Joseph "MN Joe" Tran
2019 Dancer FELLOW
Joseph “MN Joe” Tran by V. Paul Virtucio
Joseph “MN Joe” Tran has been a professional breaker since 2005. He is a member of the world-renowned crew Knuckleheads Cali and a founding member of BRKFST Dance Company, an exploratory dance company rooted in breaking. He has worked as a dancer and choreographer for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves “First Avenue Breakers” from 2007-2019, choreographed original works, and has set repertoire with BRKFST at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He currently works as a breaking instructor for Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and Concordia University. He has accumulated multiple first-place victories in breaking competitions across the US, Europe, and South America.
2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer Rudi Goblen
Elayna Waxse
2019 Dancer FELLOW
Photo credit: Michael Slobodian
Elayna Waxse is a Twin Cities-based performer, dance educator, and choreographer who hails from Overland Park, Kansas. She received her early dance training with Alecia Good-Boresow and at the Kansas City Ballet School, spending summers at the School of American Ballet in New York City. At the age of sixteen she was invited to Seattle to study in the Professional Division program at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where she frequently performed with the company.
Waxse has worked professionally with Minnesota Dance Theatre, Colorado Ballet, Black Label Movement, BodyCartography Project, and TU Dance. Over the course of her career she has performed works by Uri Sands, Loyce Houlton, Alvin Ailey, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Dwight Rhoden, George Balanchine, Carl Flink, Francesca Harper, and Katrin Hall among many others. In the summer of 2014 she was selected to perform with Cie. Ismael Ivo e Grupo Biblioteca do Corpo at ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival as well as in São Paulo, Brazil.
In addition to performing, Waxse’s choreographic work has been commissioned and/or presented by Minnesota Dance Theatre, Ballet Minnesota’s MN Dance Festival, The School at TU Dance Center, Zenon Dance Zone, JSB TekBox Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, Detroit Dance Race, and Public Functionary.
2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer: Bobbi Jene Smith
Paula Mann
2019 CHOREOGRAPHER FELLOW
Photo by V. Paul Virtucio
Paula Mann’s work has been presented by performance venues both in New York at New York Live Arts, P.S 122, Danspace, and in the Twin Cities, by the Southern Theater, the O’Shaughnessy Dance Series, The Walker Art Center, and solo work presented throughout the U.S, Canada and Italy.
Mann has received several awards from the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, the MN State Arts Board, St. Paul Cultural Star, MRAC Arts Activities (2015, 2016) and Community Arts, the Sage Cowles Chair at the U of M, a Bush Artist Fellowship, an American Composers Forum Music for Dance grant, a 2017 Artist Initiative Grant from the MN State Arts Board and a 2016-17 commission for new work from GT Artistry. In 2003, 2005 and 2007 her company, Time Track Productions, completed a trilogy of evening-length work that explored the effect of media on humanity through live performance. In July 2009 the company presented the evening length “I Love Tomorrow” at New York Live Arts.
Newer works include “Here & After” (2012), ‘The One And The Many” (2014) and “Rules Of The Crowd” (2015) for the Weitz Center for Creativity at Carlton College. From 1993-2013 Mann was full-time faculty at the U of M and was a 2015-16 visiting professor of dance at the U of W, Eau Claire. She is a graduate of New York University.
Ashwini Ramaswamy
2019 CHOREOGRAPHER FELLOW
Ashwini Ramaswamy by V. Paul Virtucio
As an independent choreographer, Ashwini Ramaswamy’s work references ancient myths and ritualistic practices, global literature and poetry, and the mixed media contemporary culture she has absorbed for 35 years, drawing from myriad influences to express a personal identity with collective resonance. Celebrated for her ability to “[weave] together, both fearfully and joyfully, the human and the divine” (New York Times), Ashwini studies Bharatanatyam from the legendary dancer/choreographer Smt. Alarmel Valli of Chennai, India, and Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, Artistic Directors of Ragamala Dance Company.
