016 as the Hoffnungsträger (Bearer of Hope) by TANZ Jahrbuch in Germany.
Leslie has danced professionally since 2004. She began her formal training at age 18 at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay and received her BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota in 2003. Leslie was a founding member of Black Label Movement from 2005 – 2009, and joined nationally acclaimed repertory company Zenon Dance in 2006. She built a rich and diverse performance career at Zenon until its final performance in 2019 when the company closed its doors. Leslie has performed as a guest artist with the Minnesota Opera, Jon Ferguson’s Theatre Forever, Shapiro and Smith Dance, Tamara Ober, Paula Mann, Maggie Bergeron, Laura Osterhaus/SLO Dance, and James Everest/Wavelets Creative in collaboration with the seasonal “Soundgardens” in outdoor spaces. Presently she is in collaboration with Mathew Janczewski/ARENA Dances and Berit Ahlgren/Honeyworks for works to premiere summer 2023.
Leslie has earned recognition for her excellence in performance with Sage Award Nominations in 2009 and 2016 and she is the recipient of a McKnight Fellowship for Dancers in 2010. Leslie’s choreography has been supported by Red Eye Theater, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Walker Arts Center, Minnesota State Arts Board, and Bryant Lake Bowl’s 9x22, where she most recently featured her latest solo project. Her teaching experience spans all ages, public schools, rural dance studios and intensives. She completed teacher training with Dance for Parkinson’s Disease at the Mark Morris Dance Group in New York City in 2018, and has volunteered within her community to serve as grant and fellowship review panelist for McKnight Foundation, MSAB, MRAC, and the Sage Award Committee.
Diane Elliot was born in Chicago and grew up in the north suburbs. Trained in dance from an early age, she received extensive training in dance and theatre at New Trier High School in Winnetka and in 1971 graduated summa cum laude, phi beta kappa from the University of Michigan, with a major in American Arts. For the next 25 years, Diane enjoyed a varied career in dance and theatre, studying with Alwin Nikolais and Murry Louis, Nancy Meehan and Finis Jung in New York City; performing and touring from 1972-77 with New York-based Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company; and producing her own work in New York in such venues as The Dance Gallery, the Theatre of Riverside Church, and Dance Theatre Workshop, as well as across the country. From 1979-82 she taught at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers, France, and performed with La Manivelle throughout Alsace.
In 1981 Diane relocated to Minneapolis, where she taught at the University of Minnesota as a guest artist and then joined MICA (the Minnesota Independent Choreographer’s Alliance, later the Minnesota DanceAlliance). For a number of years, she edited MICA’s newsletter and worked in the office. During her time in New York and Minnesota, Diane created over 30 dances, including commissions for the Ft. Wayne Dance Collective, The Yard, Dance Caravan, the Carolina Dancers, Zenon Dance Company, the New Dance Ensemble, and the Jerome Foundation, as well serving as choreographer for several productions at the Illusion Theatre and the Guthrie Lab production of Cymbeline. Her work was recognized with grants from the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board Grants, Artslink, and the Jerome Foundation.
Beginning in 1983, Diane trained in the somatic modality Body-Mind Centering® with its founder, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, and for some 30 years maintained a private practice in somatic therapy and taught in the School for Body-Mind Centering’s training programs. In 1990 she co-founded the Women’s Performance
Project, which explored the healing potential of movement-based performance in a series of five evening-length performances, including Bloodroot and Labyrinth.
In 1998 Diane relocated to California and in 2000 matriculated at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California, in Los Angeles. Ordained as a rabbi in 2006, Diane has served communities in the Bay Area. As a Program Director for the ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal, she created and directed the Embodying Spirit, En-spiriting Body training, a residential retreat program in embodied Jewish spiritual leadership. She currently teaches independently; serves as a spiritual director; is on the faculty of Taproot, a spiritual training program for Jewish activists, artists, and, and changemakers; and is a founding member and on the advisory council of the Embodied Jewish Wisdom Network.
Diane is the author of three books of poetry, most recently The Voice is
Movement (Hakodesh Press, 2020). You can learn more about her work at
www.whollypresent.org.
Cynthia Stevens/ INSITU slips into swamps, streams and forests creating environmental performance and media. This multidisciplinary work explores the interconnections of dance with original music, somatics and ecology to foster a visceral sense of place.
Over the past 40 years her productions have been presented in the United States, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. She has created over 60 works including What If I…; Calling Down the Moon; Unearthed with Judith Howard in their collaborative company Flying Sisters Theatre; numerous site-based works for her group INSITU including Leonora’s Dream in collaboration with poet William Reichard in Wirth Park, Minneapolis and in the Kröller-Muller Scupture Garden, Otterlo, Netherlands, Bodies of Water in the Chain of Lakes, Mpls, BIG TREES/small dance in Muir Woods National Monument, California for its Centennial, and the SOURCE series of performances and film set in Six Mile Creek, the water source for Ithaca, NY. Recent solos include Still Here, exploring species extinction; and site-specific works Dwell, Limb to Limb, and Near/Far.
Cynthia’s productions features original, live music including her own vocal compositions, the vocal and violin compositions of Jane Anfinson for several works in Flying Sisters Theatre, as well as collaborations with Sera Smolen, Max Buckholtz, Mary Ellen Childs, Michelle Kinney, Carl Witt, Kate Lynch and Annie Enneking.
Cynthia has collaborated with numerous improvisers including Nancy Stark Smith, Karen Nelson, Kirstie Simson, Megan Flood, Jane Shockley, Andrew Harwood, Martin Keogh, Chris Mathias, and site-specific outdoor improvisation for five years with Julie Nathanielsz. She has performed with choreographers Diane Elliot, Hijack, Ann Carlson, Bill T Jones, Georgia Stephens, and FX Widarayanto, and in the dances of Hanya Holm and Nancy Hauser.
Her work has been recognized by, among others, two McKnight Fellowships; grants funded by the Jerome Foundation; an NEA/Intermedia Arts Interdisciplinary Arts Grant; MN State Arts Board Grants;a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts for her film, SOURCE; NY Danceforce commissions; and artist residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the SEEDS Festival in MA and META in North Carolina.
Cynthia has a BS in Natural Resources/Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a certified Somatic Movement Educator and Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering(R). She has taught courses and workshops in site-specific dance making, dance, somatics and eco-somatics to participants of all ages in universities, schools, festivals and workshops. She currently lives with her husband, Jean-Luc Jannink, in Ithaca, NY.
Chitra Vairavan is an artist, seeker, contemporary indian dancer/choreographer and educator born in Milwaukee, WI (occupied Potowatami, Ho Chunk and Menomonee land) and culturally raised as an artist based in Mni Sota Makoce / Minnesota (occupied Dakota Oyate land). With ancestral roots in Kandanur and Rayavaram, she is immersed in Tamil/Thamizh culture and progressive politics in the U.S. Her embodied practice and experimental process is rooted in deep listening, spatial observation, freedoms, poetry, vulnerability and ancestral memory. Vairavan dances to heal and creates dance to help heal others. The aesthetic of her movement is through both yoga and contemporary Indian dance forms – mainly a mixture of training in Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Yorchha™.
Erinn Liebhard (MFA University of Colorado Boulder, BFA University of Minnesota) is a dance artist making opportunities for people to experience the reflective and connective power of groove through performance and education. Guided by this inspiration and a fondness for jazz and American social dance ideas, she's worked with creatives as varied as hip-hop dance theater artists Rennie Harris and the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers Appalachian clogging company. Currently, in performance, she makes and performs new staged works and presents those of others through her company Rhythmically Speaking and plays as “Nerdette” for St. Paul Saints Baseball, in addition to making new works for professional companies, colleges and high schools. In education, she works as a Teaching Artist for the Cowles Center and serves as a member of their Advisory Council, is on faculty at several area art high schools and universities, conducts educational outreach through her company and is an active writer and conference presenter. She is driven to connect with people and help them connect to themselves, one another and the moment through rooted and innovative embodiment of groove. erinnliebhard.com.
LISA 'MONALISA' BERMAN is the founder and Artistic Director of BRKFST Dance Company. She is the recipient of the 2019 Artist Initiative Grant to produce “Dreamers,” a short experimental dance film choreographed and performed by members of BRKFST and directed by Maria Juranic, 2016 McKnight Dancer Fellowship, and 2008 Jerome Travel and Study Grant. In collaboration with Joseph Tran and BRKFST Dance Company, Berman has set repertoire and original works on dancers at Bates Dance Festival, Dance2Connect Hip Hop Festival in Dublin, Ireland, The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Carleton College and Hamline University. She has performed in Minnesota, Connecticut, Florida, Washington DC, New York, the Netherlands, and Ireland. MonaLisa is currently working as a Breaking instructor for Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and resident Teaching Artist for The Cowles Center.
JOSEPH “MN JOE” TRAN is a founding member of BRKFST Dance Company and also a member of the world-renowned breaking crew Knuckleheads Cali, respected for their uniquely intricate and non-traditional methods of movement. Tran is therecipient of the 2019 McKnight Dancer Fellowship and is known for his signature moves which have earned him multiple first-place victories in breaking competitions across the US, Europe, and South America. Tran has choreographed multiple original works which have premiered at various venues such as The Cowles Center, Southern Theater, and Orchestra Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra. He has toured internationally to Ireland for Dance 2 Connect Festival and nationally to Hartford, CT with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Tran has set repertoire with BRKFST at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Carleton College, and Bates Dance Festival. From 2007-2019, he was a dancer and choreographer for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves “First Avenue Breakers.” Tran currently works as a breaking instructor for Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and Young Dance.
Annie Enneking has been a performing artist for over forty years. In her various capacities as actor, dancer, songwriter and fight director, her work has been seen on almost every stage in the Twin Cities, as well as across the country. She fronts and founded the band Annie and the Bang Bang, with whom she goes on many rock and roll adventures. She was a 2010 Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellow, and has twice received a Minnesota State Arts Board Music Grant to further her work as a theatre/music maker. Additionally, she received support from the Jerome Foundation and Minnesota Regional Arts Council for devised music events like what i want now i will want later (created with Samantha Johns). Based on the myth of the Sirens, it was part fight club, part movement event, part album release party. As a dancer, Annie worked and toured professionally with Paula Mann Dance, Shawn McConneloug and Her Orchestra, Jane Shockley, and Danny Buraczeski’s JAZZDANCE. Combining her love of dance and acting, she currently teaches the art of stage violence at the University of Minnesota, in both the BA and BFA programs. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, firefighter and writer, Jeremy Norton, with whom she has two amazing daughters.
A dance artist born on occupied land and deeply rooted in the neighborhood named the Rondo community of St. Paul, MN. She holds a BFA from Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance, a MFA in Dance from Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and The Dresden Frankfurt Company in Frankfurt, Germany and is a 2017 Bessie award recipient. As a dance creative, she highlights unique individual contributions while digging into collective memory to engage with the world more imaginatively. Her aesthetic encompasses an organic physical/movement hybrid influenced by the Black and African Diaspora: Traditional W. African, Black/African American vernacular/social dance, Improvisation, and Contemporary/Modern technique that is derived from and exchanged across multiple continents. She created Leslie Parker Dance Project, LLC as a means to experience dance more inventively and intuitively. Her work is mostly recently funded by Funded by National Dance Project/nefa, National Performance Network Creation Fund, National Performance Development Fund and National Performance Network Community Engagement Fund.
Sherry Saterstrom helped shape the life of the dance program at St. Olaf College from the late 1960’s when she was a student there. A twist of fate brought her back as a guest artist and teacher after completing a Master’s Degree in Dance/Humanities at Arizona State University. Over the years her fascination with invention yielded classes such as The Body Movable, Power Play, The Beat Goes On, Movement as a Metaphor, Improvisation as Practice and Performance. In 2000 with a growing passion for improvisation in movement technique and performance, she invented The Improvisation Ensemble. This group continued to re-invent itself with each new season of possibility.
Between1978-84 Sherry created and co-directed Dance Co’Motion, a modern dance company whose work was focused in the Artist-in-Residence program of the National Endowment for the Arts. Over the years she enjoyed performing with other dance artists--- Maria Cheng and Dancers, Paula Mann, Bill T. Jones, Lovice Weller, Deborah Hay, Body Cartography---and learning from their artistic visions.
As a seeker of new adventures in 2001 Sherry developed a workshop, ”Dance in the Rainforest” at a biological field station in the rainforest of Costa Rica. The workshop intended to pull dancers and movement artists out of their more controlled environments and challenge their notions of dance. It aimed for personal and artistic discovery through navigating unfamiliar terrain.
Since 1984 Sherry has focused her training in the area of body-mind studies as it relates to movement, dance and the learning process. She is a certified Body-Mind Centering practitioner and includes meditation, Authentic Movement, yoga, Gaga and movement improvisation in her ongoing physical practice. Her most recent fascination is with the world of fitness and its relationship to her fundamental passion for all things physical.
Brian J. Evans (He/Him/His) is a Citizen Artist, defined by the Aspen Institute Arts Program as:
Individuals who reimagine the traditional notions of art-making, and who contribute to society either through the transformative power of their artistic abilities, or through proactive social engagement with the arts in realms including education, community building, diplomacy and healthcare.
Mixing disciplines, mixing professions, and of mixed race, Brian J. Evans unpacks the “moments of suspension” that reside in the spaces between spaces. Courageous vulnerability and intentional equity keeps him aloft as he finds ways to give back and add to the communities, mentors, and ancestors who blazed trails and continue to do so! Evans believes it is the responsibility of the Arts to rediscover existing connections within humanity. Evans is a recipient of a 2015 McKnight Dance Fellowship, administered by The Cowles Center and funded by The McKnight Foundation. A recent graduate from the Dance MFA program from the University of Washington (UW) Seattle Campus, he was awarded the Howard P. Dallas Endowed Fellowship for his service on the UW dance department’s newly founded diversity community and his service as a liaison on the Divisional Arts Diversity Committee. His current adventure includes a Mellon Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship with Faculty Renewal as a tenure-track professor in the Theater and Dance department at Bates College in Lewiston, ME. Come be apart of the journey and thank you for all you do and who you are!!
www.brianjevans.org
Stephen Schroeder began his dance career at the ripe age of 6, danced for a couple years then picked it back up before high school. While pursuing his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, he danced professionally with local Boulder companies Blue Moon Dance Theater, Helander Dance Theater, David Capps/Dances, Interweave Dance Theater, The Boulder Ballet and other local independent artists. Upon completing his degree in 2001, he moved to Minneapolis and continued his career with Zenon Dance Company. In the Twin Cities area he also performed with Minnesota Dance Theater, TU Dance, ARENA Dances (more about that in a moment), Nautilus Music Theater, The Minnesota Opera, Cathy Young Dance, DanceCo and local independent artists Megan Mayer, Penelope Freeh, Nic Lincoln, Devin Carey, and the Flamettes. He also guested with Sean Curran Company out of New York City.
While in college he also began his journey in the backstage technical and production elements of dance performances working closely with Robert Shannon, the Technical Director of the Dance Department at the time. He worked shows for the CU-Boulder Dance department and Macky Auditorium as well as locally with the Colorado Dance Festival. Once moving to Minnesota, he continued to work the technical side of productions as the touring technical director for Zenon Dance Company and ARENA Dances.
Currently he is the Technical Director for the Dance Department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.
While dancing in ARENA, he met Stephanie Laager and eventually they would marry and spawn three wonderful children, Paityn and twins Rylan and Beckett. Presently they are all living and thriving in Nowthen, MN with the menagerie of animals that make up the Sparkle Ranch.
"I'd like to thank Mathew for this opportunity to have a conversation and reminisce. Thanks for all the good times, and, well being a matchmaker too!"
Holly Farnsworth Schramm is a native of Minnesota. She received an Associate Arts Degree in Dance from Stephen’s College in Columbia, Missouri in 1981, and a B.S. in Dance Education from the University of Minnesota in 1985. She performed with the Rezone Dancers in 1983 and was an understudy for The Minnesota Jazz Dance Company in 1985. She went on to be a founding member of Ballet Harren, where
she performed prolifically from 1985-1989 under the direction of William (Bill) Harren. It was a dream come true.
Holly taught dance as an artist in residence in 1989-90, as well as modern and jazz dance in various capacities, throughout her dance career. She was a founding member of the Dance Educators Coalition and curated the choreographer’s evening in 1989. Holly created and produced her own work as well as performed with a variety of independent artists throughout her professional career. She received two
Dancer Pool Grants from the Minnesota Dance Alliance.
While serving on the board of directors for the Minnesota Dance Alliance in 1991-92, Holly fell in love with the work of McKnight Fellowship recipients Kari Margolis and Tony Brown. In 1993, Holly began studying with Kari Margolis and went on to become a company member. Holly performed with Margolis Brown Company till 1997. Another dream came true.
In 2003 Holly had her first introduction to yoga. She completed her 200 and 500 hour trainings through the Minneapolis Yoga Center in 2007 and 2014 respectively. Holly has been teaching a wide range of yoga since 2007. She currently teaches classes, workshops, and in the teacher training program at The Minneapolis Yoga Retreat. You can find out more about Holly’s offerings at Hollyschrammyoga.com Holly is also a Reiki Master and ambassador of the Love Peace project.
Julia Tehven Sutton began her professional career with Minnesota Dance Theatre under the Artistic Director and Founder Loyce Houlton, performing in many of her original works as well as ballets of renowned choreographers such as Balanchine, Glen Tetley, Frederick Ashton, Petipa and Michael Fokine. In 1988 Julia joined Myron Johnson’s Ballet of the Dolls dancing in countless original works including the Children’s Theatre productions of Beatrix Potter and Worn Out Dancing Shoes (based on the 12 Dancing Princesses by the Brothers Grimm). Julia has also danced with James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Opera, Chanhassen Dinner Theater and acted in the Jungle Theatre productions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, The Glass Menagerie and Bus Stop. She has performed with local choreographers and was invited to join Robin Stiehm’s Dancing People for a performance in Ashland Oregon. She has taught ballet at Larkin Dance, Summit School of Dance, Minnesota Dance Theatre,
Zenon and most recently at the Reif Dance program in Grand Rapids, MN. In 2004 Julia was awarded the McKnight Fellowship for Dancers and commissioned John Kelly for her SOLO piece, Mrs. Hamlet.
Julia now lives in Central Minnesota in a beautiful house on a beautiful lake with a beautiful husband and beautiful daughter, Ruby, and is quite content.
Judith James Ries grew up in Wales Great Britain and was 4 when she started dancing at the Royal Academy of Dance. After moving to Minnesota with her family she continued training at Larkin Dance Studio.
After choosing a business degree at the University of Minnesota, she made her way back to dance when she joined the Zenon Scholarship program where she met Danny Buraczeski.
Judith spent ten years performing and touring nationally with JAZZDANCE! as soloist, principle dancer and company member - one of the best jobs ever! After leaving in 2002 to start a family Judith started her teaching career which lead her to Four Seasons Dance, Shattuck/St. Mary’s, University of Minnesota, Gustavus, Adolphus College, Hamline University, Concordia University and Macalester College.
As a Choreographer, her work has been produced by Zenon Dance Company, Hamline University Dance Ensemble, and Eclectic Edge Ensemble. As Movement Coach her work has been seen at Park Square Theater and the Phipps Center for the Arts.
She joined the teaching staff of St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists in 2009 and has taught Jazz Dance, Jazz History, Jazz Improvisation, Social Dance, Choreography, Musical Theater Repertory and Directing in the Dance and Musical Theater departments. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Musical Theater department and is an Administrative Assistant to the Arts and Academic staff.
“Choreographer Heidi Spesard Noble…created dances that bring us into our leads’
inner lives, Thais, Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press, (2018) and “able to blend dancers
and singers seamlessly” Lydia Lunning, Rusalka, twincitiesarts.com (2016). Heidi
Spesard Noble is a multifaceted choreographer telling stories through Opera and
Theater.
