For audience convenience: Downtown Burnsville vs. Minneapolis vs. St. Paul

Mason City, Iowa


Members of the Burnsville City Council who express perennial skepticism about the existence and finances of their city's Burnsville Performing Arts Center might market their main drag as the metro area's "3rd Downtown," with an emphasis on its ease of access from north of the Minnesota River.


The Center is one of my favorite Twin Cities venues, and I was reminded while driving by that its proximity is a relative state of mind.


From my house, five blocks south of the Minneapolis Convention Center, the trip south across the Minnesota River to the BPAC at 12600 Nicollet Avenue takes 21 minutes. Upon arrival at the Heart of the City Parking Ramp, parking is free.


By comparison, and depending upon traffic, the trip from the house to downtown Minneapolis can take 12 to 27 minutes, with event parking costing from $6 to $13. To downtown St. Paul, think 15 to 35 minutes, and parking rates similar to Minneapolis.


Special note: In the absence of precipitation, a walk from home to Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall takes 20 minutes at best, there are no parking costs, and one receives the added benefit of free exercise.


Burnsville's performing arts center has much to offer, including a 1,014-seat proscenium stage, 150-seat black box, 2,000 sq. ft. art gallery, and panoramic lobby views of the Minnesota River Valley and the Minneapolis skyline. VenuWorks manages the venue for the City of Burnsville.

All the campus a stage, and all its men and women merely players of many parts

Minneapolis, Minnesota


When Minnesota's outside temperature hits 52º in January, we do not waste the opportunity. While walking through the University of Minnesota's East Bank campus in Minneapolis last month, I took extra time to explore corners to which I had not returned since graduating in 1983.


Scott Hall, situated behind and west of the Northrop Memorial Auditorium, first inspired me when, as a high school thespian, I attended a play there, directed by a former colleague. Scott's use as a theater pre-dated the present-day Rarig Center and West Bank Arts Quarter.


A bit further west, the much more familiar Elliot Hall occupies an expanse along East River Road atop the Mississippi River bluff. I attended numerous classes in this old bastion of behavioral psychology while nailing down a degree in the subject. In relative terms, Elliot was a new campus structure 30 years ago. Today, it has an older, more settled appearance, hemmed in by mature trees of recent vintage and by the much older Burton Hall just to the north east. I had no reason to go inside.


I was present for the better part of a week in Burton Hall as a delegate to the Japan-America Student Conference in August 1974. Students from throughout the United States and Japan gathered for lectures, forums, and roundtables on culture, government, politics, and economics. We resided in East Bank dormitories, made a swimming trek to Amery, Wisconsin, held late-night conversations on the shores of Lake Nokomis in south Minneapolis, and closed with a day-long picnic on the shores of Lake Independence in the western suburbs. A highlight was an evening address by Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey.


The campus structure holding the greatest significance for the course of my life, however, was Norris Hall, tucked between Elliot and Burton halls at 172 Pillsbury Drive. When I walked by last month, bulldozers were tidying up debris from the building's demolition and filling in the depression where the swimming pool had been.


Norris Hall served as a resource for the Department of Physical Education in which the University's dance program had been housed for nearly 60 years. In 1982 and 1983, a few hundred other students and I attended modern dance classes in the Norris gymnasium with its wood-over-concrete floor. One class, in the summer of 1982, was taught by guest dance artists, Rob Esposito and Marcia Weadall-Esposito.


Rob and Marcia assigned us to attend dance performances and submit written papers about them. In those days, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board sponsored free, open-air dance performances at the Nicollet Island Amphitheater. To save money, most of us went to the Island for our assignments. These performances provided my first introductions to the New Dance Ensemble, the Rezone Dancers, and the Just Jazz Dancers. The latter two subsequently merged to form the Zenon Dance Company which I joined as co-manager four years later.


When, in 1985, the University moved to abolish the dance program for cost-cutting reasons, Nadine Jette – who had been my first modern dance instructor – marshaled the forces that moved dance to the Department of Theater Arts (and Dance), and began the fund drives for endowed professorships and for the new building that opened in 1999 as the Barbara Barker Center for Dance.


Campus buildings serve as mere stages for some of the scenes from our lives. One can only wonder what today's dance students will find and recall when walking through 30 years hence!

Contempo Physical Dance: Standing ovation, sold-out house greet newest Twin Cities dance company

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Half-way through the debut performance by Contempo Physical Dance, the new dance company founded by Marciano Silva dos Santos, I realized that tears were trickling down my face. My brain told me it was all about the refreshing innocence and conviction, and the promise of something good that was happening before my eyes.

Marciano Silva dos Santos

As an audience member, these are the moments to live for, not because the performance was flawless; it was not. Rather, it was impressive and inspiring. It engaged. It had raised the expectations of people who like dance that truly moves, and it had met – even exceeded – them.


The date was February 3, 2012. The setting was the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis. The dancers were the five men and three women who, in addition to dos Santos, presented a fusion of Afro-Brazilian dance, capoeira, and contemporary dance. The audience of 240 allowed the proprietors to hang up the "sold-out" sign.


The 60-minute performance offered a strong, presentational opening with dos Santos seated on the floor at center stage, rotating himself with his feet as, from alternating wings, the dancers entered singly, first four men, then the three women, and a final man. 


From this point, dancers and choreographer led their audience on a journey through 14 seamless sections set to music by Gilberto Gil, the Mavambo Trio, Evelyn Glennie, Divan, Naná Vasconcelos, Dan Savell, and Virginia Rodrigues.

Members of Contempo Physical Dance, Minnesota's newest company

Both capoeira and Afro-Brazilian dance were created by African slaves and their descendants during Brazil's colonial era. The primary characteristics of capoeira, a musical martial art, include speed, power, and complex, sweeping leg movements. In certain casual respects, it roughly resembles hip hop breakdancing.


Afro-Brazilian dance uses the feet to mark rhythm, while arms, chest, head, and hips move freely and independently. Classes in the form emphasize full-body expression, rhythm, and fine-tuned motor control.


