Archive: Dance Writing, Reviews, and Podcasts

Studio Stories podcast airs this Thursday, March 30 at noon with Maria Gomez Tierney for Season 10, Episode 126.

Maria Gomez Tierney has been choreographing, dancing and teaching in the Twin Cities since 1989. She received a B.A from the University of Minnesota and an M.F.A. from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Tierney has directed Gomez Dance Group since 1998. She was a faculty member at Gustavus Adolphus College and Hamline University, where she directed and co-directed the dance company programs.

Tierney has taught Creative Dance and Dance for All Abilities for Young Dance, where she also served on the board of directors. In 2011, She completed the Master’s-level Holistic Health Studies Graduate Certificate at St. Catherine’s University, and became a certified Master Reiki practitioner. Tierney is also a certified yoga teacher and has taught since 2004.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or here!

Studio Stories podcast airs this Thursday, March 23 at noon with Mariusz Olszewski for Season 10, Episode 125.

Mariusz is a ballroom artist, coach, and choreographer whose work has been presented at the biggest ballroom venues, dance festivals, theaters, and on televisions around the world. He choreographed for the World, American, Polish, and Ohio Star Ball Champions and other top-ranking ballroom couples including the Blackpool Dance Festival American Smooth finalist.

Mariusz moved to Minneapolis in 1996 to join Jazzdance! by Danny Buraczeski and danced with the company for 5 years, performing at the most prominent theaters such as The Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theater, Ordway Center for Performing Arts, and The Guthrie Theater as well as at prominent dance festivals including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, and American Dance Festival among others. Prior to Jazzdance!, Mr. Olszewski was a lead dancer and assistant to the Artistic Director of The Silesian Dance Theater, the first professional modern dance company in his native country Poland.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or listen here!

Studio Stories podcast airs this Thursday, March 16 at noon with Megan Flood for Season 10, Episode 124.

Megan is a 2005 McKnight Dancers Fellow and presently a Mental Health Occupational Therapist. The majority of us know her as a company member of Zenon Dance Company for many years while also performing with several others, like ARENA DANCES and independent choreographers Cathy Young, Wynn Fricke, and more.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or listen here!

Studio Stories podcast airs this Thursday, March 9 at noon with Duncan Schultz for Season 10, Episode 123.

Duncan is presently a dancer with the Gothenberg Opera Dance Company in Sweden – one of the most prestigious contemporary dance companies in Europe. A graduate of the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities dance program, while in Minneapolis Duncan was a company member of ARENA DANCES and TU Dance.

Listen where ever you get your podcasts, or here!

Studio Stories podcast airs this Thursday, March 2 at noon with Leslie O’Neill for Season 10, Episode 122.

Leslie is a 2010 recipient of the McKnight Fellowship for Dancers and most of us know her from her many years with Zenon Dance Company. However, you could have also seen her in Black Label Movement or with a number of independent artists such as Paula Mann, Tamara Ober, Maggie Bergeron and many more.

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Studio Stories podcast airs this Thursday, February 23 at noon with Rabbi Diane Elliot for Season 10, Episode 121.

Diane enjoyed a varied career in dance and theatre, studying with Alwin Nikolais and Murry Louis, Nancy Meehan and Finis Jung in New York City; performing and touring from 1972-77 with New York-based Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company. We got to have Diane from 1981 to 1998 where she taught at the University of Minnesota as a guest artist and then joined MICA (the Minnesota Independent Choreographer’s Alliance, later the Minnesota Dance Alliance). In her time here, Diane kept busy performing with several independent choreographers and creating her own work as part of the Women’s Performance Project and so much more.

Listen where ever you get your podcasts or here.

Studio Stories podcast airs this Thursday, February 16 at noon with Cynthia Stevens for Season 10, Episode 120.

Cynthia Stevens/INSITU slips into swamps, streams and forests creating environmental performance and media. This multidisciplinary work explores the interconnections of dance with original music, somatics and ecology to foster a visceral sense of place.

Listen where ever you get your podcasts or here.

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 join Chitra Vairavan for Season 10, Episode 119.

Chitra Vairavan is an artist, seeker, contemporary Indian dancer/choreographer and educator born in Milwaukee, WI (occupied Potowatami, Ho-Chunk, and Menomonee land) and culturally raised as an artist based in Mni Sota Makoce / Minnesota (occupied Dakota Oyate land). She is a founding member of Ananya Dance Theater. Vairavan dances to heal and creates dance to help heal others. The aesthetic of her movement is through both yoga and contemporary Indian dance forms – mainly a mixture of training in Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Yorchha™.

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

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, Season 10 premieres with Erinn Liebhard.

Erinn is a Twin Cities (Minnesota)-based dance artist making opportunities for people to experience the reflective and connective power of groove through performance and education. Erinn quickly founded her own company Rhythmically Speaking upon holding a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Dance from the University of Colorado Boulder with a concentration in music. Erinn is a Teaching Artist for the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts and serves as a member of their Advisory Council, and is faculty at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, Winona State University, and presently Guest Faculty in Northfield, MN at both Carleton College and St. Olaf College.

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

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, January 19, we sat down with Lisa “MonaLisa” Berman and Joe “MNJoe” Tran of BRKFST Dance Company for Season 9, Episode 117.

BRKFST Dance Company, founded in 2014, is a collaborative ensemble of breaking choreographers based in Saint Paul, MN. BRKFST incorporates abstract, narrative, and pedestrian driven movement into their impressive and physically rigorous work by combining breaking with contemporary dance vernacular.

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