DanceMN News

Carlo Antonio Villanueva (he/him) is a Filipino American dance artist and scholar specializing in choreographic process, studio practices, performance coaching, and improvisation.

This season, he is working on performance projects with Christopher Williams, Faye Driscoll, and Brit Falcon. Carlo is at home in Lenapehoking (New York, New Jersey), and newly in Bde Óta Othúŋwe/Gakaabikaang (Minneapolis) where he continues to seek and build community.

In his new position of Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Minnesota, Carlo gathers his experiences in performance to teach dance technique(s) and composition.

Studio Showing
Friday, October 11
4:30pm
Free and open to the public.

COLLIDE Theatrical Dance Company presents Bonnie and Clyde at The Luminary Arts Center in Minneapolis.

October 11-November 3
Thursdays-Sundays, with one weekday matinee.

Notorious outlaw couple Bonnie and Clyde come to life in this electrifying production told through Collide’s entertaining blend of dance and popular music. 

Discover the outrageous true story of two small-town kids from Texas who were turned into legends by the American media. Bonnie and Clyde were a pair of daring bank robbers and fugitive lovers destined for a date with death. The mythology surrounding their story is part of American folklore, and it would be criminal to miss it!

Tickets are available online or by calling 651-395-7903, ext. 1. Season tickets are also available for purchase. For group discounts and questions, please email Grace@collidetheatrical.org.

View 8 dance films by 7 Minnesota-based dance artists at 6 venues across the “driftless” area of Minnesota! Each film features a unique approach to creating dance films and will leave you curious and inspired. After the screenings, you’ll get a chance to learn more during an artist Q&A with two of the artists!

All events start at 7:00pm:
Saturday, October 12 at the happiness at Lark Toys, Kellogg
Saturday, November 9 at Mainspring, Caledonia
Saturday, December 7 at Winona Arts Center, Winona
Saturday, January 11 at St. Mane Theatre, Lanesboro
Saturday, February 8 at Tower View Barn at the Anderson Center, Red Wing

Each event will feature the same films and will run roughly 2 hours with 75 minutes between the 8 films plus a 20-30 minute Q&A. There is a brief moment of partial nudity in one of the films.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children 16 and under.

This tour is put on by Sydney Swanson in collaboration with the venues, and it would not be possible without the amazing artists whose work will be screened: Brianna Johnson, Erin Drummond, Erinn Liebhard, Leila Awadallah, Sarah Abdel-Jelil, Sharon Mansur, and Sydney Swanson.

Sydney Swanson is a fiscal year 2024 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Join Threads Dance Project for an open rehearsal of Abolition in Evolution Part 2: Shoes, the newest work by Artistic Director Karen L. Charles, exploring how movement can ignite a new abolitionist movement.

You’ll get a chance to hear Karen L. Charles speak about her work and creative process up close. This behind-the-scenes glimpse into our creative process will also feature excerpts from IMPRESSIONS, our upcoming performances on November 8 and 9 at the Luminary Arts Center.

Tuesday, October 15
11:30am-12:30pm

Free to attend, and coffee will be served. We’d love to have you with us!

Thursday, October 17
7:00pm

Join us for a series of informal dabke performances at 7:00pm with El-Funoun members and local dancers dancers followed by a performance by El-Funoun.

Following the performances, El-Funoun dancers and local facilitators will facilitate a dialogue, discussing the history of dabke as a vital Palestinian cultural practice and the ways dabke acts as a form of cultural preservation and resistance. Audience members will be invited to learn dabke steps, participate in a traditional dabke circle, and meet with the dancers.

This event is hosted by Mizna, Grief & Rage Circle for Palestine and Body Watani Dance.

Beneath the Surface: The Making of Infinite Slow Drive/Obsidians in the Wild

A community sharing of Brownbody’s newest work-in-progress choreographed by Lela Aisha Jones with live performance. This event is free and open to the public.