Ms. Spesard Noble has developed strong relationships with Minnesota Opera and
local theaters in the Twin Cities and surrounding region, choreographing for a
variety of productions including Seven World Premieres. Mid Life Crisis, (1997)
Chanhassen Dinner Theaters, Grapes of Wrath (2010) assistant choreographer,
Wuthering Heights (2011), Dream of Valentino (2012), The Shining (2016), The Fix
(2019) and most recently Edward Tulane (2022). Notable recognition was Artistry
Theater’s A New Brain voted Top Ten Theater Productions by Star Tribune (2019).
She previously danced professionally under the direction of founder Loyce
Houlton, performing classical ballet and contemporary dances. She also appeared
in Loyce’s film Knoxville, Summer of 1915. The next engagements included those
with State Ballet of Missouri, Ballet of the Dolls and subsequently Chanhassen
Dinner Theaters where she appeared in more than fifteen musicals. Her favorites
include Brigadoon (her choreography debut), 42 nd St., Phantom, Crazy For You and
Fiddler on the Roof to name a few.
Heidi holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Ballet from the University of Utah. She
continues to choreograph at theaters and educational institutions in the region.
Gretchen Pick has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, an MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin, and is a certified Laban Movement Analyst. She has been an active dancer, teacher and choreographer in the Twin Cities since 1993. The companies and choreographers she has danced for include 45 Chartreuse, Gomez Dance Group, 10,000 Dances, Flying Sisters Theater, Dancing People Company, Sarah Hauss and Megan Flood. She started dancing as a teen-ager in the Youth Movement Company, directed by Stephen Rueff, where she first experienced the model she tries to put into place today – Young people are artists with something important to say, and we are all enriched when they are given opportunities to create work and venues in which to perform it!
Gretchen’s own choreography, along with that of collaborative partner Sarah Gordon under the name of RIG, was showcased at several Twin Cities venues as well as he Show Off Gallery in Bellingham, WA and the International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Bytom, Poland. Her work has been commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Winona State University and Carleton College.
Gretchen has taught dance and yoga to students of all ages at various schools in the Twin Cities metro area, including the University of Minnesota.
Gretchen came to Young Dance as an Artistic Director in 2000, and has primarily focused her exploration, creation, and performance of dance at Young Dance since 2005. She has spearheaded the development of Young Dance’s All Abilities Dancing initiative, which integrates individuals with and without disabilities across all programs. She has created and performed integrated dance with Gomez Dance Group, Croi Glan Dance Company, Angelique Lele, Dwayne Scheunemann, and Young Dance’s All Abilties Dancing class. Dancing with individuals with disabilities has transformed Gretchen’s understanding and practice of dance. Gretchen is currently the Executive Director of Young Dance and continues to teach classes and create choreography for Young Dancers.
Yuki Tokuda is a ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher, based in the Twin Cities.
She is originally from Japan and was trained under Mikiko Dei, Hideo Fukagawa and
Jun Ishii, internationally recognized dancers, teachers and competition judges. She
moved to the US in 2000 to continue her training in New York at the Joffrey Ballet
School. Ms. Tokuda has danced professionally with USA Ballet, Peoria Ballet,
Metropolitan Ballet and she was the principal dancer at Continental Ballet for 7 years.
With diverse training in classical, contemporary, modern and jazz, she is an
international guest dancer and collaborator with many companies, including James
Sewell Ballet and Minnesota Dance Theatre. While training in New York, Ms. Tokuda’s
instructors included David Howard, John Prinz, Fabrice Herrault, and Michael Vernon. At Steps on Broadway in New York she was one of the first International Visa Program students. She has, also, trained with Boston Ballet and Connecticut Ballet. She has performed many principal roles, most notably in: Le Corsaire, Don Quixote Pas de Deux, Les Sylphides, Pas de Quatre, Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, Princess Aurora, Lilac Fairy and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, the Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in The Nutcracker, Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, Coppelia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the title roles in Romeo and Juliet, and Giselle. She has performed at The Walker Art Center, The Ritz Theater, The State Theatre, The Tek Box, The Ted Mann Concert Hall, The O’Shaughnessy, The Pantages Theatre, The Intermedia Arts, The Lab Theatre and Peavey Plaza.
Ms. Tokuda is a faculty member at Minnesota Dance Theatre, Ballet Co.Laboratory,
Community Movement Collective and a certified STOTT Pilates Instructor. She has
taught many master classes in Japan and the US including at Cathedral Dance Festival
and Interlochen Center for the Arts. Her choreography was chosen for Choreographer’s
Evening at The Walker Arts Center and commissioned by Wayzata Symphony
Orchestra, Wooddale Church, Cerulean Fire, Japan America Society of Minnesota,
Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and Threads Dance Project. She is a
recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board and St. Louis Park Arts & Culture Grant. She is
a co-director with Rie Tanaka of Mirage Performing Arts where their mission is
envisioning, enriching and enhancing both the cultures of Classical Music and Ballet.
She is the owner/designer of YukiTard, a custom dancewear company, as well as, the
owner/instructor of Tokuda Ballet, a private ballet school. www.yukitokuda.com
Michael Casper was born and raised in Rockland County, New York. He began dancing at age 19 at Swarthmore College while getting his degree in English Literature. In addition to taking classes with the Swarthmore faculty, Michael studied dance in New York at the Cunningham studio and worked as an administrative intern for Twyla Tharp Dance.
He moved to Minneapolis in 1989 to be an understudy with New Dance Ensemble. He became a company member in 1989 and was with the Ensemble and Laboratory until its disbanding in 1994. From 1994 to 1997, Michael danced independently with Minnesota Opera, Children’s Theatre, and independent choreographers in the Twin Cities, including the Flying Sisters. He also worked as an independent choreographer. His work was presented at various venues including Choreographer’s evening at the Walker and Studio 2B at the Hennepin Center for theArts. From 1998 to 2001 Michael was dance and movement instructor/choreographer for the Eden Prairie High School marching band color guard.
In 1996, Michael enrolled at the Minnesota Center for Shiatsu Study and completed Shiatsu training in 1997. After graduating, he began working at the school as a therapist and instructor, which later merged with Northern Lights school of Massage to become CenterPoint. In 2006, Michael completed the western massage training at CenterPoint in Swedish, Trigger Point Therapy, and Therapeutic Massage.
Michael has been a bodywork therapist and instructor for over 25 years. He has practiced in a range of professional settings including the Aliveness Project, Qi Nordeast, the Great Metropolitan Backrub and CenterPoint Professional Clinic. He currently practices at The Wellness Center in south Minneapolis.
In addition to Shiatsu and Massage therapy, Michael has done additional training in Thai Yoga Massage, Cupping, Moxibustion, Tuina, Foot and Hand Reflexology.
In his time as an instructor at CenterPoint, Michael has taught a wide range of classes including Shiatsu technique, Summary session, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Professional ethics and communication, and Special Populations.
Maggie Bergeron is a teacher, choreographer, dancer, and writer whose life has moved from a Northwestern MN farm to boarding school in Michigan to Minneapolis, MN, where she currently resides. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the U of MN Dance Program, dances on occasion, makes collaborative work for all sorts of performance occasions, and produced and curated a music/movement festival called Hear Here! along with her composer husband Nicholas Gaudette in 2015 and 2017. Maggie is committed to engaging the process of collaboration in her work, and is most interested in a holistic imagining of a performance experience for audience members. Her work has been seen locally at Studio Z with Zeitgeist, the Southern Theater, Red Eye Theater, Walker Art Center and Bryant Lake Bowl and nationally at Interlochen Arts Academy, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and Keshet Dance Company. Maggie co-authored Approaching College with Purpose, a textbook for first year experience courses, and is committed to supporting students making the transition into and out of college. Maggie graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy and holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. She is a Licensed K-12 Dance Instructor and holds a Masters of Arts in Teaching.
Abdo Sayegh-Rodriguez (Executive Director and Teaching Artist). Originally from Venezuela, Abdo’s early performing career included both of Venezuela's leading companies: the Ballet Nacional de Caracas and Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas. Coming to the US as a guest artist in 1994, he performed with Minnesota Dance Theatre and later joined the dance company, becoming its Associate Artistic Director. He was awarded a McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship in 2007. In 2012, Abdo was appointed TU Dance’s Managing Director and has facilitated the organization’s significant growth. He became TU Dance’s Executive Director in 2021. Abdo has been teaching dance for many years and it’s a certified GYROTONIC® instructor. He is a Trustee on the Board of Dance/USA and a member of the steering committee for the MN Arts & Culture Coalition. Abdo was honored by the Ordway Center with its 2015 Education Award for Excellence in Community Engagement and holds a bachelor degree in Administration from the Universidad Católica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela.
Becky Stanchfield, born and raised in Minneapolis, has been teaching ballet in the Twin Cities for over 50 years. Her training started at 4 years of age with Dorothy Lundstrum, and continued with Loyce Houlton at The Contemporary Dance Playhouse (later MDT) starting at age 14. While there, her teachers included Francoise Martinet, Brian Shaw, Rochelle Zide, Madame Peryaslavic, John Kriza, Scott Douglas, Frank Bourman, Mary Hinkson, Lar Roberson, Glen Tetley, and more.
At 17, Becky started teaching 5 year olds “contemporary dance” and a year later she was guided into teaching beginning adult ballet. That path continued and expanded for the rest of her career. While at MDT, Becky taught for 16 years, as well as, being repertory assistant to the company.
In 1982, Becky started teaching at Zenon and Macalester College and continued at both for 30 years. She also taught at the U of M for 10 years, from1986-1996. And was a guest teacher at Halifax Dance for 10 summers in Nova Scotia from 1988 – 1997.
Becky is known for her ability to “develop the individual potential of the dancers with whom she works” and has been known to “extend the life of professional dance careers”. She was awarded the Sage Award for Dance Educator in 2010.
Along with her teaching ballet, Becky has choreographed over 25 community and high school musicals. She also has done chair massage for 25 years. Now, her main passion is gardening.
Eva Mohn works as a dancer and composer, straddling the USA and
Europe. Eva originally comes from Minneapolis, MN. She was a
member of a Minneapolis based dance company TU Dance from 2002-
2009. She moved to New York in 2008 to work with German
choreographer Johannes Wieland. In 2009 she moved to Kassel,
Germany to continue that working relationship with Wieland. In
2012 she moved to Stockholm, Sweden and began working with
Cullberg. During her time there she worked with Tillman O’Donnel,
Jefta Van Dinther, Alma Söderberg, Edward Lock, Benoit Lachambre,
Eszter Solomon, and Deborah Hay. She currently continues to work
with Cullberg and is based both in Stockholm and Minneapolis. In
2021 she received her Masters in Choreography and New Performative
Practices from Stockholm University for the Arts. In the fall of
2022 she will begin a project with Tilman O’Donnel in Stockholm
with a premier in March 2023. She is also currently working on a
dance research performance project with Morgan Thorson for a
premier at the Great Northern Festival in winter 2024.
Eva is a student and practitioner of Cranial Sacral Therapy, and
has completed a study and certification in Yoga with Richard
Freeman in Boulder, Colorado. She has spent chapters of her
working life as a baker, house painter, and during the 2020
pandemic she worked as a farm manager for a small scale organic
sheep farm in Minnesota. In January 2021 she became a mother. Her
current artistic practice is one of interplay and conflation
between dancing, mothering, laboring, caregiving, inter-species
relationships, and the physical inquiries of dancing, recreating
and playing.
Caroline Palmer has been writing about dance for over 30 years for publications including Paper Magazine, City Pages, Star Tribune, and her own blog "Big Dance Town." She is currently writing a book about the history of Twin Cities dance called "Making A Scene." Caroline is also a lawyer and works at the Minnesota Department of Health where she focuses on the prevention of human trafficking.
Since his retirement from The McKnight Foundation after 25 years, Neal Cuthbert has been
consulting with various nonprofits and businesses and recently served as the Interim Co-
Executive Director of the Cedar Cultural Center. During his last decade at McKnight Neal was
the Vice-President of Program where all programs and program staff reported to him and he
oversaw an annual grantmaking budget of $90+ million. While VP he helped create a workplace that received a national Great Place to Work awards, national recognition for a highly regarded approach to philanthropy, created McKnight’s first approach to evaluation, and led the creation and oversaw the management of several of McKnight’s funding intermediaries, including Youthprise, the Southeast Asia Development Program in Phnom Penh Cambodia, and the six rural Minnesota Initiative Foundations, among others.
Prior to being VP, Neal was McKnight’s Arts Program Director for 16 years. In addition to
framing up McKnight’s arts program, under his leadership the program received numerous
awards and provided between $8-12 million annually to support arts organizations and artistsin Minnesota. In addition to making grants, he developed several reports including an
examination of arts development in the suburbs, two economic impact studies, the impact of
the arts in rural communities, and the condition of individual artists. He also oversaw the
expansion of McKnight’s artist fellowship programs, established the Distinguished Artist Award, and co-developed the artist website, mnartists.org. After the Dance Alliance closed he worked closely with members of the dance community to create two dance community convenings in order to assess community needs and bring people together. Prior to McKnight he was the director/publisher of the monthly art and culture journal, Artpaper, and a planner at the Metropolitan Council in the arts program and housing program where he authored several studies including a study of homelessness, an economic impact study of the arts, and an examination of arts audiences. Neal was born and raised in Detroit and in addition to his
consulting work exhibits artwork and curates exhibitions and programs at Homewood Studios on the northside of Minneapolis, serving as its Permanent Guest Curator.
Shane Larson was raised in Minnesota, where he received his early training at the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. He graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies. He also studied at SEAD in Austria. Since living in New York City, he’s branched out to collaborate with punk musicians, film makers, improvisational music ensembles, and site-specific visual artists. He is also a multimedia video artist making collage-based work about memory. Shane joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 2015.
Marylee Hardenbergh has created over 50 outdoor site-specific dances at such sites as Sarajevo, the city of Acre on the Mediterranean, the Aerial High Lift Bridge in Duluth, the Housatonic and Anacostia Rivers, and a 7-site simultaneous performance the length of the Mississippi River. Her first outdoor site dance, Solstice Falls on Friday, was on the yellow mooring cells in the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis in 1985, where nine mooring cells each held one dancer, with the music played over the radio so that all dancers and audience members could hear the same beat at the exact same moment. The audience brought portable radios and became the sound system. Hardenbergh’s performances on the Mississippi River became the springboard for the Global Water Dances, of which she was the Artistic Director for many years. She was also an Artist-in-Residence at the Center for Global Environmental Education at Hamline University in Minnesota. Currently, she is the Artistic Director of Global Site Performance and has received numerous fellowships for dance including a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and various other awards and commissions.
Website: GlobalSitePerformance.org
Sarah Hauss is a choreographer, dancer, presenter, and teacher who has been living and working in the Twin Cities for over 30 years. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Gustavus Adolphus College. She has a BA in dance from the University of Oregon and an MFA in dance from the University of Colorado, with additional studies at Hunter College in New York City and University of Milwaukee - Wisconsin. She is a licensed K-12 Dance Educator and has great interest in interdisciplinary learning. Hauss has danced and choreographed in New York, California, and Oregon as well. Her work has been supported over the years by Red Eye Collaborations, the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and The Ritz Theater. She was a founding member of Paula Mann Dance and Artistic Director of Riverbend Dance Arts from 1993-1999. Over the years, she has worked with Kinetic Evolutions, Gomez Dance Group, Third Rabbit Dance Ensemble, Interstate Dance Collective, Gerry Girouard, and the Christopher Watson Dance Company. She also teaches at Ballare Teatro Performing Arts Center in Minneapolis and has been a yoga instructor at the St Paul Yoga Center since 2002. Hauss was the director and co-founder (with Off Leash Area) of Inbox@Artbox, a choreographer’s evening that presented annually for three years (2018-2020) in the Twin Cities. This Fall, she will be presenting her choreography at the Nobel Conference hosted by Gustavus.
Sandra Agustin; she/her/tita
Cre8tive Navigator Facilitator/Artist
Sandy has an extensive history of arts, social and racial justice and leadership. She is a native
Minnesotan, the youngest child of a Filipino immigrant and 5th generation Euro-Minnesotan.
Since the age of 9, she has professionally performed and taught dance, later moving into arts
administration as executive and artistic director at Intermedia Arts where she curated,
fundraised, managed, consulted artists and built relationships. She is a former co-artistic core
member of Mu Performing Arts where she acted, directed, choreographed over 20 shows and
was an early member of the Asian American Renaissance. Since its inception in 2002, Sandy
has frequently co-facilitated cohorts of arts and community development leaders in the Creative Community Leadership Initiative alongside Bill Cleveland of the Center for the Study of Art and Community. She has served on non-profit boards including the Minnesota Dance Alliance, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts/MCA, and currently serves on the boards of Maji ya chai Land Sanctuary, Speaking Out Collective and the Tango Society of Mn. As a resident teaching artist through the Children’s Theatre Company's Neighborhood Bridges program Sandy led an in-school critical literacy and theatre program engaging young people to question power, write their own stories and develop community . She recently co-founded Theatre 55 providing performance opportunities for folks over 55 years of age, where she also occasionally performs and choreographs. Sandy is a part of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership's artist roster, working in St. Peter, MN. She is a performer and choreographer and contributor with Pangea World Theatre's latest production called Life Born of Fire, an ensemble based public performance ritual, created in a post-uprising Minneapolis environment.
Sandy's recent facilitations have included ArtPlace America and the Local Control Local Fields program, Southwest Initiative Foundation, a rural community development organization; Leadership on the Way a two-year leadership mentoring program for associate Lutheran pastors across the US; Longfellow Rising a newly formed organization committed to an equitable rebuild in the wake of George Floyd's murder and the uprisings that took place in South Minneapolis. She considers herself a cre8tive navigator, helping individuals and organizations to find their creative "north". She sees her calling and role in shifting energy, holding tender and playful space and validating all perspectives. She brings creative/arts based engagement tools and deep listening practices as mentor-learner into every and all settings. She is currently the Director of Creative Engagement for Inspire to Change, LLC., whose mission is to support purpose driven change and change makers around the globe.
Aside from the arts, she is an advocate-lover for all animal species, the environment and HIV/
AIDS causes.
The driving force behind Ethnic Dance Theatre, Donald La Course serves as artistic director, lead dancer, choreographer, cultural researcher, and costume designer. Mr. La Course began folk dancing at the age of four. At age seven, he decided to make it his career when he first saw Duquesne University´s Tamburitzans Dancers. Mr. La Course became a member of Edelweiss St. Paul, a German folk dance troupe, at age 10. He danced in this troupe and in musical theatre productions until 1973, when he moved to Seattle to join The Koleda Folk Ensemble (where choreographer Mark Morris was also a dancer). In 1974, Mr. La Course returned to Minneapolis and co-founded EDT. Mr. La Course has completed over a dozen international research trips in order to learn dance techniques, research costumes, and better understand the cultural context of his work. The Autonomous Republic of Northern Ossetia (Russia), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Spain, and Costa Rica are just a few of the countries where he has visited and studied. Nationally recognized for his choreography, Mr. La Course was commissioned to create work for the Chimera Theatre, the Radost Folk Ensemble of Seattle, and Avaz International Dance Theatre in Los Angeles. He has also appeared as a guest artist with the Minnesota Opera, the Skylark Opera Company, Katha Dance Theatre, Dolina Polish Folk Dancers and Jawaahir Middle Eastern Dance Company. In 2011, Mr. La Course received the “Preserving our Heritage” Award from the National Folk Organization. In 2016 and 2018, he was the happy winner of the senior division of the Bayrische Loewe Schuhplattler Competition (the World Championship) in Bavaria. EDT’s outstanding national reputation as one of the most diverse and distinctive repertoires to be performed in the world of ethnic dance is a direct result of Mr. La Course’s dedication, acumen, and artistry.
Georgia Stephens was active as a Dance Theater choreographer, director, writer and
sound designer from 1975 through 2009. She moved to the Twin Cities in 1980 to
participate in the newly formed Independent Choreographer’s Alliance (MICA). Through
this organization, she received numerous performance opportunities and financial
support for her work from the McKnight, Jerome and Northwest Area Foundations, two
awards from the National Endowment for The Arts, Metropolitan Council for the Arts and
the Minnesota State Arts Board. Georgia was commissioned in 1993 to create an
original piece for the New Dance Ensemble and in 1986 for the Zenon Dance Company.
