Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Joe Chvala

Studio Stories airs Thursday, March 14 at noon with Joe Chvala for Season 13, Episode 147.

Joe is a director, choreographer, writer, composer, performer, teacher, founder of the percussive dance/theater group Flying Foot Forum, and a 2023 McKnight Choreographer’s Fellow.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Thern Anderson

Studio Stories airs Thursday, February 22 at noon with Thern Anderson for Season 13, Episode 145.

Thern has been dancing, performing and teaching for 50+ years, working with several different companies and teaching many different groups of movers. They include professional dancers, adult beginners and children in studios and after school programs.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Cathy Gasiorowicz

Studio Stories airs Thursday, February 22 at noon with Cathy Gasiorowicz for Season 13, Episode 144.

Cathy is a marketing writer, choreographer, mime, actor and dancer. Some may have seen or heard stories by her on The Moth, or her TedTalk. But many know here from the MN Opera, Chanhassen Dinner Theater or Children’s Theater Company or remember her as a mime or dancer with Ken DeLappe’s Ozone or Zoe Sealy’s MN Jazz Dance Company, and other independent choreographers.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Maria Genné

Studio Stories is back for its 13th season beginning with Maria Genné, Episode 143.

Maria is the founder and director of Kairos Alive, a national award winning dance company that creates interactive dance, music and story programs for intergenerational participants designed to tap into the artistry and creativity of older adults and invite them to be central collaborators in the artistic process of dance, music and storytelling.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Rita Mustaphi

Join ARENA DANCES for our Studio Stories podcast, where we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history. This week, we finish out Season 12 with Rita Mustaphi for Episode 142!

Rita Mustaphi is a choreographer, dancer, educator, and disciple of the living legend Pandit Birju Maharaj in the Kathak style of Indian classical dance. She is known for her visionary approach and innovations in dance, multi-disciplinary productions incorporating spoken word, live and commissioned music, and the utilization of production elements. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Katha Dance Theatre, established in 1987. Under her vision and leadership, the company has become renowned for its dynamic productions, distinctive movement style, and technical virtuosity. Her work and intelligently crafted storytelling are recognized as being profoundly moving and effortlessly intimate.

Listen here, or check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Christian Burns

Join ARENA DANCES for our Studio Stories podcast, where we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history. This week, we hear from Christian Burns for Season 12, Episode 141!

Christian Burns is a teaching artist, performer, and choreographer. His body of work is built upon interdisciplinary projects relating to the intersection of improvisation, choreography, and training. Some of his collaborators include Hope Mohr, Bobbi Jene Smith, Alessio Silvestrin, Chris Aiken, Ray Chung, Eric Beauschsne, Shinichi Lova-Koga, and Kirstie Simson among others. He was a guest artist with The Forsythe Company and a member of both Alonzo King Lines Ballet and James Sewell Ballet among others. He helped create burnsWORK, The Foundry, and Parsons Hall Project Space.

Listen here, or check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance with Marilyn Habermas-Scher

Stories are among our most potent tools. We need to unearth old stories that live in a place and begin to create new ones. We are story makers, not just storytellers. All stories are connected, new ones woven from the threads of the old. – Robin Wall Kimmerer, paraphrased

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, we hear from Marilyn Habermas-Scher for Season 12, Episode 140!

Listen here, or check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

Marilyn Myo-O has an extensive background in the performing arts, including choreography, opera, vocal improvisation, performance art and story-telling. She is also trained in a number of body-mind practices, including Qi Gong and Body Mind Centering™. She is the originator of VoiceWork™, a body-based voice training, which she offers in private practice and she has taught at several colleges and universities.

Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Pam Gleason

Stories are among our most potent tools. We need to unearth old stories that live in a place and begin to create new ones. We are story makers, not just storytellers. All stories are connected, new ones woven from the threads of the old. – Robin Wall Kimmerer, paraphrased

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, we learn of Pam Gleason’s journey.

Visit http://www.arena-dances.org to listen, or check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

Pam has been creating, teaching and performing dance for over 40 years. She was involved with the Nancy Hauser Dance Company/Hauser Dance from the mid-1980s through 2011 as an apprentice, company member, teacher and choreographer, along with freelancing in the community. As director of MotionArt (co-founded in 2013 with Diane Moncrieff), she is dedicated to providing opportunities for people – no matter their age or ability – to move, express, learn, create and find community in dance – whether through the Ageless Dance class she initiated with Heidi Hauser Jasmin twenty years ago, or through other adult and children’s classes, monthly improvisation gatherings, somatic workshops and performances.

Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Off-Leash Area

Join us this week for Studio Stories with the Off-Leash Area duo, Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig, for Season 12, Episode 138.

Off-Leash Area was founded in Minneapolis in 1999 and creates original interdisciplinary performance work. In its 23 years, OLA has created 31 original, evening-length performance works and many short-form works, taught classes in Inverted Dance and workshops in Performance and Scenic Design, been commissioned by the Walker Art Center and the O’Shaughnessy, and collaborated with an ever-growing community of the Twin Cities’ most exciting performance makers.

Visit here to listen, or check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Toni Pierce-Sands

Stories are among our most potent tools. We need to unearth old stories that live in a place and begin to create new ones. We are story makers, not just storytellers. All stories are connected, new ones woven from the threads of the old. – Robin Wall Kimmerer, paraphrased

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, we sat down with Toni Pierce-Sands to learn about her journey. 

Prior to co-founding TU Dance, Minnesota native Toni Pierce-Sands performed with Minnesota Dance Theatre, Tanz Forum in Germany, Rick Odums in Paris, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where she was a featured soloist in such signature pieces as Revelations, Cry and Rainbow Round My Shoulder. Her command of the Horton Technique has led to teaching posts throughout the United States and Europe.

Toni directs programming and teaches classes at TU Dance Center in Saint Paul. She was a full-time core faculty member at the University of Minnesota for twenty years and also served as Director of University Dance Theatre. Toni has been featured in COSMOPOLITAN Germany and GQ publications, the American Express Alvin Ailey commercial, and the Lester Horton Technique instructional DVD series. She has written columns for Dance Studio Life magazine on various pedagogical approaches for modern dance. Toni was awarded a 2004 McKnight Artist Fellowship in Dance, named the Sage Awards’ 2011 Outstanding Dance Educator, and a panelist for the 2018 Dance Miami Choreographers’ Program. She currently serves as a member of the University of Minnesota’s Northrop Advisory Board.

Visit http://www.arena-dances.org to listen, or check it out wherever you get your podcasts!