Performances and Events

The site-specific outdoor Winter Sound Garden comes to the wooded banks of the Mississippi River for the St. Paul Winter Carnival’s  free and family-friendly “Winter Play Day” event.

The immersive, self-guided Winter Sound Garden is a sound and performance installation featuring over 50 small speakers, each playing a different part of composer/director JG Everest’s spatial symphony, and will also feature a roving movement score by dancers Sarah Baumert, Eva Mohn, Erika Hansen, and Suzette Gilreath, with direction from Krista Langberg; plus bonfires, s’mores, live storytelling with Lisa Yankton, embedded poetry, a special winter song by Blue Lady and the Free Range Choir, and lots of other fun activities in the park. Dress warm for outdoor winter conditions!

Saturday, January 25
11:00am-2:00pm

The Turkish American Folkloric Dancers will perform at the Asia Mall Lunar New Year Festival this weekend in Eden Prairie, along with dancers, singers, and musicians from many other parts of Asia.

Saturday, January 25 from 12:00-5:00pm
Sunday, January 26 from 12:00-5:00pm

Besides authentic entertainment, this family-friendly celebration features cultural activities, crafts, and mouth-watering Asian food!

The MN Dance Task Force (MNDTF) meets every two weeks, on Mondays from 5:00-6:00pm. To sign up and be included in future communications, please email mndancetaskforce@gmail.com.

Next Meeting: Monday, January 27, 5:00-6:00pm
4:45 pm-5:00 pm: Welcome new participants.
The Arena and Zoom (hybrid)

Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 815 3392 3173
Passcode: 107313

MNDTF is focused on developing a dedicated service organization to better support the dance community in Minnesota with an intentional focus placed on moving toward an equitable dance ecosystem. We have two key objectives.

Primary Objective
Gather comprehensive input from the dance community regarding their needs, goals, and aspirations, and explore how a future service organization can address these effectively.

Secondary Objective
Assemble a group of community members who will research and lay the foundation for creating this dance service organization.

Read the minutes from our most recent meeting on January 13, 2025.

Sendero Flamenco’s free Winter Showcase on Zoom:
Thursday, January 30 at 7:00pm

Featuring: La Tarara, Angela, Lisa, Anna, Brenda, Mary, and Annette

Learn more, and get an invite!

Floorwork, a communal conversation and shared meal, was developed to hold conversations, knowledge sharing, and a supportive space for dance artists and people who like to move.

The next Floorwork will involve catching up with the MN Dance Task Force and exploring posed questions: “How are you contributing to a more robust and accessible dance field—ultimately creating resilient, artful communities? What do you need?”

Saturday, February 1 from 12:00-2:00pm

In-person at The Arena and over Zoom.
Suggested RSVP by January 31. Free to attend.
Attendees are asked to fill out a new RSVP form for each monthly Floorwork event.

Join Zoom Meeting:
Meeting ID: 889 1480 2137
Passcode: 830770

Please join us for a work-in-progress showing of our 2025 commission for the Candy Box Dance Festival. This work in progress is hosted by the Rusin Association of Minnesota and will be the opening section of their annual Alexander Duchnovich Dinner.

Saturday, February 1 at 2:00pm
Featured Dancers: Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Non Edwards, Odessa Rain, and Yukina Sato.
60-minute runtime including the showing and talkback.

Purchase tickets here!

Eschewing hierarchies of rhythm in performed dance, MDF (working title) invites a reconsideration of sounding values and an interruption of expectations of tap dance. Engaging repetitively transformed audio works, improvisation legacies in music and dance, and the material MDF (medium density fiberboard)—a substance literally made of discarded parts of itself; the cast of performers embark on a free and structured improvisation that honors their embodied knowledge and histories, while carving out space for individual and collective contemporary desires.

This performance will feature Lisa La Touche, Michael J. Love and Kaleena Miller.

Monday, February 3 at 4:30pm
Located at RESOURCE
Sliding scale ticketing from $5-20
Sign up here!

Also part of the series: 2 public Listening/Sounding workshops on Saturday, February 1 and Sunday, February 2 from 4:30-5:45pm.

The Alchemist’s Soul is a haunting and immersive dance-theater production created by Asha Rowland, reflecting the dualities of shadow work, avarice, exploitation, and conservation. The Alchemist, consumed by a desperate obsession to possess, transmutes their soul and spirals into the nightmare of their mind, prompting us to reflect on the consequences of actions and the balance between ambition and collective responsibility. The performance is 1 hour long with no intermission.