She was one of five choreographers invited to create an original dance/video piece with
videographer James Byrne, in his project SOLO!.
Although Georgia delighted in the process of interweaving original text and sound
scores into her work, she also frequently collaborated with musician David Means.
In 1986, Georgia was awarded a Bush Foundation Fellowship for Choreography. With
these funds, she prepared an evening of new and old work titled Crosstalk, presented at
Dance Theater Workshop (NYC) in 1987. Performers included Laurie Van Wieren, Tom
Carlson, Alan Lindblad, Mary Beth Elchert and Mary Abrams. After a brief hiatus to
assimilate her journey, she immerged with several evening-length Dance Theater
creations: World Without End Amen, produced by the MN Dance Alliance with Jerome
Foundation funds in Extended Play; Omoomofamaliamenia, a collaboration
commissioned by The Southern Theater with the music group Zeitgeist; and several
self-produced theater events for a variety of venues.
In 1990, Georgia incorporated as Georgia Stephens Contemporary Dance Theater. This
gathering of dance performers included John Munger, Wendy Ansley, Diane Aldis,
Ethan Emanual Balcos, Jill Haeberlin, and many other guest appearances (Mary Easter,
Linda Shapiro, Lisa Carlson, Marilyn Habermas-Scher, Wendy Morris, Marty Winkler,
Rebecca Katz). Around this same time, she joined with fellow dance artists Paula Mann
and Shawn McConneloug to create SpaceSpace, an informal rehearsal and
performance studio. Georgia created work for this venue almost exclusively until its end
in 1999.
Georgia then began creating original work for David Means’ Nobels eXperimental interMedia Group. They presented several full-length pieces between 1999 and 2005 at Metro State University’s Nobels Performance Space, Intermedia Arts, The Walker choreographers’ Evening, Patrick’s Cabaret, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater and Edison Theater in St. Lous MO. Between 2005 and 2008, Georgia created a series of showings at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater. Georgia’s final premiere, Alibi Simile, featuring Jon Spayde, was created for Red Eye Collaboration’s 2008 New Work series.
During her career she taught classes and workshops at Webster College and
Washington University of St. Louis, Ozone Dance, Carlton and St. Olaf Colleges.
Georgia still pops up now and again to participate in various ways, as a participant in
David Means’ performances, as a stage arts consultant, and as an advocate for up-and-
coming performing artists who push boundaries and challenge perceptual norms. Her
work was always based on the adage, “I move when I speak. I speak when I move.”
This realization came to life out of the physical frustration of growing up as a stutterer. It
produced a fascinating lifetime of liberating words “stuck inside” via breath and
kinesthetic release. This, and her background of figure skating, provided Georgia with a
foundation for her technique and unique movement style.
And finally… THANK YOU
A quick read of this biography caused me to realize that a mere mention of who did
what and when, seems profoundly inadequate. I could not have brought to life my
Serving as the Walker’s Senior Curator of Performing Arts since 1997, Philip Bither spearheads one of the country's leading contemporary performing arts programs. He oversaw the 2005 building of the McGuire Theater, an acclaimed theatrical space and production laboratory; raised the Walker’s first dedicated performing arts endowment; commissioned of more than 180 new works; and hosts the annual residency and presentation support of dozens of contemporary performing arts creators. Prior to this, he was Artistic Director for the Flynn Center in Burlington, VT and served as Associate Director/Music Curator for BAM’s Next Wave Festival. In 2011, he co-founded the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) graduate program at Wesleyan University. He regularly sits on foundation and governmental arts panels, writes about interdisciplinary curatorial practice and travels globally to research new performance and to speak about trends in the contemporary performing arts.
Originally from Illinois, dancer, choreographer, director, and creative Mathew Janczewski (he/him) has been residing in Minneapolis, MN since 1989. He was a company member, most notably with Shapiro & Smith Dance from 2007-2014 and JAZZDANCE! By Danny Buraczeski from 1992-97. As a dancer, Mathew has performed as a guest with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Bebe Miller, and Jacek Luminski of Bytom, Poland. Over the years, he has performed the works of Beth Corning, Sean Curran, HIJACK, Marge Maddux, Shawn McConneloug, Jane Shockley, Robin Stiehm, Morgan Thorson, Doug Varone, and Cathy Young.
Shortly after receiving his degree in dance from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and performing internationally, Mathew founded his own non-profit dance company, ARENA DANCES, in 1995. His practices are profoundly inspired by music, architecture, self-expression, and an ongoing collaboration with dancer's opposition of distal extremes while pushing the edges of space within the body's potential. ARENA serves as the vehicle for his body of work and provides young, aging and underserved segments of the Twin Cities community with opportunities to experience the transformative power of dance.
Mathew’s choreographic and creative work has garnered praise in the Twin Cities and beyond. He has set numerous commissioned works for universities,colleges and companies such as Minnesota Dance Theatre, Cleveland Repertory Co., aTrek Dance, and Zenon Dance Company. He has been named as the Bates Dance Festival's choreographer (2001), received the Sage Award for Outstanding Performance (2005), and was awarded the distinguished McKnight Fellowship for Choreographers (2005). In 2008, Dance Magazine named him as one of their “25 to Watch.”
Mathew founded The Arena in 2021—a community movement center offering affordable movement classes for all ages, pre-professional and professional workshops & intensives, and community gatherings, all in support of the moving arts in a bustling urban location. Janczewski is a specialized teaching artist at The Arena in addition to ARENA DANCES' DanceON program for K-12 Minneapolis and St. Paul Public Schools.
Janczewski's most recent project, THERMAL: Meditations on Climate Change, was researched and created in collaboration with the dancers at the Tofte Lake Arts Center (Ely, MN) to then be performed in residency for a month at the American Swedish Institute (Minneapolis, MN). Mathew has also recently been invited as a guest choreographer and teaching artist in various collegiate settings, including University of Minnesota - Duluth and Carleton College. Currently, Mathew is working on a new project that includes twelve dancers and an original musical score, Erased Steps, which uses dance (steps, improvisation, shape, and gesture) as a way to articulate his curiosities about past and present, industrial revolution, and the struggle of homelessness—actively allowing the vibration and energies that surface within the process of creating the studio to reverberate within the performance.
Margaret Ogas (she/her) is a dancer and choreographer based in Minneapolis. Using an interdisciplinary approach rooted in dance, her works tell surreal everyday stories through a collage of movement, text and sound. Her choreography has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the Cedar Cultural Center, The Minnesota Museum of American Art, Bryant Lake Bowl, Center for Performing Arts, and on sidewalks in South Minneapolis. She is a recipient of the 2021 Naked Stages Fellowship at Pillsbury House + Theatre. In addition to her choreographic work, Margaret performs with the Taja Will Ensemble and is a teaching artist. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Learn more at margaretogas.com.
Joanie Smith founded Shapiro & Smith Dance in New York City with husband Danial Shapiro. Smith’s works and their collaborative works have been commissioned by companies as diverse as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Repertory Dance Theater of Salt Lake City, Utah and the PACT Dance Company of Pretoria, South Africa. S&S Dance has toured all over the world from Toledo to Tashkent and over 600 dancers in professional and university dance companies have performed “To Have And To Hold,” aka, Bench. Smith holds the Barbara Barker Endowed Chair in Dance and the John Black Johnston Distinguished Professorship at the University of Minnesota and has an M.A. in Dance from UCLA.
Emily Michaels King is a performing artist based in St. Paul, Minnesota exploring sensory and embodied engagement in live experiences through movement, multimedia, and visual art. Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the Guthrie Theater, and the Southern Theater, among others. Emily is known for her collaged solo performances, including her award winning show MAGIC GIRL, and her multimedia compassion pieces DIGITAL and IN PERSON. She is also part of the collaborative duo E/D (LEWIS/CLARK, ANIMUS, THE SHOW). Pairing minimalism and subtlety with cacophony and bared irreverence, Emily’s works employ the lush landscape of the inner world and the power of unapologetic vulnerability. They combine movement with text, graphics, sound, and sculpture to focus on themes of self discovery and reclamation, womanhood, and bold, or supremely delicate, expressions of personal truth. www.emilymichaelsking.com
LeilAwa [Leila Awadallah] (she/her) is a Palestinian American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker based between Minneapolis and Beirut. She is the founder of Body Watani dance project and practice. Her works emerge from physicalized reflections and questions around the notion of body-as-homeland by integrating lands, ancestors, and embodied memories' with traditional Arabic dance forms and historical / present day engagement with both political and settler colonial impacts on bodies / movement / spaces / places. Her research, artistry and activism locates in the context of indigenous Palestine as well as more broadly in Mediterranean and SWANA regions.
Alys Ayumi Ogura (she/her/hers) is a storyteller through her movement, voice and quirky humor. Her dance training began in Japan, where she learned from the now late Mika Kurosawa, the famed godmother of Japanese contemporary dance. She earned a BA in Theater Studies from Westmar University, and her theater training concluded with her earning the “most outstanding student” award from the school’s Theater and Dance Department.
Her choreographies and performances have been curated for the Walker Art Center’s Choreographer’s Evening by Megan Mayer, and for BodyCartography Project’s/HIJACK’s Future Interstates. Ogura has worked since 2010 in the Twin Cities’ thriving arts community. As a way of giving back to the Twin Cities arts community, Ogura serves as a DanceMN steering-committee member, and she supports MN Artist Coalition efforts. She most recently performed in Generic Minneapolis, by Emily Gastineau, and she is set to be part of the April Sellers Dance Collective’s summer residency/tour. Ogura is a former Arts Organizing Institute fellow (2017-18) through the Pangea World Theater, and a 2021 Naked Stages fellow, managed by Pillsbury House Theatre and funded by the Jerome Foundation.
Taryn Griggs and Chris Yon create original dance works that are deadpan slapstick, understated melodrama, autobiographical science fiction, cubist vaudeville, asymmetrically consonant explorations of magic and virtuosity in everyday movement. They met at the Bessie Schönberg Artist Residency at The Yard in 2002 and have been working together ever since.
They were participants in the dance communities of New York City, Minneapolis, and Iowa City, before moving to Winston-Salem. Chris and Taryn’s choreographies have been presented across the US, Canada, Ireland, and France. In New York, in addition to the presentation of their work at La MaMa, Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, The Kitchen,
and Danspace Project, they appeared together in the work of David Neumann, Yoshiko Chuma, Karinne Keithley Syers, and Sara Rudner.
During their years in the Twin Cities, they were both McKnight Fellows,
co-curators for Choreographer’s Evening at the Walker Art Center, and their work was presented as part of the Walker’s Momentum Dance Series at The Southern, Red Eye Theater’s Isolated Acts, Jaime Carrera’s Outlet Performance Festival, and 9x22 at the Bryant Lake Bowl.
Since moving to Winston-Salem, their work has been commissioned by the North Carolina Dance Festival (NCDF), American Dance Festival (ADF), and they have been developing a platform for new work and collaborations through the ongoing project, Interstitial: A site specific dance during the changeovers between art exhibits at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. Griggs teaches at UNCSA, Yon at Appalachian State University. During COVID, their work temporarily moved to the screen. Check out these short screendances commissioned by ADF: Glimmer by Chris Yon; and Chris, Bea, and me by Taryn Griggs; and this one commissioned by NCDF: Untitled (Smoke Stacks) by Chris and Taryn.
Ayumi Shafer is an educator, choreographer, and mover currently active in the Twin Cities and greater area. Originally from California, Shafer has now been teaching for over 15 years in various cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco (BA, San Francisco State University 2009), Eugene (MFA, University of Oregon 2013), and Minneapolis. As she continues to teach in both public and private institutions, Shafer has focused on collaborating with local artists in both dance and other disciplines.
In 2014, Shafer co-founded DanceBARN Collective, a nonprofit organization that brings dance to rural communities. In Shafer and her co-director’s vision, DanceBARN has been committed to building community engagement, fostering collaborations, and providing support for dance artists. Recently, Shafer had the opportunity to present some of her work through Inbox@Artbox, The Cowles Center’s Generating Room, and 6x6 Solos. Drawing inspiration from the idea of play, the freedom to act on our impulses, and active curiosity, she strives to create work that tells a story. Shafer is enthusiastic about sharing dance with all members of her communities, and continues to organize events for people with all types of experiences in art and life.
Alexandra is a Carpatho-Rusyn American choreographer based in Minneapolis, MN. She creates original works ranging from solos to evening length group works for the stage and screen. She is a 2021 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow at Jacob’s Pillow and a 2020 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow Finalist. Her most recent work, dance film Heritage Sites, premiered in 2020 and will be screened at the 48th annual Athens International Film and Video Festival (OH), Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (CO), DanceBARN Screendance Festival (MN), and Astoria Film Festival (NY). It is also an Official Selection of the BLOW-UP International Arthouse Filmfest Chicago (IL).
Since relocating to Minneapolis she has been commissioned by Threads Dance Project and the Performing Institute of Minnesota. She has also presented work at The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, Candy Box Dance Festival/Arena Dances, Zenon Dance Zone, Future Interstates, and 9x22 dance lab at the Bryant Lake Bowl. She has worked with Jeffrey Peterson Dance, Ethnic Dance Theatre, April Sellers Dance Collective, Helen Hatch/Hatch Dance & Berit Ahlgren, and Paulina Olowska & Jessie Gold. She has been moving with Black Label Movement under the direction of Carl Flink since 2017.
Rebecca Katz Harwood’s eclectic career has included work as a performer,
choreographer, teacher, researcher, and arts administrator. She received her
undergraduate degree in Religious Studies and Anthropology from Macalester
College, and her MFA in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts
(NYU Tisch).
Her work as a performer has taken her around the Midwest, to both
coasts of the US, as well as to Germany, England, France, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Her
artistic palate is broad and draws on ballet, modern, jazz, folk and social dance
traditions in varying degrees and combinations based on the needs and impulses of
the work being created. The common threads are a belief in the power of movement
to viscerally capture the beauty and variety of human experience, expressed
through a deep musicality and the motivation to communicate and connect with the
audience. Her concert dance choreography has been seen in Minnesota at venues
including MDA/Walker Art Center Choreographers’ Evenings, The Minnesota Fringe
Festival, and the Minnesota Ballet. In New York, her work has been presented by
Ballet Builders, Dixon Place, Symphony Space, DanceNow/NYC and at Madison
Square Garden as part of the NYU Tisch Salute Graduation Celebration of 2005.
In the realm of musical theatre, Ms. Katz Harwood has been fortunate to receive two
Society of Directors and Choreographers Foundation Observerships, in 2002 to
assist John Carrafa on A Little Night Music at the Kennedy Center, and in 2005 to
assist Kathleen Marshall on Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Public Theatre’s
Shakespeare in the Park in New York City. Her own theatre choreography has been
seen at venues in Minnesota, New York, South Dakota, and Seattle, Washington. As a
teacher, Rebecca has been on the faculties of St. Olaf College, Marymount Manhattan
College, and for the past sixteen years, the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD)
Department of Theatre. She has taught master classes and workshops in modern,
jazz, and various social dances of the swing era in Minnesota, Nebraska, at various
American College Dance Association North Central Regional Conferences, as well as
abroad in England and Germany. The fall of 2011 took her to Munich, Germany,
where she was featured as a co-lead instructor with social dance historian Lance
Benishek, for the filming of a teaching DVD on The Big Apple, a famous dance of the
Swing Era, nearly lost but now the subject of renewed interest from swing dancers
around the world.
Rebecca lived in the Cities from 1988 to 2001 (mostly in St. Paul’s Mac Groveland
and Merriam Park neighborhoods). As a performer she worked as an independent
dancer with various choreographers including Sandy Agustin, Brad and Cyndi
Garner, Heidi Geier/Soft Eyed Collaborations, Jill Heaberlin, Marge Maddux,
Christine Maginnis, Paula Mann, and Cathy Young, among others, and was a
company member of Ethnic Dance Theatre and Lance Benishek’s American Cultural
Arts Society Dancers. She taught ballet at Zenon and St. Olaf College, and
administrated for Work and Work Associates, Marge Maddux for the Society of
Dance History Scholars, Cathy Young Dance, and for James Sewell Ballet as their
Operations Manager.
Since the fall of 2006, Ms. Katz Harwood has been based back in her native Duluth,
Minnesota at UMD, where she teaches studio and academic classes in dance and
musical theatre as well as providing choreography for dance concerts and musical
theatre productions. In the spring of 2012, she was awarded Tenure and promoted
to her current rank of Associate Professor. Theatre Choreography credits include A
Year with Frog and Toad, Urinetown!, Sugar, South Pacific, Little Shop of Horrors,
Cinderella, She Loves Me, Time’s Up, and the world premiere of Maxa: The Maddest
Kevin Kortan has been immersed in sound and movement practices since
childhood. He was a boy soprano and later (after his voice changed!)
became a cantor in church at a young age, where he first encountered the
ancient art of call and response. A featured soloist in choirs and in
musicals, he studied music and theater at Augsburg College. Singing
professionally for a time, fate steered him into the art of Dance where he
had the good fortune of having a professional career for many years.
Kevin danced in Zenon Dance Company in Minneapolis, Concert Dance
Company of Boston, and numerous New York companies. In Boston he
performed in works by Mark Morris, Wendy Perron, Mark Dendy, Mark
Taylor, Laura Dean, Merce Cunningham, Kei Takei, David Gordon, Charlie
Moulton, and others. In New York, he performed in the companies of Mark
Taylor, Mark Dendy, Wendy Perron, Nina Wiener, and Victoria Marks. From
1990-96, Kevin danced with the Trisha Brown Dance Company. He has
collaborated with choreographers Jaime Ortega, Patrick Scully, and has
shown his own work in the U.S. and France. Kevin has taught dance
around the world.
Yoga then called him from a life oriented around performing to a life of
transforming, himself and others. In the ancient tradition, Kevin teaches
breath-centered yoga and yoga therapy practices to people one-on-one
and in groups. He rediscovered his voice and the healing power of sound
through Vedic and other forms of chant. It is with joy that he leads others, in
groups and individually, to find their own voice, connected to their heart.
He has been composing his own chants and shares them through
recordings and Chanting For The Love Of It events. One of his great loves
is synchronizing movement and chanting through an approach he calls
Mantra In Motion. He is a Certified Yoga Therapist & Teacher, Integrative
Somatic Movement Therapist & Educator, Dance Teacher, Yoga Teacher
Trainer, Chant Teacher, as well as the founder and creator of Evolutionary
Yoga™. Please visit Kevin's site at http:// www.evolutionaryyoga.com/
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Mary Ann Bradley trained at the Dayton Ballet School and performed with Dance Theatre Dayton and Dayton Contemporary Dance II. She graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Dance from Point Park University in 1997. Since moving to the Twin Cities, Mary Ann has performed with numerous companies and choreographers including Dancing People Company, TU Dance, Minnesota Dance Theater, Ragamala Music and Dance, and the Minnesota Opera. She was a member of JAZZDANCE! By Danny Buraczeski for four years, two of which she acted as the choreographer’s assistant. She spent twelve seasons performing and touring with Zenon Dance Company. With Zenon, Mary Ann performed original works by many artists including Faye Driscoll, Netta Yerushalmy, Andrea Miller, Doug Varone, luciana achugar, Tere O’Connor, and Morgan Thorson. She has been a dance faculty member for Zenon Dance School and TU Dance School. In 2005, Mary Ann received an honorable mention from the Minneapolis Star Tribune for Artist of the Year. Mary Ann is a 2001 and 2008 recipient of the McKnight Fellowship for dancers. She was named as one of “25 to watch” by Dance Magazine in 2014. She completed her master’s degree in education at the University of Minnesota in 2018 and served on the faculty of the Performing Institute of Minnesota for three years.
SuperGroup is the collaboration of Erin Search-Wells, Sam Johnson, and Jeffrey Wells. They create performance with what is available and what they can make. Their work is deeply invested in multitudinous collaborative processes, rigorous play, and discovering meanings in between. In addition to creating and performing with SuperGroup Jeffrey, Erin, and Sam also have individual art making practices.
