Minneapolis, Minnesota
Thursday. Lake Calhoun. 64º and mostly sunny. Slightest breeze to ripple water
in all directions and keep 16 sailboats circling at lake center. Weed
cutter anchored offshore of northwest corner. Water level healthy. West side
roses in fierce bloom. Foot/bike traffic light-to-mod for late
afternoon. Like our neighbors, all the little kids with no dog see
Maggie, want to touch her and take her home. Most of the ducks live on
north shore, east of beach and canoe racks.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
The 1% will spend $1 billion to finish the wrecking job
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Politico is out with a story today that says GOP super PACs and their fellow travelers plan to spend $1 billion between now and November in order to buy control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. The total includes $300 million by groups related to Karl Rove and nearly $400 million of spending by a network bankrolled directly and indirectly by the Koch brothers.
These forces are not content with the national embarrassment and gridlock occasioned by their thuggish tactics of obfuscation and obstruction in the last three and-a-half years. They are beyond embarrassment, and gridlock has merely served their own special and selfish interests at the expense of the country.
Their aim is not a balanced democracy that serves our people. They will say that they seek to preserve American values and freedom. In reality, they seek to subvert and destroy. They seek for themselves total and amoral power and control over all checks and balances of the government, the economy, the culture, and religion.
UPDATE: Thursday, May 31, 2012: Politico is out with a story this morning that reports some of the GOP's mega-donors are upset that their names have become part of the public dialogue, and that some people have ascribed nefarious motives to their attempts to accomplish the equivalent of anonymous, political hit jobs in the dark of night. Sorry, but bullying of any kind is not an acceptable American value.
Politico is out with a story today that says GOP super PACs and their fellow travelers plan to spend $1 billion between now and November in order to buy control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. The total includes $300 million by groups related to Karl Rove and nearly $400 million of spending by a network bankrolled directly and indirectly by the Koch brothers.
These forces are not content with the national embarrassment and gridlock occasioned by their thuggish tactics of obfuscation and obstruction in the last three and-a-half years. They are beyond embarrassment, and gridlock has merely served their own special and selfish interests at the expense of the country.
Their aim is not a balanced democracy that serves our people. They will say that they seek to preserve American values and freedom. In reality, they seek to subvert and destroy. They seek for themselves total and amoral power and control over all checks and balances of the government, the economy, the culture, and religion.
UPDATE: Thursday, May 31, 2012: Politico is out with a story this morning that reports some of the GOP's mega-donors are upset that their names have become part of the public dialogue, and that some people have ascribed nefarious motives to their attempts to accomplish the equivalent of anonymous, political hit jobs in the dark of night. Sorry, but bullying of any kind is not an acceptable American value.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
A Minnesota dance family reunion and legacy
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Someday, scholars pursuing graduate degrees at the University of Minnesota will write the definitive histories of Minnesota's and the Twin Cities' performing arts scenes. Significant portions of their research will draw heavily upon records generated over the past 50 years by members of a remarkable family of artists.
Many of the artistic heirs of that family's influence reunited in Minneapolis' Lowry Hill neighborhood, May 5, for an evening of mellow memories and music. Approximately 100 grandparents, parents, and toddlers gathered in the soon-to-be-former family home of the Nancy Hauser Dance Company and School, overlooking the intersection of Franklin and Hennepin avenues from the upper floors at 1940 Hennepin.
For Minnesotans who came of age in the 1960s and 70s, the Hauser company and school occupied one of the central artistic positions in the zeitgeist that produced housing coops, anti-Vietnam war protests, and the worker-owned coop movement. In those days, we knew that ballet was something that came from Communist Russia when Ed Sullivan featured it on his Sunday night variety show on CBS television. What little we knew of modern dance emanated from the doings of Hauser and her colleagues at the Guild of Performing Arts, a music and dance school with a small theater and art gallery centered in the bohemian enclave of Minneapolis' West Bank. The area was known for a time as the Haight-Ashbury of the Midwest.
While Hauser's work flowed from the Mary Wigman and Hanya Holm traditions of modern dance, the remarkable story of her company is that of its service as the crucible from which the elements of contemporary dance in Minnesota exploded and continue to differentiate themselves, 51 years after its founding in 1961.
As fashions and generations changed, it was perhaps inevitable that present-day dance afficionados have little or no knowledge and appreciation of the statewide, domestic, and international touring the company accomplished, nor of the far-reaching contributions made by its students, performers, and choreographers.
A small list of Hauser alums includes the choreographer Ralph Lemon; Lisa Naugle, the chair of dance at the University of California-Irvine; the choreographer and artistic director Gary Lund, whose work has been presented throughout Europe and at New York's Joyce Theater and Dance Theater Workshop; Sara Pearson, a professor at the University of Maryland; Stephen Koester, a professor at the University of Utah; and Nancy Evans Doede, director of the Nancy Evans Dance Theatre in Los Angeles. Artists from the milieu who remain active in the Twin Cities include Gerry Girouard, Derek Phillips, Pam Gleason, Susana di Palma, Laurie Van Wieren, and Jane Peck, among many others.
