One must take a long view when foraging through the underbrush of societal views that treat gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people as second-class and unequal citizens in the eyes of the community and of the law.
When I spoke as an openly gay man at discussion forums in Lutheran churches in the early 1980s, some of the conversations were distinctly more civil than others. While it seemed possible then that passing an amendment to Minnesota's human rights act that banned discrimination could be within reach (we passed it in 1993), it required far-fetched thinking to believe that any Lutheran church body would ever ordain openly gay people (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said yes to that in 2009), or speak kindly of supporting their marriages (many do so in 2012).
The tides of history favor full equality in the fullness of time. Navigating those tides, however, is neither a free ride nor a passive journey.
A year ago, the Republican members of Minnesota's Senate and House of Representatives voted to place an amendment on the statewide ballot in November 2012. The amendment would ban same gender marriage. Some of the legislators voted based on honest conviction while others voted based on cynical political calculation. In the overall scheme of things, their various reasons really don't matter.
This is the year that we tell them "No, we are not going to do that."
The Roman Catholic bishops of our state and their tax-free dollars are leading the charge in favor of the amendment, while the ranks of their parishioners are far from unanimous about it. A diversity of views also manifests among those of other faith traditions. Much of our discourse and the electoral outcome will turn on people's faith-driven beliefs and understandings.
Some of the discussion will be up close and personal. I met recently with a high school classmate who is now a Catholic priest and supports the amendment. Another classmate, who wears the cloth of the Methodist clergy, opposes the amendment.
A longtime Twin Cities journalist, Matt Peiken, has answered his call to inaugurate Faith Forward, a video project documenting the faith-based fight against the marriage amendment. He will not be highlighting the proponents as they have more than enough control over the levers of power and the media. Rather, his focus will be on "the moral right of the religious left."
As
a condition of employment, some employers require employees to have
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and to indirectly/directly place
them at the service of the employer.
Other employers demand access to
user names and passwords for those accounts in order to conduct pre-employment screening for whatever they might decide are inappropriate posts.
For five years, the Ballet of the Dolls and the Ritz Theater
in Minneapolis have presented "Renovate," annual dance performances that display
the creative outcomes of a dozen different dance makers and the
performers they enlist or employ. Bravo to all involved, both for this year's production and for the sustained effort over time!
These
presentations help keep dance insiders informed about the creative
currents and personalities of their field. They also provide new and
independent artists an opportunity to have their work seen by a public.
Whether they also help develop a broader audience for the art form,
however, is less certain. As a dance insider myself, I knew about this
year's performances, but only barely.
"Renovate" • 5th Annual Choreographers' Evening at the Ritz Theater
For sure, enticing an audience in the hope of its
engagement can be tough when the daily newspaper in town does not
include one's performance in its print calendar listings. However, people with
dances to be seen, whether their efforts are emerging or established,
can and must do more to help their cause.
At minimum, we must consider how we communicate about what we are doing. Like
other sponsors in this city and elsewhere, the Ritz attaches the title
of "choreographers' evening" to these performances, even when an evening
might be an afternoon. Moreover, for those not familiar with the ways
and words of dance, the phrase "choreographers' evening" may evoke
either opaque stares of incomprehension or visions of a who's-who
cocktail party at which one is probably not welcome.
If
their intent is to introduce a performing product line to new customers,
presenting venues and their partners may find it apt to use more
vernacular descriptions, something, for example, like "a sampling of
dance morsels," and explain how they are like the cheese samples handed
out in grocery stores on Saturday mornings. Food, in other words,
designed for the heart, mind, and soul.
"Going to the Soirée" • Jim Smith
God
lives in the details, and words matter in a hyped-up world. People who
cast ballots at the polls and spend dollars in the marketplace are a
discerning lot. They pay attention to nuance. They seek value and authenticity. They can appreciate
genuine innovation, but not claims of greatness or uniqueness. First,
though, they must understand that and how each election, shopping trip,
and performance is an occasion worth their participation.
I
started this line of musing when a friend and I shared observations
about the sparse attendance and performer-specific cheering sections at "Renovate: A Choreographers' Evening" at the Ritz, March 16. It may be bad form or insensitive to say so, but with 12 featured choreographers and many more performers taking the stage, the house, with seating for 240,
should have been full and the level of applause more generalized.