The fusion danced by Contempo is both exceedingly rhythmic and musical. However, a dancer who cannot repeatedly crouch, stand, leap, and move while on demi pointe (the balls of the feet) will find the going near impossible in this company because s/he will lack the overall strength and stamina the work requires. Ditto for the dancer who cannot master discrete control over every part of one's body.


It seems to be a principle of this dance form that the dancers' bodies, and not their faces, do the expressing. Often, throughout, I wished the performers would let their faces do the talking, as they did so joyfully during the curtain call. It would have added so much more.

Contempo rehearsing capoeira and Afro-Brazilian dance

At least eight dancers filled the stage for at least 80% of the program. Early on, the rivulets of sweat flowing from the faces of a few of them appeared to be choreographed. Later, I noticed no sweat at all. Even when the full company fills the stage, dos Santos tends to keep the men grouped and moving in patterns separate from those of the women.


The dance ended, as it had begun, with dos Santos seated on the floor at center stage, rotating himself with his feet as, from alternating wings, the dancers entered singly, first four men, then the three women, and a final man.


Mike Grogan's lighting design was probably the best I have ever seen him accomplish. The costumes, designed by dos Santos, were striking in their simplicity. Initially, all wore dark, multi-colored and patterned tights to mid-calf. These were replaced later by plain white trunks to which, still later, were added white, faux fishnet vests.


For the dancers, being present at the creation of a new company may be an infrequent feature of their careers. This group is both very strong and very young. All of them had control of most of the choreography most of the time, and it will be satisfying for us and for them as they become even more self-possessed and strong in their new technique.


Four of the men are still pursuing BFA degrees in the dance program of the University of Minnesota's Department of Theatre and Dance: Davente Gilreath, Timothy Herian, Orlando Hunter, and Justin Reiter, while Irving Amigon is a recent graduate. Both Gilreath and Hunter previously attended the Perpich Center for Arts Education.


The women are more experienced performers. Laura Klein grew up in south Minneapolis, and has studied dance with the Laura Balfour Dance Company, the University of Minnesota, and Batsheva Dance Company in Israel. Roxanne Wallace has danced with Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater for more than 10 years. Jenny Pennaz, Contempo's co-founder, holds degrees in biology and dance from the University of Minnesota, and has studied dance in Brazil.


Dos Santos is a native of Brazil where he studied and performed dance with a number of schools and companies before moving to the United States in 2006. In Minnesota, he danced for five years as a member of TU Dance, and also has performed with the Penumbra Theatre and Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theatre. Dos Santos also teaches for the dance programs at the University of Minnesota and Carleton College, and offers workshops and residencies at other educational institutions throughout the state.


The title of Contempo's debut, full-length work is "Motirô," an indigenous word in Brazil that means "a meeting of people to build something together, helping one another along the way." That is an apt description of the endeavor that dos Santos and his colleagues have undertaken.


Contempo Physical Dance performances continue at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis, through February 5, 2012. For tickets: http://ritzdolls.com. Photos by Dwayne Williams Photography.

Two guys from St. Paul, singing dragons in Minneapolis, and a phoenix by the Cedar River

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Erik and Joe in Toronto

Apollo's Journey, the blogged story of Joe and Erik, two guys from St. Paul, Minnesota, began on June 7, 2011. Since then, the journey has taken them to the East Coast of the United States, north into Canada, west to the Pacific, and then south through Mexico and their present stop in Guatemala. You can subscribe here to follow their journey, stories, and photos through North and South America. 


It's the Year of the Dragon, and one of the most imaginative productions of the season is selling out 15 performances at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. "The Dragons Are Singing Tonight," created by TigerLion Arts, is the story of an ordinary boy, a magical girl, and a nasty, nasty dragon. 

Selling out 15 performances

The work is based on the dragon poems of Jack Prelutsky, U.S. Children's Poet Laureate, and brought to life with an original score by composer Laurie MacGregor, who spent part of her childhood in Wayzata, Minnesota. 


The collaborative production, directed by Markell Kiefer, features actor Isabella Dawis and 30 singers from the Minnesota Boychoir, three aerialists from Circus Juventas, and puppets large and small from Puppet Farm Arts.  


The show runs through February 12. Call for tickets (if any can be had): 612.343.3390.


Following performances at the Southern, more than 1,000 students in the Minneapolis and Robbinsdale school districts will participate in residency activities related to the production.


When the Cedar River crested at its highest flood level in history on June 13, 2008, its soggy destruction impacted 14% of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Its victims included the Legion Arts/CSPS Hall, located near the river in the city's New Bohemia neighborhood. 

The Cedar River flooded 14% of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in June 2008

Built by Czech immigrants in 1891, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the CSPS Hall had been the nerve center of a lively arts scene since 1991. In fact, the building had always been a multidisciplinary and multicultural center of activity long before the terms were invented, and before Legion Arts, led by John Herbert and Mel Andringa, dedicated the space to the creation and presentation of contemporary art.


Following an $8 million re-build, the CSPS Hall was re-opened in August 2011, representing a robust resurgence against daunting odds. 


On February 2, 2012, more pieces of the comeback fell into place with the announcement of three new commercial tenants that will occupy the building's ground floor: StudioU Photography, the Brewed Awakenings Coffeehouse, and New Bo Books. Rent from these tenants will help support the building's overhead.


Herbert, Legion Arts' executive director, and a frequent visitor to Twin Cities performance venues, was quoted by the Cedar Rapids Gazette as saying "We've gone from being a pretty small arts organization and a tenants [sic] ourselves to a pretty small arts organization that owns the building, so we've gone to quite a bit more responsibility."


Stop by to say 'hello' and take in a show whenever you are in the neighborhood. Or, plan a special trip with Cedar Rapids and Legion Arts as your destination!