The artistic talents and interests of the Hauser family exceed the dance pursuits of Nancy and her daughter, Heidi Hauser Jasmin. They include the sculpture and visual art of Alonzo Hauser, who founded the Art Department at Macalester College in 1945, and the classical and flamenco guitar virtuosity of sons Tony and Michael.
My first close crossing of paths with the Hauser company and family occurred in 1986. To help establish a new purpose for itself following the opening of the Ordway Center for Performing Arts in January that year, The O'Shaughnessy, a 1,700 seat auditorium on the campus of St. Catherine University in St. Paul, created the O'Shaughnessy Dance Series, featuring six or eight Twin Cities dance companies during the spring months. I attended rehearsals and performances of those companies, including Hauser, and wrote reviews for my radio program on KFAI. Pam Gleason, who organized last week's reunion, was a performer in my review.
In addition to a bountiful, pot-luck spread of food, a quintet, the Aurora Club Jazz Jam Live, provided music – kicking off with "Days of Wine and Roses" – while those touched forever by Hauser Dance took to the dance floor with each other or themselves to recall where they learned to love dance, some recreating favored roles from days past.
Jasmin announced that, since she stopped teaching last October, she and her husband, Paul Jasmin, have been organizing and archiving the company's 51 years of history, disposing of props and costumes, and preparing to end the 501(c)(3) status at the end of August. The archival documents will be turned over to the Performing Arts Archives at the University of Minnesota.
Updated: 10/19/2012 - 11:30pm CDT
Someday, scholars pursuing graduate degrees at the University of Minnesota will write the definitive histories of Minnesota's and the Twin Cities' performing arts scenes. Significant portions of their research will draw heavily upon records generated over the past 50 years by members of a remarkable family of artists.
Many of the artistic heirs of that family's influence reunited in Minneapolis' Lowry Hill neighborhood, May 5, for an evening of mellow memories and music. Approximately 100 grandparents, parents, and toddlers gathered in the soon-to-be-former family home of the Nancy Hauser Dance Company and School, overlooking the intersection of Franklin and Hennepin avenues from the upper floors at 1940 Hennepin.
For Minnesotans who came of age in the 1960s and 70s, the Hauser company and school occupied one of the central artistic positions in the zeitgeist that produced housing coops, anti-Vietnam war protests, and the worker-owned coop movement. In those days, we knew that ballet was something that came from Communist Russia when Ed Sullivan featured it on his Sunday night variety show on CBS television. What little we knew of modern dance emanated from the doings of Hauser and her colleagues at the Guild of Performing Arts, a music and dance school with a small theater and art gallery centered in the bohemian enclave of Minneapolis' West Bank. The area was known for a time as the Haight-Ashbury of the Midwest.
While Hauser's work flowed from the Mary Wigman and Hanya Holm traditions of modern dance, the remarkable story of her company is that of its service as the crucible from which the elements of contemporary dance in Minnesota exploded and continue to differentiate themselves, 51 years after its founding in 1961.
As fashions and generations changed, it was perhaps inevitable that present-day dance afficionados have little or no knowledge and appreciation of the statewide, domestic, and international touring the company accomplished, nor of the far-reaching contributions made by its students, performers, and choreographers.
A small list of Hauser alums includes the choreographer Ralph Lemon; Lisa Naugle, the chair of dance at the University of California-Irvine; the choreographer and artistic director Gary Lund, whose work has been presented throughout Europe and at New York's Joyce Theater and Dance Theater Workshop; Sara Pearson, a professor at the University of Maryland; Stephen Koester, a professor at the University of Utah; and Nancy Evans Doede, director of the Nancy Evans Dance Theatre in Los Angeles. Artists from the milieu who remain active in the Twin Cities include Gerry Girouard, Derek Phillips, Pam Gleason, Susana di Palma, Laurie Van Wieren, and Jane Peck, among many others.
The artistic talents and interests of the Hauser family exceed the dance pursuits of Nancy and her daughter, Heidi Hauser Jasmin. They include the sculpture and visual art of Alonzo Hauser, who founded the Art Department at Macalester College in 1945, and the classical and flamenco guitar virtuosity of sons Tony and Michael.
My first close crossing of paths with the Hauser company and family occurred in 1986. To help establish a new purpose for itself following the opening of the Ordway Center for Performing Arts in January that year, The O'Shaughnessy, a 1,700 seat auditorium on the campus of St. Catherine University in St. Paul, created the O'Shaughnessy Dance Series, featuring six or eight Twin Cities dance companies during the spring months. I attended rehearsals and performances of those companies, including Hauser, and wrote reviews for my radio program on KFAI. Pam Gleason, who organized last week's reunion, was a performer in my review.
In addition to a bountiful, pot-luck spread of food, a quintet, the Aurora Club Jazz Jam Live, provided music – kicking off with "Days of Wine and Roses" – while those touched forever by Hauser Dance took to the dance floor with each other or themselves to recall where they learned to love dance, some recreating favored roles from days past.