Getting
to there is no easy task. On the same evening, across the river and a
mile away, a dance company celebrated its 20th anniversary with
foot-stomping live music and dancing, veteran performers, and a new
house built for dance. All 500 seats of the Cowles Center
were sold out. With disrespect to no one, one wonders what the Cowles
attendance might have been without the explicit sense of anniversary
occasion. Often, when looking at standing room only, we consider "a win a win" and move on.
I
have learned repeatedly not to trust the hopes and predictions of
novice and veteran marketing administrators in the arts. As a friend
from a presenting venue in northern Minnesota told me last month, "Ten
years ago, I could look like a hero to my board of directors because all my
projections came within 1% of plan and budget. Now, nothing that I put on stage is
predictable, no matter what I do."
Given
all that ballyhoo, how did I like "Renovate: A Choreographers'
Evening"? Answer: The first half lacked a certain je ne sais quoi,
primarily because the several excerpts from larger works did not fully
engage. Overall, the evening provided a chewy and nourishing meal, with a
varied selection of novice and experienced dance artists. Featuring fewer works of greater length might be a consideration for the future.
For
five years, Lisa Conlin has curated Renovate with a panel of three
consultants. This year's panel included Colette Illarde, Jim Lieberthal,
and Carol Meyer, one of whom told me that this year's 12 choreographers
were selected from an audition field of 21. The program got under way
with a late start at 8:07pm.
Sarah LaRose-Holland
Sarah LaRose-Holland
is a modern dance choreographer and performer with degrees in finance
and dance from the University of Florida. Among other pursuits, she
serves as artistic director of the Kinetic Evolutions Dance Company,
presenter of the Kinetic Playground series at the Perpich Center for Arts Education and the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, and presenter of the Kinetic Kitchen dance series at Patrick's Cabaret. The excerpt offered from "Going to the Soirée," a work she premiered with Kinetic Evolutions at Old Arizona
last November, did not stand up particularly well by itself as the
program opener. Excerpts can be a gamble that way. It was a colorful
work, with red, green, and white dresses, danced competently by Una
Setia, Hai Dang Nguyen, Kayla Schiltgen, and Jenny Snug. Set to music by
Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald.
"How
to Make a Paper Crane," a solo created and performed by Lindsay M.
Anderson, featured a precise, graceful dancer moving with and against
the rhythms and images of music composed by Steffen Basho-Junghans and a
film edited by Amanda Doerr. The difficulties in starting the film at
the beginning of the work were not as unfortunate as if they had occurred during, and the technical crew knows that. Anderson, a modern
dancer who has worked and performed with LaRose-Holland and others,
holds degrees in dance and English from the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Conlin,
a dancing member of Ballet of the Dolls, staged the Lost Orphans
excerpt from her "Blue Heaven," a poetic, seven-movement journey through
the stages of grief. The full work had been presented a few weeks earlier at
the Ritz and in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Four women, Conlin, Leila
Awadallah, Raena Smith, and Jennifer Mack, moved to an original score by
Mike Hallenback in a segment that worked as a cohesive unit. A
question: A couple performers left the stage and moved into the house
with lighting that was insufficient for the audience to see them; were they doing
something that mattered? If not, why were they there?
Angharad Davies
Angharad Davies
earned an MFA in dance from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, has
performed throughout the world, and choreographed and taught in the
United States and Germany. Currently, she teaches at the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and lectures at the University of
Minnesota. "Fear," an excerpt from a larger work presented at the Bryant-Lake Bowl,
studies the masking and managing of everyday anxieties, and was
inspired by silent film images and German expressionist dance. Erin
Search-Wells and Sam Johnson, both members of SuperGroup,
joined Davies in a vocalized accompaniment to a less than satisfying
movement segment. The visuals were striking: all three barefoot, Davies
in purple dress, Search-Wells in red dress, and Johnson in white suit.
In this setting, the lanky Johnson's expressive – though hirsute – face resembled that of a young
Stan Laurel.
Amanda Leaveck
Amanda Leaveck
graduated from the University of St. Thomas with degrees in
neuroscience and dance. She choreographed "I Love You," a fascinating
solo danced by Christina Omlie to live guitar accompaniment by Tazz Germaine Lindsey.
Nice, but I wanted more. We will probably see more with time. Leaveck
directs Face Forward, a booking, event planning, and multimedia
organization, and serves as artistic director of the Energy Dance Collective.