Saturday, October 19 at 3:30pm
Event Location: Springboard for the Arts, @springboardarts

Infinite Slow Drive/Obsidians in the Wild is a performance that traces vehicle augmentation and sonic cultures, embodies and multi-sites black movement legacies through park gatherings, parade, and processional slow stroll cultures of Florida and other US regions.

This work is choreographed by Lela Aisha Jones also known as Selder, who is currently in burgeoning collaboration with Brownbody’s Executive Artistic Director, Deneane Richburg, and artists: Roobi Gaskins, Lee Edwards, Atim Opoka, Dameun Strange, Tia-Simone Gardner, Leanna Brown, Aidan Un, Kassoum Diakite Diop, and Taylor West. 

Twin Cities Flamenco Collective (TCFC) inspires audiences through its passionate and soulful expressions of Flamenco music and dance along with guest artists from all around the world.

Sunday, October 20
Doors open: 4:00pm
Performance: 5:00pm
Tickets: $20 advance or $25 at the door.
This is part of TCFC’s monthly residency at Icehouse MPLS.

Artists
José Cortés – Guest singer from Miami, FL
Anna “Mamá de Los Gatos” – Guest dancer
Ross “El Vecino” – Flamenco guitarist
Sachiko “La Chayí” – Flamenco dancer
Eva Makiko – Flamenco dancer
La Gracia – Flamenco dancer

Twin Cities Flamenco Collective is a group of Flamenco musicians and dancers based in the Twin Cities, MN. It brings the essence of the art and culture of Flamenco to the Midwest. The members are guitarist Ross “El Vecino” and dancers Sachiko “La Chayí,” Eva Makiko, and La Gracia.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Bailame Dance Festival is a spectacular festival for lovers of salsa, bachata, and other afro-latin dances. An annual event that brings together instructors, artists, DJs, and dancers for a weekend to learn, enjoy music, and social dance.

This is a festival for dancers of all levels. From the beginners who want to learn and build fundamentals to the more advanced dancers who want to deepen and improve their knowledge and style.

Over 45 workshop hours by 35+ instructors
All of our instructors are actually and truly skilled teachers, not just Instagram-famous or backed by big teams.You’ll learn real dance skills and insights from these workshops, not just a cool demo video at the end.

Four nights of social dancing with DJs
Attendees can enjoy an array of unique experiences and events. For this amazing, three-day event, we’ve assembled an incredible lineup of performers, DJs, and instructors from all over the world. We offer a safe and comfortable environment for freedom, expression, and fulfillment through dance with over 25 hours of dance parties!

Incredible shows and performances
October 24-28
Pre-party Location: Minneapolis Salsa Bachata Dance
Event Location: Hyatt Regency, Bloomington

Dance Projects by ME presents the second annual Minnesota International Dance Festival (MNIDF), bringing together international dance instructors, choreographers, and emerging Twin Cities artists for a week of community exchange through workshops and performances. This year we welcome Cambodia as our special guest!

After a week of workshops, MNIDF’s featured artists will share a vibrant performance that brings together many voices of the Cambodian diaspora.

Friday, October 25 at 7:30pm
Saturday, October 26 at 2:00pm
Saturday, October 26 at 7:30pm

Featured Performances:
Wattanak Dance Troupe
Khumae Urban Ballet
Roza Lay
Crash Dance Productions

Tickets: $25 General Admission; $15 Students

Brenna Mosser (Analog Dance Works) is laying the groundwork for her third contemporary dance production, Stewards, through UMN Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve’s Artist-in-Residence program. This work looks philosophically at scientists’ role in environmental stewardship, a key tool in mitigating climate change. This performance shares the beginning movement research based on several conversations with scientists, employees, and community members associated with Cedar Creek.