Jasmin announced that, since she stopped teaching last October, she and her husband, Paul Jasmin, have been organizing and archiving the company's 51 years of history, disposing of props and costumes, and preparing to end the 501(c)(3) status at the end of August. The archival documents will be turned over to the Performing Arts Archives at the University of Minnesota.
Updated: 10/19/2012 - 11:30pm CDT
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Zenon Dance Company stands tall with brilliant program for its 29th spring season
Minneapolis, Minnesota
A poster hangs in a stairwell of my house for the first performances by the Zenon Dance Company, presented in a studio setting at the Hennepin Center for the Arts, April 6-8, 1983. Preview performances were held a week earlier, March 30-31, at the Edina Community Center.
The occasion represented a leap of faith for the dancers and their artistic director, Linda Andrews, as they assumed the trappings of a professional ensemble, replacing their previous status as advanced students with the pre-professional Rezone [modern] and Just Jazz companies fielded by the Ozone Dance School.
The new, professional Zenon was viewed by many as an impertinent upstart, and its debut program offered what most observers at the time, and for some years afterward, considered to be an improbable and unworkable mix of modern and jazz dance choreography. The opening bill featured works by Hannah Kahn, Charlie Vernon, Lewis Whitlock, Linda Shapiro, Wil Swanson, Lynn Simonson, and Anne Gunderson.
The notion that dancers could cross-train to perform many styles of modern dance, as well as jazz dance, was considered to be something of a joke by many local and national gatekeepers who served on the staffs and granting panels of service organizations, foundations, government agencies, and the media. It took many performance seasons and grant-making rounds to convince them to open their minds, trust their eyes, and lend their support.
After 29 years, many of those original pooh-bahs consider Zenon to be Minnesota's artistic leader in dance and a competent competitor as a national innovator.
After 29 years, the Hennepin Center for the Arts is known as the "education wing" of The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, and is connected to the new, 500-seat Goodale Theater, the first venue in Minnesota built specifically to serve the presentation needs of concert dance.
After 29 years, Zenon's program lineup remains an eclectic mix of the modern, the jazz, the cerebral, the entertaining, the dynamic, the bizarre, and the right-on. It is one of three companies (the James Sewell Ballet and Ballet of the Dolls are the others) that can draw an audience of respectable size for two weekends of performances twice a year.
Also after 29 years, Twin Cities dance artists retain a pathological need to label, rate, and categorize each other, their work, and venues. In that, they could save themselves much drama and misspent energy. As observed by the dance writer Lightsey Dharst, many modern dance companies in the Twin Cities "share dancers, and all rely to some extent on those dancers to generate movement, which means that you get to see the same great moves in concert after concert."
Zenon's commissions of work from a variety of choreographers – many from afar and who are not one of us – mitigate the effects of this dynamic. This is particularly true of the standing tall program presented for the company's 29th spring season that opened May 4 at the Cowles Center, and runs through May 13. The program shines with a brilliance that should not be missed.
The world premiere of "Wine Dark Sea," reflecting on the connection of humans to ocean and choreographed in a modern dance style by Minnesota's Wynn Fricke, featured a symbiotic, original composition and performance by the percussionist Peter O'Gorman. The composer's participation represented one of the first projects underwritten by the Live Music for Dance Minnesota program of the American Composers Forum.
At rise, eight dancers in close proximity faced the audience from upstage center, heads uplifted, elbows crooked above their faces, and legs moving to lateral tendu in costumes crafted by Annie Cady. For an instant, one perceived thrilling aspects of Alvin Ailey's "Revelations," presented in Minneapolis earlier in the week by the Northrop Dance Series.
Two major movements featured two, well-crafted quartets. That for the men, Tristan Koepke, Scott Mettille, Stephen Schroeder, and Gregory Waletski, resembled voguing at times, and that for the women, Mary Ann Bradley, Tamara Ober, Leslie O'Neill, and Laura Selle Virtucio, worked on and into the floor. During the latter, the men crouched across and behind an upstage scrim, unfolding vertically while each struck, in turn, a single toned triangle in sync with O'Gorman's larger theme.
Although an audience member was overheard at intermission to say that most dances, everywhere, could stand to be cut by five minutes, the primal and solid "Wine Dark Sea" ended with an abruptness that called out for one more movement to lend a sense of completeness.
I retain my earlier assessment that "Booba" (Hebrew for "doll") from 2008, represents "an odd set of excerpts" from a full-evening work by Andrea Miller, a graduate of The Juilliard School. Set to music by Balkan Beat Box, the work engages with a series of personality-expressing divertissements, opening with a stage-right-to-left shimmy led by Schroeder, followed by O'Neill, Mettille, Ober, Koepke, and Bradley. Miller's choreography resembles a cross between disco and breaking, and Schroeder and O'Neill shine in a duet that could reflect characters from The Big Bang Theory.