Christine Maginnis
Christine
Maginnis, one of Minnesota's long-reigning dance divas, crafted an
original, complex and complete psycho-drama. Throughout "Achtung Bitte!"
its characters changed the orientation of set furniture pieces to
reflect changing perspectives on three, time-lapse sequences. With Karl
Heinzerline/The Butler as a witness, Maginnis/Frau Marquis vied for the
attention of Gregory Waletski/Herr Marquis to scratch a particular and insatiable
itch. Music of Frankie Yancovic, Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, and
Sergie Rachmaninoff. Maginnis will perform with Ballet of the Dolls for
the first time in May 2012.
Jennifer Mack
Returning
from intermission, the stage floor was covered with overlapping sheets
of plastic laid wing-to-wing for "Just Within," a solo created and
performed by Jennifer Mack. Accompanied by singer/guitarist Matt Marka,
Mack moved slowly beneath the plastic from center stage left to upstage
center where she emerged, as though from water, in a floor-length white
frock and free-flowing long hair. The sound of moving plastic suggested
that of rippling wind and water and complemented the distinctive visual
imagery. Mack started her dance training in Rochester, Minnesota, and
graduated with degrees in dance and arts management from the University
of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Karen Charles
For her part, Karen Charles
holds degrees in ballet and computer science from Texas Christian
University, and a Masters in education administration from Georgia State
University. In Minnesota, she served leadership roles with the Perpich Center for Arts Education and the Main Street School of Performing Arts in Hopkins before founding the Threads Dance Project.
Four of her company's dancers – Mackenzie Beck-Esmay, Michala Cornell,
Karen Gullikson, and Jenny Pennaz – worked with a bench and a long
stretch of black veiling fabric in "Childless Mother," set to Sweet
Honey in the Rock. The program note told the tale: "A child should not
leave the world before its mother. What does a mother do when her
identity has been taken from her?"
Jaime Carrera,
a multi-disciplinary artist from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, totally owned
his solo, "Residency," with a confidence – a conviction – that I have
not seen in some of his earlier performances. Clad only in briefs, with
house lights up, he brushed his teeth and danced for himself as one
might do before a bathroom mirror when believing no one else was
present. Or not caring if they were. Music by The Bad Plus.
Joanie Mix and Jason Lande
Another
artist with a foot each in the Rochester and Twin Cities dance worlds
has been busy since graduating with a degree from the University of
Minnesota. Along with other activities, Joanie Mix co-directs the Rainy Day Cabaret.
Roughly half of the eight dancers (Emma Barber, Lindsay Bullock, Sarah
David, Emily Hansel, Jennifer Mack, Morgan Olson, Anat Shinar, Ashley
Tanberg) in "Promenade Danse la Nuit" are members of that company. They
performed to music of CocoRosie and Sneaker Pimps against a
black-and-white film projection created by Mix and Jason Lande.
From a dance and film with a social message that does not bash, we learn
that there are 12,300,000 victims of sex trafficking every year, more
than nine million are women, and many are minors.
If one discounts the summer class sessions I took from a former Broadway hoofer who smoked through kick-ball-changes at the old MacPhail Center for the Arts, then Denise Armstead, another of our divas regnant, was my first get-down-to-business jazz instructor at Zenon Dance Company and School.
"Feel My Monkey (WTF)" brought on a pleasant reverie as Armstead and
Maginnis danced to Stephanie Lien and The Who with the sound of wind and
old-time radio singing voices – Jackie O meets Maria Callas. I want to
see these two dancing when both are 70. Armstead will perform at Patrick's Cabaret, Mar. 23-24 and 30-31, and at the Burnsville Center for Performing Arts, June 8.
Carrie Lande
Carrie Lande-Homuth
holds a degree in dance from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
and moves in dance circles similar to the Rainy Day Cabaret whose ranks
provided the six dancers for "Out of my Skin," her second work for a
Renovate evening: Emma Barber, Lindsay M. Bullock, Non Edwards,
Mackenzie Lewis, Joanie Mix, and Ashley Rose Tanberg. Set in two strong
sections to music by Varttina, the first movement, in particular,
displays powerful imagery with fists and arms. Parts of the work are
strong enough to compete for a SAGE Dance Award. Lande-Homuth will have work represented at Kinetic Kitchen, May 4.
The original of this post was updated to correct the misnamed character portrayed by Gregory Waletski in Christine Maginnis' "Achtung Bitte!"
The word "delight" describes one's reaction to the very full house that greeted the Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre for its debut performance at The Cowles Center for Dance, Feb. 24. With a near-capacity crowd of 500, the audience was probably the largest the company has enjoyed since its 1993 engagement at the 472-seat Joyce Theater in New York City.
