STUDIO STORIES: REMINISCING ON TWIN CITIES DANCE HISTORY

Deirdre grew up in Los Angeles, CA where she studied ballet from her mother, Eva Ralf and Tania Lichine. She moved to Minnesota to dance at Minnesota Dance Theater and then became a founding member of Zenon Dance Comapany where she danced for six years. She then found her home with Myron Johnson at Ballet of the Dolls where she danced for six more years and married her husband, Michael Murnane. De...

HIJACK is the Minneapolis-based choreographic collaboration of Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder. HIJACK is the confluence and clash of two independent compositional/kinesthetic impulses. Their dances embrace juxtaposition. Their dances house unlikely intimates and question “who is the enemy?”  Specializing in the inappropriate, HIJACK is best known for "short-shorts:" pop song-length mi...

Pedro Pablo (they/them) is a Venezuelan-raised, Minneapolis-based queer dancer / performance maker. Founder/director of Viva la Pepa ( www.vivalapepa.org ), a collective of multi-generational queer performers in the Twin Cities. Their works are fueled by the overlapping values of Latinx and Queer cultures: melodrama, passion, decadence, and sensuality. An inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Pedro...

Judith Holo Shuǐ Xiān is an interdisciplinary choreographer, improviser and sound artist. Her work prioritizes and centers the experiences of QTIPOC, and stands as an allyship to those of other marginalized identities. She has presented works at venues including Fresh Oysters Performance Research, Public Functionary, Bryant Lake Bowl, Tek Box, The Southern Theater, Intermedia Arts (Minneapolis, MN...

Laura Osterhaus Rosenstone is a movement artist and educator, born and raised in the Midwest. Across all modes of creating, she strives to connect with and listen to people. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree in dance and fashion studies at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, Laura had the opportunity to perform the work of modern/contemporary dance choreographers Nora Chipaumire, Gregory D...

Native to St. Paul, MN, Berit Ahlgren trained at Minnesota Dance Theater with both Loyce and Lise Houlton. A founding member of TU Dance under the artistic directorship of Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, Ahlgren performed with the company 2006—2016. Receiving Metropolitan Regional Art Council’s Next Step Grant in 2011, Ahlgren had the opportunity to study the Gaga Movement Language in Tel Aviv, a...

Abigail Whitmore (she/her) and Annika Hansen (they/them, she/her) are dance artists and partners invested in collaborative efforts, performative events, and dance as embodied research. Both graduates of the University of Minnesota Dance Program, they draw inspiration from somatic practices, improvisation, post-modern, and contemporary dance forms. In their work together, they have partnered with G...

Danielle Ricci is an educator, choreographer, director, and dancer. She received her BFA in Dance Performance from University of California, Irvine in 2006 under direction of Donald McKayle. In 2014 she graduated with an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from St. Mary's University of Minnesota and earned an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University in 2018. She has studied at The Aile...

Bonnie Mathis was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and a soloist with the Harkness Ballet and also performed with many modern companies, namely the Lar Lubovitch Company, the Paul Taylor Company, the Paul Sanasardo Company, the Norman Walker Company, and the Nederlands Dans Theatre. Antony Tudor and Maggie Black where her primary teachers while at the Juilliard School and through he...

Karla Grotting is a dancer, choreographer, educator and producer working with a unique blend of jazz, tap, modern, theater, and percussive dance techniques. Since 1990, she has been a founding member, principal dancer, and artistic associate with Joe Chvala's The Flying Foot Forum. Karla has performed and toured with Jazzdance: by Danny Buraczeski, MN Jazz Dance Co,  Keane Sense of Rhythm, an...

Jinza Thayer received her BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from George Mason University. Recognitions include being a two-time semi-finalist for France’s Rencontres (Bagnolet); a 2010 SAGE Award; and support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, American Composers Forum, Jerome Foundation, and McKnight Artist Fellowship. She has created over 60 original works and presents her work as Mov...

Oroyan is a founding mover and Artistic Associate of Black Label Movement , a company with roots deep in his heart and body. In 2012, in joy and sadness, he moved to Brussels and worked with Ultima Vez for six years, having toured and performed primarily with What the Body Does not Remember and In Spite of Wishing and Wanting . Oroyan, continues to dance in Europe and has been working since 2017 w...