If anything will instill in me an appreciation for postmodern dance that moves beyond grudging, it will be the dances of the choreographer Morgan Thorson, whose work has been recognized and supported by nearly every major funding entity in the field. She accepts, on an elemental level, that dance should include at least a minimal amount of intelligent movement that also does not require an advanced degree to follow and understand.
In her new, second creation for Zenon, "All Parts ˆAre Welcome," she crafts a mesmerizing world that seeks to "stare down our worst conflicted feelings about life." Thorson immerses herself holistically in the details of her creations, holding credit here for costuming in addition to choreography, and sharing billing for lighting design with Mike Grogan.
She has described "All Parts ˆAre Welcome" as bringing "everything that makes us human into the choreographic process by way of observation, same sex attraction, flipping, dominance, rejection, a desire for intimacy, lies, compartmentalizing, obedience, manipulation, wanting to be seen, arrogance, love" and more.
Some of her parts struck me as weird, but very pleasingly so. From the opening moment when Selle Virtucio burst through the curtains upstage center, we took a journey both light and dark with music created by Chris Schlichting and occasional vocalizations by the dancers. On first viewing, the ending appeared to fritter away weakly in contrast to the intentional composition that preceded it, almost as though Thorson lost her nerve or her interest, and walked away.
In the dance's latter minutes, Thorson has the leggings, the curtains that mask the sidelights and offstage walls, rise into the fly-loft, seemingly because they can. The time-worn gimmick adds nothing here and, frankly, her work has outgrown it.
With no sets or gimmicks, a wearied and troubled world needs the moments of joyful and spectacular uplift delivered by "Pink Martini," the evening's closer.
Since its debut last fall, "Pink Martini," has served a heart-melting grin from beginning to end, and as the capstone work of Zenon's sterling, 2011-12 season. It represents a
level of sleek and chic choreographic and performance sophistication
that the town needs in its collective dance repertoire. With some smoothing of sound transitions between musical segments, one hopes it might become a signature work for a company that has never known one.
For audiences present at the work's creation, however, any future cast will be hard-pressed to match the accomplished appeal of the present ensemble of eight, collectively the strongest and best of Zenon's 29 years. The choreographer, Marius Olszewski, created it for them and they own it totally.
Crafted as a series of ballroom dance vignettes using cha-cha and mambo styles set to music of Rosemary Clooney and Perez Prado and His Orchestra, "Pink Martini" offers the dancers star turns that exude confidence, drip with sex appeal, and glow with glamour.
The opening solo by Mettille, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota's Dance Program, set the exciting tone and standard for all that followed. When joined by O'Neill for an ensuing duet, their combined effort was electric. The pairing of these natives of Minnesota (him) and of Wisconsin (her) created a charisma that elevated them to rock stars in the company's shining galaxy.
Additional pairings – of Waletski and Bradley, Selle Virtucio and Schroeder, Ober and Koepke, O'Neill and Schroeder, Mettille and Waletski, and Bradley and the guys, along with quartets for the men and for the women – combined to evoke a huge "Yes!" and ovation from their audience.
Over time, dancers and dance companies, like athletes and sports teams, experience seasons of triumph and loss. For one who discovered the idea of Zenon before its debut performances in 1983, the company has danced through periods difficult to watch. Not so in recent years. The triumph of the present season holds cause for much celebration and higher aspiration for the times to come.
For tickets to Zenon Dance Company at The Cowles Center, call 612.206.3600.
Gary Peterson served as managing director of Zenon Dance Company from 1986 to 1991. • Photos by Steve Niedorf.
A poster hangs in a stairwell of my house for the first performances by the Zenon Dance Company, presented in a studio setting at the Hennepin Center for the Arts, April 6-8, 1983. Preview performances were held a week earlier, March 30-31, at the Edina Community Center.
 |
| Leslie O'Neill & Scott Mettille, rock stars in Zenon's shining galaxy |
The new, professional Zenon was viewed by many as an impertinent upstart, and its debut program offered what most observers at the time, and for some years afterward, considered to be an improbable and unworkable mix of modern and jazz dance choreography. The opening bill featured works by Hannah Kahn, Charlie Vernon, Lewis Whitlock, Linda Shapiro, Wil Swanson, Lynn Simonson, and Anne Gunderson.
The notion that dancers could cross-train to perform many styles of modern dance, as well as jazz dance, was considered to be something of a joke by many local and national gatekeepers who served on the staffs and granting panels of service organizations, foundations, government agencies, and the media. It took many performance seasons and grant-making rounds to convince them to open their minds, trust their eyes, and lend their support.
After 29 years, many of those original pooh-bahs consider Zenon to be Minnesota's artistic leader in dance and a competent competitor as a national innovator.
After 29 years, the Hennepin Center for the Arts is known as the "education wing" of The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, and is connected to the new, 500-seat Goodale Theater, the first venue in Minnesota built specifically to serve the presentation needs of concert dance.
