Archive: Performances and Events

Keane is excited to present Dancing Through Difficult Times (Signatures), a National Tap Dance Day celebration, on Sunday, May 25 from 2:00-5:00pm. Our mission is to elevate the art of American Tap Dance.

All Keane classes have the option to perform. Costumes are at the artful whim of the instructor and will be sent to you prior to the event.

This show is free to the public. Food and beverages available for purchase at the Dock & Paddle dining area. Raffle tickets for dancer swag available in the coming week and helps fund our outreach program.

Workshops Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25 with Acia Gray, Aleksandr Ostanin, and Jensen Freedman.

Join us for an informal in-studio showing featuring excerpts from some of the work that will be performed at the 20th-anniversary performances with choreography by Alvin Ailey, Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Alonzo King, and Yusha-Marie Sorzano. In anticipation of our live performances at The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University on April 25 and 26 at 7:30pm, we invite you to attend this event and get an up-close and personal look into the creation of these works and have the opportunity to meet many of the artists involved.

Wednesday, April 16 from 5:30-6:30pm
To RSVP to the in-studio showing, click here.
This event is free. Space is limited; first come, first served.

To learn more about The 20th Anniversary Performance and to purchase tickets, click here.

TU Dance Center is located at 2121 University Avenue West in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Find us on the north side of University Avenue, one block east of Vandalia, located directly behind Subway on the building’s east side. Limited parking is available in the lot in front of TU Dance Center. Additional parking is available in the north side lot accessible by taking Vandalia St. and Charles Ave.

Afoutayi presents Alaso Zaka—Haitian Dance, Music, and Arts Spring Festival on April 18-20! Afoutayi’s Alaso Zaka festival works to demystify Haitian culture, particularly Vodou, which is often misunderstood and stigmatized. Through accurate representations of Haitian spirituality and customs, the festival educates attendees, dispells myths and fosters respect. This broader understanding among non-Haitians supports cultural preservation by validating and appreciating the heritage of a community that might otherwise feel compelled to conform to dominant narratives. This cultural bridge-building is critical to empowering marginalized communities to maintain and celebrate their identities in environments where these expressions might otherwise be ignored or minimized.

The three-day Alaso Zaka Afoutayi Haitian Dance, Music, and Arts Festival, will immerse attendees in Haitian culture through ceremonies, workshops, performances, and community gatherings. Celebrating Haiti’s heritage, it offers Minnesota’s Haitian community and Afro-Caribbean cultural groups a space to connect, learn, and share. Timed to honor Papa Zaka, the Vodou spirit of agriculture and community, the festival highlights Haitian traditions of unity and resilience. Events include a blessing ceremony, interactive workshops, live performances, language classes, and storytelling sessions. With adequate funding, this inaugural event aims to become an annual celebration of cultural connections in Minnesota.

Friday, April 18 Program: Blessing Ceremony and Conference
6:00pm – Opening Activity
6:30pm – Blessing Ceremony
7:30pm – Haitian Vodou Conference
9:00pm – Closing Activity
Participants are invited to wear white for the ceremony and to bring an offering to the altar if they wish.

Saturday, April 19 Program: Haitian Dance, Drumming, Singing Workshops and Afoutayi Performance
4:00pm – Opening Activity
4:30pm – Workshops: Haitian Songs with Fofo/Haitian Drums with Zangi, Wilson, Ricardo
5:30pm – Workshops: Haitian Dance with Djenane with live drumming
6:30pm – Haitian Creole class – Arts and Crafts activity
7:30pm – Afoutayi Rasanble Performance: ALASO ZAKA
9:00pm – Closing Activity
If you are attending the workshops and performance, please bring extra clothes and towels as you may sweat.

Sunday, April 20 Program: Rasanble and Plezi Gaye
1:00pm – Opening Activity
1:30pm – Afoutayi Rasanble Performance: TCHAKA
2:00pm – Workshops: Haitian Songs with Papi – Haitian Drums with Zangi, Wilson, Ricardo
3:00pm – Multilingual Storytelling – Plezi Gaye with DJ Ayitisepam
4:00pm – Closing Activity
There will be multilingual books by Djenane Saint Juste and Karabela (Traditional Haitian Clothing) by Florencia Pierre for sale as well as other Afoutayi merchandise!

More Information
Cost: the festival is free, but any donations to help us continue Afoutayi’s cultural and educational events are welcome.
Location: Joly Family Center for International Understanding
The festival is open to all audiences, regardless of age, race, language, religious belief or origin. For more information, and registration, and more detail on the festival’s events, please visit our website at or email us at afoutayidmaco@gmail.com.

This work is funded in part by MHC with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

The CANDY BOX Dance Festival is a week-long dynamic sampling of featured performances, master classes, and in-progress showings, hosted by ARENA DANCES and presented April 21-26 at The Southern Theater. The CANDY BOX Dance Festival features both emerging and established choreographers, Happy Hour work-in-progress performances, and master class offerings. Tickets are on sale now with prices from $10-$27.