Dance theater at the intersection of artistic excellence and social justice

Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

The year 2012 marks the eighth anniversary of Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT) as a creative and performing dance company based in Minneapolis. Led by its founder, Ananya Chatterjea, the ensemble’s 12 dancers employ the classical eastern Indian dance form of Odissi, combined with Yoga and the martial art of Chhau, to create and stage original works rooted in the life experiences of women of color.

Ananya Chatterjea

Chatterjea, a native of Kolkata (Calcutta), India, serves as ADT’s artistic director and choreographer. She also holds the positions of professor, and head of the dance program in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.

Her work has been supported and recognized by the Asian Arts Initiative, the McKnight, Jerome, and Bush foundations, Minnesota State Arts Board, City Pages, Minnesota Women’s Press, Black Indian Hispanic Asian Women In Action, and the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus, among others.

About her company’s work, Chatterjea says, “We pursue excellence in our artistry to forge pathways that generate forces of strength and beauty, galvanize strong communities, and embody a philosophy of possibility and liberation in a shared humanity.” 

ADT’s repertoire consists of more than 24, abstract and evening-length dance narratives built upon social justice themes. For example, the company examined environmental issues and their impact on women’s daily lives in a trilogy of works created over the three years of 2006 to 2009: “Pipaashaa” (extreme thirst), “DAAK” (call to action), and “Ashesh Barsha” (unending monsoon).

More recently, the dancers began a four-part examination of violence against women in the exploitation of land (“Kshoy!,” 2010) and the mining and distribution of gold (“Tushaanal,” 2011). It will complete this expressive study by addressing oil in 2012 (“Moreechika”) and water in 2013 (“Mohona“).

ADT presents one major production in the Twin Cities each year during September, emphasizing excellence of performance over frequency. Its productions, presented since the company’s inception at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, feature original music, often with live musicians, and original costume, lighting and set designs.

ADT: Dance at the intersection of artistic excellence and social justice

ADT’s work is informed by its dancers’ research about social justice issues that arise from the lives and stories of women of color around the world. Their use of dance as a catalyst to engage audiences in a dialogue that poses questions and re-imagines the world makes constituent response a valued and welcome component of their creative process.

The year 2011 held numerous, accomplishments for this Twin Cities organization with a worldwide influence:

• Artistic director Chatterjea received a Guggenheim Fellowship in choreography;
• Performance on International Women’s Day at the College of St. Catherine, sponsored by Refugee and Immigrant Women for Change;
• Performance at re-opening ceremonies of the Weisman Art Museum;
• Performance at a presentation by environmental activist Majora Carter at the Ted Mann Concert Hall;
• Premiere of the evening-length “Tushaanal” at the Southern Theater;
• Company’s open audition attracted 20 aspiring dancers;
• Chatterjea presented lectures and solo demonstrations in Spain;
• Company was represented by performance and booth at the Midwest Arts  Conference, a “trade show” for the arts, and Chatterjea was invited to address “Equity in the Cultural Landscape.”

Over the years, ADT’s work also has been presented in 11 other U.S. cities (including Madison, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles), nine other states (Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, and California), and nine other countries (Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, and Japan).

ADT’s next Twin Cities production, “Moreechika,” will be presented in September 2012.

Gary Peterson has been a member of the board of directors of Ananya Dance Theatre since 2009. Photos: V. Paul Virtucio.

Santa, baby!

Minneapolis, Minnesota

In a season long and rich in performances, the best holiday show happened Dec. 12, when 12 members of the touring cast of Les Misérables, led by Jason Forbach, presented "It Might Be Hope," a benefit concert for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, at The Lab Theater in Minneapolis. 

The performers, who have toured together for a year, devoted their weekly night off to a performance of personable and engagingly-intimate, solo and ensemble renditions of tunes secular and religious, sublime and ridiculous.

Forbach, a native of Overland Park, Kansas, hosted the show which included a star turn by the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus singing three numbers from its just-completed holiday concert. 

A believer in "the power of faith when following a dream," Forbach gifted each attendee with a copy of his holiday EP, "Remembering to Dream."

Since 1988, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised and granted more than $123 million. 

Under the leadership of its entertainment empress, Mary Kelley Leer, the 350-seat Lab Theater continues to evolve into one of the most exciting and flexible performance spaces in the Twin Cities. 

The Minneapolis run of Les Miz continues at the Orpheum Theatre, through Dec. 18. 

The Vikings venue

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Pondering while the Golden Gophers duked it with North Dakota State yesterday: Can anyone who understands the economics of pro football explain what is wrong with the Metrodome in Minneapolis as a venue for the game? What did we get wrong when building it 30 years ago – for football, with a roof in a snowy clime, with transit and other amenities adjacent – that cannot be fixed with $100 million of upgrades vs. $1 billion to construct a new facility?


I just don't get it. 

Midwest Arts Conference and Cowles Center opening: Sparkling sprinklings of showcase samplings suffuse Minneapolis' scene

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Like a suave dinner guest, regional arts conferences never come to visit empty-handed. They present and offer numerous culinary delights for their host communities in the form of performing arts morsels served in scores of showcase performances at venues all over town. When coupled with more than a dozen samplings at the opening of a new dance center, one has way too much good art on which to nosh.


Oh, the joy of such indulgent gluttony!


Downtown Minneapolis was the scene for this five-day feast, Sept. 7-11, with the arrival of the 24th annual Midwest Arts Conference and the grand opening of the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. The concurrent events provided multiple stages where potential buyers could sample the wares of artists and ensembles from throughout the western hemisphere.


The Midwest Arts Conference: Trade Show for Arts and Culture

While the incarnations of artistic impulses may emerge with few financial requirements or impediments, their distribution and sale through systems of production and marketing place them, for better and worse, in the realms of commodities and commerce. Enter the regional trade shows of the arts, whose showcases serve as large-scale auditions for the curators who choose the programming that appears on the stages of colleges and universities, performing arts centers, and civic auditoria throughout the land. 


To be selected for one of the adjudicated, or Spotlight, showcase slots represents a coveted opportunity for artists to perform in a quality-controlled setting, in prime time, to a captive audience. For those not selected, there are the equally competitive independent showcases.