After 29 years, Zenon's program lineup remains an eclectic mix of the modern, the jazz, the cerebral, the entertaining, the dynamic, the bizarre, and the right-on. It is one of three companies (the James Sewell Ballet and Ballet of the Dolls are the others) that can draw an audience of respectable size for two weekends of performances twice a year.
Also after 29 years, Twin Cities dance artists retain a pathological need to label, rate, and categorize each other, their work, and venues. In that, they could save themselves much drama and misspent energy. As observed by the dance writer Lightsey Dharst, many modern dance companies in the Twin Cities "share dancers, and all rely to some extent on those dancers to generate movement, which means that you get to see the same great moves in concert after concert."
Zenon's commissions of work from a variety of choreographers – many from afar and who are not one of us – mitigate the effects of this dynamic. This is particularly true of the standing tall program presented for the company's 29th spring season that opened May 4 at the Cowles Center, and runs through May 13. The program shines with a brilliance that should not be missed.
The world premiere of "Wine Dark Sea," reflecting on the connection of humans to ocean and choreographed in a modern dance style by Minnesota's Wynn Fricke, featured a symbiotic, original composition and performance by the percussionist Peter O'Gorman. The composer's participation represented one of the first projects underwritten by the Live Music for Dance Minnesota program of the American Composers Forum.
At rise, eight dancers in close proximity faced the audience from upstage center, heads uplifted, elbows crooked above their faces, and legs moving to lateral tendu in costumes crafted by Annie Cady. For an instant, one perceived thrilling aspects of Alvin Ailey's "Revelations," presented in Minneapolis earlier in the week by the Northrop Dance Series.
Two major movements featured two, well-crafted quartets. That for the men, Tristan Koepke, Scott Mettille, Stephen Schroeder, and Gregory Waletski, resembled voguing at times, and that for the women, Mary Ann Bradley, Tamara Ober, Leslie O'Neill, and Laura Selle Virtucio, worked on and into the floor. During the latter, the men crouched across and behind an upstage scrim, unfolding vertically while each struck, in turn, a single toned triangle in sync with O'Gorman's larger theme.
Although an audience member was overheard at intermission to say that most dances, everywhere, could stand to be cut by five minutes, the primal and solid "Wine Dark Sea" ended with an abruptness that called out for one more movement to lend a sense of completeness.
I retain my earlier assessment that "Booba" (Hebrew for "doll") from 2008, represents "an odd set of excerpts" from a full-evening work by Andrea Miller, a graduate of The Juilliard School. Set to music by Balkan Beat Box, the work engages with a series of personality-expressing divertissements, opening with a stage-right-to-left shimmy led by Schroeder, followed by O'Neill, Mettille, Ober, Koepke, and Bradley. Miller's choreography resembles a cross between disco and breaking, and Schroeder and O'Neill shine in a duet that could reflect characters from The Big Bang Theory.
If anything will instill in me an appreciation for postmodern dance that moves beyond grudging, it will be the dances of the choreographer Morgan Thorson, whose work has been recognized and supported by nearly every major funding entity in the field. She accepts, on an elemental level, that dance should include at least a minimal amount of intelligent movement that also does not require an advanced degree to follow and understand.
In her new, second creation for Zenon, "All Parts ˆAre
With no sets or gimmicks, a wearied and troubled world needs the moments of joyful and spectacular uplift delivered by "Pink Martini," the evening's closer.
 |
| What a wearied, troubled world needs: Zenon Dance Company in Marius Olszewski's "Pink Martini" |
Friday, May 4, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Behind the scenes of the Sewell Ballet's "Opus 131"
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Beethoven completed his Quartet for Strings No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Opus 131, in 1826, the year before his death. That he was deaf when he composed the 40-minute work remains reason for amazement, even – and especially – in the jaded, show-it-to-me culture of our present century.
I recall the first time I heard the work.
Following the conclusion of a performing arts conference and showcase in Chicago, I was driving across Wisconsin to Minneapolis on a Sunday afternoon in September 1995 with three members of the James Sewell Ballet. We had stopped earlier at the resort town of Wisconsin Dells, primarily just to say we had done so.
James Sewell was going to begin choreographing a new ballet set to Opus 131 the next day. None of us had heard the music, so Sewell played it over the van's sound system as we drifted along I-94 toward the Minnesota border and into setting sun. The seven movements, each with a distinct feeling, are played through without pause.
Created for six dancers at its 1995 premiere at The O'Shaughnessy in St. Paul, "Opus 131" featured three partnered pairings by Anna Laghezza and Sewell, Sally Rousse and Christian Burns, and Penelope Freeh and Joel Klausler.
When reprised during the 2002-03 season, Sewell expanded the work to four pairings: Freeh and Matthew Keefe, Rousse and Sewell, Peggy Seipp and Benjamin Johnson, and Julia Welsh and Justin Leaf. JSB's touring schedule was extensive that year, and "Opus 131" saw action on stages throughout the country.