"Zorro" artwork and animations by Jonathan Thunder
Unlike many of the Minnesota dance companies that have stepped-up their performance games by adding live music for the Cowles' inaugural season, Zorongo's dancers always have shared the stage with at least one instrumental and one vocal musician. For this occasion, the company included seven musicians, led by its musical director and guitarist Pedro Cortés, Jr. Their number included vocalists Vicente Griego and Marisa Carr, guitarist Tony Hauser, percussionist José Moreno, flautist Bobb Fantauzzo, and percussionist and vocalist Óscar Valero.
As she has throughout a long and storied choreographic career of translating authentic flamenco from Spain to both Minnesota and the concert stage, Artistic Director Susana di Palma crafted an original, flamenco story ballet, this time bearing the title of "Zorro in the Land of the Golden Breasted Woodpecker (Moningwunakauning)."
Susana di Palma, artistic director
For the stage drama, Di Palma drew autobiographical inspiration from the story of her great grandmother, Susan Peacock Chisholm, whose Ojibwe name, Naa'wakwe Gaabow i kwe, means "Center Standing Woman."
In a nutshell, Chisholm married a Scottish fur trader and lumberjack. In the family struggle about the upbringing of their children, around 1900 a Franciscan missionary priest baptized their two daughters and took them forcibly to the Catholic boarding school for Native children at Bayfield, Wisconsin, designed to obliterate their language and culture.
Family tradition recounts Chisholm's rage at the injustice and her determination to get her girls back. At one point, she walked from the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation near Hayward, Wisconsin, all the way to Bayfield on the shore of Lake Superior, a distance of 80 miles. All of this drama was incorporated into the production.
Di Palma drew inspiration also from the novel "Zorro" by the Chilean writer Isabelle Allende, whose hero of Spanish and Shoshone parentage fights injustices against Native people in colonial California. In her fancy, Di Palma conjured the embodiment of the Ojibwe Trickster who morphs into Zorro to assist her great-grandmother.
Dancer Antonio Granjero, Zorro/Trickster
The production's impressive scale included poetry by the author Heid Erdrich, animation by the visual artist Jonathan Thunder, costumes by Sonya Berlovitz, puppets by Kristen Ternes, and lighting design by Mike Grogan.
The narrative, including requisite black capes and sword fights, played out against an omnipresent full moon among stylized birch trees with a dancing cast led by Antonio Granjero in the title role. Bridget O'Flaherty portrayed Susan Chisholm as a young woman, and Di Palma her older spirit form.
Pedro Cortés, Jr.
Rich in imagery on all levels, the performance was easily worth at least twice the admission price of $28, and Granjero's solo turns were worth that in themselves. I confess to missing the significance of Zorro's second cape which sported bright red lining.
A strong cast was rounded out by dancers Deborah Elias, Colette Illarde, Carolina Sierra, Gabriela Sierra, Myron Johnson, Andrea Plevan, Laura Horn, Jenna Laffin, Christine Kozachok, Catherine Higgins Whiteside, and Sarah Bartlett.
In its aspirations to provide a destination and all the tools of theater for the art form of dance, the Cowles Center was imagined and wrestled into existence to make possible exactly the kind of production that was Zorongo's "Zorro." One hopes to see many more like it, witnessed by capacity audiences.
Ananya Chatterjea, artistic director of Minnesota's Ananya Dance Theatre, presented a solo performance as part of a festival of indigenous performing arts in Albuquerque, March 9-10.
l-r: Sina Soul, Rulan Tangen, Ananya Chatterjea • March 9, 2012
Tangen, one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" in 2007, leads the Dancing Earth ensemble in Albuquerque, while her colleague, Jesus "Jacoh" Cortes directs Cuicacalli Escuela de Danza, an affiliated youth training program in San Francisco.
Paul
Ostrow, a former, 10-year member of the Minneapolis City Council, added
his (considerable) two cents to the blizzard of print and electronic
commentary about the latest and greatest deal for construction of a
football stadium for use by the Minnesota Vikings. His comments, posted
by MinnPost, March 7, 2012, called the current proposal 'bad public policy' and 'profoundly unfair.'
Ostrow
suggested that the Council and Mayor R. T. Rybak – who he says insisted
on following the city charter during debate on financing Target Field
for the Minnesota Twins baseball team – should follow the charter's
limitations and commit $10 million to construction.