John R. Killacky currently serves in the Vermont House of Representatives. Previously he was executive director of Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, program officer for arts and culture at San Francisco Foundation, executive director of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and curator of performing arts for Walker Art Center. Other past positions include program officer at Pew Charitable Trusts, general manager of PepsiCo SUMMERFARE, and managing director of the Trisha Brown and Laura Dean dance companies. He received the First Bank Award Sally Ordway Irvine Award in Artistic Vision, William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Dance USA's Ernie Award as an unsung hero, Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award for Exemplary Service to the Field of Professional Presenting, and Vermont Arts Council's Kannenstine Award for Arts Advocacy. He co-edited the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology, Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories.
Stephanie Fellner’s Minneapolis career now spans 3 decades. She recently said goodbye to her old hips in “Zhauna Franks ‘ SwanSong Studies, a two women show.’ No surprise to anyone, she wore them completely out!They produced many high leg moments and served her well!
They will be missed. The new hips had their grand debut this past summer in Berit Ahlgren and Helen Hatch’s production of ‘LDV’!
A member of The Ballet of the Dolls for25yrs., Ms.Stephanie originated numerous roles. Favorites to include: Rat Queen in "Nutcracker...Not so Suite”; “Cinderella” title role; Vicky in “The Red Shoes; Coquette in "King of Hearts"; and Grey In her solo show "Shades of Lady Grey." All choreographed by the infamous Myron Johnson.
Company work to include: TU Dance (founding member,) James Sewell Ballet, The Children's Theatre Co., The Minnesota Opera, The Minnesota Orchestra, NorthStar Opera(Skylark,) and The City Children's Nutcracker.
In addition, she has danced in a variety of pieces choreographed by our treasure trove of Mpls. freelance artists.The two time Sage Awarded "Test Pilot" choreographed by Penelope Freeh. "Kom Hit" a collaboration w/Sally Rousse and Noah Bremer at The Swedish Institute. Other favorite credits to include: Katerina in Live Action Sets, Ivy Award winning "Crime and Punishment" and original production of "A Fiddlers Tale" produced in conjunction with The Mpls. Music Company.
In 2005, Ms.Fellner was awarded the McKnight Fellowship for Dancers and received "Best Dancer in Mpls." from the City Pages Edition of "The Best Of..." And in 2008, was presented with the Sage Award for "Outstanding Performer."
She is on staff at The Dance Warehouse . where she is joyfully passing on her passion for ballet and the art of performance to her lovely students. She is grateful every day for each and every one of them!
Having completed the full comprehensive Pilates program thru Paragon Pilates and Physical Therapy does teach a bit of Pilates and firmly believes integrating core and balance work to be an invaluable piece in keeping our dancers pain and injury free.
STUART PIMSLER is a choreographer, director, writer, performer, founder and
artistic co-director of Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater (SPDT). His work has been
honored with Choreography Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and
McKnight Foundation and as well as a Major Fellowship and six Individual Fellowships
from the Ohio Arts Council. Mr. Pimsler has been commissioned by the Guthrie Theater,
the Lila Wallace Arts Partners Fund, National Performance Network Creation Fund, the
Jerome Foundation, the Wexner Center, University of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center,
The Wharton Center at Michigan State University among others.
Based in Minneapolis since 1999, SPDT has toured to Europe, Israel, Taiwan, Russia,
Canada, Bermuda, China, and Mexico including presentations at the Beijing Modern
Dance Festival, International Tanzmesse, Dusseldorf, the Bermuda Ministry of Culture
and the National Center for the Arts, UNAM and American Embassy in Mexico City. In
the U.S. SPDT has appeared in more then 35 States at such venues as the The Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts, the National Civil Rights Museum, Jacob’s Pillow, the
American Dance Festival, and New York Live Arts.
His new book, The Choreography of Care/Engaging Caregivers in Creative Expression
chronicles the internationally recognized arts in health work of Mr. Pimsler and Suzanne
Costello. (choreographyofcare.com) Their work has been recognized for “Best Practices”
by the National Endowment for the Arts and as a “national model” by The Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts.
As a teller of imagistic stories, Pimsler is interested in the interplay of movement and
words situated in specific settings. His work is constructed in a world of layers connected
through theme, metaphor, and memory. The emblematic layers of his aesthetic are
realized through emotionally textured movement, narrators, place, dialogue, song, design,
video, and the vulnerability of SPDT’s exquisite performers. Pimsler is compelled by the
personal and political and how each of these sectors influences everyday life.
Mr. Pimsler holds an A.B. in English from Franklin & Marshall College and in 2015, he
was celebrated with an Alumni Citation for his exemplary record of accomplishments. He
also has a J.D. from Catholic University School of Law and was admitted to the New
York State Bar in 1975. The following year he was accepted as an M.F.A. Fellow in
Dance at Connecticut College where he evolved his aesthetic with the mentorship of
Martha Myers. He was also honored to work with Daniel Nagrin, whose solos Spanish
Dance (1948) and Word Game (1968) he continues to perform.
As cultural activist, Mr. Pimsler has served on the Board of Directors of Dance/USA
(1990-97) and the Steering Committee of the National Performance Network (1992-95).
He has served as panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight
Foundation, Bush Foundation and an array of arts councils and agencies throughout the
U.S. In 2005, Pimsler founded The SAGE Awards for Dance, an annual celebration of
outstanding dance achievements throughout Minnesota which he co-coordinated with
Dana Kassel through 2016.
www.stuartpimsler.com
After Carleton College, Lindalee joined Dance Studio Margret Dietz and Choreogram Dance Company in the early 1970s. She also studied with Shirley Mordine, Cathy Ward, Erik Hawkins, Bill T. Jones and Helmut Gottschild. She crafted a practice in dance/movement as a human service in churches, prisons, womens’ shelters, mens’ treatment centers and with absolute beginners from ages 2 to 82. She solo'd as Webweaver in ‘Dark Dances’ by Marie (Winckler) Nickell at the Walker and in 2010 co-authored the memoir “Margret Dietz – A Dancer’s Legacy” with Freeman and Nickell. Since 2015, she has agitated for housing stability and currently advocates for homeless Americans (2022).
Dana K. Kassel (she/her/hers) is currently Program Director for the McKnight Fellowship Programs for Dancers and Choreographers. She brings a wealth of experience to the position with her long history as a performer and a highly skilled and respected administrator.
She served in an administrative capacity for several Twin Cities dance organizations, including Threads Dance Project, Voices of Sepharad, Corning Dances & Company, and for writer/choreographer Judith Brin Ingber. She was Co-Coordinator of the Minnesota SAGE Awards for over twelve years, has been an advisory member for DanceMN, and a board member for Young Dance. In addition, she worked in event management and catering for over two decades.
Kassel graduated from the University of Minnesota Dance program in 1992; she was a company member in JAZZDANCE by Danny Buraczeski; and danced with Cathy Young and Zenon Dance Company, among others. In recent years Kassel has performed with Laurie Van Wieren, the New Standards Holiday Show, in Rhythmically Speaking, and as part of Choreographers’ Evening at the Walker Art Center.
A native of Brazil, Marciano Silva dos Santos is recognized by the American Folkloric
Society as a “Brazilian artist of unique and exceptional ability and merit.” Silva dos
Santos founded Contempo Physical Dance in 2011 and in the same year the
StarTribune reported, “Marciano Silva dos Santos is a relatively fresh face in town.
He wasted little time in making his mark.” He quickly gained recognition for his
professional dancing and swiftly made a place for himself in Minnesota. Marciano has
been named “Best Dancer” by City Pages, “one of the most graceful movers on any
Twin Cities Stage”by the StarTribune and “one of the hottest choreographers in town”
by Minnesota Monthly Magazine. He is also bringing global African diasporic
contemporary dance to Minnesota with international choreography residencies,
including Nildinha Fonseca from Balé Folclórico da Bahia (Brazil), Patrick Acogny
from l'Ecole des Sables (Senegal).
Now in partnership with the Mcknight International Choreographer Residency program, Contempo Physical Dance is commissioning a third choreographer to create a new work in 2022. Marciano is a recipient of a 2020 McKnight Fellowship for Dancers. After years of dedication as a dancer, teacher and choreographer, Silva dos Santos received his Master of Fine Arts in Dance at Hollins University.
Denise Armstead is an internationally acclaimed dancer, choreographer and teacher. She is currently Artistic Director of D.A. Dance. Ms Armstead has been a dancer for 40 years, 20 of which she spent as a founding member and premiere dancer with Minneapolis-based Zenon Dance Company. She has also been an aerial artist and choreographer with Risa Cohen Aerial Company, flying through the air on Trapeze, Silks and Harness.
Her work has been seen around the globe, including performances in Switzerland, Aruba, Russia and the Marianas Islands. She has commanded center stage at New York's Joyce Theater, The Ordway, The Walker Art Center, The O'Shaugnessey Theater, and the Ritz.
Her dancing has been reviewed to acclaim by the New York Times and the Village Voice. Her work in the New York Film Festival earned a Gold Medal, and the City Pages has selected Ms. Armstead as Best Dancer in the Twin Cites. The Minnesota State Legislature passed a resolution praising Denise's artistic contributions at the “Women of Nations” domestic violence shelter, the first and only such citation for a dance artist.
In 2012, her multimedia work, “The Three Bonnie Project”, played to standing ovations at the Burnsville Performing Art Center. The Project has been cited as setting the precedent as one of the best combinations of video and dance. Most recently, Denise broke barriers as the first dance company to serve as an Artist in Residence and perform at the Wykoff Theater, along with D.A. Dance performing the first ever evening length dance work at the Zumbrota Theater.
Denise has taught dance worldwide, and is also a well-respected equestrienne and riding teacher. She choreographs for the Minnesota Equine Vaulting team and has studied with Olympic-bound athletes. She currently resides in Nerstrand, Minnesota with her stallion-man partner, their ponies, peacocks and lots of cats and dogs.
Wynn Fricke, recipient of seven McKnight Fellowships in Choreography and Performance, produces, according to City Pages, precise and virtuosic work “guided by extremes of physicality. Part of the pleasure of watching it is that the difficult appears effortless; the tiny and delicate, Herculean”.
Wynn danced with Zenon Dance Company from 1992 – 2001 and since 1998 has created eight original works for the company including her most recent, The Mourning Tree, which premiered in 2015 with live traditional Bulgarian Folk music performed by Mila Vocal Ensemble. From 2005 – 2007, Wynn served as Choreographer-in-Residence with Minnesota Dance Theatre, and in 2008, she was the Dayton-Hudson Distinguished Visiting Artist at Carleton College. She has had choreographic residences in Yarlslavl, Russia, at the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary in Moose Lake, MN, and at the Company Development Residency at The Yard in Chilmark, MA.
She is the recipient of grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the American Composers Forum, and Arts International and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. She has been honored with two Minnesota SAGE Awards for Dance in the category of Outstanding Performance.
Wynn has created work for additional dance and theatre companies including James Sewell Ballet, Ballet Arts Minnesota, Ragamala Dance, Frank Theatre, Minnesota Ballet, and Borrowed Bones Dance Theatre. Her choreography, My Very Empty Mouth, was recently performed by Zenon Dance Company at the Teatro Marti in Havana, Cuba. Wynn earned her MFA at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
Jim Lieberthal has worked creatively in Minneapolis since 1982 : as a dancer, choreographer, actor, writer, producer and now filmmaker. He started this journey originally in music, playing the cello for 11 years. His efforts have also combined work with actors and dancers with alternate abilities, including seated dancers, and dancers utilizing mechanical assists.
Work performed included 17 years of Nutcrackers, a TV series for children on PBS (“The Folk Book”) utilizing techniques of Noh and Kabuki Theater from Japan, and moments in the movie Purple Rain.
He studied Wigman, Horton, Modern Jazz, Kabuki and Noh theater along with Ballet as the principal pillars of his performing and choreographic efforts.
He has received a McKnight Fellowship for Choreography (“Mer-Peace” 1988) and a Sage Award for Performance (“Listen” – choreography by Rosy Simas 2013). He has produced 3 evenings of original work, including commissions by Kanopy Dance and Threads Dance Project. Currently, he is in collaboration with multiple artists creating a Theatrical/Dance/Poetry film to encourage people to deeper dialogue in their conversations (premiering online in 2022 - “Heart Gears Shifting”).
He has immense gratitude to many of the most wonderful talents in the Twin Cities area, combining
ideas and talents to create hybrid works of theater and dance residing between the poles of ballet and
modern dance, many speaking to social and interpersonal issues.
Patrick Scully is a Minneapolis based choreographer/dancer and performance artist. He began dancing in 1972 as a college freshman. In 1976 he co-founded Contactworks, a Minneapolis based dance collective focused on contact improvisation. In 1980 he left Contactworks in search of a way to bring his voice as a gay man into the work he was creating. This eventually led him to Remy Charlip’s Naropa East workshop in 1984, Meetings with Remarkable Women. That led him to dance with Remy, beginning with Remy’s Ten Men show in BAM’s Next Wave Festival in 1984. In his heart, and daily life, Patrick is still dancing with Remy. Patrick’s most current project is Leaves of Grass – Illuminated, about Walt Whitman. In addition to his performing work, Patrick is the founder and long time director of Patrick’s Cabaret, in Minneapolis.
Carl Flink is the founder and artistic director of Black Label Movement (Minneapolis, MN) and the Nadine Jette Sween Professor of Dance and Director of Dance at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Featured in Dance Magazine's January 2014 issue, Flink’s dancemaking is noted for its intense athleticism and physical risk taking, compositional intelligence and humanistic themes as a contemporary choreographer for both concert dance and theater.
His commissions and invited presentations include the American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), Bates Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME), The Minnesota Orchestra, VocalEssence (Minneapolis, MN), MADCO (St. Louis, MO), University of Florida Performing Arts (Gainesville, FL), Same Planet Different World (Chicago, IL), Urbanity Dance (Boston, MA), The Cowles Center for Dance (Minneapolis, MN), University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT), Company C (San Francisco, CA), James Sewell Ballet (Minneapolis, MN). His work has been set on dance programs across the United States, such as Stanford University, University of Illinois, University of Iowa, Brigham Young University, University of North Texas, Mount Holyoke College and Utah Valley State University.
Flink has garnered significant recognition for his innovative collaborations with scientific researchers through his Moving Cell Project with University of Minnesota biomedical engineer David Odde and the creation of multiple embodied TED talks. The Moving Cell’s Bodystorming System, a rapid modeling technique using human bodies and choreographic strategies, has been highlighted by Science Magazine, Dance Magazine, Twin Cities Public Television’s Minnesota Original and TPT TV Takeoverand TED Talks for TEDx Brussels and TEDMED 2013 (Washington D.C.). They have presented Bodystorming at research centers such as the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India. His pathbreaking 2011 TEDx Brussels Talk A Modest Proposal: Dance v. Powerpoint co-created with ScienceMagazine writer and chemist John Bohannon offered the innovative idea of how dance artists and scientists could collaborate to the mutual benefit of their research and communication. He has created three other TED Talks including Let’s Talk About Sex for the 2012 TED: Full Spectrum (Long Beach, CA) and most recently A Dream of Touch When Touch is Gone for the 2020 TEDx Minneapolis.
As a director and choreographer for Theater, Flink is noted for his edgy and aggressive movement approach in awarding winning productions for nationally recognized organizations like The Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis, MN) and Theatre Latté Da (Minneapolis, MN), as well as his critically acclaimed immersive theater productions of Woyzeck and Swede Hollow Ghost Sonata with fellow Twin Cities theater artists Luverne Seifert and Darcey Engen.
Flink's awards include the UMN CLA 2020 Dean's Medal, two 2016 Regional Emmy Award nominations, 2015 Twin Cities StarTribune Best of MN, a 2014 MN Dance Community Sage Award, 2008 and 2012 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Choreography, and 2010 and 2012 MN Ivey Awards. The Twin Cities Public Television Minnesota Original 2012 Episode featuring Flink’s A Duet for Wreck received a 2012 regional Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance.
During the 1990s, Flink was a long-time member and soloist for the Limón Dance Company in NYC where he also performed with Creach/Koester Men Dancing, Janis Brenner & Dancers, Paul Taylor and others. He holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School JD, a University of Minnesota Political Science and Women Studies B.A. summa cum laude and was a Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. attorney (St. Paul, MN) from 2001-2004. He continues to work on his most important collaborative project raising his th
Growing up in Western North Dakota with 4 brothers and 2
wiry parents, I enjoyed many movement moments such as
dodging, running, rolling, spinning, chasing, and jumping while
using many props such as dirt clods, snow balls, footballs, and
frisbees. After taking my first modern technique class in college
in 1974, I realized that dance epitomizes the ‘recreation’ of
movement for movement’s sake, exactly what I had enjoyed
about childhood backyard and sideyard adventures.
I pursued an Education Major for a year at the U of Mn but
was soon taking more Dance Technique / Theory than Education
classes so I changed my major to Dance Performance / Dance
Education. For the next 20 years, I worked as a professional
dance artist, studying, teaching, and performing many dance
genres, from modern to theatrical, ballroom to world folk dances.
What follows is a list of the dance companies I worked for
and their founders over these 20 years. Instructional Dance
Theater –Molly Lynn, Contemporary Concert Dancers – Geol
Weirs, New Dance Ensemble / Lab – Linda Shapiro and Leigh
Dillard , Maria Cheng and Dancers – Maria Cheng, and Contact
Works – Patrick Scully. I also worked with several independent
dancers to put on our own shows. And I co-founded a dance
company with my wife Wendy; Ansley / Engel Dance, A
Repertory Company of Solos and Duets. We did shows and
residencies in various States and locations around the country.
During this time I was also an Artist in Residence in dozens
of school districts throughout Minnesota and North Dakota while
also choreographing solo and group work for various dancers,
dance companies, and theaters. I choreographed 2 productions
at the Guthrie Theater, The Tempest and As You Like It.
In 1994, I joined the Minneapolis Public Schools as a
licensed specialist teaching Dance and Theater, K- 8 Grades. I
was allowed to teach without a license for 3 years and by 1997,
doing evening and weekend classes, I had completed a Master’s
Degree in Education with an Elementary Teaching license at St.
Thomas. Later, when MN finally developed a teaching license for
Dance, I went back to school at Mankato University to get a
dance license. From 1994 to 2014 I worked at 5 Mpls Public
Schools; Webster Open, Anne Sullivan Communications, Ramsey
and Folwell Performing Arts Magnets, and North Star Elementary.
Besides teaching dance and theater classes I also
developed the skills and a curriculum to teach Video Literacy to
Middle Schoolers. And I developed curriculums integrating dance
and theater arts literacy with math, science, and language arts
literacies. After leaving MPS, I was hired by Heart of Dance and
trained by ‘Dancing Classrooms’ to teach 6 Ballroom dance forms
to 5th graders. I worked for that amazing organization for three
years in about a dozen schools in the Twin Cities area.
In these last few years as an aging dancer I have been
fortunate to be able to keep doing work, to being challenged and
awed by this craft I began in 1974. I did a solo from the 80’s at
the 2012 50th Anniversary of the Walker Center Choreographer’s
Evening directed by Patrick Scully. And I have hugely enjoyed
working with Gerry Girouard and other dancers on his pursuit of
and gifts for creating new contact improvisational structures.
Also, in those years before COVID, there has grown strong
interests in Group Improvisational gatherings. Some were called
Dance Church, among other names, and were located in various
dance spaces around town, including a church. Engaging with
these movement gatherings were a highlight of my dancing life
before such indoor group dancing came to a halt. They were
often the only way I could experience a delicious sweet sweat
dancing my butt off in close contact with other
Joanie Smith and Danial Shapiro founded Shapiro & Smith Dance in 1987 and developed a collaborative method through which they created their work, taking turns developing material and directing the choreographic process. Danial Shapiro died in the Fall of 2006 and now Joanie Smith serves as sole Choreographer and is honing that process in new ways with the members of Shapiro & Smith Dance.
Shapiro & Smith’s choreography 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. The Company has toured all over the U.S. and abroad including four times at The Joyce Theater in New York City. Over 600 dancers in professional and university dance companies have performed, “To Have And To Hold,” aka, “Bench,” and S&S’s production of ANYTOWN, with music by Bruce Springsteen, has had more than 40 performances across the U.S.