Spotlight Showcases

Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Avenue

The 2011 Spotlight showcases featured 18 acts (I attended 15), selected by a panel composed of presenters, managers, and agents, presented in 15-minute segments on Thursday and Friday evenings at the Pantages Theatre. By virtue of their selection, most of the ensembles have attained a robust level of artistic accomplishment. All merit the chance to find multiple performance havens where there is a match of interests and means.


ScrapArtsMusic, a five-member ensemble from Vancouver, Canada, first recycles industrial scrap material of all kinds (accordion parts to artillery shells) into good-looking-and-sounding wind, string, and percussion instruments. Then it proceeds to blow the roof off with a highly infectious and tightly choreographed performance of sensuous rhythm and energy – lots of both. The group has performed throughout Canada and the United States, and in Mexico, Australia, Ireland, and more. As I did, you may have caught their televised performance at the closing ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.


The members of Project in Motion, a modern and aerial dance troupe based in New Mexico, perform in the air, on the ground, and on a variety of custom-built set pieces. At the Pantages, two dancers employed a column of two strands of fabric, hung just-right of center stage, and two pieces of sculpture that appeared to be made from thin, metal piping. The performance featured excerpts from two vignettes in "The Palace at Night," an evening-length work from 2010 inspired by the 20th century sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Although the dancers were pleasing to watch, a more intellectual eye than mine might appreciate the finer nuances of the dadaist and surrealist underpinnings of their work. As a pedestrian observer, I found the truncated selections neither interesting nor innovative.

Garner as Edison

More provocative was Patrick Garner's channeling of Thomas Alva Edison, the flagship of his several presentations for schools and corporate training sessions. Can you cut a hole in a 5" x 7" piece of paper that is large enough for a man to step through? Garner-as-Edison does so by looking at the problem from a different angle as he demonstrates Edison's four lessons and the value of hard work. A 20-year veteran of street fairs and Broadway productions, Garner also brings to life Harry Houdini, Benjamin Franklin, and others.


The Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theatre, based in Minnesota since 2000, blended movement, voice, and design with "Tales From the Book of Longing." First presented in 2009 at the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio, "Tales" was created by Artistic Co-Directors Stuart Pimsler and Suzanne Costello, inspired by the poetry of Leonard Cohen and music by Antony and the Johnsons. Excerpts, performed by seven dancers including Costello, featured dancer Brian Evans singing "Your Precious Love" a cappella.

Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago • Pedro Brenner

Representing all of its repertoire by multiple choreographers would require more than 15 minutes of performance by Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. As an alternative, the globally-acclaimed troupe featured some of the jazz-infused styles of which its highly trained movers are capable. Jon Lehrer's "A Ritual Dynamic," from 2008, drives 10 dancers to the pulsing beats of White Derbakeh and DJ Disse with the look and feel of concert modern dance performed in a disco. A lovely, adagio duet offset both the earlier piece and the ensuing "Sabroso," Del Dominguez's jazzy and athletic tour of ballroom dance. The company will celebrate its 50th anniversary season in 2012/13. Its next major engagement will happen Oct. 21-22 at Chicago's Harris Theater. 

TrenaBoldenFields,com

In a one-woman show, Trena Bolden Fields delivers monologues by five African American women, each a historical figure in the Civil Rights Movement who defied the social and economic injustices of her time. Among those included are Ida B. Wells, 1862-1931, an anti-lynching crusader, and Fannie Lou Hamer, 1917-1977, a voting rights activist. Fields studied theater arts and mass communication at Augsburg College and received her MA degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota. Her channeling of the women's lives, which collectively spanned more than a century, serves as compelling theater, social commentary, and history lesson.


Not long after performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra at age 16, Christian Howes set out to make his mark in jazz. His nomination this year as Violinist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association attests to his progress on that front. So does the showcase performance by the Christian Howes Group, a quartet inclusive of piano, bass, and drums. A set of classical and jazz cross-over music had the air of a late-night jazz club combo (it performed later both evenings at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul), and closed with Paganini's Caprice No. 24 in A minor. Nice listening!


Equally engaging was the gig by Randy Sabien and the Fiddlehead Band, whose eponymous leader serves as the new Strings Department head at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul. Sabien, a native of Rockford, Illinois, and veteran guest of Austin City Limits and A Prairie Home Companion, has pulled together seven, intergenerational performers – three violinists, pianist, drummer, bassist, and guitarist – who honor the history of American roots string playing. 

Mark Masri • www.markmasri.com

Opening a first Minneapolis appearance by singing "Time to say goodbye" and meaning it?! I don't think so! Presenters and audiences will want to start saving their shekels to contract and attend performances by a most sonorous and soulful tenor, Mark Masri, a Toronto native who has performed since age 5. Accompanied by piano and guitar, his expansive vocal range and romantic, raven-haired beauty are melting hearts, dropping jaws, and burning up the world's stages. See if your travel agent can get you tickets to cruise Europe with him, Oct. 15-22. 


According to The Four Bitchin' Babes, the word "bitchin'" is a California surfing term that means "tragically hip." As in, "Ain't middle age a blast?" These girlfriends are musician-comediennes who set women's lives to music with two, estrogen-fueled shows: "Hormonal Imbalance…A Mood Swinging Musical Revue" and "Diva Nation…Where Music, Laughter, and Girlfriends Reign." 


"Any two idiots can have sex the first time. It takes two very special idiots to have it 1,000 times." So says Larry Miller in his one-man show, Cocktails with Larry Miller: Little League, Adultery, and Other Bad Ideas, in which he shares his comic perspective about marriage, children, and drinking – and how each one leads to the other two. Unless you live under a rock, you have seen him in "Pretty Woman," "The Princess Diaries," or more than 100 other films and television shows. Check him out on The Late Show with David Letterman, Sept. 23.