As Choreographic Associate/featured performer with Ragamala, she has toured extensively, performing throughout the U.S. and in Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, the U.K, and India. Ashwini’s choreography was among the “Best of the Year” in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Big Dance Town, and Minn Post, and has been presented by the Joyce Theater (NYC), Triskelion Arts (NYC), Cowles Center (Minneapolis), The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard, MA), and Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.), among others.
Ashwini is a recipient of grants from the McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and Jerome Foundation, including a recent inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. Ashwini’s work is supported by USArtists International, National Endowment for the Arts, and New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project. A recent piece was commissioned by The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series, and her work has been developed in residence at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) the Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York, NY) and the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron, OH.
Jinza Thayer
2019 CHOREOGRAPHER FELLOW
Jinza Thayer by V. Paul Virtucio
After spending the first six years in Japan and Southeast Asia, Jinza Thayer grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received an MFA in Dance at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Now based in Minneapolis, she has created over 60 original works and presents her work as Movement Architecture – a blend of dance and theater in structured environments.
Some of the awards include being a two-time semi-finalist for France’s Rencontres choregraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bagnolet) in 1999 and 2001, and receiving a 2010 SAGE Award for Choreographic Concept and Design. Fellowships include a 2004 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Choreographers, 2006 Associate Artist Residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a 2010 Blacklock Nature Sanctuary Fellowship. She has received additional support from the Minnesota State Arts Board (1999, 2002, 2009, 2014, 2018), Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (2017), American Composers Forum (2006, 2011, 2014), and Jerome Foundation (2006).
Thayer has taught somatics, modern technique and composition at Zenon Dance Company and School in Minneapolis for twenty years.
Galia Eibenschutz
2019 International Choreographer
by Rodrigo Valero-Puertas
Galia Eibenschutz is a dance and multimedia artist from Mexico City whose work has developed through both movement and visual art techniques. Her work registers the passing of time as well as the scenic presence of the human body and its projection within architectural spaces. Her most recent performance pieces include presentations at Teatro de la Danza (Mexico City, Mexico; 2018); Museum of Contemporary Art in Oaxaca (2018) in collaboration with musician Natalia Perez Turner; FABRIKA in Beirut, Lebanon (2016) in collaboration with Corinne Skaff; at Ex-Teresa Arte, and during Art Basel at The Center for Visual Communication (Miami, 2013).
Her work has also been displayed as part of several collective exhibitions at Modern Art Museum (Mexico City); Carrillo Gill Art Museum (Mexico, City); Contemporary Art Museum of Oaxaca, MUCA Roma and MUCA CU (Mexico, City); Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes (Mexico, City); Witte de Witt (Rotterdam), Blain|Southern (London branch); Mexican Cultural Center (Paris); Saidye Bronfman Center for the Arts (Montreal) and in Stedelijke Museum Voor Actuele Kunst Gante (Belgium).
She has been in residency programs in Casa Wabi; Casa NANO, Villa Iris (Botín Foundation), L’École des Sables (Senegal) and the Mexican Fine Arts Museum of Chicago. As a performer, Eibenschutz has also participated in projects from other artists such as Joan Jonas and Carlos Amorales.
For more information about Galia, visit her website.
For more information about the residency activities, visit our International Choreographer page.
For more information on the residency co-hosts Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder, visit their page.
Renée Copeland
2018 Dancer FELLOW
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
Renée Copeland is a Twin Cities-based artist originally from the wooded valleys south of Winona, Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BFA in Dance and minor in American Indian Studies. Upon graduating in 2010, she joined Ananya Dance Theatre and continues to perform and teach with the company, touring all over the world.
She co-founded the dance/performance-art duo Hiponymous in 2012 with Genevieve Muench and became a founding member and collaborator of hip-hop-based dance company BRKFST in 2014. She is also a poet, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter. She is indebted to her parents for their abundant support and participation in all things creative, nourishing, and sacred.
2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer Erika Bettin
Yeniel ‘Chini’ Perez Domenech
2018 Dancer Fellow
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
Born in Matanzas, Cuba, Yeniel ‘Chini’ Perez Domenech has been a professional dancer for over 25 years. He graduated from the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana, Cuba in 1991. Chini then became a member of Afrocuba de Matanzas, under the direction of Francisco Zamora Chirino ‘Minini’. He danced in both national and international tours, taught and was invited to choreograph for the company.