Joanie Smith and Shapiro & Smith Dance have received continued support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The McKnight Foundation, and The Target Foundation. S&S received a Sage Award in 2012 for “Outstanding Performance.”
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.
Megan Mayer (she/her): I am an award-winning Minneapolis-based artist working with choreography, dance, experimental video and photography. I obsess over transposition, minimalism, mimicry, tenderness, wry humor, loneliness, social anxiety, fake bad timing and exacting musicality. By exposing tiny emotional undercurrents concerning the body, I construct a unique perspective of what dance can be: virtuosity in vulnerability and victory in gesture. Drawn to the edges of the experience of performing: the anticipatory rapid heartbeat before going onstage, and the regretful relief after exiting, my dances often reveal where that switch lives in the body. My work has been generously supported by McKnight Foundation Fellowships in Choreography and through choreographic residencies at the National Center for Choreography (NCC) in Akron, Ohio and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) in Tallahassee, Florida. I believe our bodies are resilient, tenacious, intelligent and expressive, and that our days are full of movement choices. I make deeply personal dances that celebrate the people performing them. www.meganmayer.com
Chris Schlichting lives in the Twin Cities within the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of the Dakota people, and is a Minnesota-based, performer and dance enthusiast who believes in a flexible definition of dance. His choreography expresses itself as a tensile inclusion of dichotomies. Relying on the formality of structural investigation and the emotion of earnest expression, his dances evoke the grandiosity of spectacle and the delicacy of intimate moments. Schlichting develops dances outside the constraints of thematic and conceptual frameworks, allowing the choreographic process to develop focus through physical intuition and sensory awareness.
Schlichting was named Best Choreographer in 2013 by City Pages for his work Matching Drapes, which also received two Sage Awards, including one for “Best Performance” and one for “Best Design”. He is a 2015 McKnight Choreography Fellow, administered by The Cowles Center and funded by the McKnight Foundation, and was the first recipient of the American Dance Institute’s (now Lumberyard) Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography, a project that provides commissioning funds, fiscal sponsorship, developmental and production support for a new work from one U.S. based choreographer every year. Schlichting’s 2015 work Stripe Tease was named a “Top dance of 2015” by the Star Tribune.
Schlichting has been presented by venues throughout Minnesota, including the Walker Art Center, the Cowles Center, The Southern Theater, the Bryant Lake Bowl, the Red Eye Theater and many more; in New York at Danspace Project and as a frequent contributor to CATCH! performance series; Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids, IA; ODC in San Francisco, CA; Velocity in Seattle, WA; Fusebox Festival in Austin,TX; the Storefront Theater (Chicago, IL). Schlichting’s work has also been commissioned by James Sewell Ballet (Ballet Works Project), Carleton College, The Southern Theater, Young Dance, and Zenon Dance
Company.
Lou Fancher is a freelance choreographer, ballet master and teacher working in the Bay area since 2005. Most recently the Rehearsal Director for Dancing People Company in Ashland, Oregon, Lou for nearly three decades has been the Ballet Master/Rehearsal Director for contemporary dance companies and independent choreographers in the U.S. and Canada. Among the companies are Company C Contemporary Ballet, James Sewell Ballet, and the Alberta Ballet. She has staged and/or rehearsed the works of dozens of choreographers including Twyla Tharp, Anthony Tudor, Paul Taylor, Lynne Taylor Corbett, Crystal Pite, Mark Godden, George Balanchine, Peter Pucci, David Parsons, John Butler, Igal Perry, Daniel Ezralow, Ralph Lemon, Doug Elkins, Viola Farber, Merce Cunningham, David Dorfman, Donna Uchizono, Dan Wagoner, Bill T. Jones, Wil Swanson, Margie Jenkins, Brian MacDonald, Jose Limon and others.
Lou holds a BFA in dance from the University of Cincinnati and as a choreographer has created ballets for James Sewell Ballet, Alberta Ballet Apprentice Ensemble, Theatre Ballet of Spokane, Ballet Pacifica, and New York Theatre Ballet. During the 18 years Lou was a resident of Minneapolis, her work was presented by the Minnesota Dance Alliance, Ballet Arts Minnesota, and others. She twice participated in The Carlisle Project, a no-longer operating national program designed to assist the artistic growth of choreographers. A published author and journalist, Lou writes locally for East Bay Times, Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Express, San Francisco Classical Voice, 48 Hills, wired.com, and other Bay Area publications. She is the author of two original children’s books and has designed and illustrated over 60 picture books. You may visit her website online at www.johnsonandfancher.com
Dustin Haug grew up in southern Minnesota and attended St. Olaf College. Although he was very active in the dance department and spent a good deal of time studying chemistry, he earned a BA in Visual Art in 2000. He moved to Seattle, WA after graduation and began working with KT Niehoff’s lingo dance theater in 2002, creating and performing in several evening-length works, including Speak to Me, Relatively Real, and Inhabit. In the summer of 2007, Dustin moved back home to Minnesota.
Locally, he has shown his own work at The Walker Art Center’s Choreographer’s Evening, Zenon’s Dance Zone, Choreographer’s Evening at the Ritz, Bryant Lake Bowl, and SPCPA’s Evening of Dance. He has also had the pleasure of working with numerous local choreographers such as Body Cartography Project, Rosy Simas Danse, Patrick Scully, Maggie Bergeron and Dancers, and Chris Schlichting. Dustin joined Mathew Janczewski’s ARENA DANCES in 2013 to help create and perform the evening-length work The Main Street Project. He has taught modern dance and contact improvisation at Zenon Dance School since 2008; dance, chemistry, and physics at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists from 2008-present.
Lately, he splits his time between teaching science and coordinating the academic program at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, teaching modern dance technique at Zenon Dance School, teaching and performing with ARENA, brewing beer, reading to his daughter, and laughing with his wife.
LORI MERCIL is a dancer with the Christopher Watson Dance Company, and MotionArt. Lori began her dance training with Vernon Russell in her native California, eventually earning her BFA in Dance from the University of Montana where she studied with many wonderful guest artists, including Douglas Dunn, and Joe Goode. She earned summer scholarships for further study at the Martha Graham School in NYC, and Repertory Dance Theater in Salt Lake City, and has taught and/or performed ballet, jazz, modern, and creative movement in Montana, Oregon, Japan, and the Twin Cities.
In addition to her current dance company cohorts at CWDC and MotionArt, Lori has also performed with Hauser Dance, Marciano Silva dos Santos, Link Vostok, Off-Leash Area, Una Setia, and with Marylee Hardenbergh on many site-specific dance projects, including as project manager and one of several choreographers for the 2015 Solstice River XIX. Lori has taught at Ballare Teatro, CWDC, Dancercize Kids, Hauser Dance, TU Dance, Young Dance, and Zenon, and has shown her own work at Hauser Dance, Kinetic Kitchen, Dances at the Lakes, and Christopher Watson Dance Company, and is currently a co-producer/choreographer for the recently created annual choreographers evening, 16 Feet, along with Gerry Girouard and Becky Heist. Lori is grateful for this amazing Twin Cities dance community, and is looking forward to many more enriching experiences!
E.E. Balcos (he, him) is a Filipino-American and is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He began formal training with modern dance pioneer Hanya Holm while also engaging in the practice of contact improvisation. A successful performer and choreographer for over 35 years, he danced with numerous independent Minneapolis choreographers including Diane Aldis, Madeline Dean, Mary Easter, Jill Heaberlin, Paula Mann, Patrick Scully, Georgia Stephens, Robin Stiehm, Lovice Weller, Laurie Van Wieren, Diane Waller, and several dance companies including Zenon Dance Company, Shapiro & Smith Dance, Demetrius Klein Dance Company, and Sam Costa’s 10,000 Dances. He worked directly and performed in the works of numerous nationally recognized choreographers and dance artists including: Chris Aiken, Danny Buraczeski, Ping Chong, Sean Curran, David Dorfman, Joe Goode, Daniel Gwirtzman, Dwight Rhoden, David Rousseve, Stephanie Skura and Bill Young. E.E. was the Artistic Director and choreographer for his company E.E.MOTION from 2007-2013 culminating with an evening-length work, Deep Water: The Murder Ballads in collaboration with composer, John Allemeier at the Knight Theatre in Charlotte, NC. This year (2021), he will be performing a new solo, Tales from the Wizard, choreographed by Bill Evans.
His current endeavors apply somatic approaches to choreography, dance performance, interdisciplinary collaborations, physical resilience, and teaching. In 2021he presented at the ISMETA Conference: Engaging Embodiment and will return to the Body IQ Festival in Berlin, Germany in November; in 2019 he presented at the C-DaRe Dance and Somatic Practices Conference in Coventry, United Kingdom; the Annual Body-Mind Centering Conference in Santa Barbara, California; and the Body IQ Festival in Berlin. Balcos is a founding member of Movement Migration, and has performed in 2019 in Campeche, Mexico; in 2018 in Pietrasanta, Italy; New York City; Roxbury, NY; and Charlotte, NC. He is an Associate Professor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and holds a BA in Music from The Colorado College and an MFA in Dance from The University of Iowa. This year he became a Registered Somatic Dance Educator (RSDE) through ISMETA. E.E. is also a passionate botanic gardener and photographer finding and exploring the parallels in nature and dance.
Helen Hatch is an independent dancer and choreographer based in St. Paul. Named as one of
Minnesota Monthly’s “10 Artists to Watch” in 2012, Helen was a member of Minnesota Dance Theatre from 2011-2017, dancing an eclectic range of repertory while also creating her own work. Since then she has worked with various artists in the Twin Cities on projects as a performer, choreographer, and producer. Helen is a graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA program where she was awarded Dance Departmental Honors. Her choreography has been presented at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, the 2011 Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Festival, 2014 MN Fringe Festival, The Southern Theater, throughout Mexico and Guatemala by the Juntos Collective, and commissioned by Minnesota Dance Theatre, Saint Paul Ballet, Penelope Freeh, Aveda, and The Cowles Center.
Helen is the Founder and Director of Hatch Dance, whose debut performance
Isotope was named a “2018 Top Ten Twin Cities Dance Performance” by the Star Tribune. Helen has taught extensively throughout the Twin Cities and is currently on faculty at Saint Paul Ballet and Community Movement Collective. https://helenhatch.wixsite.com/hatchdance
Deirdre grew up in Los Angeles, CA where she studied ballet from her mother, Eva Ralf and Tania Lichine. She moved to Minnesota to dance at Minnesota Dance Theater and then became a founding member of Zenon Dance Comapany where she danced for six years. She then found her home with Myron Johnson at Ballet of the Dolls where she danced for six more years and married her husband, Michael Murnane. Deirdre has also danced with Minnesota Opera, Sons of Winter Theater, Shawn Mcconneloug and her Orchestra, Children’s Theater Company, and Macy’s Glamorama. Deirdre taught dance in the Twin Cities from 1984 to 2017 and yoga since 2009. She has a 500-hour yoga teacher certification from Yoga Center Minneapolis, and is certified in Simonson Jazz Technique. Deirdre will be leaving Reif Dance in January to move back to the Twin Cities to teach there once again!
HIJACK is the Minneapolis-based choreographic collaboration of Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder. HIJACK is the confluence and clash of two independent compositional/kinesthetic impulses. Their dances embrace juxtaposition. Their dances house unlikely intimates and question “who is the enemy?”
Specializing in the inappropriate, HIJACK is best known for "short-shorts:" pop song-length miniatures designed to deliver a sharp shock.
Over the last 25 years they have created over 100 dances and performed in venues ranging from proscenium to barely-legal. HIJACK manipulates context by employing a site-specific approach to every performance and toying with audiences' expectations. HIJACK has performed in New York (at DTW, PS122, HERE ArtCenter, Catch/Movement Research Festival, La Mama, Dixon Place, Chocolate Factory), Japan, Russia, Central America, Ottawa, Chicago, Colorado, New Orleans, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco, at Fuse Box Festival in Austin Texas, and Bates Dance Festival in Maine and Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation. HIJACK questions where and for whom contemporary dance is performed, gigging regularly in both social settings and concert settings.
HIJACK has enjoyed long relationships with Red Eye Collaborations (as part of their Critical Core), Bryant Lake Bowl Theater where their 1996 "Take Me To Cuba" was the theater’s first ever dance concert), Zenon Dance School (where they have taught every Wednesday morning for 18 years), and Walker Art Center where they have performed in every imaginable context including the opening of the McGuire Theater, at Dyke Night, First Free Saturday children’s programming, in the sculpture garden, and in the light of the Benson Film Collection in the Mediateque. In 2013, Walker Art Center commissioned “redundant, ready, reading, radish, Red Eye” to celebrate twenty years of HIJACK and Contact Quarterly published the chapbook “Passing for Dance: A HIJACK Reader”.
Their 2018-20 projects include: performing End Plays with Lisa Nelson, curating and hosting Future Interstates (a series of dance improvisation performances initiated by HIJACK and Body Cartography in 2015), creation and premiere of Jealousy (a collaboration with sculptor Ryan Fontaine and lighting designer Heidi Eckwall at Hair + Nails Gallery), touring an evening of dance with films to micro-cinemas and managing & dancing in the 2019 McKnight International Choreography residency of Galia Eibenshutz at Cedar Cultural Center.
Pedro Pablo (they/them) is a Venezuelan-raised, Minneapolis-based queer dancer / performance maker. Founder/director of Viva la Pepa (www.vivalapepa.org), a collective of multi-generational queer performers in the Twin Cities. Their works are fueled by the overlapping values of Latinx and Queer cultures: melodrama, passion, decadence, and sensuality. An inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Pedro embarked in a collaboration with Argentinian choreographer Celia Argüello, spending time together in the southern hemisphere researching bodies and movements in revolution across the Americas. Viva la Pepa's last work performed in the US, Holy Doña, re-imagines the crucifixion as a queer performance ritual; they performed a preliminary duet iteration of this work in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Pedro co-directs a children and family theater program Drag Story Hour, and entertains the adults at night as their draglesque persona Doña Pepa. Currently a teaching artist with Upstream Arts and with the Pillsbury House Theater.
Judith Holo Shuǐ Xiān is an interdisciplinary choreographer, improviser and sound artist. Her work prioritizes and centers the experiences of QTIPOC, and stands as an allyship to those of other marginalized identities. She has presented works at venues including Fresh Oysters Performance Research, Public Functionary, Bryant Lake Bowl, Tek Box, The Southern Theater, Intermedia Arts (Minneapolis, MN) and 9 Herkimer Place (Brooklyn, NY) and has recently enjoyed collaborating with others including Dua Saleh, Emily Gastineau, HIJACK/Galia Eibenschutz, Reed Two Bulls, Leila Awadallah, Judith Howard, Rosy Simas, Chris Schlichting, Pramila Vasudevan, Megan Meyer, and Erin Drummond. She is a 2017 Q-Stage: New Works and 2019 Momentum: New Dance Works recipient.
Laura Osterhaus Rosenstone is a movement artist and educator, born and raised in the Midwest. Across all modes of creating, she strives to connect with and listen to people. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree in dance and fashion studies at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, Laura had the opportunity to perform the work of modern/contemporary dance choreographers Nora Chipaumire, Gregory Dolbashian, Maurya Kerr, and Garth Fagan among others. As a member of Zenon Dance Company in Minneapolis 2016-2019, Laura performed the work of Danny Buraczeski, Michelle Boulé, Kyle Abraham, Colleen Thomas, Sam Kim and others choreographers throughout Minnesota and across the country. Laura is also grateful to be a member of creative trio, Kelvin Wailey, in addition to her on-screen and live performance roles alongside musical artists for John Mark Creative.
As the founder and artistic director of Slo Dance Company, she collaborates with an ever-evolving group of artists to build performance work seeded in slowness, focused on embracing the rich process of intimate relationship-building and developing collective awareness that challenges perception of time. Laura is currently pursuing her Masters of Fine Arts as a Teaching Fellow at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Native to St. Paul, MN, Berit Ahlgren trained at Minnesota Dance Theater with both Loyce and Lise Houlton. A founding member of TU Dance under the artistic directorship of Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, Ahlgren performed with the company 2006—2016. Receiving Metropolitan Regional Art Council’s Next Step Grant in 2011, Ahlgren had the opportunity to study the Gaga Movement Language in Tel Aviv, and moved to Israel to pursue a year-long Gaga teacher certification. Returning to the U.S. in 2012, Ahlgren established Gaga classes in the Twin Cities, while guest teaching across the U.S. and abroad. Ahlgren obtained her MFA in Dance from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, where she expanded her interests to film and technology, actively collaborating with NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Since then, Ahlgren has diversified her work through freelance projects, performing works by Jerome Bel, Merce Cunningham, Ashwini Ramaswamy, Carl Flink, Anna Rose, Helen Hatch, Elena Hollenhorst, as well as collaborating with film makers Katie Sadler, J.J. Kaiser and Robert Uehlin, and theater directors Nathan Keepers, Randy Reyes, and Luverne Seiffert. Ahlgren established HoneyWorks in 2019, a dance organization to house interdisciplinary work.
Abigail Whitmore (she/her) and Annika Hansen (they/them, she/her) are dance artists and partners invested in collaborative efforts, performative events, and dance as embodied research. Both graduates of the University of Minnesota Dance Program, they draw inspiration from somatic practices, improvisation, post-modern, and contemporary dance forms. In their work together, they have partnered with Glam Doll Donuts with the support of a UROP grant (You’re Invited, 2016), the Casket Arts Building (Casket Dances, 2018), and the Walker Art Center (SculpTour, 2018/2019) to produce public dance events and experiment with audience engagement. Most recently, they were collaborating artists on a piece (To and From:) for the Red Eye Theater’s Works in Progress 2019 program. This year they are also planning another SculpTour event in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Danielle Ricci is an educator, choreographer, director, and dancer. She received her BFA in Dance Performance from University of California, Irvine in 2006 under direction of Donald McKayle. In 2014 she graduated with an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from St. Mary's University of Minnesota and earned an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University in 2018. She has studied at The Ailey School in New York City as part of their Certificate in Dance Program studying with Milton Myers, Tracy Inman, Nancy Turano, and Sharon Wong. Danielle has danced professionally in California, Texas, and Minnesota performing with Loretta Livingston and Dancers, Austin Classical Ballet, and Austin City Ballet.
Danielle is the Founding Artistic Director of Borealis Dance Theatre- a professional modern dance company based in Minneapolis. She is also the director of Dance Camera North- an annual international dance film festival. She is currently a dance specialist for Minneapolis Public Schools. Her choreography has been recognized as "Best of the Festival" at the Frontera Fringe Festival in Austin, TX in 2010 and 2012.
Bonnie Mathis was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and a soloist with the Harkness Ballet and also performed with many modern companies, namely the Lar Lubovitch Company, the Paul Taylor Company, the Paul Sanasardo Company, the Norman Walker Company, and the Nederlands Dans Theatre. Antony Tudor and Maggie Black where her primary teachers while at the Juilliard School and through her performing career as well as Benjamin Harkarvy and David Howard during her time at the Harkness Ballet.
She was part of the dance community of Minneapolis from 1980 to 2005, initially teaching ballet for the Minnesota Dance Theater, the University of Minnesota, and the Northwest Ballet and in 1989 co-creating Ballet Arts Minnesota.The City Children’s Nutcracker was created by Ballet Arts Mn. in 1990 in collaboration with the Minneapolis Park Board. It included dancers from the University of Minnesota and the local dance community as well as guest artists from Dance Theater of Harlem, the Twin Cities Youth Symphony, and choreographers such as Danny Buraczeski and Danny Ezralow. She also created Springboard Dance, a program that gave the advanced dancers at Ballet Arts an opportunity to perform cameo works by local and nationally known choreographers.
From 2005-2009 Bonnie joined the Boston Ballet to direct the Boston Ballet II, and facilitated their performances in the Boston area and abroad.
In addition to teaching and coaching dancers, she also created ballets for the Juilliard Dance Ensemble, Boston Ballet II, the Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Conservatory, as well as many self-produced concerts in Minneapolis supported by grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. In 1990 she received a Jerome Foundation Travel-Study grant to observe the San Francisco Ballet training and outreach program in the public schools.
