STUDIO STORIES: REMINISCING ON TWIN CITIES DANCE HISTORY

ARENA DANCES
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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 threads of the old. (Paraphrased- Robin Wall Kimmerer) Join ARENA DANCES every Thursday at noon for Studio Stories, a podcast reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance history. Hosted by Mathew Janczewski, each week will feature a new renowned dance artist who has made an impact on the dance landscape in this big dance town. Know of someone whose connections should be shared? Let us know! Email us at arenadances@gmail.com

  1. 1d ago

    Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Davente Gilreath - Season 22, Episode 208

    DAVENTE GILREATH  was born and raised in Minneapolis. His dance training began at Perpich Center for Arts Education where he was exposed to styles of dance including modern, ballet, jazz, african, and contact improvisation. Gilreath  furthered his dance training at the University of Minnesota where he worked with professors such as Ananya Chatterjea, Erin Thompson, and Toni Pierce‐Sands. During this time he was also able to perform and create work with Minnesota‐based companies such as Threads Dance Project and Contempo Physical Dance (with Marciano Silva dos Santos). Gilreath Joined Garth Fagan Dance in 2014 and during his 8 years with the company performed numerous key works from the Fagan cannon around the country including new works choreographed by PJ Pennewell the company director. He was promoted to senior company member and appointed the Director of the Garth Fagan Dance Student Ensemble. He also taught Intermediate/Advanced Fagan Technique for the Garth Fagan Dance School and for the Garth Fagan Summer Movement Institute. Gilreath is now a dance instructor at The University of Minnesota where he teaches Contemporary, African Diasporic Movement and Jazz. In the last 4 years since returning to Minneapolis he has danced for choreographers Joe Chvala, Darrius Strong, and is in his second season with Ananya Dance Theatre. He has set choreography for senior students at TU Dance, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Saint Paul Conservatory, PiM Arts  and in his own solo work “Rumination” (which premiered in Choreographers' Evening, Walker Art Center, Nov 2024).  Davente Gilreath is a 2025 McKnight Dancers Fellow.

  2. Aug 6

    Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Roger Beck for David Voss - Season 22, Episode 207

    David Voss (1938–1991) was one of the foundational figures in the development of contemporary dance in Minnesota. A composer, musician, dancer, choreographer, and beloved teacher, he helped shape generations of artists through his work with the University of Minnesota Dance Program and Minnesota Dance Theatre. His influence extended far beyond choreography; he was known for his extraordinary musicality, intellectual curiosity, and deep commitment to nurturing dancers as artists. Born and raised in south Minneapolis, Voss studied music at the University of Minnesota before beginning what became a lifelong relationship with dance. While accompanying classes for Loyce Houlton, he was encouraged to study modern dance himself, eventually becoming an integral artist with Houlton's Contemporary Dance Playhouse, which evolved into Minnesota Dance Theatre. Over the following decades, he composed music, danced, choreographed, and taught, becoming one of the defining artistic voices of Minnesota's dance community.  Voss joined the University of Minnesota faculty in 1972, where his teaching profoundly influenced generations of dancers. As a choreographer, he created more than sixty works and was recognized for his ability to bridge music and movement with remarkable sensitivity. He was also an internationally respected guest artist, teaching and creating work in Australia and New Zealand.  David Voss died of AIDS on June 22, 1991, at the age of 53. Even after his death, his legacy endured. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts requested his choreographic films and had planned to include him in its Oral History Project documenting dancers affected by AIDS, recognizing the significance of his contributions to American dance.

  3. Apr 30

    Studio Stories: CANDY BOX Dance Festival special with Marciano Silva dos Santos of Contempo Physical Dance- Season 21, Episode 206

    Marciano Silva dos Santos is a Brazilian native recognized by the American Folkloric Society as a folk artist of unique and exceptional ability. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Contempo Physical Dance, where his extensive research has culminated in a dynamic fusion of Afro-Brazilian and contemporary dance. His professional dancing and choreography have earned widespread acclaim; he was named “Best Dancer” by City Pages, hailed as “one of the most graceful movers on any Twin Cities stage” by the Star Tribune, and called “one of the hottest choreographers in town” by Minnesota Monthly Magazine. He is also 2020 McKnight Fellowship for Dancers. He has served as a panelist for the Minnesota Sage Awards for Dance, USArtists International, NEA-National Endowment for the Arts and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

  4. Apr 23

    Studio Stories: CANDY BOX Dance Festival special with Rachel Lieberman - Season 21, Episode 205