In 2006, he moved to Mexico and danced with a variety of groups and performed as a guest dance artist with famous Latin bands including Latin Grammy award winning Los Van Van and Pupy y Los Que Son Son.
In 2011, Chini moved to Minnesota. He immediately began dancing with Rene Thompson’s Street to Stage group. He went on to work with Patrick Scully, Curio Dance and has connected with Brazilian, West African and Hip Hop artists in the Twin Cities. Chini now performs and choreographs for Rueda de la Calle and his own performance identity Chini Company. He is a passionate dance educator teaching Cuban and other Latin dances in a variety of venues from school workshops to nightclubs to Chini Studio. Throughout his career he has performed in theaters, festivals and nightclubs reaching a broad range of audiences and communities.
2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer Ephrat Asherie
Sharon Mansur
2018 Dancer Fellow
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
Sharon Mansur is a dance and interdisciplinary experimental artist, educator, curator, and community mover and shaker of Lebanese heritage based in Keoxa/Winona, Mni Sota Makoce/Minnesota, Dakota country. Her creative practices weave movement making, improvisation, visual environments, food, screendance, audience participation, and site-situated/responsive art to offer multi-sensory and immersive experiences rooted in body, imagination, and environment. She loves creating artistic opportunities for people from all walks of life to connect and engage.
Sharon has recently received support from the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, the Winona Fine Arts Commission, and Springboard for the Arts. She was also a 2019-20 National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellow. Mansur is the director of The Cedar Tree Project, presenting and amplifying regional, national and international creative voices of the SWANA/Arab diaspora.
Sharon Mansur Touring Information
2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographers Yara Boustany, Andrea Shaker & Mette LouLou von Kohl
DejaJoelle
2018 Choreographer Fellow
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
DejaJoelle is a Black artist who uses dance, poetry and theater to explore the many bridges to and from Black America and Africa. She has studied dance at Howard University and with master dancers from Senegal and Guinea. She is also a graduate of Penumbra Theatre’s Summer institute program where she has honed the skill of art for social change. She continuously explores body image, language, culture, and modes of oppression. She believes her art is something not to be performed but witnessed and has replaced the word “performance” with “observance” mainly to keep the artist’s raw emotions intact. The art is not gifted for the observers, but in fact a ‘rites of passage' for the artist. Her most recent work includes Taneber/BLAQ Wall Street with her dance company BLAQ. BLAQ thrives off four main pillars: Dance, Writing, Discussion, and ASL (American Sign Language). BLAQ’s mission is to strive for freedom and aspire to embody the true reflections of themselves and their vast communities.
Laurie Van Wieren
2018 Choreographer Fellow
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
Laurie Van Wieren has been a creative force in the Twin Cities for 30+ years. Her choreography has been shown in the Twin Cities, nationally, and in Europe. 9x22 Dance/Lab, her monthly showcase, is the pre-eminent performance platform for local and visiting choreographers. She’s developed work for the Walker Art Center’s Open Field performance, which highlighted 100 local choreographers.
Van Wieren has curated performance for the Southern, Ritz, Bryant Lake Bowl Theaters and Soo Visual Art Center. She is a recipient of fellowships/grants from McKnight, Jerome, Bush, NEA, Rockefeller Foundations and Mn State Arts Board. She has received a Special Citation SAGE Award and a SAGE Award for Outstanding Performance. Van Wieren received a City Pages Artists of the Year in 2016 for her solo dance Temporary Action Theory and her ongoing curation. She is currently making site-specific ensemble dance performances for parks and large spaces and a series of solo works for small spaces.
Taja Will
2018 Choreographer Fellow
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
Choreographer Taja Will is a queer, Latina artist. Her body of work includes multi-dimensional contemporary performance and holistic therapy. These two parallel worlds come together in her artistic work through modalities of somatic movement and structured improvisation. Will’s aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Her practice and performance works are deeply rooted in exploring a visceral connection to current socio-cultural realities.
