Best Upcoming Dance Performances In Minnesota
See several promising next-generation choreographers on each of three different weeks this summer at Walker Art's Momentum program. Southern Theater is hosting "Momentum: New Dance Works" in collaboration with Walker Art Center for two of the events. The third event is outdoors and free in the Walker garden. Admission to the Walker Gallery is also free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as part of the Free First Saturday program. Now if you want to dance along with those on the stage, take in the live music and dance entertainment every Tuesday night outdoors at the Minnesota History Museum. Learn more about all of this below.
Momentum: New Dance Works
SuperGroup with Rachel Jendrzejewski & Leslie O'Neill
Southern Theater
1420 Washington Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
(612) 340-0155
wwww.walkerart.org
Dates: July 11-13, 2013
Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellow Rachel Jendrzejewski collaborates with Supergroup's Jeffrey Wells, Sam Johnson and Erin Search-Wells. Their oeuvre combines movement, music and text challenging audiences to "dream, imagine new realities, think inventively and make connections between broadly disparate ideas."
Dancer and choreographer Leslie O'Neill performs a duet with local performer Laura Selle-Virtucio that offers "insights into childhood roles and identities, and the ways in which traumatic experiences in our adolescence can form our adult selves and world views." O'Neill, a University of Minnesota grad with a BFA in dance, performs with Zenon Dance Company.
Momentum: New Dance Works
Pramila Vasudevan/Aniccha Arts & Jennifer Arave
Southern Theater
1420 Washington Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
(612) 340-0155
www.walkerart.org
Dates: July 18-21, 2013
Choreographer and teacher Pramila Vasudevan presents three pieces. First, Vasudevan places the audience onstage and the performers in the seats. Next, she attempts "the perfect dance," a summary of all other Momentum dances. Finally, Vasudevan showcases the strengths of solo dancer Kenna Cottman. Vasudevan is the founder and artistic director of Aniccha Arts and has been bringing the highly colorful and beautiful classical and contemporary Indian dance to Minnesota for nearly a decade.
Director Jennifer Arave has created an experimental choreographic crossover of dance and punk. Dancer Mary Ann Bradley and drummer Charles Gehr also perform in this 30-minute event. Arave employs feminist narrative to portray punker disenfranchisement through a series of music and physical art form that runs the gamut of harmony, discordance, seediness and ecstasy. Jennifer Arave, BFA Theater Directing, MFA Interdisciplinary Arts/Performance Studies, has a two-decade local and national artistic legacy in radio theater, filmography, video, puppetry and now movement and dance.
Momentum in the Garden
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 375-7600
www.walkerart.org
Date: Aug. 3, 2013
Celebrate the 10th anniversary of Momentum with three choreographers previously commissioned and presented through the Momentum: New Dance Works series. Choreographer, dancer and teacher Kenna Cottman draws on forms as diverse as Senegalese wrestling and punk rock skateboarding to create stimulating contemporary Black dance. Dancer and choreographer Chris Schlichting presents an artistic movement based on repetition and patterns surprising disruptions. Choreographer and percussive tap and drum ensemble performer Kaleena Miller channels the enthusiasm of a large cast and live percussion in a new tap/percussive dance work.
Nine Nights of Music
Minnesota History Center
345 W. Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55102
(651) 259-3000
www.minnesotahistorycenter.org
Dates: Tuesdays in July and Aug., 2013
Learn to dance to salsa, Motown or big band swing before the show. Then dance outdoors along with the live entertainment that starts at 7 p.m. This is the 16th year of this popular dance performance event. Bring your chair or blanket and a picnic basket. You can purchase food from the History Center's Cafe Minnesota. Come early at 5 p.m. for the regular Tuesday free admission to museum exhibits. Performances are held inside the History Center's 3M Auditorium in the event of rain.
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Robin Johnson was born in Annandale, Minn. and graduated from the University of Minnesota where he studied Political Science, Business and Industrial Relations. A writer for Examiner.com, he also consults with a variety of organizations and individuals helping them develop and grow. His work can be found at Examiner.com.