Featured Artists Performances: April 24-26, 7:30pm and April 26, 2:00pm
Doma Dance Theater
Flying Foot Forum
Cheng “Technica” Xiong
Featured Artists Tickets; Saturday’s matinee is pay-as-able.

Happy Hour Artists Showings: April 21-25, 5:30pm
Monday – Eva Mohn
Tuesday – Shannon Hummel of Cora Dance
Wednesday – Yukina Sato
Thursday – Nieya Amezquita and Kaitlyn Hawkins
Friday – Nervous Theatre
Happy Hour Tickets

Master Classes: April 21-25, 4:00pm
Monday – Alexandra Bodnarchuk of Doma Dance Theater
Tuesday – Shannon Hummel of Cora Dance
Wednesday – Joe Chvala of Flying Foot Forum
Thursday – Cheng “Technica” Xiong
Friday – Connor Berkompas of NERVOUS THEATRE
Master Class Tickets

A very special thanks to our sponsors: Sher Demeter and City of Minneapolis Arts and Cultural Affairs Department – Cultural District Arts Fund Initiative.

MN Dance Task Force (MNDTF) is a group of community members who gather and focus on better supporting the dance community in Minnesota with an intentional focus on moving toward an equitable dance ecosystem.

To sign up and be included in future communications, please email mndancetaskforce@gmail.com.

Next MNDTF Meeting: Monday, April 21
4:45-5:00pm: Welcome new visitors
5:00-6:00pm: Meeting

Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 892 9517 6799
Passcode: 979580

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 and Yusha-Marie Sorzano’s recently premiered work This World Anew, commissioned as part of the Edges of Ailey exhibition at the Whitney Museum. TU Dance is deeply honored to share works by makers that have contributed so richly to the American dance landscape through their multidimensional perspectives while voicing the shared human experience, which has been core to our own 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.

Threads Dance Project proudly continues its tradition of amplifying new choreographic voices with Tapestries 9.0, a program highlighting emerging choreographers. This year’s production features original works by Colin Edwards, Rachel Lieberman, and Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies, alongside repertory by Artistic Director Karen L. Charles.

The program includes excerpts from Let America Be America, Charles’ powerful work inspired by the chant “Make America Great Again” and the reality that America has never been great for everyone. Through spoken word and dance vignettes, the piece highlights the joys and struggles of “the America that is” and “the America that could be.”

About the Tapestries 9.0 selected works:

• Colin Edwards explores the manifestation of unity and the circadian rhythms of sisterhood, revealing the ebb and flow of connection through the contrasts of night and day.
• Rachel Lieberman is trying to make sense of time. Collaging text, textile, movement memories, griefs, and missing pieces, she is asking everybody: how did I get here, and where are we?
• Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies indulges in millennial nostalgia, reflecting on memories that refuse to fade and futures that failed to materialize, set to a soundtrack of high school anthems resuscitated from home-burned CDs.

Friday, May 2 at 7:30pm
Saturday, May 3 at 7:30pm
Sunday, May 4 at 2:00pm
Tickets: $30 for General Admission, $25 for Seniors, and $22 for Students

ORACLE is an awe-inspiring outdoor theatrical experience transporting audiences to a realm where nature, myth, and art collide. Experience the myth and majesty of Ancient Greece as critically acclaimed Vox Medusa, in collaboration with Infiammati FireCircus, ignites the stage this May with ORACLE! This mesmerizing fusion of mythology, dance, music, theatre and fire performance is set against the enchanting backdrop of Caponi Art Park’s Theater in the Woods.

ORACLE is a stunning outdoor theatrical experience, blending haunting electronic music, riveting contemporary dance, electrifying breakdance, soul-stirring choral arrangements, vibrant light design, and heart-pounding fire performance. This outdoor spectacle revives the ancient traditions of the Oracle of Delphi through six spellbinding performances, created by a stunningly talented 28-member ensemble​, where every moment unfolds under a canopy of lush trees.

Rediscover the Oracle’s tale through a modern lens, as ORACLE reimagines the story of Delphi’s High Priestess on the fateful day Apollo lays siege to her temple. The Oracle’s voice, once a channel of wisdom and prophecy from Mother Earth (Gaea), is challenged by Apollo’s ambition. This epic tale, told from the Oracle’s perspective, follows her courageous fight to preserve her power, her legacy, and her role as a symbol of feminine strength.

Do you have a burning question for the Oracle? Your questions may be drawn by the Oracle and included in the show! Audience members may also create an offering of what they wish to let go of. These offerings will be burned by the Priestesses during the performance.

For 30 years Vox Medusa continues to find an endless well of inspiration from feminist mythology, in both muse of creativity and mission to bring awareness to domestic violence and assault. All survivors of Domestic Violence and or Assault  and those who have benefited from Minnesota women’s shelters, please contact Vox Medusa at voxmedusadance@gmail.com for a VIP experience at ORACLE.

ORACLE is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.