DanceMN News

Discover dance this summer at Threads Dance Nexus!

Creative Connections for ages 4-6: June 16-20 and June 23-27, 9:00-10:15am
$125 for one week or $230 for both weeks. Need-based scholarships are available.

Young movers will explore a variety of dance styles and how dance intersects with music, numbers, art, theater, and more. They will learn the importance of healthy bodies and minds, discuss basic nutrition, and how emotions can be defined, demonstrated, and calmed using movement. This journey of creativity and self-expression will be shared in a casual showing for family and friends at the end of each week.

NexGen/YDP (Youth Dance Project) for ages 8-12: July 7-11 and July 14-18, 9:00am-12:00pm
$279 for one week or $499 for both weeks. Need-based scholarships are available.

NexGen/YDP PLUS for ages 8-12 with 2+ years dance experience: July 7-11 and July 14-18, 9:00am-1:00pm
$329 for one week or $579 for both weeks. Need-based scholarships are available.

Embark on a fun and holistic dance experience for your child in this comprehensive approach to summer dance learning. Dancers will grow in confidence, strength, and self-expression as they study ballet and modern techniques. They will learn self-care for their bodies and minds through nutrition and embodied movement exploration. Journals will be provided as a tool for self-reflection and discovery. Students will share what they’ve learned in a casual showing at the end of each week.

No prior dance experience is required. A limited number of partial and full scholarships are available – visit our website for more information.

The Threads Dance Project Advanced/Professional Summer Intensive is an intensive workshop that explores advanced dance techniques to enhance both performance and choreography for professional and pre-professional dancers.

Participants can choose one or both tracks and are encouraged to register for both tracks for a full immersive experience.

Performer’s Track: June 23-27 from 10:30am-2:45pm
Strengthen technical mastery and performance skills in Contemporary-Modern, African Dance, Ballet, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and more.

Choreographer’s Track: June 23-27 from 1:30-5:30pm
Focus on creation with classes in Repertoire, Composition, and Improvisation, plus studies in Grant Writing, Show Production, and more.

Final Showing: Friday, June 27 from 5:30-6:00pm
Tuition: $260 per track or $449 for both tracks

For more details and registration, click here.

I A.M. Arts presents its third retreat/residency for mid-career women creatives this year! Ìwúre: A reclamation of our post-imperial imagination. It will include 6 days and 5 nights, Tuesday, June 24 – Sunday, June 29, of professional development workshops and restorative practice led by renowned thought leaders. The retreat will take place at Frog Tree Farm, a multigenerational Black-owned farm in Wadena County.

Our retreat/residency program serves leaders and artists who have a socially-engaged practice, who create and manage systems of support for others, and who need to be poured into through the praxis of mutual aid. Visionary arts leader, Alanna Morris, is the Program Manager and Lead Curator (though, our program is developed with input from community members). 

We will be ushered in by a keynote address from Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde; Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals; Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines), a public scholar, Queer Black Troublemaker and Feminist Love Evangelist. Our roster of workshop facilitators includes authors, anthropologists, body workers, scholars, community builders, dance artists, and co-operative land stewards who heal communities through activism.

Professional development workshops and restorative practice are led by renown thought leaders to center sovereignty for black and indigenous peoples, land stewardship, wellness, joy practices, and social entrepreneurship.

Our program is inclusive of trans women and gender-expansive identities. This is a queer-inclusive, body positive, liberatory space—you are welcome!

This year, to honour the socio-political and economic climate, the program donation-based. Accommodations on the farm are available until full and include single and shared cabins, bell tents, and a caravan.

Limited capacity! Application open through Friday, June 20.

2025 Facilitators:
Dr. Brendane Tynes: Unburdening Ourselves for Liberation: An Introduction to Black Feminist Resistance
Alanna Morris: Embodying Archive: Ritual performance and Ritualized Living
Rebecca Ndosi: DEEP Listening From Within: An Introduction to Soul Listening
Mama Kapacity: The Power of the Feminine Re:Membered
DejaJoelle: Body Reclamation and The Garden
Iya Mabolé: Of Spirit and Soil: liberation through gender fugitively
Mariana Castañeda Lopez: Movement as Medicine Lab
Kelly Shay: Dance Party – Your Movement of Joy
Kao Kalia Yang: Taking Your Time

Special guest to be announced!

In solidarity,
Alanna Morris, I A.M. Arts Artistic Director

Staying With is a workshop in improvisational movement where we will lean into the “known”: our familiar movement patterns, habits and histories, to guide us to the edge of what is “unknown”. We will play with honoring and disrupting habitual impulses, while exploring gradients of touch and energetic connections with ourselves and others.