For a group that calls itself "a cello quartet gone mad," Break of Reality is totally grounded, and a very nice-and-lovely listen. Comprised of three cellists and a percussionist, the ensemble – all 20-something alums of The Eastman School of Music or the Cleveland Institute of Music – plays its own compositions, covers by Metallica and Radiohead, and others, and transcriptions of Bach. Following their Friday evening showcase, the musicians closed out the night's proceedings a few blocks away at the Dakota Jazz Club.


After nearly three hours of continuous performances, one's notes become more spare, spacey, and cryptic. About Sybarite5, I wrote "Fabulous!" and "Are they Argentinian?" While their fabulously performed closer by Astor Piazzolla probably put the question in my mind, bios for the three women and two men (two violins, viola, cello, bass), based in New York City, mention nothing about South America. They do include copious details about the commissioning of 20 new works and the paths that led to performances at the Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center, the Museum of Sex, and on American Public Media's Performance Today program. The group wants to be the first string quintet to perform in all 50 states, and has launched an online Kickstarter campaign to help them do it.


Those looking for classical music with a twist can look to Toronto, home of the accomplished accordionist Alexander Sevastian. The native of Minsk, Belarus, performs impeccably the works of Bach, Mozart, Scarlatti, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and more. In addition to his solo work he tours the U.S. and Canada with Quartetto Gelato. Hear a sample of his work here.


The voice of singer and songwriter Justin Hines has been compared to those of Jim Croce and James Taylor. He grew up singing in church, and realized his calling while a teenager 15 years ago when he won a vocal competition to sing the Canadian and American national anthems at a Toronto Raptors basketball game. He since has toured good chunks of the world, and performed at the Beijing and Vancouver Olympic Games. Accompanied by a guitarist and cellist, Hines performs from a wheel chair owing to a joint condition called Larsen's syndrome. He offers a gentle apology for the lack of choreography – "I'm working on it."


Independent Showcases 


More than 100 independent showcase performances were presented at seven venues in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, the majority of them at the Hilton Hotel and its ballrooms. I have never heard of anyone attending all of them; probably, it is not physically possible to do so. Time slots for independent performances can vary, usually lasting from 10 to 30 minutes. There are venues and audiences to bless all of the individuals and entities presented independently; it is a matter of mixing and matching the elements of interest, need, scale, and cost.

Ananya Dance Theatre • "Tushaanal" • V. Paul Virtucio

Following the conference's opening reception on Wednesday evening, the Ananya Dance Theatre, based in Minneapolis, opened a five-day run of "Tushaanal: Fires of Dry Grass" at the Southern Theater in the Seven Corners District. The 70-minute original work examined the conflicting dynamics that produce the beauty of and desire for gold along with the violence and adverse impacts on people that accompany its mining, production, and distribution. The performance by 11 women of color represents work at the nexus of artistic excellence and social justice. Ananya Chatterjea, artistic director, choreographer, and dancer, also serves as professor and Director of Dance in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota. Her choreographic work, which she envisions as a "call to action," draws on the Indian dance form of Odissi, the martial art of Chhau, and yoga. Earlier this year, Chatterjea received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in choreography.

Hilton Hotel, 10th Street and Marquette Avenue

Later on Friday evening, I ventured among the second floor ballrooms of the Hilton Hotel, discovering there a mesmerizing world of magic and musical mayhem. 


Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop grew up as sisters, introduced to each other at an early age by their mother, Shari Lewis. When Shari's death in 1998 brought an end to her work with Lamb Chop, Mally stepped up to keep the puppet magic happening far and wide. Lamb Chop, whose wardrobe has expanded beyond the simple sock of her early days on television, has worn the years well and lost none of her innate charm and insecurity. Although the extended family members Charlie Horse and Wing Ding have not been seen for many years, Hush Puppy made a brief return to Minneapolis this evening from his home in Function Junction, Arkansas. 

Five dudes from Presidio Brass, San Diego

Just down the hallway, the five guys from Presidio Brass in San Diego held court with their "Sounds of the Cinema" program, opening with the fanfare from "2001: A Space Odyssey," then moving on to excerpts from "Star Wars," "Wayne's World," "West Side Story," and "Peter Gun." For some reason, my notes reflect that at least one of the guys "should show some skin" during "I Feel Pretty." At any rate, I left feeling pretty sure that these two trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba are a force to be reckoned with in American brass chamber music.


It was Joshua Kane's publicity that initially drew me to the Hilton with its promise of a psychic show that would allow me to discover my inner superhero and decide if Kane can really read minds. There was no hiding from this guy, who insisted that all the lights be turned up to full, and I somewhat regretted sitting in the front row. I left feeling a respectful admiration for an engaging performer whose shtick is based on old Victorian parlour games. You have to like a performer who says upfront that he doesn't care if you book him so long as you enjoy him in the moment.


The Second City Touring Company from Chicago looks and feels a lot like the Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis. The troupe has kept 'em laughing since 1959 with social and political satire presented via sketch comedy, improvisation, and music. It did my heart good to see young people with a current knowledge of the world and a facile ability to comment about it with wit and a razer sharp edge. 


Last, but not least (because I stayed for a second-and-last, closing-down-the-Hilton-performance), MOJO and The Bayou Gypsies nearly removed my molars with the energetic vibrations of their Zydeco and Cajun music. Theirs is music you should dance to, and dance we did. Four guys and one gal – multiracial and intergenerational – retained cool control over an inexorable rise in frenzy with their vocals, accordion, rubboard, fiddle, drums, and bass guitar. On Saturday morning, I greeted Mr. Mojo at his booth in the exhibit hall with the question, "Where have you people been all my life? Have you had a good conference?" To which he replied, while offering me a praline, "When I hear greetings like that it's always a good conference!"


"David danced before the Lord." –2 Samuel 6:14

The Cowles Center for Dance • 5th and Hennepin, Minneapolis

Before the music of the spheres, humans experience in their bodies the rhythmic pulse of their hearts, laying the foundation for worship through dance. Dancers and choreographers, at work in the temples of their studios and stages, strive to touch on aspects of the sacred and the divine. When they make the connections, nothing else matters. 