One of those stages, a college in New England, would be followed by a Sunday matinee at Brooklyn College in New York City. It would be the company's first gig in the city since performing at Hunter College in Manhattan in March 2001.
In Minneapolis on Friday, April 11, 2003, it occurred to me that it would be fun to make the scene in Brooklyn, and I told my administrative colleagues that I would go if fares were under $200. Through the wonders of online booking, I found a round-trip to LaGuardia for $184, and arrived at the hotel in Brooklyn 30 minutes before the company drove in the next afternoon.
Sunday, April 13, was Palm Sunday, and the staff at Brooklyn College had no expectations of filling even half of the 2,500 seats in Whitman Hall. I arrived at the theater in the morning with Kevin Jones, the production manager, and Matthew Keefe, who served the dual role of dancer and wardrobe master. My job was to not interfere, pace, and hold court in the lobby when the audience arrived.
For a while, it seemed as though there would be no audience. In addition to being Palm Sunday, it was one of those bright and romantically languid Sundays that only New York City can muster, and the streets of Brooklyn were bereft of movement. Finally, as though a faucet was turned on, people arrived from nowhere to take their seats.
The performance began, and I watched from the back of the theater where I could pace with my usual thoughts, hoping that the performance went well, that the audience had an engaging time, and that terrorists or some other mayhem did not disrupt the scene.
My blood pressure shot up as a series of episodic camera flashes appeared from the audience, not far from the stage. Cameras are never allowed in live performances out of consideration for other audience members and to protect performer safety and intellectual property interests. The nature and length of the music and dance, however, meant that trying to confiscate a camera would be more disruptive than the flashes, and I seethed in silence.
At intermission, while stationed near the lobby exits looking for a wayward camera, a college press officer walked up and asked if I was with JSB and could I identify photos of the dancers for Anna Kisselgoff, the senior dance writer for the New York Times. In our brief, pleasant exchange of business, she noted – a bit archly, I thought – that our public relations game had left something to be desired for this performance.
Neither we nor the college had thought of trying to schedule a photo call for the press given that we had a single performance, and I was thunderstruck by the thought that Kisselgoff had brought a photographer "all the way to Brooklyn" on Palm Sunday. I also was glad that we had taken pains to make our program notes look as respectable as possible.
Back in Minneapolis, two mornings later, I received an early call from the mother of a JSB dancer who told me I would never believe that day's New York Times. She was right.
Across the top, front page of the arts section, and under the headline "Balletic Sonnets, Surprises Included," was a full-color photo of the JSB dancers taking a curtain call in Brooklyn for "Opus 131."
In her review, Kisselgoff wrote,
Quite simply, reviews do not get much better than that. Most artists, let alone dancers, will never get their names and photos splashed across a page of the New York Times.
It is no longer my job to pace at the back of theaters during JSB performances. Instead, I sit calmly and expectantly in the audience, as I did last Friday at The Cowles Center for the latest iteration of "Opus 131," this time for seven dancers: Nicky Coelho, Leah Gallas, Cory Goei, Chris Hannon, Nic Lincoln, Sally Rousse, and Eve Schulte.
This go-round has its own special excitement. For the first time, the dancers are performing to live music, provided by The Parker Quartet, an exquisite ensemble of passionate talent whose members include Daniel Chong, violin, Karen Kim, violin, Jessica Bodner, viola, and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello.
You can catch them at 8pm, April 20-21, and 2pm, April 22. Call 612.206.3600 for ticketing.
Gary Peterson served as executive director of James Sewell Ballet from 1995 to 2008.
Beethoven completed his Quartet for Strings No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Opus 131, in 1826, the year before his death. That he was deaf when he composed the 40-minute work remains reason for amazement, even – and especially – in the jaded, show-it-to-me culture of our present century.
I recall the first time I heard the work.
 |
| "Opus 131" • Cory Goei & Leah Gallas |
James Sewell was going to begin choreographing a new ballet set to Opus 131 the next day. None of us had heard the music, so Sewell played it over the van's sound system as we drifted along I-94 toward the Minnesota border and into setting sun. The seven movements, each with a distinct feeling, are played through without pause.
Created for six dancers at its 1995 premiere at The O'Shaughnessy in St. Paul, "Opus 131" featured three partnered pairings by Anna Laghezza and Sewell, Sally Rousse and Christian Burns, and Penelope Freeh and Joel Klausler.
When reprised during the 2002-03 season, Sewell expanded the work to four pairings: Freeh and Matthew Keefe, Rousse and Sewell, Peggy Seipp and Benjamin Johnson, and Julia Welsh and Justin Leaf. JSB's touring schedule was extensive that year, and "Opus 131" saw action on stages throughout the country.
One of those stages, a college in New England, would be followed by a Sunday matinee at Brooklyn College in New York City. It would be the company's first gig in the city since performing at Hunter College in Manhattan in March 2001.
