Archive: Dance Writing, Reviews, and Podcasts

Join ARENA this Thursday, August 4 for Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance History with Shane Larson – Season 7, Episode 98

Shane Larson was raised in Minnesota, where he received his early training at the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. He graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies. He also studied at SEAD in Austria. Since living in New York City, he’s branched out to collaborate with punk musicians, film makers, improvisational music ensembles, and site-specific visual artists. He is also a multimedia video artist making collage-based work about memory. Shane joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 2015.

Tune in this Thursday, August 4 at 12:00pm and listen here.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Shane Larson will conclude Season 7 of Studio Stories on August 4. Stay tuned for Season 8, coming soon!

Join ARENA this Thursday, July 28 for Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance History with Marylee Hardenbergh – Season 7, Episode 97

Marylee Hardenbergh has created over 50 outdoor site-specific dances at such sites as Sarajevo, the city of Acre on the Mediterranean, the Aerial High Lift Bridge in Duluth, the Housatonic and Anacostia Rivers, and a 7-site simultaneous performance the length of the Mississippi River.

Tune in this Thursday, July 28 at 12:00pm and listen here.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Join ARENA this Thursday, July 21 for Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance History with Sarah Hauss – Season 7, Episode 96

Sarah Hauss is a choreographer, dancer, presenter, and teacher who has been living and working in the Twin Cities for over 30 years. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Gustavus Adolphus College. Over the years, she has worked with Kinetic Evolutions, Gomez Dance Group, Third Rabbit Dance Ensemble, Interstate Dance Collective, Gerry Girouard, and the Christopher Watson Dance Company. She also teaches at Ballare Teatro Performing Arts Center in Minneapolis and has been a yoga instructor at the St Paul Yoga Center since 2002. Hauss was the director and co-founder (with Off Leash Area) of Inbox@Artbox, a choreographer’s evening that presented annually for three years (2018-2020) in the Twin Cities.

Tune in this Thursday, July 21 at 12:00pm and listen here.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Join ARENA this Thursday, July 14 for Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance History with Sandy Agustin – Season 7, Episode 95.

Sandy has an extensive history of arts, social and racial justice, and leadership. She is a native Minnesotan, the youngest child of a Filipino immigrant and 5th generation Euro-Minnesotan. Since the age of 9, she has professionally performed and taught dance, later moving into arts administration as executive and artistic director at Intermedia Arts where she curated, fund raised, managed, consulted artists, and built relationships. She is a former co-artistic core member of Mu Performing Arts where she acted, directed, and choreographed over 20 shows and was an early member of the Asian American Renaissance.

Tune in this Thursday, July 14 at 12:00pm and listen here.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Join ARENA this Thursday, July 7 for a re-air of Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance History with Sharon Picasso – Season 4, Episode 47.

Sharon Picasso (she/her) a recent recipient of a 2022 McKnight Dancer Fellowship, is a Minneapolis, MN based movement, performance and transdisciplinary creative artist and Founder/Artistic Director of Picasso Projects and Lupa Studio.  Her work as a freelance performance and dance artist lives parallel to her work as a choreographer since 1995. Sharon’s creative and collaborative practice has expanded into design, including sound, light and installation.

Sharon is a guest artist performing in Honey at Red Eye Theater July 15-17, choreographed by Scott Stafford. Sharon will also perform with Rosy Simas Danse later this summer

Tune in this Thursday, July 7 at 12:00pm and listen here.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Photo by Ted Roseen

Join ARENA this Thursday, June 30 for a re-air of Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance History with Kevin Jones – Season 4, Episode 48.

Mr. Jones is the Interim Director and Production Manager for The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University.

Kevin Jones has worked behind the scenes of the Twin City professional dance and theater community for over 40 years. He was resident lighting designer and production manager for Minnesota Dance Theatre for over a decade and JamesSewell Ballet for 20+ years.

Tune in this Thursday, June 30 at 12:00pm and listen here.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!
Image: Rambert2, Killer Pig

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast with this week’s guest, Donald LaCourse.

Donald LaCourse is the driving force behind Ethnic Dance Theatre, with an outstanding national reputation as one of the most diverse and distinctive repertoires to be performed in the world of ethnic dance. Donald is the artistic director, lead dancer, choreographer, cultural researcher, and costume designer.

Tune in this Thursday, June 23 at 12:00pm and listen here.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Join ARENA DANCES for our weekly Studio Stories podcast – now in Season Seven – where each week we reminisce on Twin Cities dance history with a new special guest. This week we hear from Georgia Stephens.

Georgia Stephens was active as a Dance Theater choreographer, director, writer and sound designer from 1975 through 2009. She moved to the Twin Cities in 1980 to participate in the newly formed Independent Choreographer’s Alliance (MICA). Through this organization, she received numerous performance opportunities and financial support for her work.

Tune in this Thursday, June 16 at 12:00pm and listen here.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Photo by Ed Bock.

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 chat with Philip Bither.

Serving as the Walker’s Senior Curator of Performing Arts since 1997, Philip Bither spearheads one of the country’s leading contemporary performing arts programs. He regularly sits on foundation and governmental arts panels, writes about interdisciplinary curatorial practice and travels globally to research new performance and to speak about trends in the contemporary performing arts.

Tune in this Thursday, June 9 at 12:00pm

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Photo by Gene Pittman for the Walker Art Center.

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, Megan Mayer interviews the Studio Stories producer, Mathew Janczewski of ARENA DANCES, to launch the seventh season!

Tune in this Thursday, June 2 at 12:00pm

Originally from Illinois, dancer, choreographer, director, and creative Mathew Janczewski (he/him) has been residing in Minneapolis, MN since 1989. He was a company member, most notably with Shapiro & Smith Dance from 2007-2014 and JAZZDANCE! By Danny Buraczeski from 1992-97. As a dancer, Mathew has performed as a guest with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Bebe Miller, and Jacek Luminski of Bytom, Poland. Over the years, he has performed the works of Beth Corning, Sean Curran, HIJACK, Marge Maddux, Shawn McConneloug, Jane Shockley, Robin Stiehm, Morgan Thorson, Doug Varone, and Cathy Young.

Shortly after receiving his degree in dance from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, and performing internationally, Mathew founded his own non-profit dance company, ARENA DANCES, in 1995. His practices are profoundly inspired by music, architecture, self-expression, and an ongoing collaboration with dancer’s opposition of distal extremes while pushing the edges of space within the body’s potential. ARENA serves as the vehicle for his body of work and provides young, aging and underserved segments of the Twin Cities community with opportunities to experience the transformative power of dance.

Available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Photo courtesy of Aaron Warkov.