Moving in solo, duets and ensemble, we will explore strategies and tools that allow our choice-making to veer us in new directions—in both movement and life. How can we “stay with” in moments when it’s easier not to? How can we lean more deeply into our practice of improvisation, when there’s uncertainty and discomfort?

This class will draw from Somatic Experiencing, somatic release techniques, ensemble improvisation and contact improvisation.

Saturday, June 28 from 10:00am-12:30pm
Location: Center for Performing Arts — Sunroom Studio
Workshop Price: $40
Email Tamin to RSVP at tamin@tamintotzke.com with the subject line: StayingWith – RSVP.

Summer Feldenkrais with Jeffrey Wells and Krista Langberg

Three Summer Workshops!
In-person at East Lake Aikido from 6:00-8:30pm 

We live in a culture that encourages us to push, strain, and power through, even when it doesn’t serve us. But what if the key to feeling better isn’t doing more, but doing differently, or perhaps even less? This series of three Feldenkrais workshops offers an approach to movement and self-awareness that helps you move smarter, not harder. Through gentle, exploratory movement, you’ll learn how to reduce unnecessary effort and discover greater ease, coordination, and resilience in your everyday life. Discover how attention to your shoulders, hips, and feet can create powerful changes throughout your whole system. As Feldenkrais said, “When you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want – with less effort, more grace, and greater efficiency.” Designed for all levels.

June 30: Relax the Shoulders, Reclaim Your Reach
Explore how softening tension in the shoulders and neck can restore ease, support, and range of motion.

July 28: Free Your Hips for Smoother Walking and Sitting
Discover how improved pelvic organization can reduce strain and bring more freedom to walking, sitting, and standing.

August 18: Strong, Flexible Feet for Better Balance
Learn how responsive, grounded feet can support your posture, balance, and whole-body coordination.

Workshop Pricing
Full Series (All 3 Workshops): $125—save $55 compared to paying individually
Single Workshop: $60 each
Early Bird Discount for the First Workshop: “Shoulders”
Register by June 23 and pay only $45 (Regular price: $60)
Register here!

Improve your technique and advance your artistry in a positive and welcoming environment with one of the top dance companies in the Twin Cities!

Classes in our Summer Dance Intensive are taught by multiple instructors and include Musical Theatre Jazz, Classic Jazz Technique, Ballet, Leaps and Turns, Hip-Hop, Contemporary, and more. Students may register for one or both weeks: July 7-11 and/or July 14-18. Classes are taught by multiple instructors from 9:30am-3:30pm each week.

The Intensive culminates with our Collide Showcase. Video will be taken so dancers have a professional-grade copy to use for future auditions and submissions. Local students are also invited to perform excerpts from the Intensive at the Minnesota State Fair in August!

Level placement requires a referral from a teacher or Collide company member, or a two-minute video submission. Please send a video (one minute of Ballet Adagio with pirouettes and one minute of Jazz) or referral name and contact information to Auditions@collidetheatrical.org.

Minnesota Dance Theatre invites intermediate/advanced dancers to Classical Repertoire Workshops:

• Saturday, July 12 from 9:30-11:30am with Yuki Tokunda
• Saturday, August 16 from 9:30-11:30am with Justin Leaf

Cost: $25 per workshop

Discover dance with a week-long sampler camp for young artists! If your little one is eager to explore different styles or discover their unique groove, this camp is the perfect playground for their imagination. Join us for an adventure where we’ll dive into a mix of dynamic dance styles and creative movements, sparking joy and inspiration in every step.

Session 1: Ages 4-6
July 14-18, 9:00am-12:00pm

Session 2: Ages 7-10
July 14-18, 12:30-3:30pm

Informal showing on the last day. All abilities and levels of experience are welcome.
Tuition is $225; scholarships are available for partial and full tuition upon inquiry.

Register for Camp Zenon! Registration closes one week before camp begins.
Learn more about Zenon Dance School’s Camp Zenon. 

Hosted by Fode Bangoura and Duniya Drum & Dance, Fakoly is an authentic, culturally immersive experience into the world of traditional West African drum and dance.

The three-day workshop offers hand drumming and dance classes for the community at any level and any age—beginner through advanced. Instruction is provided by professional master drummers and dancers from Guinea, Haiti and Nigeria who are dedicated to sharing their knowledge of traditional percussion and movement.