Bonnie worked in tandem with Martine van Hamel at the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in New York State for the initial 15 years of the organization and is presently enjoying the dependable sunshine of the Southwest in Tucson, Arizona.
Karla Grotting is a dancer, choreographer, educator and producer working with a unique blend of jazz, tap, modern, theater, and percussive dance techniques. Since 1990, she has been a founding member, principal dancer, and artistic associate with Joe Chvala's The Flying Foot Forum. Karla has performed and toured with Jazzdance: by Danny Buraczeski, MN Jazz Dance Co, Keane Sense of Rhythm, and dance/theater companies;Off-Leash Area, and Combustible Company.
For 22 years, Karla was on faculty with the University of Minnesota Department of Theater and Dance, and has been a visiting guest teaching/choreography artist at St Olaf College, Carleton College, Gustavus Adolphus College, UW-Whitewater, Macalester College, as well as creating dance works for several local and regional dance companies. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes the history of jazz music, jazz dance, social dance forms, tap dance, and improvisation; exploring the connections of these histories and their relationship to concert jazz dance.
In 2015, in collaboration with Karis Sloss Harris and her Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Karla co-produced the project Lost Voices in Jazz: The Choreographers of the Minnesota Jazz Dance Company, which reconstructed works by local jazz artists lost to AIDS. Lost Voices was recognized with a Sage Award for Outstanding Performance in 2015, and Karla was named as one of City Pages’ Artists of the Year, the same year.
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.
“I bring all of who I am into expression when I work– genetics, experience, and ways of perceiving. Through my choreography, I work with internal somatic processes to source the body's wisdom and instigate movement. Those ideas are then made manifest through immersive installations -- metaphorical spaces that the dancers navigate in the same way that we, as individuals navigate our own mental models.”
Oroyan is a founding mover and Artistic Associate of Black Label Movement, a company with roots deep in his heart and body. In 2012, in joy and sadness, he moved to Brussels and worked with Ultima Vez for six years, having toured and performed primarily with What the Body Does not Remember and In Spite of Wishing and Wanting. Oroyan, continues to dance in Europe and has been working since 2017 with Emmanuel Gat Dance. His experience also spans Creach/Company, Shapiro & Smith, ARENA DANCES, Zenon, Andrea Miller, and Roberto Olivan. Oroyan has had collaborative works presented at American Dance Festival 2014 (An Unkindness of Ravens, BLM) and Zürich Tanzt 2015 (Borderland w/ Rakesh Sukesh). He presented a solo, Polaroid, in 2016 at P12 Space in Brussels and premiered a duet, Entropia, with Natalia Pieczuro at Dag van de Dans 2017. In February 2018, Eddie was part of The Guest Project in Thessaloniki in co-creation of a new trio, Poetics of Relations. Recently, Oroyan is co-artistic director of the duo project My Homeless Lover, which premiered their first work, Pasta e Lava, in Genova, Italy as part of the 2018 Resistere e Creare festival. For more info check, www.myhomelesslover.com. Eddie is also teaching extensively the practice he continues to research and develop, Animal Mindfulness. After an injury in late 2014, Oroyan began a practice of meditation and observation. Animal Mindfulness came through his search for balance. His performing and studies have long included animal reflex training and proper response, but his new practice has and continues to teach him curiosity and awareness of the more subtle and delicate, the empathetic. After returning to performing and teaching, Oroyan is moved to explore and share these discoveries through the stage and classroom. More recently, with Jessica Eirado Enes, he has been developing an empathic partnering and Ideomotor motor training class they are calling Ouija.
Kevin A. Jones,Lighting Designer, Production Manager.
Mr. Jones has worked behind the scenes of theTwin City professional dance and theater community for over 40 years. He was resident lighting designer and production manager for Minnesota Dance Theatre for over a decade andJamesSewell Ballet for 20+years. His designs have illuminated internationally acclaimed Sewell ballets such asMoving Works, Barrage, Outerborough, Appalachia Waltz,Your Move, andGuy Noir: The Ballet, and Sharon Eyal, Gai Behar’s Killer Pig locally and in Europe. Kevin designed forBallet Minnesota, Ballet Arts Minnesota,CAAM-CDTDance,McKnight SOLO concerts and numerous other Minnesota and international dance and theater companies.Mr. Jones is the Production Manager for The O'Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University. He was declared “one of the best stage managers in America”by Dr. Maya Angelou.Mr. Jones consulted on dance floors for the Glory a KaufmanDance Studios at UCLA, designed andimplemented the original floor system, lighting and sound systems for the TEK Box at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, and more recently the floor system, rehearsal audio, and video streaming systems for Ananya DanceTheatre at The Shawn Gram Institute for Performance & Social Justice
Sharon Picasso (she/her) is a Minneapolis based movement, performance and trans-disciplinary creative Artist and Founder/Artistic Director of Picasso Projects and Lupa Studio. Her work as a freelance performance and dance artist lives parallel to her work as a choreographer for the past 25 years. Sharon’s creative and collaborative practice has expanded into design including sound, light and installation. Paramount in Sharon's collaborative process is cultivating an inclusive, respectful and sustaining creative environment where value is placed on the wholeness of an individual.
Her performance work provides the privilege of collaborating with a wide variety of artists, most recently Deborah Jinza Thayer/Movement Architecture, Jennifer Glaws/Jagged Moves, Viva La Pepa, Jess Forest, Rosy Simas Danse and Paula Mann/Time Track Productions. Sharon Picasso studied Theatre and Psychology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and earned a degree in Dance Performance and Choreography from The Boston Conservatory.
Sharon is grateful to have been consistently performing and collaborating as a freelance dance artist for decades. The relationships cultivated through the moving performing arts have offered her diversity in artistry, growth and renewed energy. She considers her long-time collaborative relationships and community as the greatest rewards of her craft.
www.picassoprojects.com
Darrius Strong is a Twin Cities based choreographer, dancer, and educator whose creative work has been chosen for the Walker Art Centers Choreographer's Evening, and Rhythmically Speaking. He was featured in the 2015 New Griots Festival as well as an American Standard Bill Board advertisement in NYC Time Square in 2016. He was also a 2017 Momentum New Works recipient. Strong has created works for Threads Dance Project, Flying Foot Forum, Alternative Motion Projects, TU dance and James Sewell Ballet. Strong is a grateful recipient of a 2019 Jerome Hill Fellowship.
Strong developed his own dance company STRONGmovement in 2015. He is also faculty at St. Paul Conservatory Performing Arts High School, TU Dance Center, and Eleve Performing Arts Center where he focuses on teaching young dancers how to connect their identity to movement. www.strong-movement.com
Cathy Young brings 34 years of experience as an artist and educator to her work as Executive Director ofBoston Conservatory at Berklee. During the course of her career she has been a performer with leading American dance companies, the artistic director of her own dance company, a nationally recognized choreographer and teacher of jazzdance, a professor of dance, co-founder of a college dance program, and the Dean of Dance at Boston Conservatory.
Young grew up on a farm in a central Pennsylvania coal mining town. She earned her BA in Sociology and Women’s Studies from Harvard University, where she also got her first exposure to dance as an art form through an opportunity to take an African dance class. Falling in love with dance, not only for its physicality but for its ability to communicate emotion and create community, she made the decision to pursue it as a career, leaving former dreams of law school behind and embracing the joys and challenges of a life as a performing
artist.
She spent the next 20 years focused on building her career as a dancer, choreographer, artistic director, and teacher of dance. She has worked with leading artists in American contemporary dance and jazzdance, as well as creating a choreographic body of work and directing her own company. Her choreography has been commissioned by universities and professional companies around the country and abroad, and presented in prestigious venues including the Joyce Theater and Dance Theater Workshop in New York, Bates Dance
Festival, and The Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis. Her work has been supported by grants from foundations including The Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and Minnesota State Arts Board. In addition to her work in concert dance, Young has also created choreography for theater, opera, commercials, industrials, and film. As a teacher, she has conducted artist residencies at over 30 colleges and universities, as well as sitting on the faculty of numerous national and international dance festivals including Bates Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival, and the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia.
After 20 years as a working artist, she returned to academia to earn her MFA in Dance at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and accepted a position as an associate professor of dance at Ursinus College in PA, where she co-founded the dance program including full curriculum design, implementation of a dance major and minor, and creation of a student dance company. Young was named Chair of the Theater and Dance Dept., and focused her efforts on engaging students and faculty across the campus, in all academic disciplines, with the transformative power of the performing arts.
During her time leading the Conservatory dance division, the BFA program has become recognized as the top contemporary dance program in the US. Young has overseen the implementation of a forward- thinking, comprehensive curriculum designed to prepare dance artists for 21st century entrepreneurial dance careers; and focused her efforts on building and supporting diversity within the dance division curriculum, artistic programming, and student/faculty population. This emphasis on diversity, innovation, collaboration, and
community as core values, expressed through the curriculum, training, and artistic productions, have attracted the top students, faculty, and guest artists in the field.
In her current role as Executive Director of Boston Conservatory at Berklee, she is charged with strategy, vision, and oversight of all areas of the school, which includes three divisions (Music, Theater, and Dance), 200 faculty, and 850 students. Under her leadership, Boston Conservatory at Berklee has become known as an innovative, contemporary conservatory, creating new models of performing arts education and preparing students to be the performers, teachers, content creators and change-makers of our collective fut
A Minneapolis native, Jamesmoved to New York and studied at the School of American Ballet with David Howard, and began performing with ABT II. He was a lead dancer with Feld Ballets/NY for six years and has performed as a guest artist with the New York City Ballet, Zvi Gottheiner and Dancers, and Denishawn. He, along with co-founder Sally Rousse, started James Sewell Dance in NYC in 1990, and then moved the company to Minnesota in 1993.
Ballet is the central technique of the company, but the goal has always been to expand the boundaries of the art form. James has choreographed more than 100 ballets for companies in the United States and around the world. He is recognized nationally by numerous fellowships and commissions over the course of three decades making work, and regularly develops pieces along with live musicians and artists of other idioms. His work Titicut Follies, in collaboration with famed documentarian Frederick Wiseman and SNL band-leader Lenny Pickett, made its European premier at the Cannes Festival de Danse in France in December 2019. Moving is moving, in every sense of the word, and his work as both choreographer and educator continually seeks to expand that notion and its reach.
Eve Schulte is a dance artist and administrator based in Minneapolis, MN. She grew up training in ballet and modern at Minnesota Dance Theatre, and transitioned to company member in 2007. In 2009, she joined James Sewell Ballet, where she has served as dancer, artistic associate (2017-2020), and now executive director. She has also collaborated with physical theater group Live Action Set, which is pioneering innovative immersive and interactive moving stories. In the summertime, she teaches at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and has twice served as co-director for their International Ballet Ensemble. Eve has performed or taught in France, Germany, Denmark, Canada, nationally in 17 states, and in 30+ Minnesota communities. Her choreographic work Any Offered None was nominated for a 2016 MN Sage Award for Outstanding Performance. Eve also holds a B.A. in English from the University of Minnesota.
Some of her most memorable dance experiences include roles in Glen Tetley's Mythical Hunters; Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar’s Killer Pig; Wynn Fricke's Close To Silence and Just Her Time; Nic Lincoln's Semi-Detached; Loyce Houlton's Carmina Burana and Sacre du Printemps; Sewell's Moving Works, Good Mourning, and Mendelssohn Trio; Leralee Whittle’s Displacement Activity; and Live Action Set’s Unset.
“Dance should allow people to shed and discover many things about themselves, whether participating on stage or from the audience. The ways in which it can permeate one’s heart are boundless.”
Heather Klopchin, originally from Goshen, NY, is passionate about performing,
choreographing, researching, and teaching dance. She currently is a Principal Artist with
Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater and has performed with the company in Germany,
Mexico, and in locations across the United States. Heather has also performed with
ARENA DANCES, Zenon Dance Company, Stark Dance, Alternative Motion Project,
Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Linda Lehovec & Dancers, Joe Chvala Flying Foot Forum,
Paula Mann’s Time Track Productions, and Dancing People Company. She is currently
the Chair of the Dance Department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN where she
teaches Ballet, Modern Dance, Jazz Dance, and Dance History as well as creating dance
work for the St. Olaf Dance Department’s student company, Companydance. Heather
holds a BS degree in Management and a Dance minor from the State University of New
York (SUNY) at Geneseo and a MFA degree in Dance Choreography and Performance
from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
Having studied Spanish dance and flamenco since childhood, Susana di Palma continued her apprenticeship with maestros such as Ciro, Manolo Marin, Manolete, Carmen Mora and Merche Esmeralda. She performed throughout Spain in tablaos and with companies such as La Singla. In 1985 she founded Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater in Minneapolis. Its mission has been to create innovative theater works that expand on traditional flamenco to reflect on controversial contemporary issues.
Di Palma’s full length theater-flamenco ballets include: Flor, Garden of Names, Gernika , Sadja , First, I Dream, La Virtud Negra, Encuentros, Tales of the Black Legend, Zorro in the Land of the Yellow-Breasted Woodpecker, Convivir, Los Caprichos, Garden of Names among others. Her works have been presented at New York’s Joyce Theater, Miami’s Florida Dance Festival, St. Paul’s O’Shaughnessy Theater’s “Women of Substance Series,” and the Walker Art Center among other venues. She choreographed Lorca’s “Blood Wedding” for the Guthrie Theater and Bethany Lutheran College. In 2012, she was curator for the Walker Art Center’s “Choreographers’ Evening”. In 2016, she choreographed the full-length work Lorca’s Women which was presented at The Cowles Theater. That work won the Sage Award for Most Outstanding Choreography and was chosen as one of top 10 performances of the year by the StarTribune.
In 2017, she was invited to choreograph PiCa, awork on Picasso for the New York company, Flamenco Vivo. That work was presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is part of the company’s touring repertoire.
In 2017, di Palma received a McKnight Fellowship for Choreography which included a Artist Residency at MANCC – Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. During that residency, she created Casita, a work on homeless women which was presented at The Lab Theater in 2019 and is scheduled to tour various Minnesota community theaters as part of the Minnesota State Arts Board Touring Grant. Her puppet theater work for children Tra Ti Ti Tran Tran Toro on immigration has toured over 50 communities and is also scheduled to be part of the 2021 MSAB Touring Program. Di Palma’s 2020 pandemic response video work Decameron 20:20 included a cast of international flamenco artists and received recognition as one of the noteworthy works of 2020 by the StarTribune.
A devoted teacher, di Palma has been part of the Cowles Center’s Distant Learning Program since its’ beginning and continues as one of their Teaching Artists. She taught at the University of Minnesota Dance Department for over 25 years. She continues teaching at the Zorongo School where she directs and guides the Majas, apprentice program.
Her work has been honored with grants from the McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board and a MRAC Next Step Grant among others.
Paula Mann’s journey took her from Appalachian roots to Detroit teenage runaway, through Kent State in the 1970's, to NYU and the downtown dance scene of the 1980's. She studied Humphrey/Limon technique with Ruth Currier and members of the Limon company, Hawkins technique with Eric Hawkins and Cunningham with Merce Cunningham. Her first concert of choreography was produced at the Merce Cunningham Studio in 1980 and later that year she co-founded Dudek/Mann + Dancers with partner Tina Dudek. Mann moved to the Twin Cities in 1987, armed with a BA and MA in Dance from NYU, and following seven years as co-director of Dudek/Mann + Dancers. Since her arrival in the Twin Cities, Mann has created 50 new works and is co-artistic director of TIME TRACK PRODUCTIONS with visual artist Steve Paul. She has been a driving force in Contemporary Dance and Performance based out of Minneapolis for the past 30 years; challenging, educating and engaging artists, audiences and communities with passion, inventiveness and rigor. She was full time faculty at the University of Minnesota Department of Theater and Dance from 1993-2013 and is a 2019/2020 McKnight Fellow in Choreography.
Dancer, choreographer, educator, and writer Penelope Freeh dismantles antiquated modes of how ballet is taught, languaged, applied in research terms, and expressed physically, intellectually, performatively, and at the gut level. Through her practice of expanding the terms and exploding the tropes of ballet, she aims to meaningfully connect with a diversity of dancers, collaborators, colleagues, students, and audiences.
Freeh is a two-time McKnight Fellow for Choreographers, McKnight Fellow for Dancers, and Sage awardee for Outstanding Performer. Her work is in the repertoires of Alternative Motion Project, Gem City Ballet, James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and Zenon Dance Company among others. Residencies include the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France.
International work includes collaboratively building new work at New York University – Abu Dhabi with Brooklyn-based Theater Mitu. She has performed and taught in Russa as part of the LinkVostok Dance Festival. Her work was performed in France, Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic as part of a Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Ballet Ensemble tour that she co-directed.
Freeh frequently collaborates with composer Jocelyn Hagen. Their chamber dance opera Test Pilot won a Sage Award for Outstanding Design and toured the state in 2016.
Penelope danced for James Sewell Ballet for seventeen years, serving as Artistic Associate from 2007-11. She is faculty at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul Ballet, St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, TU Dance, and Zenon. She holds a Dance MFA from Hollins University.
Sally Rousse, a native of Vermont, is a dance artist who performs, teaches, choreographs, writes, and advocates. Branded “Renegade Ballerina” Sally has received two McKnight Fellowships for Dancers (2001/14), a Sage Award for Outstanding Performer (2013) and was named Artist of the Year by CityPages (2010). She co-founded James Sewell Ballet (JSB) in New York City in 1990, serving as its managing director and artistic associate throughout its move to Minneapolis in 1993. Since leaving JSB in 2014, Rousse’s site-specific works have taken dance off the tradition stage, into venues such as the Kwon Tung Pier in Hong Kong and up in the tree of a vacant lot. Her work features artists who identify as LGBTTQ+, mature/aged, Disabled+, female, and BIPOC. Recently, as the Cowles Center’s first Artist in Residence, she engaged the local community through free workshops, art installations, tours, discussions, and the acclaimed promenade performance ICON SAM: Temple Dances (“Best Performance of 2018,” CityPages). Her choreography has been seen in both theatrical and commercial venues such as the Guthrie, Southern, and State Theaters; the Walker Art Center, MASS MoCA, the Cartoon Channel, and Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre. Rousse performed as a leading dancer with the Royal Ballet of Flanders and Ballet Chicago, dancing works by Maurice Béjart, Jiri Kylian, and over 75 new works created on her by contemporary and post-modern choreographers. Sally is certified in Floor-Barre©, Reiki, and Brain Gym® and currently contributes labor to two national organizations, Creating New Futures and BreakBank, which are focused, respectively, on ethics and equity in dance and performance, and promoting balanced screen usage while de-centering whiteness.
Tom Kanthak served as an Instructor of Dance Composition and Improvisation, Music for Dance, Arts Improvisation, the New Music Ensemble, and Music Director and Dance Musician for the Perpich Center for Arts Education, Arts High School Dance Program from 1988 to 2012. He holds a B.A. in Performing Arts from Metropolitan State University and an M.A. in Music from Ohio State University. Tom has been involved with music for dance for over 40 years as a composer, dance musician, choreographer, dancer and performer. He began his classical music training at the age of six with piano and today plays a variety of instruments. He is also a trained modern dancer having studied with Hanya Holm, Nancy Hauser, Claudia Gitelman, Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis and more. He is a member of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance and the MN based Dance Educators Coalition. Tom is the originator of SoniCoMotion, the overriding name for many collaborations with many composers, musicians, choreographers, dancers, and dance musicians. Some of his collaborators include choreographers Chris Aiken, Cathy Young, Patrick Scully, Georgia Stephens, composers/improvisors Michelle Kinney, Manjunan Gnanaratnam, Jonathan Bayley, David Means, Steve Goldstein, Brent Michael Davids, dancers Jane Schockley, Mary Harding, and students from the Arts High School at the Perpich Center for Arts Education.
Diane Aldis currently works as the Arts Integration Coordinator for Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts in Anoka Hennepin Schools. and prior to that, worked for 16 years in Professional Development and Outreach at the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Her work in arts education has been strongly shaped by my experiences as a performing artist and the lived experience of creating work with others.