In Minneapolis on Friday, April 11, 2003, it occurred to me that it would be fun to make the scene in Brooklyn, and I told my administrative colleagues that I would go if fares were under $200. Through the wonders of online booking, I found a round-trip to LaGuardia for $184, and arrived at the hotel in Brooklyn 30 minutes before the company drove in the next afternoon.
 |
| The Parker Quartet |
For a while, it seemed as though there would be no audience. In addition to being Palm Sunday, it was one of those bright and romantically languid Sundays that only New York City can muster, and the streets of Brooklyn were bereft of movement. Finally, as though a faucet was turned on, people arrived from nowhere to take their seats.
The performance began, and I watched from the back of the theater where I could pace with my usual thoughts, hoping that the performance went well, that the audience had an engaging time, and that terrorists or some other mayhem did not disrupt the scene.
My blood pressure shot up as a series of episodic camera flashes appeared from the audience, not far from the stage. Cameras are never allowed in live performances out of consideration for other audience members and to protect performer safety and intellectual property interests. The nature and length of the music and dance, however, meant that trying to confiscate a camera would be more disruptive than the flashes, and I seethed in silence.
At intermission, while stationed near the lobby exits looking for a wayward camera, a college press officer walked up and asked if I was with JSB and could I identify photos of the dancers for Anna Kisselgoff, the senior dance writer for the New York Times. In our brief, pleasant exchange of business, she noted – a bit archly, I thought – that our public relations game had left something to be desired for this performance.
Neither we nor the college had thought of trying to schedule a photo call for the press given that we had a single performance, and I was thunderstruck by the thought that Kisselgoff had brought a photographer "all the way to Brooklyn" on Palm Sunday. I also was glad that we had taken pains to make our program notes look as respectable as possible.
Back in Minneapolis, two mornings later, I received an early call from the mother of a JSB dancer who told me I would never believe that day's New York Times. She was right.
Across the top, front page of the arts section, and under the headline "Balletic Sonnets, Surprises Included," was a full-color photo of the JSB dancers taking a curtain call in Brooklyn for "Opus 131."
In her review, Kisselgoff wrote,
Someone needs to give the James Sewell Ballet from Minneapolis and Mr. Sewell's always imaginative, often exquisite ballets a full season in New York. In the meantime, thanks go to the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts for presenting Mr. Sewell's chamber troupe with three New York premieres at Brooklyn College's Whitman Hall on Sunday afternoon.
Mr. Sewell is one of American ballet's best choreographers, albeit one who composes sonnets rather than epics. This lack of pretension can make his work look deceptively gentle, but it is not modest. Grounded in a neoclassical style that is exploited in different ways, his choreography brims with surprises in movement invention.
This rich texture was obvious on Sunday in ''Opus 131,'' a fanciful, plotless ballet set to Beethoven.
Quite simply, reviews do not get much better than that. Most artists, let alone dancers, will never get their names and photos splashed across a page of the New York Times.
It is no longer my job to pace at the back of theaters during JSB performances. Instead, I sit calmly and expectantly in the audience, as I did last Friday at The Cowles Center for the latest iteration of "Opus 131," this time for seven dancers: Nicky Coelho, Leah Gallas, Cory Goei, Chris Hannon, Nic Lincoln, Sally Rousse, and Eve Schulte.
This go-round has its own special excitement. For the first time, the dancers are performing to live music, provided by The Parker Quartet, an exquisite ensemble of passionate talent whose members include Daniel Chong, violin, Karen Kim, violin, Jessica Bodner, viola, and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello.
You can catch them at 8pm, April 20-21, and 2pm, April 22. Call 612.206.3600 for ticketing.
Gary Peterson served as executive director of James Sewell Ballet from 1995 to 2008.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Sharing space with 70 gay men in Bemidji, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
While most Minnesotans at least know of one person
who is gay or lesbian, most people have never been present in the same room with 70 gay men. The opportunity for that to happen made for interesting and merry mingling
between members of the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus and their sold-out audience
in Bemidji, Minnesota, March 19, 2011.
For the Chorus, the encounter began with a four hour drive
that started earlier that Saturday with a 12:15pm departure by bus from the
parking lot of the Ridgedale Shopping Center in Minnetonka, a western suburb of
Minneapolis.
A
demographically diverse, sold-out audience of 270 rocked the Thompson Recital Hall in a 90-minute program sung without intermission. Many of them came for
good music, well performed – it did not matter who was singing it. Music is
music, after all, and state budget cuts had recently caused the university to
send packing two of its six professors of music.
Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, March 19, 2011, Lakeland Public Television, Bemidji, Minnesota
 |
| Walker, Minnesota, Muskie capital of the nation |
After advancing north through Monticello, Big Lake, Little
Falls, Pine River, Backus, and other hamlets, the bus stopped at
3:50pm for lunch in Walker, on the shore of a bay belonging to Leech Lake. The
lake, Minnesota’s third largest, is huge, while the town of Walker is a bit less
so.
Thirty miles further on from Walker is Bemidji, home of
Bemidji State University, 229 miles north and west of Minneapolis. The city
boasts 13,541 residents. The campus serves 5,300 students.