Friday, February 7 at 7:30pm
Saturday, February 8 at 6:00pm

Presented and Produced by Asha Rowland with Thanmayee Maddipati.
Composer/Music Producer: Stefon “Bionik” Taylor
Projection, Sound, and Set Design Technician: Peter Morrow
Lighting Designer: Alexi Carlson

Note: This performance includes flashing images that may affect photosensitive viewers.
This production is a part of the Red Eye Curated Rental Program.

Last year, over 60 people in the Arrowhead Region lost their lives due to the cold, homelessness, and related issues. The Little Match Girl Passion serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of compassion and supporting those in need.

Ticket sales will be shared with Chum, a nonprofit organization whose programs serve more than 8,000 low-income, homeless, hungry, isolated, or otherwise marginalized community members each year in Duluth, MN; a freewill offering will also be collected during the performance to support their vital community work.

Sunday, February 9 from 3:00-5:00pm
Choreography by Kayla Schiltgen with Borealis Chamber Artists.
At Pilgrim Congregational Church in Duluth, MN. This concert is not affiliated with the church.

PARADISE is back! Join us for a special screening of PARADISE, the film.

Thursday, February 20 at 7:00pm
The Trylon Cinema
$20

Hatch Dance’s PARADISE, created in collaboration by choreographer Helen Hatch and theater visionary Jon Ferguson, is a dance film that combines movement, physical theater, clown, and music to evoke joy through a journey beyond the everyday. It features original music by Seth Conover and Joe Strachan, lighting by Karin Olson, sets by Ashley Mary, and rich contribution from the ensemble: Artemis Brown, Juliana Johnson, Kendall Kramer, Ayaka Moriyama, Javan Mngrezzo, and Genevieve Waterbury. Film director Andrew Hatling thoughtfully and poetically captured PARADISE during a live performance in February 2023.

Moderated talk back with creative team to follow screening.

All proceeds of the screening go directly towards supporting the artists of Hatch Dance.

Analog Dance Works is partnering with Hennepin County’s Plastic-Free Challenge during the month of February. Begin or continue your plastic-free journey by:

• Joining Team Analog and completing action items to build new habits, learn, and earn us points!
• Contributing to the Reprise Performance by participating in our single-use plastic drive—see details below.
• Seeing the Reprise Performance!

We wrap up the challenge by presenting a reprise performance of The Awe Factor, a contemporary dance production of a horror dream landscape on a plastic island that premiered in May 2024. We are bringing this work back to the Alliance Française Mpls/St. Paul who is once again graciously letting us trash their lobby for the show! We can’t wait to share this work with you again!

Thursday, February 27 at 7:00pm
The performance will be half an hour with a post-show Q&A.
Space is limited, so book your ticket in advance.
Free with a suggested donation of $5-$75.

Plastic Free Challenge Plastic Drive: The Awe Factor uses 10 cubic yards of single-use plastics. You can help us bring this show to life by dropping off your plastic bags, mail packaging, and unsoiled food bags by Tuesday, February 25 at one of our drop-off sites: Alliance Française Mpls/St. Paul or Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in East Bethel, MN. Can’t make it to a drop off site? Reach out to Brenna at director@analogdanceworks.org for other options.

Virginia Twins Performance Group invites you to participate in a residential weekend workshop focused on improvisational movement, embodied awareness, and building trust with others. Our workshop takes place over two and a half days of scheduled programming. We will share a variety of exercises that are designed to cultivate attunement towards impulse and the experience of being inside a living body.

The Living Body: Impulse, Action, and Play
April 17-20

This retreat takes place at Big Raven Farm in the heart of Southern Minnesota’s driftless region. It includes full housing and amenities, meals, a ten-acre landscape, and the opportunity to step away from daily routines to practice building skills for living an active and engaged life. 

This is a workshop for performers and non-performers alike and does not require any previous experience. It is designed to be amenable to all age groups and levels of ability. 

Space is limited, so reserve your spot early!

Join us in the spring of 2025 as TU Dance celebrates its 20th anniversary and marks this significant milestone by featuring the works of prominent and renowned African American choreographers who have been supportive and connected to TU Dance since its inception.

Works will include Alvin Ailey’s Witness, an excerpt from Ronald K. Brown’s Four Corners, Alonzo King’s MA (duet from Who Dressed You Like A Foreigner?), and an excerpt from Camille A. Brown’s New Second Line. TU Dance is deeply honored to share works by makers that have richly contributed to the American dance landscape through their multidimensional perspectives while voicing the shared human experience, which has been core to our twenty-year history.

Thursday, April 24 at 10:30am – Educational Performance
Friday, April 25 at 7:30pm
Saturday, April 26 at 7:30pm

Tickets can be purchased online or by contacting The O’Shaughnessy Ticket Office at 651-690-6700.