It
has been the City of Minneapolis, Ostrow notes, that always has come through
for Minnesota sports fans: Minneapolis provided the bonds for
Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington 50 years ago, and paid for the
Metrodome 30 years ago. Further, he said, 40% of the Hennepin County tax
for Target Field comes from Minneapolis.
"The
best idea to date for funding a new Vikings Stadium," Ostrow wrote, "is
the proposal by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman for a two-cent surcharge
on every drink in every bar in Minnesota."
On March 6, the Star Tribune reported information and acknowledgment
that I have not seen before. Writer Kevin Duchschere cited comments by
Governor Mark Dayton that the current stadium deal "is structured to
enable the Vikings to make a net profit of $22 million to $25 million
per year, which would enable them to 'be viable financially.'"
One of life's enduring mysteries: Why do most professional and student dance performances in the Twin Cities begin after the appointed hour announced in marketing materials and printed on tickets?
The practice of late starts disses patrons who place a priority on arriving early, meaning on time. Time is money, and keeping an audience of 200 waiting for five minutes past the stated curtain rise wastes 16 hours.
Many dancers and ensembles have built the habit of "holding for 5" into their modus operandi as a preferred standard. Even at that, some groups still cannot get their shows on the stage for five or 10 minutes more.
Presumably, these delays are rationalized as a courtesy to those who are running late for any reason or no reason. However, the standard should be "If you are late, you are late."
Which leads to another peeve endemic to dance performances. What's with all the continuous and mindless seating of late-comers?
If late to the orchestra, opera, and most theater, the protocol is to wait for "an appropriate break" in the action. This can mean cooling one's heels in the lobby for 30 minutes. Been there and done that.
I recently attended a dance performance that already had started 15 minutes past the posting. Two people arrived even later and insisted on using their assigned seats in the front row. Never mind that the row was screwed up and only one seat was available. Exit one patron and the usher to a vestibule to conduct an animated and audible discussion before the usher carried in and placed a chair at one end of the front row. This incident was neither exceptional nor specific to one venue.
Just as a sold-out performance teaches audience members to buy ahead the next time, the establishment and enforcement of start times and late seating policies will prompt more people to plan ahead.
Routine delays do not reflect a first-rate organization at work. When I purchase a ticket for your performance, we have an agreement that leaves no room to argue about the timing of our respective roles in the transaction.
The card game that is the debate about whether, when, where, and how to pay for a new football stadium for use by the Minnesota Vikings is being played without a full deck.
Through the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, an entity created by its legislature, Minnesota owns a professional football stadium located on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. It bears the name of Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Until the recent expiration of naming rights, its playing field has been known in recent years as the Mall of America Field.
The Metrodome opened for business in 1982, after being built at a cost of $68 million, a sum with the 2011 buying power of $158.5 million. Its construction cost came in $2 million under budget. The place seats 64,000 people for football, and sports a new roof and playing field surface that are both less than a year old.
The Metrodome is located at the nexus of major freeways, the Hiawatha light rail transit line from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America in Bloomington (via the airport), and a soon-to-be-completed Central Corridor rail line connecting the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul (constructed at a cost of $900 million).
Why, then, is there such strenuous debate about the need to build a wholly new stadium for $900 million to $1.2 billion?
If the polls are correct, 75% of the people say we don't need to build if even one red cent of public money is used for the financing. Others proclaim the present amenity "a piece of crap" that requires its decommission (often while preferring to ignore the Vikings' won-loss record). More saliently, we are told that the present facility does not generate sufficient revenue and, presumably, profit for the Vikings entity.
Much of our discourse turns on antipathy for using public funds that will subsidize for-profit enterprises. Where the stadium is concerned, this means opposing "the further enrichment" of Zygi Wilf, the billionaire owner of the Vikings. As a firmly entrenched member of the 99%, I get that, especially after the dude displayed such a tin ear for public sentiment with his recent $19 million purchase of a Manhattan apartment. (I would love to have me one of those!)
However, we ought to dismount from our self-righteous high horses. Minnesota and U.S. taxpayers provide corporate welfare every day, along side every program of people welfare. There is no unanimity for any of it. Besides, when it comes to stadiums, and specifically the Vikings, we have done it before.