    Growing up, Rachel trained, performed, and taught primarily with Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. She moved to the Twin Cities to attend Macalester College, graduating in 2018 with a BA in Geography, and has since performed in works by Contempo Physical, Melissa Clark, Leila Awadallah, Off-Leash Area, A Cripple’s Dance, Mathew Janczewski, Javan Mngrezzo, Annika Johansson, Analog Dance Works, Zoë Koenig, Xina, Judith H Shuǐ Xiān, and Black Label Movement. Rachel’s choreography engages themes of home/place/violence/time/throughline from queer, jewish, diasporist, and surrealist perspectives. Her work has been presented by Alternative Motion Project, Franconia Sculpture Garden, Black Label Movement, Walker Art Center, Threads Dance Project, and Red Eye Theater. Primarily a movement artist, she also enjoys playing with sound, set, and costume design, and in textile and textual arts. Off-stage, Rachel works as a Program Director at Cow Tipping Press: teaching and publishing creative writing by adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

  5. Apr 16

    Studio Stories: CANDY BOX Dance Festival special with Dance Rec Pick Up League - Season 21, Episode 204

    Dance Rec Pickup League is a group of friends who recreate together. Leslie O’Neill, Sarah Baumert, Erika Hansen, Gabriel Anderson, Jamie Ryan-Karels and Eva Mohn design proposals, scores, games and questions as a way to make dances.

  6. Apr 9

    Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Ronna Rochell - Season 21, Episode 203

    A native of the North Chicago suburbs, Ronna Rochell started dancing at age 5. At that young age, she started with creative movement classes, and by the time she was in junior high, she had evolved into a serious modern dance student. She was fortunate to have a fabulous teacher from junior high and high school who taught her the technique of Martha Graham and Alwin Nikolai.  Her dance teacher’s name was Carol Walker, who later went on to serve as Dean of the Department of Dance at SUNY Purchase. At age 16, after studying dance for a summer at the American Dance Festival at Duke University, Ronna auditioned and made it into one of the premiere modern dance companies in Chicago, the Joseph Holmes Dance Theatre.  She was an apprentice with the company and performed with them as well. After dancing in college at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she went on to pursue her MFA in dance at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, earning her degree in 1989.  Right before graduation, she auditioned and was accepted into the New Dance Ensemble apprentice program.  So after graduation, in 1989, she moved to Minneapolis and apprenticed with the dance company for one year.  Next, inspired by the Nancy Hauser Dance Company, she was invited to join the company in 1991.  Ronna was a member of the Nancy Hauser Dance company for two years. She finished her modern dance career dancing in a Walker Art Center sponsored event in Gerry Girouard’s choreography on the beach of Cedar Lake in 1993! Since then she has gone back to her teaching roots and started her own business, BodyWisdom, teaching yoga, Pilates and fitness classes, as well as bringing chair yoga into senior living communities. More recently, she rebooted her dance career by going into musical theatre as she performed with Theatre 55 and had a fabulous time dancing in the productions of Pippin (2019) and A Chorus Line (2023). Now Ronna focuses on continuing teaching yoga and fitness classes, spending time with her three adult sons, tandem biking with her husband Steve, and enjoying cross-country skiing, even racing at the American Birkebeiner.  She is proud to say that she skied the Kortelopet at this event- 29 kilometers- and she just received her 10 year plaque for the Kortelopet - quite an achievement for her!

  7. Apr 2

    Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance History with Kaitlyn Gilliland- Season 21, Episode 202

    Kaitlyn trained with Loyce and Lise Houlton at Minnesota Dance Theatre and at the School of American Ballet (SAB) in New York City, where she earned the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 2004. She danced with the New York City Ballet (NYCB) from 2006 to 2011 and was named the company’s 2010 Janice Levin Dancer. After leaving NYCB, Kaitlyn became a sought-after freelance artist and began working with Twyla Tharp in 2014. She has since created and performed leading roles in numerous Tharp works, appearing most recently in the 2022 Bessie Award-winning revival of In The Upper Room at New York City Center. After returning to Minneapolis, Kaitlyn founded A Dancer’s Place Productions in 2024 to create meaningful performing opportunities for local dancers. She also continues to stage Tharp repertory around the world and leads the ballet programming at Summit Dance Shoppe in Plymouth, MN. Kaitlyn has previously served on the faculty of the School of American Ballet and as New York City Ballet’s Assistant Children’s Rehearsal Director. She holds a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

  8. Mar 26

    Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Joey Weaver, aka Joe Tennis - Season 21, Episode 201

    A multifaceted dance artist and a practitioner of experiential mechanics, Joe Tennis is an improviser and moment maker based in New York City. Engined by discovery and play, he is viscerally drawn to movement through experiencing it. He is in perpetual research of improvisation in service to attunement, the mechanics of intuition through floorwork and the prolonged effects of subtle integration. Tennis dances to find, and to show.

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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 threads of the old. (Paraphrased- Robin Wall Kimmerer) Join ARENA DANCES every Thursday at noon for Studio Stories, a podcast reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance history. Hosted by Mathew Janczewski, each week will feature a new renowned dance artist who has made an impact on the dance landscape in this big dance town. Know of someone whose connections should be shared? Let us know! Email us at arenadances@gmail.com

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