Darrius Strong is a Twin Cities based choreographer, dancer, and educator whose creative work has been chosen for the Walker Art Centers Choreographer's Evening, and Rhythmically Speaking. He was featured in the 2015 New Griots Festival as well as an American Standard Bill Board advertisement in NYC Time Square in 2016. He was also a 2017 Momentum New Works recipient. Strong has created works...

Cathy Young brings 34 years of experience as an artist and educator to her work as Executive Director ofBoston Conservatory at Berklee. During the course of her career she has been a performer with leading American dance companies, the artistic director of her own dance company, a nationally recognized choreographer and teacher of jazzdance, a professor of dance, co-founder of a college dance prog...

A Minneapolis native, James moved to New York and studied at the School of American Ballet with David Howard, and began performing with ABT II. He was a lead dancer with Feld Ballets/NY for six years and has performed as a guest artist with the New York City Ballet, Zvi Gottheiner and Dancers, and Denishawn. He, along with co-founder Sally Rousse, started James Sewell Dance in NYC in 1990, and the...

Eve Schulte is a dance artist and administrator based in Minneapolis, MN. She grew up training in ballet and modern at Minnesota Dance Theatre, and transitioned to company member in 2007. In 2009, she joined James Sewell Ballet, where she has served as dancer, artistic associate (2017-2020), and now executive director. She has also collaborated with physical theater group Live Action Set, which is...

Heather Klopchin, originally from Goshen, NY, is passionate about performing, choreographing, researching, and teaching dance. She currently is a Principal Artist with Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater and has performed with the company in Germany, Mexico, and in locations across the United States. Heather has also performed with ARENA DANCES, Zenon Dance Company, Stark Dance, Alternative Motion Pr...

Having studied Spanish dance and flamenco since childhood, Susana di Palma continued her apprenticeship with maestros such as Ciro, Manolo Marin, Manolete, Carmen Mora and Merche Esmeralda.   She performed throughout Spain in tablaos and with companies such as La Singla.  In 1985 she founded Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater in Minneapolis.  Its mission has been to create innovative theater works tha...

Paula Mann’s journey took her from Appalachian roots to Detroit teenage runaway, through Kent State in the 1970's, to NYU and the downtown dance scene of the 1980's. She studied Humphrey/Limon technique with Ruth Currier and members of the Limon company, Hawkins technique with Eric Hawkins and Cunningham with Merce Cunningham. Her first concert of choreography was produced at the Merce C...

Dancer, choreographer, educator, and writer Penelope Freeh dismantles antiquated modes of how ballet is taught, languaged, applied in research terms, and expressed physically, intellectually, performatively, and at the gut level. Through her practice of expanding the terms and exploding the tropes of ballet, she aims to meaningfully connect with a diversity of dancers, collaborators, colleagues, s...

Sally Rousse, a native of Vermont, is a dance artist who performs, teaches, choreographs, writes, and advocates. Branded “Renegade Ballerina” Sally has received two McKnight Fellowships for Dancers (2001/14), a Sage Award for Outstanding Performer (2013) and was named Artist of the Year by CityPages (2010). She co-founded James Sewell Ballet (JSB) in New York City in 1990, serving as its managing...

Tom Kanthak served as an Instructor of Dance Composition and Improvisation, Music for Dance, Arts Improvisation, the New Music Ensemble, and Music Director and Dance Musician for the Perpich Center for Arts Education, Arts High School Dance Program from 1988 to 2012. He holds a B.A. in Performing Arts from Metropolitan State University and an M.A. in Music from Ohio State University. Tom has been...

Diane Aldis currently works as the Arts Integration Coordinator for Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts in Anoka Hennepin Schools. and prior to that, worked for 16 years in Professional Development and Outreach at the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Her work in arts education has been strongly shaped by my experiences as a performing artist and the lived experience of creating work with othe...

Gerry Girouard is a long-time, local movement explorer/dancer/choreographer of the twin cities. He is currently merging improvisational ideas inspired from in-depth studies of Modern Dance, Argentine Tango and Capoeira. Gerry’s start in dance was dancing for Nancy Hauser in her modern dance company The Nancy Hauser Dance Company way back in 1983!!!   In the 1990’s he did his own acrobatic style of...

Judith Howard has been making dances in the Twin Cities for over 30 years and her work has been presented at numerous venues, nationally and internationally including the Walker Art Center, the Southern Theater, 9x22 Dance Lab, the NY Improvisation Festival and The International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Yaroslavl, Russia. Judith has performed the work of numerous choreographers including:...