Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast, where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week, Megan Mayer interviews the Studio Stories producer, Mathew Janczewski of ARENA DANCES, to launch the seventh season!
Tune in this Thursday, June 2 at 12:00pm
Originally from Illinois, dancer, choreographer, director, and creative Mathew Janczewski (he/him) has been residing in Minneapolis, MN since 1989. He was a company member, most notably with Shapiro & Smith Dance from 2007-2014 and JAZZDANCE! By Danny Buraczeski from 1992-97. As a dancer, Mathew has performed as a guest with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Bebe Miller, and Jacek Luminski of Bytom, Poland. Over the years, he has performed the works of Beth Corning, Sean Curran, HIJACK, Marge Maddux, Shawn McConneloug, Jane Shockley, Robin Stiehm, Morgan Thorson, Doug Varone, and Cathy Young.
Shortly after receiving his degree in dance from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, and performing internationally, Mathew founded his own non-profit dance company, ARENA DANCES, in 1995. His practices are profoundly inspired by music, architecture, self-expression, and an ongoing collaboration with dancer’s opposition of distal extremes while pushing the edges of space within the body’s potential. ARENA serves as the vehicle for his body of work and provides young, aging and underserved segments of the Twin Cities community with opportunities to experience the transformative power of dance.
Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!
Photo courtesy of Aaron Warkov.