We also will do it again. Regardless of its final composition, the bonding bills crafted by Minnesota's legislature regularly invest in expensive public projects that serve the interests of a variety of users. Sometimes these are called regional airports. They also can be called civic or convention centers, places that are used regularly by churches, orchestras, and the "filthy rich" who need a place to display and market their boats, motorcycles, automobiles, and landscaping and homebuilding products and services, to name a few.
Despite polling results and the world views of many elected leaders to the contrary, all of us are in this together. The answer to the perennial whine of "Why should I pay for this, that, and the other?" is "Because that's what you do in a civil society" – a concept codified in the preamble to the Constitution about providing for the common welfare that carries a broad definition.
Any public investment, and stadium, must serve a range of users in addition to the eight days a year claimed by the Vikings, just as the Metrodome currently serves college baseball, runners, roller skaters, and a myriad of others. Any investment also must serve the causes of cost efficiency and getting the best return for each buck.
Cards have gone missing in the debate deck when it comes to explaining how a new stadium will generate substantially more revenue than the one we have:
What level of revenue are we talking about? How much revenue is generated by Vikings activity now and how much of it flows to the team?
How much additional revenue must the Vikings have in order to remain viable and sustainable? How much and how fast will the need for additional revenue grow over what period of time? There must be numbers somewhere by which the team, the National Football League, and others measure whether a particular stadium proposal is a good or bad deal.
How does spending a billion dollars generate that level of revenue over time? Specifically, what increment of building expense will generate what amount of additional revenue? Any entity, particularly one for-profit, should know this.
I understand that the Metrodome concourses could be more spacious and allow for greater freedom of movement, thus "enhancing my fan experience." However, I go to see the live performance of a game, not to hang out on the concourse. How, specifically, do wider concourses generate more revenue?
More and improved restrooms may not generate revenue, but most could agree there would be value in enhancing the fan experience in this realm. At peak times, lines form up at the cattle trough pissers in the current men's facilities; a guy can only imagine how the women are coping.
Similarly, while enhancements to team clubhouses may not generate revenue, they might provide enough boost in team morale to improve on-field performance. Are the Metrodome's structural impediments so numerous, and the architects' imaginations so limited, that clubhouses can not be upgraded substantially, particularly with the baseball people having vacated the premises?
What level of expense is required to fix whatever is wrong with the current concessions set-up? Do we need more concession counters? Greater food variety? Sit-down restaurants? Higher prices? Aside from the can-do imagination about how to do it, what is missing from the current Metrodome?
Most commonly, I read of the need for more, better luxury suites. On occasion, I have been seated in the boxes in the vicinity of Section 211; in their present state, I would not pay $10 premium for them let alone $10,000 or $100,000. Still, how many boxes and/or suites does the Metrodome have now? What revenue do they generate? How many suites are needed to generate what quantity of revenue? Again, aside from the missing imagination, what would it cost to upgrade and add to what exists?
Beyond these, what other real revenue generators exist that require an investment of $1 billion?
We do not need to accomodate tailgating at any of the proposed stadium sites in Arden Hills and Minneapolis. I recall tailgating at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington when post-game parking lots became opportunities to dodge vehicles driven by drunks before they hit the highways headed for home.
A revenue generator I might support would have the Sports Facilities Commission buy or build a parking ramp or two, proximate to the Metrodome. Lease them to the Vikings for zero rent. Allow the team to operate them year-round and keep the proceeds. For 30 years, there has been no significant development on most real estate in that area anyway.
My bottom line on all of this:
• The Minnesota Vikings represent a real value to significant numbers of Minnesota's people and the collective we should make a renewed investment in their facility;
• If there is evidence on the public record about how spending a billion dollars for an all new facility at any location will solve whatever ails the team financially, its dissemination has not penetrated the public's consciousness;
• The Metrodome needs enhancements, something the Vikings owners have rejected out-of-hand in the past;
• The State of Minnesota should offer up to $200 million of public money to finance enhancements;
• If the Vikings believe an additional $400 million would be needed, the team already has committed that amount of money to serve its expressed need for increased revenues;
• A valid case has not been made for why Minnesota should expand gambling in any form to provide stadium financing – such proposals support the fiction that they carry no costs;
• All of Minnesota has an interest in the presence of the Vikings in this market, and the entire state should put up the full $200 million by incorporating the project into the 2012 bonding bill being considered by the legislature.
If none of that is good enough for the Vikings and the NFL, then they are free to make arrangements elsewhere.
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.
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.
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.
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 1983, 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!
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.
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 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!
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.
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:
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.
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.