October 26 at 4:00pm

The performance, featuring performers Karen Christ Aalgaard, Devyn Hannon, and Addie Smith, will take place in Cedar Creek’s oak savanna ecosystem just south of Fish Lake. The performance will start at 4:00pm, so we encourage the audience to arrive at the Fish Lake Nature Trails parking lot off Durant St. between 3:30 and 3:45pm to allow time to walk to the performance location. The walk is about 0.5 miles on dirt and sand roads.

The dancers will be in the oak savanna, and the audience will be on a sandy firebreak road. Audience members are encouraged to stand and move around the firebreak to view the performance from different angles. If you would like to sit, please consider bringing a camping or folding chair with you. We may have a few chairs available, but quantities will be very limited.

This showing is rain or shine and free of charge, though we encourage you to book a free ticket in advance so we can plan accordingly for the size of the audience. Plan for about an hour, including 25-30 minutes of dancing, bookended by conversation and discussion with Brenna Mosser about the project.

In Children of Dharma, a Northrop Centennial Commission, Ragamala Dance Company creates a series of mesmerizing vignettes illustrated with poetic movement, lush visual imagery, and truthful emotion, transporting viewers into a mythic world of warfare, magic, and beauty. The show explores the concept of dharma, or “right action,” embodied through dance. This multidisciplinary experience incorporates a literary epic, South Asian cultural history, contemporary original music, and Bharatanatyam dance.

Thursday, October 31 at 10:30am

After the Last Red Sky is a dance performance and ritual gathering to hold the weight of—and imagine healing for—the Palestinian sky. A sky where violence hovers and falls on Palestinian bodies. A sky carrying a folk belief of a whale eating the lunar-eclipsing moon. A blood-red sky. In this work we ask what it means to dig down into the rubble of decades of attacks on Palestinian Aliveness to re-member our sky. To move through grief and rage together in community, so we don’t collapse under its weight.

This new work by Body Watani Dance project is created by a trio of Palestinian dancers and musicians: Leila Awadallah, Noelle Awadallah, and Tarek Abdelqadar. They engage in an evening-length embodied scream at the sky that demands change from below it; calling on community to gather; falling through a work that is transforming and warping traditions of Arabic dances and music into sorrowful, joyful, rageful reclamations of life.

Friday-Sunday, November 1-3

We dedicate this work to Gaza, to the unimaginable loss of Palestinian life, to our community that stands in solidarity with ongoing and forever commitment to Palestinian resistance, liberation, aliveness.

Body Watani Dance is the recipient of NEFA’s National Dance Project for this work, as well as funds from MSAB, MRAC, Art Matters and the Cedar Tree Project. You too can choose to donate and support us with a tax-deductible contribution.

Described as “soulful, imaginative, and rhythmically contagious” by The New York Times, Ragamala Dance Company presents the world premiere of Children of Dharma, a Northrop Centennial Commission. In this seamless blend of mesmerizing Bharatanatyam choreography, original music, and lush visuals, creators Aparna, Ranee, and Ashwini Ramaswamy take inspiration from Keerthik Sashidharan’s novel The Dharma Forest—a re-envisioning of the Indian/global epic The Mahabharata.

The rippling effects of dharma, or “right action,” are revealed wordlessly through the body. Featuring scenic and light design by famed French artist Willy Cessa, Children of Dharma illustrates the emotional, moral, and physical consequences exacted on and outside an epic battlefield.

Saturday, November 2 at 7:30pm

The Guild of Middle Eastern Dance is excited to host the 2024 fall dance performance Dancing into the Future! Enjoy a variety of dance styles related to Middle Eastern dance. From traditional Middle Eastern dance to modern fusion and shimmering raqs sharqi, we know this show will be spectacular.

This is a fundraiser to support the future of the Guild of Middle Eastern Dance community. We are a small nonprofit 501c7 focused on building community and providing member benefits and performance opportunities.

Sunday, November 3
5:00-7:30pm

The lobby will open at 4:00pm. Come early to sip, socialize, and shop our raffle!
Purchase tickets!

Threads Dance Project’s fall season delves into how our perceptions of each other and the world shape our understanding of space, place, and knowledge.