In our times, only a few cities or states have been called to erect temples – performing arts centers, if you will – designed and dedicated to celebrate the divine through dance. Such a calling was realized in Minneapolis, Sept. 8-12, with the opening weekend activities at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. The activities included Thursday and Friday evening dance morsels for Midwest Arts visitors, and Sunday open house samplings for the community.

I attended 19 of the 27 dance showcases presented on the mainstage of the 500-seat Goodale Theater and the presentation studio of the James Sewell Ballet. You can read about most of them on the calendar pages of the Cowles Center's website. 


You can read the observations of my friend, Linda Shapiro, about the Center's grand opening on the mnartists.org website.

9/11

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Ten years ago today, the Minneapolis Star Tribune published an extra edition in the afternoon. The last time that had happened was Nov. 22, 1963. Disruptions in the space-time continuum of our national psyche provided the grist for the journalistic mill on those occasions.


However, for all the details reported 10 years ago and in the days since, it is not the journalism that echoes and haunts my memory. Rather, it is the real words and re-created imagery from a made-for-television-movie:

Honor Elizabeth Wainio

A young woman, Elizabeth Wainio, 27, a passenger on United Flight 93, phoned her stepmother, Esther Heymann, in Baltimore.  

"Mom, we're being hijacked. I just called to say good bye," she said.

"Elizabeth, we don't know how this is going to turn out. I've got my arms around you," Heymann said.

Wainio told her stepmother she could feel them. 

"Let's look out at that beautiful blue sky. Let's be here in the moment," Heymann told her. "Let's do some deep breathing together." 

They passed a few quiet moments.

"It hurts me that it's going to be so much harder for you all than it is for me," Wainio said. Honor Wainio was still on the line with her stepmother. 

"I need to go," she said. "They're getting ready to break into the cockpit. I love you. Goodbye." 

http://letsrollforums.com/9-11-flight-attendants-t20794.html

Did Minnesota State Fair favor anti-gay folks?

Minneapolis, Minnesota


According to Minnesota Public Radio, both proponents and opponents of the 2012 marriage ballot amendment to the Minnesota Constitution – that would define marriage as between one man and one woman – missed the deadline to have booths at the Minnesota State Fair.


However, proponents for the amendment have a booth presence at the fair. I saw it on Underwood Avenue, when attending on Friday, Sept. 2.


According to MPR, the amendment's opponents were told in July that the Fair was sold out of concession space. A Fair spokesperson, Lara Hughes, told MPR that the proponents had submitted a registration request on Aug. 31 and that the Fair had found a location for them.


The Minnesota State Fair has some real explaining to do.


Is MPR's reporting on this matter complete and accurate?


Was concession space sold-out in July and, if so, was that fact communicated to both the proponents and opponents?


If both sides were told that space was not available, how did it happen that the proponents' late request was accomodated?


Republican legislators fervently invited a 15+month brawl when they voted to place this question before Minnesota's voters in November 2012. It appears that they will not be disappointed. 

The empty promise of "freedom" and "simplicity"

I here offer my deepest apologies and sincerest regrets to my fellow citizens for failing to properly shoulder the burden of maintaining our faltering economy. I offer no excuses other than my unwillingness to manage the paperwork.


This is about those endless offers from credit card companies that fill our mailboxes and keep the post office from going completely broke. In the 12 weeks since June 5, I received 24  of those suckers from outfits that promised in large print to guarantee freedom and simplicity in my life, plus another six mailings containing "convenience checks" for my existing credit card accounts.


I just spent 90 minutes tearing all of them into tiny pieces that fill a brown paper grocery sack.


However, with Michele and her fellow travelers running their mouths so much lately about all of our disappearing freedoms, I feel guilty, and really should do something with these offers besides shred them. In addition to gaining copious amounts of new credit that adds consumption capacity to the economy, I could transfer outstanding balances on existing cards for a low-percentage fee, pay no interest on transferred balances for generous lengths of time, and thereafter pay APRs ranging from 3.99% to 18.99% (the average for my 12 weeks of offers was 11.99%).


From four of the offers, I could obtain 30,000 free bonus miles each, 120,000 in total, to use on American Airlines, a company that serves Minnesota minimally and with which I have done only minor amounts of business over the years. Still, that's four times around the world.


I am pretty adept with a spreadsheet, and with a bit of concentration I could probably play this shell game for years without paying out any real money on either my principal or interest.


Hell, if I was half as smart as my ego would have it, I would take these offers, cash them out to the max, quit working, and use the remaining years on my passport and my life to remain free and simple outside the country. Makes sense. If Rick Perry and Texas can secede from the Union, why can't individuals separate themselves from the hard work of living and embrace the slick and easy promises of freedom and simplicity?


These proferred possibilities spell "freedom" with a capital "F" and "simplicity" with a capital "S." For sure!


Then, as these importunings are so rich for folks like me, one can only imagine how important they must be for the credit card companies themselves and for the compensation of their shareholders and corporate leaders.


By now, all of us should know – from the mouths of Boehner, Cantor, Mitchell, and our GOP brethren in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and elsewhere – what that kind of financial good fortune means to our economy, for these people, the shareholders and corporate leaders, are our job creators. They are the very lifeblood and hope for our nation's financial salvation. They count on people like me, and you, to choose freedom.


Thus, I take seriously my shirking of responsibility for insuring freedom and simplicity in this particular realm for myself and my fellows. Simply put, however, I choose to believe that life is too short for the paperwork, and even shorter for the rhetoric of the empty promises.

Feeding famine: "This could be their home for a long time"

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Famine has afflicted the world at various times throughout recorded history, including the successive generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Biblical book of Genesis. In modern day Somalia, however, there is no Joseph, ordained by God to save his people. Instead, the global community is called to act as the children of Israel and Ishmael.