She danced full-time for 15 years with companies and projects in Europe and the United States including New England Dinosaur in Boston, lots of postmodern pick-up companies in NYC, and the original Ozone Dance Company and New Dance Ensemble here in Minneapolis. She says she “still relishes the occasional opportunity to work on projects with folks like Christopher Watson Dance Company and Off-Leash Area."
Gerry Girouard is a long-time, local movement explorer/dancer/choreographer of the twin cities. He is currently merging improvisational ideas inspired from in-depth studies of Modern Dance, Argentine Tango and Capoeira. Gerry’s start in dance was dancing for Nancy Hauser in her modern dance company The Nancy Hauser Dance Company way back in 1983!!!
In the 1990’s he did his own acrobatic style of dancing by literally dancing on and off the walls, and he used this style to create and produce many evening-length acrobatic dances including: In the Shadows of the Diamond Realm (1992), Off the Wall (1994), Songs for the Body Electric (1997), Gravity Games (2000), The Cult of Dorian Gray (2004), the 2006 IVEY award winning show Crimes & Whispers: A Tango of Despair and Defiance.
Since 2010 Gerry has pursued more informal performances and focused on the merging of improvisational ideas inspired from in-depth studies of Modern Dance, Argentine Tango and Capoeira.
In 2017, Gerry co-founded with Lori Mercil and Becky Heist and continues to produce and choreograph in the 16 FEET showcase for independent choreographers. The showcase is a collaborative effort of all the participants.
Gerry has earned many grants and commissions including several Minnesota Dance Alliance’s Dancer Pool Grant (1990, 1994, 1997, 1999), Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiatives (1991, 1994, 2000, 2005), MRAC Community Arts Grant (1996), Jerome Foundation Grants (1997, 1999, 2003, 2005) and a McKnight Foundation Choreography Fellowship (1992).
Judith Howard has been making dances in the Twin Cities for over 30 years and her work has
been presented at numerous venues, nationally and internationally including the Walker Art
Center, the Southern Theater, 9x22 Dance Lab, the NY Improvisation Festival and The
International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Yaroslavl, Russia. Judith has performed the
work of numerous choreographers including: Super Group, HIJACK, Morgan Thorson, Laurie Van Wieren, Off-Leash Area, Shapiro and Smith, Skewed Visions, April Sellers, and Mad King
Thomas.
Her work has been supported by the McKnight and Jerome Foundations, the MN
Regional Arts Council, and Carleton College. She was selected “Twin Cities Best
Choreographer” in 2005 and received a Sage Award for Outstanding Performance (with April
Sellers) in 2006. She was honored for her teaching with a Sage Award for Outstanding Dance
Educator in 2014 and a Sage Award for Outstanding Performer in 2016 for her solo in the work of Super Group.
Judith is currently a professor in Dance at Carleton College where she directs the Dance Program and is currently the Chair of the Theater and Dance Department.
Taja Will (pronouns Taja/they) is a queer, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee, performer, choreographer, somatic therapist and Healing Justice practitioner based in the Twin Cities (MN), on the stolen and occupied Dakota lands of Wahpekute and Anishinabewaki. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Will’s work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through ritual, archetypes and everyday magic.
Will’s work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities and across the United States. Including local performances at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, the Radical Recess series, Right Here Showcase and the Candy Box Dance Festival. Will is the recipient of a 2018 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center and funded by The McKnight Foundation. Will has recently received support from the National Association of Latinx Arts & Culture, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and was a finalist for Queer Art’s(NYC) Eva Yaa Grant for Queer Women(+) Dance Artists.
As a performer Will has collaborated with Sara Shelton Mann, Rosy Simas Danse, Keith Hennessy, Aniccha Arts (Pramila Vasudevan), Deborah Jinza Thayer, Blake Nellis, Timmy Rehborg, Off Leash Area, Vanessa Voskuil, Body Cartography Project and Miguel Gutierrez among others. As an educator Will has been a guest teacher and adjunct faculty at several institutions across the United States, including University of Minnesota, Knox College, Hamline University, Zenon Dance School, Earthdance Creative Living, wcciJam, and the Lion’s Jaw Festival.
Taja maintains a dynamic Healing Justice practice that includes consulting with individuals, organizations, and communities in the context of workshops, conflict mediation, one-on-one somatic healing sessions, nervous system triage, board development and organizational cultural competency, and individual coaching on unwinding from white body supremacy culture. They ground their work in indigenous solidarity and decolonization as a means to undo white body supremacy and it’s pervasive relationship to capitalism, Taja is committed to working for healing and liberation of Black, Indigenous and people of color.
They have recently accepted the position of Equity & Justice Coordinator at Earthdance Creative Living, an artist retreat center in Western Massachusetts, on the ancestral lands of the Agawams, Pocumtuc, Nipmuck and Wabanaki Confederacy.
Taja Will goes by "Taja/they" pronouns. In our interview, you may note the error by host Mathew in referring to Taja as "she" during the middle of the interview. Mathew acknowledges and is sorry for this error. Upon conversation and reflection, Mathew and ARENA DANCES have taken this opportunity to learn more about supporting non-binary folks.
Derek Phillips is a native of Kansas City, Missouri and a 1977 graduate
of Carleton College. He began his dance career with the Nancy Hauser
Dance Company and later toured nationally with the Children’s Theatre
Company. Derek has been a roster artist for the Minnesota State Arts
Board’s Artists-in-Education Program and conducted annual residencies
for the Montevideo, Minnesota public schools for over twenty years. He
has taught as part of the Dance/Math program at Whittier Community
School for the Arts in Minneapolis and instructed and performed for the
City Children’s Nutcracker Project. He has also served as Development
Assistant for Intermedia Arts Minnesota’s capital campaign and Adjunct
Dance Education Coordinator for the Perpich Center for Arts Education.
More recently, he toured internationally with Katha Dance Theatre.
Currently, Derek is a teaching artist for the Cowles Center for Dance and
the Performing Arts. He performs English country and sword dances with
Minnesota Traditional Morris and Guyz with Tiez, and is a 2016 recipient of
a Minnesota SAGE Award.
Christine Maginnis, a native of Minneapolis, has been an active dance artist in her home town for almost four decades, a good chunk of that time spent as a performer and teacher with Zenon Dance Company under the artistic direction of Linda Z. Andrews. With Zenon she toured to Switzerland, Aruba, Saipan, Russia, New York and throughout the Midwest. She had the honor of performing in over 100 works by dance makers from around the world including Susana Tambutti, Bebe Miller, Doug Varone, Danny Buraczeski, Bill Young, Wil Swanson, Joe Chavala, Gyula Berger and Jeanine Durning, to name a few of her favs.
Outside of Zenon she has worked with Cathy Young Dance, ARENA DANCES, Movement Architecture, Shapiro and Smith Dance, Off Leash Area, DAdance, CWDC, Borrowed Bones, Jagged Moves and Ballet of the Dolls. She also worked with indie choreographers Cathy Wright, Penelope Freeh, Zhauna Franks, Sally Rousse, Karla Grotting and Gerry Girouard. Other memorable shows include The Minnesota Opera's "Carmen", "Transatlantic" and "Macbeth" as well as Ruth Mackenzie's "Kalevala".
Christine has been making her own dances for the past two decades and was commissioned by Minnesota Dance Theater ("The Fermentation of Suzie and the Sailor"), James Sewell Ballet's 'Ballet Works Project' ("Cabaret Niche"), Decadance Productions ("My Name is Vincent"), Lira Dance Theater of Sioux Falls ("E Finito?"), and L1 DanceLab in Budapest, Hungary ("Azalea Nights"). She has been invited to show work in many showcases around town including 'Renovate', 'Rhythmically Speaking' and '16 Feet' as well as created two evening length repertory concerts, "Unzipped" for the Red Eye Collaboration's 'Isolated Acts' and "Femme de la Swashbuckle Box" in collaboration with composer Matthew Smith for the Minnesota Fringe Festival. She collaborated with former Pilobolus/Momix dancer, Tim Latta, on the project, "An American Movement", that toured for a summer throughout Italy.
Delving into the baggage of the human psyche using images from cinema, cartoons, mythology, musicals, vaudeville, fairytales, nature and spiritual ritual, Christine's goal is to create a "dream-logical" narrative leading the audience down a twisted path of emotional transformation often spiced with dark humor and melodrama as well as film for juxtaposition and dimension. She has been awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Assistance Grant (1987), City Pages Best Dancer shout out (1998), a McKnight Fellowship for Dancers (2001) and a Sage Award for Outstanding Performer (2016).
A St. Paul native and tap and jazz dancer through high school, Colleen went to Utah and
majored in dance. She came back to the Twin Cities on fire with the idea of performing and
choreographing and teaching dance in the schools. While in Utah, she was exposed to and
embraced for the first time “modern dance”. She came back to Minnesota in 1979 with a
renewed idea of how deep and wide dance could be and became an apprentice with the Nancy Hauser Dance Company and a member of Loon on a Log Dance Company with Joan Sloss.
Colleen received a Mcknight Choreographic Fellowship award, a State Arts Board Award, a Dancer Pool Award and co-produced many of her own concerts as well as being produced by The Minnesota Dance Alliance’ Summer Dance series. Her work was also featured in the Walker Art Center's “Choreographer’s Evenings” multiple times through the 1980’s and 90’s.
At the same time, she was teaching dance at Minneapolis North High for 15 years and finally at Minneapolis Southwest High for 20 years; she also began and has sustained the Dance Educator’s Coalition since 1986 who’s mission is to increase the quantity and quality of dance K-College throughout the state. She is a recipient of the 2007 Sage Award for Minnesota Dance Educator, the 2011 National Dance Educator of the Year award through the National Dance Education Organization and 2014 Dance USA’s “Inspiration Award”.
Morris Johnson, Jr is a choreographer, teacher and dancer who started his formal dance education in Broadway District in New York. He is a two(2) time recipient of the Judith De Jean Memorial Scholarship Award from the New Dance Group Studio and also received scholarships from The Bernice Johnson Dance Studio and the American Dance Machine under Lee Theodore and Ann Rankin.
Morris has performed nationally and toured internationally with various dance companies and musicals including Africa, South America, The Caribbean and the Netherlands Antilles. He has performed for such noted artists as Eartha Kitt at the Apollo theater, Desi Arnez, Barbara Striesand, Prince, Charles Moore's Drums and Dances of Africa, Pearl Primus, Arrow and Chuck Davis.
Morris has choreographed for stage and videos to include The Steeles, Robert Robinson, the Jetts, Penumbra Theater, The Walker and various other venues. He also premiered dance fables, Langa and Naga at the Southern Theater and has collaborated with Cassandra Shore's Jawaahir' s Caravan and Tree Tales with the Ragamala Dance company.
Morris has taught for the U of Mn/Guthrie Theater BFA Actors Training Program, U of Mn dance dept, The Arts Connection in NY, and community classes around the Twin Cities. He received the Sage Award for Outstanding Dance Educator in 2012 and received grants from The McKnight foundation, The Jerome Foundation, MRAC, Dancer pool, SpaceSpace and a Travel Study grant from the Jerome Foundation to study in Salvador, Bahia with Bale Folklorico Da Bahia
Leigh W. Dillard retired as Professor Emerita, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University, in 2015. She taught dance at CSB/SJU for fifteen years and was Chair of the CSB/SJU Theater Department for eight years. She was honored with the Linda Mealey Faculty/Student Collaborative Research and Creativity Award in 2015. Currently, Ms. Dillard is teaching dance to seniors as part of a research project funded by the Aroha Foundation. She has also been working as a choreographer and movement coach at Saint John’s Preparatory School, North Hennepin Community College and the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University Music Department. Ms. Dillard has served on a variety of artist grant panels, including the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation. Ms. Dillard was co-founder and Artistic Director of New Dance Ensemble, a professional repertory company in Minneapolis, 1981-91. Ms. Dillard received a Master of Fine Arts, Dance, from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, 1973, and a Bachelor of Arts, Dance, from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, 1971. She has been a FGNA certified Feldenkrais practitioner since 1997.
Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy's Ragamala Dance Company is the embodiment of an immigrant story. Founded in 1992 by Ranee, and currently under the leadership of Artistic Directors Ranee and Aparna and Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy (mother and daughters), their aesthetic is deeply influenced by their cultural hybridity as Indian-American artists. Practitioners of the South Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, they explore the myth and spirituality of India to engage with what they see as the dynamic tension between the historical, the ancestral, and the personal.
In addition to the just-released From the Flutes of Our Bones (Nodin Press) Mary Moore Easter is the author of three other poetry books, The Body of the World (Minnesota Book Award in Poetry Finalist, 2019), Walking from Origins, and the forthcoming Free Papers: poems inspired by the testimony of Eliza Winston, a Mississippi slave escaped to freedom in Minnesota in 1860 (2021). She edited Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: poems in the wake of racial injustice (Rain Taxi 2020).
In a long dance career in Minnesota and nationally, her awards include a Bush Artist Fellowship in Choreography, and McKnight Awards in Choreography and in Interdisciplinary Arts from Intermedia Arts. She most recently performed as a dancer in Paula Mann’s Invisible.
Her career as an independent dancer/choreographer and Founder and Director of Carleton College’s dance program overlapped with writing as a Cave Canem Fellow. She is a 2020 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Easter holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence and an M.A. in Music for Dancers from Goddard.
Christopher Watson was a member of the New Dance Ensemble of Minneapolis and has performed with the Chicago Moving Company, Harbinger Dance Company of Detroit, and Joanna Haigood's Zaccho company in San Francisco, dancing in works by Pearl Lang, David Gordon, Dan Wagoner, Linda Shapiro, Kathryn Posin, Doris Humphrey, and Margaret Jenkins, among others.
Christopher received a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Coe College and a Master of Science degree in journalism from Northwestern University prior to beginning his dance training. He began dance study at the Houston Ballet Academy and subsequently trained with the Chicago Moving Company and at the Merce Cunningham and Joffrey Ballet studios in New York. Christopher then received a Master of Fine Arts in dance from the University of Michigan. From 1978-1982, he co-directed the Dance Theatre 2 Company and School in Ann Arbor, MI
As associate director of American Inroads and Theater Artaud in San Francisco, he produced a wide range of dance, music, and theater events, including the concert premiere of John Adam's Opera Nixon in China, a concert version of Phillip Glass' Liquid Days with Linda Ronstadt, and the first annual Black Choreographers Moving showcase, as well as performances by noted artists Bebe Miller, Susan Marshall, Stephen Petronio, and the Kronos Quartet, among many others. He founded the Christopher Watson Dance Company in Sacramento, CA in 1991 after performing as an independent choreographer and dancer for several years. Mr. Watson returned to Minneapolis in the fall of 1994.
A former member of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Dance Alliance, Christopher has served on committees and panels for the Michigan Dance Association, Dance Bay Area in San Francisco, and the Sacramento Area Dance Alliance. He has served as a consultant for local arts agencies and organizations including the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently he serves on the board of directors for Ressl Dance!
A distinguished teacher, Christopher has served as a guest artist at Eastern Michigan University, California State University Sacramento, University of California at Davis, University of Minnesota Duluth, the Sacramento Visual and Performing Arts High School, and the Pinole Valley Arts Magnet School in the San Francisco Bay area.
Mr. Watson's work has been supported through grants from the Michigan Council for the Arts, the New Works Program of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, the Jerome Foundation through the SpaceSpace Co-Project, the Linden Hills UCC Fund, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Lyndale Neighborhood Association, Minneapolis Arts Commission, the Minnesota Dance Alliance, and Mervyn's.
Robin Stiehm's professional dance career spans 4 decades, beginning as a ballet dancer at the Minnesota Dance Theatre. She was a soloist at MDT, performing in ballets such as Concerto Barocco, Les Sylphides and La Bayadere and became a prime interpreter of choreographer Loyce Houlton's contemporary ballet.
In 1989 Robin transitioned to modern dance and worked with New Dance Ensemble, also in Minneapolis, MN. There she was privileged to work with many choreographers, including Bill T. Jones, David Dorfman, Bebe Miller, Ralph Lemon and a host of others.
Robin began choreographing in 1990 and in 1994 formed her own group, Dancing People Company, based in Minneapolis. During her Minneapolis years, Robin’s work received support from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. In 2000, she received a prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship.
In 2003 she relocated the company to Ashland, Oregon. In the 13 years DPC was in Oregon, Robin developed strong professional dancers and maintained a salaried company with whom she created many pieces. She also developed an innovative high school program that introduced modern dance to many hundreds of students in rural Southern Oregon, and created an annual community-based Winter Solstice program. Both of these endeavors created strong connections between the professional company dancers and the community it served. DPC’s work in Oregon was supported by the Oregon Community Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission, the Carpenter Foundation, the City of Ashland, and many others.
During the 20 years of her directorship at DPC Robin choreographed over 50 works and brought the company on tour to Poland, Russia, Belarus, and Japan as well as traveling in the USA. Robin has been a guest teacher and choreographer at international festivals and at colleges, including the University of Minnesota as a Cowles Chair Guest Artist; University of Oregon; St. Olaf College; Mankato State University; Pacific University; and Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlan. She has choreographed pieces for Zenon Dance Company, Ballet Pacifica, Ballet Arts Minnesota, ARENA DANCES, and Traduza Dance Company, in addition to the many pieces she created for her own company.
Pramila Vasudevan is a cultural worker, choreographer and trans disciplinary artist. She is the founding Artistic Director of Aniccha Arts (since 2004), an experimental arts collaborative producing site-specific performances that examine agency, voice, and group dynamics within community histories, institutions, and systems. This is her fifth year as director of Naked Stages at Pillsbury House Theatre, a 7 month program for early career performance artists. The pandemic has had devastating consequences for artist communities and she is currently researching what it means to build self sustaining artist ecologies that are not dependent on traditional funding models.
Pramila is on a personal journey to examine her caste privilege in her body, artistic, spiritual and daily life, as she searches for paths to be in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. She was born in the US, lived in India and has been studying, living, and working on stolen Dakota land for about 25 years. During the pandemic Pramila and her family have been taking walks to the Bdote - a place of genesis, regeneration and beauty, close to Fort Snelling which is a site of genocide of the Dakota people. She is committed to continue learning about the history of her Tamil ancestry as well as where she lives and works and further building relationships with members of indigenous communities here and learning about her neighborhood and this land.
Dance training with, Louise Revere Morris, 1926-1936; dance training with, Doris Humphrey, 1926-1936; dance training with, Charles Weidman, 1926-1936; dance training with, Hanya Holm, 1926-1936.
Gary Peterson has been a part of Minnesota’s dance community for nearly 40 years. In addition to his work as managing director of Ananya Dance Theatre and research collaborator with Dr. Ananya Chatterjea, he has served as dance student, consultant, and as executive director of James Sewell Ballet, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, Zenon Dance Company, and the Southern Theater. He has produced professional dance performances at more than 300 domestic and international venues, including seven New York City engagements, Bermuda, Iceland, and Ethiopia. Gary’s perspectives are informed by experiences in law office management, legislative lobbying, federal multidistrict litigation, political candidacy, public affairs radio broadcasting, newspaper publishing, and by public service on the Washington staff of Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. In 2017-18, he secured the location and led the build-out of Ananya Dance Theatre’s Shawngram Institute for Performance & Social Justice in Saint Paul. He holds a BA degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota, and serves as a director of the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries.
Prolific is perhaps the best word to describe Myron Johnson's career as Artistic Director and Choreographer of the Ballet of the Dolls and the Ritz Theatre. He's produced well over 150 ballets and shows no signs of slowing down or softening an edge that has defined his 50 years on the stage. But as he transitions into a new phase of his career, Johnson's 2011 solo show Songs for a Swan reflects on his training with Marcel Marceau in Paris in the 1970s, dancing in New York in the 1980s and the past 20 years performing and creating in the Twin Cities.
Prolific is perhaps the best word to describe Myron Johnson's career as Artistic Director and Choreographer of the Ballet of the Dolls and the Ritz Theatre. He's produced well over 150 ballets and shows no signs of slowing down or softening an edge that has defined his 50 years on the stage. But as he transitions into a new phase of his career, Johnson's 2011 solo show Songs for a Swan reflects on his training with Marcel Marceau in Paris in the 1970s, dancing in New York in the 1980s and the past 20 years performing and creating in the Twin Cities.