I accompanied the Chorus as one of 15 staff, groupies, and miscellaneous hangers-on. It was my first
visit to the city and campus since October 1970, when I was doing advance work
there and in Bagley and Park Rapids for Hubert Humphrey’s campaign for the U.S.
senate.
 |
| BSU, 5,300 students & 89 acres on the shores of Lake Bemidji |
Bemidji State University is situated on 89 acres (with a 240
acre private forest) on the shores of Lake Bemidji (6,400 acres).
"Bemidji" is an Ojibwe word for "lake with cross waters."
The Mississippi River crosses Lake Bemidji, 30 miles from its headwaters at Lake Itasca.
 |
| 70 gay men & audience in Beaux Arts Ballroom, Bemidji |
Afterward,
audience members, singers, and sponsors from the Phoenix Gay-Straight Student Organization and Servant Hearts, an organization for marginalized and at-risk youth and adults, visited in the lobby and at the Beaux Arts Ballroom of the student union.
Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, March 19, 2011, Lakeland Public Television, Bemidji, Minnesota
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Real Minnesotans voting "no": Pastor Erik Strand
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Pastor Erik Strand, Edina Community Lutheran Church, has been a Lutheran pastor for 33 years, and has been married for 37 years. He is voting "no" on the anti-marriage amendment to Minnesota's constitution this November.
Pastor Erik Strand, Edina Community Lutheran Church, has been a Lutheran pastor for 33 years, and has been married for 37 years. He is voting "no" on the anti-marriage amendment to Minnesota's constitution this November.
"As a Christian, I am a pastor who advocates that we include and welcome couples who are GLBT couples who want to make promises to each other....
"To me, there is more intrusion of the state by restricting marriage in this amendment than there is protection for religious communities."
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Faith Forward will document "the moral right of the religious left" in Minnesota's debate about marriage
Minneapolis, Minnesota
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."
Peiken's efforts are a welcome addition to the campaign for equality and justice in Minnesota.
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.
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."
Peiken's efforts are a welcome addition to the campaign for equality and justice in Minnesota.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Renovate: A Choreographers' Evening, v. 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
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.
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.
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."
Ultimately, these issues intertwine with the reality that no performing venue in our state, new or old, suffers from overcapitalization. In that, the allocation and distribution of Legacy Amendment funds by our arts establishment has been disappointing: they gamble too much on projects for the present with too little or no investment for the long term. That is musing for another time, however.
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
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
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
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, 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.
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.
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.
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-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!"
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 |
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 |
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."
Ultimately, these issues intertwine with the reality that no performing venue in our state, new or old, suffers from overcapitalization. In that, the allocation and distribution of Legacy Amendment funds by our arts establishment has been disappointing: they gamble too much on projects for the present with too little or no investment for the long term. That is musing for another time, however.
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 |
"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 |
 |
| Amanda Leaveck |
 |
| Christine Maginnis |
 |
| Jennifer Mack |
 |
| Karen Charles |
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 |
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 |
The original of this post was updated to correct the misnamed character portrayed by Gregory Waletski in Christine Maginnis' "Achtung Bitte!"
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Olé! Viva flamenco y viva Zorro!
Minneapolis, Minnesota
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.
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)."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| "Zorro" artwork and animations by Jonathan Thunder |
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)."
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| Susana di Palma, artistic director |
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.
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| Dancer Antonio Granjero, Zorro/Trickster |
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.
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| Pedro Cortés, Jr. |
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.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Minnesota's Ananya Chatterjea performs in Albuquerque festival
Minneapolis, Minnesota
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.
The festival, titled "Night of Stars*Moon*Water," was produced by Dancing Earth, an ensemble led by Rulan Tangen that performs contemporary indigenous dance works. The festival was presented in partnership with the National Hispanic Cultural Center at the Albuquerque Journal Theatre.
In addition to Chatterjea, festival performers included members of Dancing Earth, songstress Sina Soul, Orixa dances, guests from the Santa Fe Indian School Poetry Team, and Miss Blackfoot Nation of Canada 2008 (aka Andrea True Joy Fox).
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.
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.
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| l-r: Sina Soul, Rulan Tangen, Ananya Chatterjea • March 9, 2012 |
In addition to Chatterjea, festival performers included members of Dancing Earth, songstress Sina Soul, Orixa dances, guests from the Santa Fe Indian School Poetry Team, and Miss Blackfoot Nation of Canada 2008 (aka Andrea True Joy Fox).
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.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Economics of modern sports 'indefensible'; entire state should pay for stadium
Minneapolis, Minnesota
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.'"
Duchschere's article provided no details for how the construction of a new stadium would generate that kind of profit, but quoted Dayton as saying that "the economics of modern professional sports are 'pretty indefensible.'"
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.'"
Duchschere's article provided no details for how the construction of a new stadium would generate that kind of profit, but quoted Dayton as saying that "the economics of modern professional sports are 'pretty indefensible.'"
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