Displaced Somalis pour daily into the Dadaab refugee camp – the world's largest – across the border in neighboring Kenya, fleeing two years of drought – East Africa's worst in 60 years – rising food prices, and armed conflict in food producing areas. Most immediately, they flee famine with its attendant malnutrition, starvation, epidemics, and mortality. 

Eighty percent of those arriving at Dadaab are women and children. Their men are fighting, dead, tending herds, or giving their families all of their money to travel, on foot, across the border. In camps built to house 90,000 people, more than 400,000 now live in a space one third the size of Minneapolis. 


Their hope lies primarily in the Somali Diaspora.   


Minneapolis-St. Paul has become the de facto capital of Somalia in North America. This community of immigrants has taken up the frontline fight against famine in Somalia and other countries in the Horn of Africa. The American Refugee Committee, and its Neighbors for Nations–Uniting Communities to Help Somalia, are working with Minnesota's Somali community to raise money, buy food, and send it to the Horn of Africa.


The sons of Ishmael cannot do it by themselves. They need all of the children of Israel. Every financial gift of any size is generous and will save lives and provide relief in Somalia within days. There is no time to debate who, or what, is right or wrong.


From Minneapolis City Councilmember Gary Schiff:

Every single day I meet people in Minneapolis who are preparing for a trip to the Dadaab refugee camp or to Somalia to help with famine relief efforts. Abdi Phenomenal Farah is a student from Augsburg College who is leaving this week. Abdi is a spoken word artist, and he will have much more to say when he returns. Please watch this link of his amazing art and meet one of the upcoming leaders of our city.

Tour de force by MPR's 2011/12 artist-in-residence

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Audience members for the inaugural event by

Chad Hoopes (photo by Donna Wheatley)

Minnesota Public Radio's artist-in-residence for 2011/12 shared a gemstone experience in the tour de force performance by violinist Chad Hoopes, 17.


From the outset of his two-hour program in Antonello Hall at the MacPhail Center for Music, August 25, Hoopes relinquished control of neither his virtuosity nor his concentrated passion, mesmerizing listeners with accomplished readings of a range of composers, including Brahms, Bach, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, and Schubert.


Hoopes opened the 45-minute first half, accompanied by pianist Charles Kemper, with Brahm's Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 100, in the only work not committed fully to memory. He followed with a snappy, solo rendition of J.S. Bach's Violin Sonata No. 1, BWV 1001.


Post-intermission, Hoopes and Kemper breezed beautifully through Prokofiev's Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis, and Tchaikovsky's Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 42.


It was in Ravel's Tzigane, however, that Hoopes tore through both music and the stage with a controlled rip, at times waving his bow like a baseball bat and visibly relishing his mastery of the nuanced complexities. He said later that he had played Tzigane publicly for the first time, in Germany, only a few weeks earlier.


The program reached its exquisite end with the encore performance of Franz Schubert's Ave Maria. Hoopes heard the work for the first time only in 2010, but his inspired proficiency with the 1713 Antonio Stradivari Cooper; Hakkert; ex Ceci violin – coupled with Antonello's acoustics – gave the double-stops and overtones the effect of a full string section.


A first teacher, Nancy Lokken, might expect no less from a native Minnesotan who was but three years old when Santa Claus delivered his first violin. In a post-performance q-and-a, Lokken observed that Hoopes' facility of playing from the heart "was there at the beginning."


During his MPR residency, Hoopes will present concerts, educational sessions, public appearances, and interviews. In March 2012, he will visit elementary, middle, and high schools throughout Minnesota to talk about the importance of music and the arts and of doing one's best in any endeavor.


Hoopes is represented by IMG Artists.

Calm before September's storm

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Opening weekend: Sept. 9-11

Following 13 years of preparation, The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts is primping for its close-up when the doors are thrown open for its opening weekend festivities, Sept. 9-11. A sold-out, black-tie gala on Friday, Sept. 9, will feature a dinner, performances, and reception. Tickets are available for Saturday's grand opening performances and reception for $150; phone 612.206.3621. The Cowles will provide 200 complimentary tickets for Saturday's festivities to local dancers and choreographers.


Performers on Friday and Saturday will include Savion Glover, Clifton Brown (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), James Sewell Ballet, Zenon Dance Company, Larry Yazzie (Native Pride Dancers), Minnesota Dance Theatre, Wendy Whelan (New York City Ballet), Jonah Bokaer (formerly with Merce Cunningham Dance Company), and The Singers (Minnesota choral artists).


A free, community open house from 11am to 5pm on Sunday, Sept. 11, will feature workshops and performances.


The Cowles Center is a three-building complex located on Hennepin Avenue, between 5th & 6th streets, in downtown Minneapolis: the refurbished, 505-seat Goodale Theater built in 1910; the eight-story Hennepin Center for the Arts built as a Masonic Temple in 1888; and the new Great Hall and Education Center.


As part of its full, 2011/12 season of dance and music presentations, The Cowles will host The Minnesota SAGE Awards for Dance, Tuesday, Oct. 11. The awards will recognize achievement in six categories during the past year. Tickets for the SAGE Awards are $15.


Prices for events in 2011/12 will range from $10 to $36. All tickets will carry an additional $4 facilities fee – $2 for the theater's maintenance and $2 for the ticketing system. A discount of 20% is available for purchases of four or more tickets. The Cowles box office number is 612.206.3600.

Minneapolis: Sept. 7-10

Leading up to the Cowles opening, Minneapolis will host the 24th Midwest Arts Conference, Sept. 7-10, under the aegis of Arts Midwest and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. The lineup of activities will include curated and independent showcase performances that will give Minnesota artists multiple opportunities to shine. More than 4,000 artists, managers, agents, and presenting venues will be represented during the four days. On-site and single-day registrations are available. 