Artistic Director Karen L. Charles explores how movement can ignite a new abolitionist movement with the premiere of part two of the Abolition in Evolution triptych titled Shoes. Additionally, Objet de Désir Inaccessible, which premiered at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) in 2019, will be reimagined for the stage.

Friday, November 8 at 7:30pm
Saturday, November 9 at 2:00pm
Saturday, November 9 at 7:30pm

Choreographed by KDT Artistic Director Rita Mustaphi, Panchatantra is based on a series of ancient Asian Indian animal fables originating in the 3rd century BCE. The Panchatantra tales are short, crisp, simple to understand, and always end with a moral that is still relevant today – issues of friendship, conflict, separation and union––especially as they relate to equality and social justice.

Using Kathak, the Indian classical dance form and featuring gorgeous handmade animal masks, Panchatantra will portray the stories through intricate footwork, lyrical movements, spinning pirouettes and gestural storytelling. Set to recorded music by the great J.D. Steele, his company, and musicians from India using energetic beats of Asian Indian compositions. Souvik Chakraborty of Kolkata, India joins a cast of 44 dancers including KDT’s Company, apprentices and students in this stunning world premiere.

Panchatantra – The Dancing Tales of Wisdom
November 9 at 7:30pm
November 10 at 2:00pm – ASL-interpreted
90 minutes, no intermission.
$15-$35

Kathak (pronounced “Kah-tahk”) is an Indian classical dance tradition native to North India. Its origins can be traced back to as early as 400 BCE, when it began as a form of sharing stories, myths, and Hindu scripture in temples and royal courts. Characterized by both rhythmic and lyrical elements, it features graceful hand gestures, pirouettes, and complex footwork, performed with expressiveness and precision. Over the centuries, it has grown to incorporate diverse influences and viewpoints with KDT at the forefront of its artistic evolution.

This work is funded in part by MHC with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. It is also made possible by a grant from the F. R. Bigelow Foundation.

Background photo by Erik Saulitis.

Join us for Threads Dance Project’s fall fundraiser, Sneaker Ball, benefitting the Threads Dance Nexus Youth Dance Project.

DJ Yonci will keep the energy high with great music, while guests enjoy drinks, hors d’oeuvres, dancing, raffle prizes, and special performances by Threads Dance Project’s company members. Don’t miss this exciting evening in support of youth dance!

Saturday, November 16
Doors: 6:30pm
Program: 7:00-9:30pm
Tickets: $35, or $50 for two.

Concerto Dance presents Two Suites, featuring two new works by Artistic Director Jolene Konkel, including a preview performance of a new modern dance work set to Vivaldi’s Four Seasonsm reimagined with the full premiere coming in March, and a swingin’ new jazz dance suite.

Don’t miss the two sides of Concerto Dance in this special program!

Friday night: stay after the performance to join us for our annual Swing Dance Fundraiser following the performance.

Two Suites
Friday and Saturday, November 22-23 at 7:30pm
Bloomington Center for the Arts, Black Box Theater
Tickets: $25.

Fundraiser Add-On, Friday, November 22, 9:00-10:00pm
For an additional $25, help us raise funds for the season!
Your add-on ticket includes a swing dance lesson, drinks and dessert!

​Tickets on sale now!

Let Us Entertain You is Collide’s Season 11 Annual Gala and Performance! Join us as we celebrate our eleventh season of dance theater and raise crucial funds to support the future of the company.

Hosted by Twin Cities actor Sasha Andreev (Guthrie’s Into the Woods), our Annual Gala will include a performance by Collide dancers featuring pieces from some of your favorite movie musicals!

Saturday, November 30 from 6:00-9:00pm
6:00-7:30pm: Complimentary wine and heavy appetizers
7:30pm: Performance and Fund-A-Need
Cocktail or semi-formal attire.

Tickets can be purchased online, or by calling 651-395-7903, ext. 1.