Happening on Friday, July 25 – Sunday, July 27 at Center for Performing Arts. Learn more about the artists and register here!

Young Dance is hosting Maine-based performer, choreographer, and teacher, Michaela Knox, for a 5-day, 30-hour training focused on foundational DanceAbility exercises and theory. This intensive is for immediate application by dance educators, teachers, therapists and dancers who want to share movement improvisation or mixed-abilities dance in their communities.

The course emphasizes how to adapt teaching styles to any participant. Exercises introduce basic concepts of movement improvisation for people of all abilities, based on things that all participants can do. Participants will learn how to guide all people to be aware of their potential for movement expression.

Participants learn to work with all people simultaneously. Students will receive a certificate of completion and a teaching guide (DanceAbility handbook) with over 40 exercises and detailed notes from each day’s lessons.

Michaela Knox is a Maine-based performer, choreographer, and teacher. She is the founding director of Spark Inclusive Arts and is a Master Trainer of the Danceability method, founded by Alito Alessi. She holds an MA in Educational Leadership and is currently pursuing a PhD in Disability Studies. She was a company member of 20 Moons Dance Theatre from 2014-2018. Knox has created mixed-ability performance work throughout the southwest and New England for the last 9 years.

Workshop runs from Friday, July 25 – Tuesday, July 29 from 9:30am-4:00pm all five days. Cost is $425, which includes a daily provided lunch!

In this 3-week session, learn choreography from Swan Lake, gain strength, and refine your technique! Dancers will have the option to perform learned choreography at our Summer Workshop and Intensive Showing on Friday, August 15.

This workshop is geared toward adults who have been studying ballet for at least two years. Pointe shoes are optional.

July 26-August 15
Mondays, 5:30-8:30pm
Wednesdays, 5:30-8:30pm
Saturdays, 10:30am-3:00pm

Registration is now open!

Minnesota Dance Theatre (MDT) invites dancers, ages 13-18, for Ballet Bootcamp: Classical Variations and Coaching with MDT Director Lauren Post (American Ballet Theatre) and Artistic Associate Joanna Mednick (San Francisco Ballet).

Monday, August 18-Wednesday, August 20

Daily Schedule
9:30-11:00am: Technique
11:15-11:45am: Pointe
11:45am-12:30pm: Variations

Variations Schedule
Monday, August 18 — Giselle, “Peasant Pas Variation”
Tuesday, August 19 — Le Corsaire, “Odalisque”
Wednesday, August 20 — Swan Lake, “Big Swans”

Pricing: $40 for a single day, 15% off for all 3 days

The TU Dance Intermediate and Advanced Summer Intensive is an intensive course of study integrating modern, ballet, African dance, and creative workshops for students ages 11-24. Click the respective level group to download the daily schedule: 2025 Intermediate Program Daily Schedule and 2025 Advanced Intensive Daily Schedule.

For level placement, please contact us at education@tudance.org or 651-724-9708. Placement can be done by attending an in-person class (by appointment only and a class fee applies), submitting a video link (modern and ballet phrase), or during the first day of classes of the intensive.

To register, please complete the four-step registration process:

• Please find the online pre-registration below under the specific level you are interested in and select a payment option.
• Make a tuition payment in full or by selecting a payment plan. If requesting a payment plan, please submit the Summer 2025 Payment Plan form and submit a 2025 Intermediate Summer Intensive online registration form or 2025 Advanced Summer Intensive online registration form.

Registration Deadlines:
Youth and Teen Intermediate Levels: July 4
Advanced Level: July 23 (single-week registration is available)

Full and partial scholarships available. Contact us at education@tudance.org or 651-724-9708 for more information.

The TU Dance Children and Teen Program introduces the joy of creative movement and beginning dance technique. Classes, divided by age, provide a comprehensive base on which to expand by developing body awareness, coordination, balance, flexibility, strength, and musicality. Click here to download the 2025 Creative Movement Daily Schedule and the 2025 Beginning Program Daily Schedule.

For questions and level placement, please contact us at education@tudance.org or 651-724-9708.

To register, please complete the four-step registration process:

• Please find the online pre-registration below under the specific level you are interested in and select a payment option.
• Make a tuition payment in full or by selecting a payment plan. If requesting a payment plan, please submit the Summer 2025 Payment Plan form and submit a 2025 Creative Movement and Beginning Level Summer Program online registration form.

Registration Deadline:
Creative Movement: July 22

Full or partial scholarships are available. Contact us at education@tudance.org or 651-724-9708 for more information.