Southern Theater: Sept. 8-11

Ananya Dance Theatre will present the world premiere of Tushaanal: Fires of Dry Grass, September 8-11 at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. "Tushaanal" – Bengali for "fires of dry grass" – revolves around stories of gold, an element mined and harnessed as capital, and a symbol of desire, beauty, and artistry. The full-length work is the second in a four-part, anti-violence series exploring how women in global communities of color experience and resist violence. Tickets are $22 ($16 students). Thu, 7:30pm; Fri, 8pm; Sat, 2pm, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Artistic Director Ananya Chatterjea received a Guggenheim Fellowship for Choreography earlier this year from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

State Theatre, Sept. 19, 7:30pm

The 2011 Ivey Awards, established to celebrate Twin Cities professional theater, will be held at the Historic State Theatre in Minneapolis, Monday, Sept. 19, at 7:30pm. Actors Seth and Charles Numrich will host the evening of entertainment that will feature an opening number honoring theater costumers; singing by Ryan McCartan, a graduate of Minnetonka High School and recipient of the U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts award; the 7-Shot Symphony by Live Action Set; and excerpts from The Rocky Horror Show (Cardinal Theatricals), The Buddy Holly Story (History Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (Mu Performing Arts), and Ragtime (Park Square Theatre). Tickets for the performances and pre/post parties are available at IveyAwards.com. 


Kathleen Spehar has been appointed Director of The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. Spehar has served previously as managing director of the History Theatre and of Mu Performing Arts, both in St. Paul. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Western Michigan University and a master’s of liberal studies from the University of Minnesota.

Sept. 7-23 in Maple Grove

The Platinum Theatre Company will present its inaugural play, "Flamingo Court," in nine performances, Sept. 7-23. The production features three short plays, two funny and one serious, set in condos in a senior living complex in South Florida. Themes address the uncertainties of dating past age 55, loneliness, coping with aging parents, and new interests. Platinum, founded in 2010, aspires to be "Minnesota's Senior Theater." All performances will take place at Pilgrims United Church of Christ, 8801 Rice Lake Road, Maple Grove MN, on Sept. 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 20, and 22 at 1pm, and Sept. 9 and 23 at 7pm. Tickets: $18; call 612.819.5246.

Birchbark Books, Minneapolis, Sept. 15

Judith Brin Ingber, a Twin Cities-based choreographer, dancer, and dance scholar, has edited Seeing Israeli and Jewish Dance. The collection of essays and photographs, published by Wayne State University Press, explores the evolution of Jewish dance through two thousand years of  Diaspora. Brin Ingber will discuss the book, show slides, and sign at Birchbark Books, 2115 East 21st Street, Minneapolis, Thursday, Sept. 15, 7-9pm. A pre-supper will happen beginning at 6pm at the Kenwood Cafe, adjacent to the bookstore. "A dance to Jewish Life," Mordecai Specktor's profile of Brin Ingber and the book's creation, written for the American Jewish World, is available here. 

Midwest Arts Conference invades Minneapolis, Sept. 7-10

Minneapolis, Minnesota


The 24th Midwest Arts Conference will descend on downtown Minneapolis from Wednesday, Sept. 7, through Saturday, Sept. 10. Attendees will include 1,000 performing artists, their managers, and agents (representing 4,000 artists and ensembles), along with performing arts presenters, venues, and arts administrators from throughout the United States and beyond.

The Conference serves as convenor each September for the 15 states represented by Arts Midwest and the Mid-America Arts Alliance – an area stretching from the Dakotas to Michigan, Nebraska to Ohio, and Minnesota to Texas.


In addition to networking and professional development sessions, the Midwest Arts Conference provides a forum for live performances and a Marketplace exhibit hall. The 2011 gathering, centered at the Hilton Hotel, 1001 Marquette Avenue, is the first hosted by Minneapolis since 1992; St. Paul hosted the 2001 and 2009 conferences.


The Délégation du Québec from Chicago will sponsor Wednesday's opening reception at the Nicollet Island Pavilion, 6-8pm. IMG Artists will sponsor Saturday's closing party at the Dakota Jazz Club, 5-6:30pm.


This year's Marketplace exhibit hall will be staged at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Many Minnesota performing ensembles have paid for a booth presence: Ananya Dance Theatre, 701A; ARENA Dances, 121A; James Sewell Ballet, 901 and 929; Katha Dance Theatre, 128; Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, 839; Minnesota Sinfonia, 800B; Ragamala Dance, 901; Rose Ensemble, 106; Shapiro and Smith Dance, 921; Sossy Mechanics, 109; Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater, 339A; Theater of Fools, 906; and TU Dance, 739.


The Conference will present 18 artists and ensembles in curated, showcase performances at the Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Avenue, on Thursday and Friday evenings, including Minnesota's Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater at 7:35pm on Thursday.


Numerous showcase performances will be produced independently throughout downtown on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings, with a majority staged in the Hilton Hotel's ballrooms. All of these performances are free, and nearly all of them will welcome respectful audience members from the local community if space allows. All performances begin promptly at stated start times.


Independent showcases will be presented by Minnesota artists on this schedule:

Wednesday, Sept. 7 – 8:30pm: Ananya Dance Theater, full-length presentation of "Tushaanal: Fires of Dry Grass." ADT shuttle will pick up conferees at Nicollet Island Pavilion at 8pm with return to Hilton Hotel at 10pm. Venue: Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Avenue South.


Thursday-Friday, Sept. 8-9 – 9:30pm: Shapiro and Smith Dance; 9:45pm: Ragamala Dance; 10pm: Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater; 10:15pm: James Sewell Ballet; 10:30pm: Zenon Dance Company; 10:45pm: TU Dance; 11pm: Sossy Mechanics. Venue: James Sewell Ballet's Studio 2A, Hennepin Center for the Arts, 528 Hennepin Avenue. 


Thursday-Friday, Sept. 8-9 – 9:30pm, 10:15pm, 11pm: ARENA Dances. Venue: Studio 5B, Hennepin Center for the Arts, 528 Hennepin Avenue.


Friday, Sept. 9 – 9:30pm: Rose Ensemble. Venue: Wesley United Methodist Church, 101 East Grant Street.

All events are subject to change.