The evening begins with Taja Will’s new solo Soft Sediment, a haunting vocal and movement meditation on the impact and struggle of Earth’s ecosystem. Will offers a sonic salve both ethereal and guttural, the voices of many ancestors simultaneously. A sprechstimme-like hopeful and pained vocalization is blended with Will’s signature improvisational, emergent and emotive movement aesthetic.
Mathew Janczewski takes to the stage for the first time since 2017 for the premiere of a new duet with longtime ARENA DANCES company member, Dustin Haug, who has collaborated with ARENA since 2012. Semipermeable fluid set of ideas highlights this specific and present relationship of the two, allowing for each to move through together from a certain known history of ideas shared.
The program concludes with the choreographic collaboration Here, Dear Life, offering a club-like atmosphere of daring ecstasy, collective revolt, and personal reclamations. Twin Cities beloved queer DJ Queen Duin joins a powerhouse ensemble of movers: Leila Awadallah, D Hunter, Imagine Joy (Demetrius McClendon), Sarah McCullough, Leslie O’Neal and apprentices Kendall Edstrom, Annika Johansson, Kae McMahon and Río Saúl García Ramírez.
Saturday, March 23 at 7:30pm
Sunday, March 24 at 2:00pm – pay as able