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 she 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, Main Street School of Performing Arts and Perpich Arts High School.
Threads Dance Project was founded by Karen L. Charles in 2011. Karen and her Threads Dance Project were nominated for a SAGE Dance Award for Outstanding Performance in 2015, have successfully toured to sold-out audiences in Atlanta, GA, and co-hosted the 2017 McKnight International Choreographer, Salia Sanou, of Burkina Faso/France.
Threads was also honored as one of six companies featured in American Dance Abroad’s (ADA): Pitchbook Volume II (Winter 2016) for In-Development Projects, for the Fall 2017 premiere piece “Uncertain Reality.” ADA’s publication is used as a representation of American dance around the world at festivals, performances and marketed to international programmers.
A native of Mendota Heights, MN, Neil Greenberg studied from the age of 11 with Minnesota Dance Theatre and School, taking class and performing alongside Toni Pierce(-Sands), Robin Stiehm, and Lea Thompson (see photo). He moved to New York City in 1976, and was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1979-1986. As a choreographer he is known especially for his Not-About-AIDS-Dance, which employs his signature use of projected words as a layering strategy that provides doors into “meanings” in the dance, while also raising questions about the nature of meaning-making. Among his awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, two New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards, repeated fellowships from the NEA, a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and repeated support from the MAP Fund and NYSCA. He has created two works for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. Greenberg is currently Professor of Choreography at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, and has previously taught at Purchase College, Sarah Lawrence College, and UC Riverside. He served as dance curator at The Kitchen in NYC from 1995-1999. His most recent project, To the things themselves! (2018), continues his interest in the move away from representation toward an experience of the performance moment in and of itself.
https://vimeo.com/channels/neilgreenberg
neilgreenberg.org
Laurie Van Wieren has been a creative force in the Twin Cities for 30+ years. Her choreography has been shown in the Twin Cities, nationally, and in Europe. 9x22 Dance/Lab, her monthly showcase, is the pre-eminent performance platform for local and visiting choreographers. She’s developed work for the Walker Art Center’s Open Field performance, which highlighted 100 local choreographers.
Van Wieren has curated performance for the Southern, Ritz, Bryant Lake Bowl Theaters and Soo Visual Art Center. She is a recipient of fellowships/grants from McKnight, Jerome, Bush, NEA, Rockefeller Foundations and Mn State Arts Board. She has received a Special Citation SAGE Award and a SAGE Award for Outstanding Performance. Van Wieren received a City Pages Artists of the Year in 2016 for her solo dance Temporary Action Theory and her ongoing curation. She is currently making site-specific ensemble dance performances for parks and large spaces and a series of solo works for small spaces.
Amy Behm-Thomson studied dance at the University of Minnesota. She was a very active member of the Minneapolis dance community for over 15 years.
Amy joined ARENA Dances in 1999 and Zenon Dance Company in 2000. She has also performed with Dancing People Company, Ragamala Music and Dance, Catalyst - Dances by Emily Johnson, and Cathy Young Dance.
She is the proud mother of two young children living in North Carolina with her husband and teaching yoga at Franklin Street Yoga.
Greg Waletski is a graduate of Chaska High school and St. Old College. He has been a member of the Twin Cities dance scene for over 30 years. For 22 of those years he was a member of Zenon Dance Company. His most recent projects have been dances by Megan Meyer, including (FW) Redux which has been interrupted by Covid. In 2013 Greg began a career transition to American Sign Language/English Interpreting and now works as an Interpreter. He was awarded McKnight Fellowships for Dance in 2000 and 2013, and a SAGE Award for outstanding performer in 2011. He is also a DJ, spinning soul 45s at the monthly dance night, Hipshaker.
Since starting Zenon in 1983, Linda has earned accolades for developing the
company’s unique modern and jazz aesthetic by commissioning repertory
works from such choreographers as Bebe Miller, Dwight Rhoden, Bill T.
Jones, Bill Young, Llory Wilson, Joe Goode, Stephanie Skura, David Dorfman,
Doug Varone, Danny Buraczeski, Daniel Rousseve, Cathy Young, Keely
Garfield, Johannes Wieland, Seán Curran, Colleen Thomas and Andrea
Miller. She studied at the Martha Graham School, Alvin Ailey Dance Center,
the Juilliard School, and with Alvin Nikolais, Lynn Simonson and Merce
Cunningham. She holds a degree in dance and drama from Hollins College in
Virginia. Linda has taught dance and creative movement since 1972, and has
developed Zenon Dance School into a recognized training center for
vocational and professional dancers. She is the mother of two amazing
daughters, Laura and Lily, and lives in St. Louis Park with her two cats, Ollie
and Jack.
Zoe Sealy a major influence in the development of jazz dance in the Upper Midwest moved to the Twin Cities 40+ years ago. In 1972 she founded the Zoe Sealy Dance Center, which for many years was a primary training ground for jazz and tap artists. In addition Zoe founded and was Artistic Director of the Minnesota Jazz Dance Company and toured with the company in the 70’s and 80’s throughout the U.S. and Canada . Zoe has taught extensively and her work has been commissioned across the nation and internationally in Australia , Canada , the Caribbean, China , Japan , Korea , and Taiwan . She has been on the faculties of the International Music Camp, Jacob’s Pillow, Northwest Ballet, and Ballet Arts Minnesota. Zoe was on the faculty in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the U of MN for 25 years. Now retired, she continues to freelance as a teacher and choreographer and is active in the dance community sitting on various arts panels, and boards. Her most gratifying work now is advising and mentoring younger jazz artists, helping them to develop their skills and encouraging them as they grow in their chosen fields.
Louise Robinson began dancing in her parents sunroom in Winona, MN at the age of three and has maintained a connection with dance in Minnesota ever since. She attended St. Olaf College where she studied with Ann Wagner, Susan Bauer and Toni Sostek. It was during college that she started learning the administrative side of dance and first got involved in an organization being formed in the Twin Cities - MICA, aka the Minnesota Independent Choreographers’ Alliance. In the early 80’s she managed several dance companies including Whispers of America Chamber Dance Ensemble (Margie Fargnoli, Artistic Director) the Nancy Hauser Dance Company, and the Minnesota Jazz Dance Company (Zoe Sealy, Artistic Director). In the mid-80’s she worked for several years at the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. And through the early 90’s she served as Program Director and Executive Director of the Minnesota Dance Alliance (previously MICA), where she led the effort to utilize Studio 6A as a dance performance venue. More recently she was Managing Director of Ragamala Dance Company helping them navigate their emergence on the national and international scene. She retired from Ragamala in 2017.
April Sellers is an independent choreographer, dancer and performance curator who has created
over 60 works over the past 18 years. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of April Sellers
Dance Collective which is renowned for its complex expressions of identity in highly crafted
performances. She uses movement, humor, and a mix of scripted and improvised content to
explore gender, politics and pop culture. Her works have been commissioned by The Right Here
Showcase, Candy Box Festival, Intermedia Arts, Southern Theater and Red Eye Theater in
Minneapolis, as well as Dancing Queerly in Boston. Her most recent and transgressive
performance, Animal Corridor prompted the award “Best Artist of the Year” by City Pages in
- Other awards include the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants (2015, 2002),
the McKnight Fellowship for Choreography (2011) and the Sage Award (2006). Over the past
decade, Sellers has been invited to participate in a number of residencies, including the Djerassi
Resident Artists Program (Santa Cruz, California) and the Maggie Allesee National Center for
Choreography (Tallahassee, Florida). Sellers holds an MFA in Dance from the University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Judith combines a rare articulate sensibility in dance and in writing, specializing in Jewish dance. Her career has been documented in the Performing Arts Archives of the Special Collections of the University of Minnesota and in the Dance Library of Israel.
The papers she donated to the Dance Library of Israel cover her work for the Batsheva-Bat Dor Dance Society from 1972-1977, letters with Sara Levi-Tanai, Yardena Cohen, Rivka Sturman, and Felix Fibich as well as drafts of her "Dance Perspectives issue called 'Shorashim: The Roots of Israeli Folk Dance'" published in 1974.
She grew up in Minneapolis and began her dance training with Lillian Vail. Her beloved ballet teachers were Lorand and Anna Andahazy, de Basil Ballet Russe dancers who settled in Minnesota. With them she had her first experience performing in their Ballet Borealis on the famed Northrop stage at the University of MN in "Scheherazade" accompanied by Antol Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony.
To broaden her education she moved to New York where she studied dance (and earned her bachelor's degree) at Sarah Lawrence College. There she was a student of the famed dance composition teacher Bessie Schönberg. In New York she also studied at the Martha Graham Studio, with Margy Jenkins and at the Merce Cunningham Studio, performed with Meredith Monk and Anne Wilson, taught children with Marilyn Wood at Downtown Community School and worked as the editorial assistant at Dance Magazine for Lydia Joel and Doris Hering from 1967-1969.
When Judith returned to Mpls in 1970 she was assistant to programmer Suzanne Weil at Walker Art Center (before the words Performing Arts Curator came into use). Judith proposed a new program: that she search out young MN choreographers to participate in a new dance concert to be produced by Weil at Walker, known for presenting nationally famous modern dancers including Merce Cunningham and Twyla Tharp (Tharp's dance "Sue's Leg" was an ode to Suzanne Weil's unique residencies enabling choreographers to spend extended time at Walker to create new dances and to teach). Judith's program was a huge success and the “Young Choreographers Evening” surprisingly sold out with such an overflow that Weil decided to on the spot to hold a second performance that night. Walker has continued to produce the highly successful program for more than 45 years, now called the Choreographers Evening. Presented annually during the Thanksgiving weekend, still with its signature 7PM and 9PM times, countless MN choreographers have gotten their start through Judith’s invention, the Choreographers Evening.
She lived in Israel from 1972-1977. During that time she taught apprentices of the two modern dance companies at the Batsheva Bat Dor Dance Society and choreographed a program for young audiences for the Batsheva Dance Company. The program was filmed for Israeli television and ran often in the '70s. Some of the company dancers in her program included Laurie Freedman and Zvi Gutheiner. Judith also served as the assistant to the founder/director of Inbal Dance Theatre, Sara Levi-Tanai. Judith co-founded the first Israeli dance magazine, the Israel Dance Annual with Giora Manor. She continues to return often to Israel to research, lecture and teach.
When she returned to Minneapolis, Judith was the first director of the dance program of the University of Minnesota's Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. She taught dance history for twenty years there and now guests there and in the University's School of Journalism. She frequently teaches when on tour with her book or dance programs including several summers in England at Machol Europa (see United Kingdom Israeli Dance Institute), twice for Jacek Luminsky's international dance festival in Bytom, Poland, and often in Israel (in December 2011 she taught at the Western Galilee Co
Linda Shapiro works as a freelance writer and has published articles, reviews and essays on dance and other subjects in The Twin Cities Reader, The Minnesota Monthly, Midwest Home & Design, Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine, Architecture Minnesota, Music Live, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, CLA Today, City Pages, Twin Cities Metro, The Rake and Dance Magazine and The Gay City News in New York
Rosy Simas is a transdisciplinary artist who historically has presented work as a choreographer.
Simas is Haudenosaunee, enrolled Seneca, Heron Clan. “The culture, history, and identity stored in my body is the underpinning of all my artwork. Creating is a spiritual act for me, rooted in nature, formed through my link to my ancestors and the land of which we are made.”
Simas’ projects merge decolonized physical movement with media, sound, and objects for stage and installation. She unites cultural concepts and images with scientific and philosophical theories to create work that is literal, abstract, and metaphoric. Her work weaves themes of personal and collective identity with family, matriarchy, sovereignty, equality, and healing. She creates dance work with a team of Native artists and artists of color, driven by movement-vocabularies developed through deep listening.
Simas is a recipient of a Dance/USA Fellowship, Joyce Award from The Joyce Foundation, McKnight Fellowship for Choreography, Guggenheim Creative Arts Fellowship, First People Fund Fellowship, and a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship.
Her dance works include “Weave,” “Skin(s)” and “We Wait In The Darkness” which have toured Turtle Island and France with the support of NEFA National Dance Project, MAP Fund, and National Performance Network.
Her dance, film and sculpture work-in-progress “she who lives on the road to war” is currently on exhibit and being rehearsed live at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis.
Simas recently co-edited the first Indigenous issue of the Movement Research Performance Journal, Sovereign Movements, issue 52/53.
Erin Thompson's performance career began as a member of the Minnesota Dance Theatre in 1970. She was with that company for ten years, performing in such venues as Northrop Auditorium, O'Shaughnessy Auditorium and the The State Theater in the Twin Cities, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts and in Spoleto, Italy. She danced for a year in Montreal with jazz choreographer Peter Georges, formerly of Les Ballets Jazz, before moving in 1981 to New York City.
Ms. Thompson's ten years in NYC were spent in the post-modern companies of Nina Wiener, formerly with Twyla Tharp Dance, and world renowned African American choreographer Bebe Miller. She danced on many stages in NYC including Dance Theater Workshop and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where she performed with Nina Wiener and Dancers in the prestigious Next Wave Festival. She toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, performing in Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, London, Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Groningen, Glasgow, Heraclion and many other cities and regions.
Since moving back to Minneapolis in 1990, Ms. Thompson performed for two years with the Zenon Dance Company, including works by Danny Buraczeski, Bebe Miller, Doug Varone, Joe Goode, and David Dorfman. In 1993 she and her husband Byron Richard launched their own dance company, 45 Chartreuse, performing at the Walker Arts Center, Studio 6A and Old Arizona Studios in Minneapolis and on tour in Minnesota. She has had several pieces choreographed specifically for her, including work by Jan Erkert, Shapiro and Smith, Mathew Janzceski, Cathy Young and Judith Howard with performances at the Southern Theater and Bedlam Theater in Minneapolis.
In her position as Rehearsal Director for Nina Wiener and Dancers, Ms. Thompson led residency projects and taught repertory at the London Contemporary Dance Theater, the National Ballet of the Netherlands, the Boston Ballet, and in Anchorage, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Groningen, Holland. She has also reset Bebe Miller's work on Zenon Dance Company in Minneapolis.
As a dance educator, Ms.Thompson taught ballet, pointe work and contemporary dance technique at the Minnesota Dance Theatre from 1975-1980. Her modern dance teaching over the last 3 decades includes teaching at P.S.122 in NYC, Studio Dance Tanz in Osaka, Japan, and classes at dance companies and Universities around the world while on tour. Here in Minneapolis she has taught for twenty years at the University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts and Dance and at Zenon Dance Company and School, as well as many guest teaching stints around Minnesota and the midwest. In 2008 Erin was invited to teach and perform at the Art of Movement Festival in Yaroslavl, Russia. Her advanced professional level modern dance classes at Zenon Dance School have been a mainstay of the Twin Cities dance community and have fostered a couple of generations of versatile and proficient dancers and teachers.
Ms. Thompson received a New York Dance and Performance award, “Bessie”, in 1986 for her performance in Nina Wiener's Enclosed Time at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. She received choreography fellowships along with her husband, Byron Richard, from the McKnight Foundation in 1993, and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994 and 1996. In 2008, she received a Sage Award for Outstanding Dance Educator. Ms. Thompson has served on numerous dance panels and currently serves as Board President of Young Dance. In 2012 her choreography was performed by Young Dance and at the St. Paul Conservatory of Performing Artists.
Danny Buraczeski, is Professor Emeritus of Dance at Southern Methodist University. At SMU, he taught classic jazz dance technique, composition and choreography. A classic jazz stylist for over three decades, his work has traced a clear and deep investigation of jazz, its sources and its ongoing evolution. After a career on Broadway appearing in such musicals as MAME with Angela Lansbury and THE ACT with Liza Minnelli, he founded the original New York City based JAZZDANCE in 1979. Based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul from 1992-2005, the company performed at leading concert halls and festivals in more than 35 states, in Europe, Russia and the Caribbean.
Buraczeski’s choreography has been commissioned by the Walker Art Center, the Joyce Theater, the Library of Congress, the American Dance Festival, the Bates Dance Festival and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Buraczeski was named Artist of the Year in 2000 by the Minneapolis StarTribune. He has received multiple fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, for whom he is now a regular panelist/consultant.
Since 2000, Morgan Thorson has generated a body of work that investigates the
conventions of western concert dance through interdisciplinary collaboration. Engaged
in critical dialogue with the form, and inspired by a topic, physical process or point of
view, her work honors the body as a complex means of expression as it relates to the
site in which it is situated. For Morgan, dancing provides communication and connection
to people, silence, rage, space, beauty and itinerant imagination.
A composite of original movement, sound and scenic materials, her landmark
productions include Public Love, Still Life, YOU, Spaceholder Festival, Heaven,
Docudrama, Faker and Doppleganger. Her work has been commissioned and presented
by Walker Art Center, Portland Institute of Art’s TBA Festival, PS 122, ICA Boston, ODC in
San Francisco, On The Boards, INOVA gallery, Portland Art Museum, and Legion Arts in
Cedar Rapids. In 2015, she was featured in Local Time, a three-month exhibition at the
Weisman Art Museum.
A MacDowell Artist Colony Fellow (2018, 2012), Morgan’s honors include the Doris Duke
Performing Artist Award (2016), and United States Artist (2012), Guggenheim (2010),
and McKnight (2009, 2002) Fellowships. In 2015 She has received support from The
Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (2016, 2011, 2009) and the Jerome
Foundation (2002-2007). She twice received the Sage Award for Outstanding
Choreography. In 2012, Morgan was in residence at the Centre Choreographique
National De Franche-Comte in Belfort, France.
A certified Skinner Releasing Technique instructor, she is a 2016 Creative Campus Fellow
at Wesleyan University where she engages students and professors in interdisciplinary
practices, developing pedagogy in Dance, Archaeology, and Religious Studies.
I am Kenna-Camara Cottman, also known as Mx. Kenna, I am living my best life as an educator creating affirming spaces for Black children to thrive. I have been on my path of becoming a master educator for over 25 years. I currently teach at Bright Water Montessori School, TU Dance Center, and Voice of Culture Drum and Dance. I have done the work to be in my body, and I have the privilege of dancing, creating and being observed in the company of DejaJoelle and BLAQ. I am part of an amazing family of artists, educators and creators: Beverly and Bill Cottman, Yonci Peaceful Jameson and Ebrima Baye Sarge. We are based on the best side, the NORTHSIDE of Minneapolis, MN. To reach me and find out more, go to www.voiceofculture.org.
Kenna-Camara Cottman has worked in the field of dance and art for over 20 years, and has been a full-time artist since 2005. Kenna is a Black American Griot, following in the oral tradition of storytelling through art. She has studied traditional and contemporary drum and dance forms from experts such as Ananya Chatterjee, Koto N’Gum, Fode Seydou Bangoura, Backa Niang and William Atchouellou. She is a dance educator who teaches about the history of African peoples through art, culture, movement and song. Managing her own company: Voice of Culture Drum and Dance, has given Kenna the opportunity to train with world class artists and develop her traditional drum and dance skills. Combining these forms with her experiences, Kenna creates contemporary Black dance that deals with interesting topics, confusing cultural ideas, and movement-based puzzles. Kenna is a skilled dancer, and she supports choreographer colleagues such as Pramila Vasudevan and Leah Nelson by dancing in their work. Kenna is also a member of Oyin Dance Collective, a unique collaboration of Black women who study and perform African Based dance forms. Kenna-Camara Cottman is supported by her artistic family, William and Beverly Cottman, Yonci Jameson and Ebrima Sarge.
Kenna-Camara Cottman is known as ‘Mx. Kenna’ to students all over the state of Minnesota, from Duluth to Bemidji, Walnut Grove to Woodbury, and especially in her home community of North Minneapolis. Kenna has worked in the field of dance and art for over 20 years, and has been a full-time artist since 2005. She is a dance educator who teaches about the history of African peoples through art, culture, movement and song. Ms. Kenna&
Caroline Palmer is a freelance arts writer. She began writing in New York City at Paper Magazine and also contributed to American Theater and Movement Research Journal. After moving to Minnesota she contributed to City Pages and Star Tribune for several years before starting work on book about the history of dance in the Twin Cities. She has also written a blog, Big Dance Town.