Will’s work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities and across the United States. Including local performances at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, the Radical Recess series and Right Here Showcase. Will has been named ‘One to watch, one to embrace’ as the Keeper Award recipient in 2010 from Metro Magazine, she received a 2011 Sage Award nomination, and was a featured artist in Lavender Magazine’s ‘Choreographers that Move Us’. Will received the Right Here Showcase commission, Jerome Travel Study Award and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant for her most recent solo work Bruja // Fugitive Majesty. Her futuristic trio Gospels of Oblivion: To the End premiered at the Southern Theater presented by ARENA Dances' Candy Box Dance Festival, and received support from the MRAC Next Step Award and MSAB Artist Initiative grant.
In addition to her own work Will has collaborated and dance with Rosy Simas Danse, Aniccha Arts (Pramila Vasudevan), Deborah Jinza Thayer, Off Leash Area, Vanessa Voskuil, and Body Cartography Project among others. Will maintains a private healing practice blending modalities of healing justice work with developmental psychotherapy and somatic bodywork.
Impilo Mapantsula: Vusi Mdoyi, Sicelo Xaba, Sello Modiga
2018 International choreographers
Photo by Chris Saunders.
Left to right: Vusi Mdoyi, Sicelo Xaba, Sello Modiga
IMPILO MAPANTSULA is a professional organization that promotes the development of pantsula dance, creates formal standards, and acts as an industry representative. Impilo Mapantsula was founded by German researcher Daniela Goeller and the South African pantsula dancers, choreographers and company directors Vusi Mdoyi, Sello “Zilo” Modiga, Joshua “Jeje” Mokoena and Sicelo “Malume Ka” Xaba. The organization aims to document and protect the living legacy of the vibrant street culture that has shaped the identity of generations of young people in South Africa, as well as create a network to support dancers in professionalizing and further developing their art.
Pantsula has had increasing international success; it has the potential to provide interesting job opportunities for the disadvantaged youth, and pantsula artists have taken on social responsibilities in their communities. Yet pantsula struggles to gain mainstream acceptance. Pantsula culture is still associated with low social status, immorality, and crime in South African townships, even though the dance-form has long found its place in in the global urban dance community and in the hearts of all audiences.
Impala Mapantsula gives workshops and training, initiates projects, organizes events, and represents pantsula dancers. The organization creates learning opportunities and supports artistic creation and self-expression through educational, artistic and professional programs, with an emphasis on job creation, international collaborations, exchanges and shared experiences.
VUSI MDOYI is a dancer, choreographer and director of Vusi Arts Pro. He was born in 1980 in Johannesburg and lives and works in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni. As a dancer and later co-director and choreographer of the multidisciplinary community dance crew Via Katlehong, Vusi has toured the world for more than 20 years and performed on many major stages in Europe and the US. He is a talented, very passionate and versatile artist and performer, and he has experience with pantsula, gumboots, tap-dance and contemporary dance, as well as acting and signing, and has collaborated with various artists internationally. Beside his experience as a dancer, choreographer, artistic and administrational director of Via Katlehong and Vusi Arts Projects, he is also a graduate of Wits Business School. Vusi is a visionary choreographer and artistic director, who is able to inspire and unite people in the creative process.
Photo by Chris Saunders
SICELO XABA is a dancer, choreographer and director of Red for Danger Pantsulas. He was born in 1977 in Johannesburg and lives and works in Mohlakeng, West Rand. As the leader of one of the oldest active pantsula crews, Sicelo has a broad knowledge and understanding of the history of pantsula dance and culture that has earned him a lot of respect in the pantsula community. He shares his knowledge in the form of public speeches, called “umrhabulo”, and in form of dance training and workshops in South Africa and abroad. Beside his experience as a dancer, choreographer, artistic and administrational director of Red for Danger Pantsulas, Sicelo is a very talented poet, writer, and theatre director with a great passion for books. Sicelo has been invited to dance in festivals and theatres around the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York. He is an undisputed expert of pantsula dance and culture and one of its most competent and authentic representative.
SELLO MODIGA is a dancer, choreographer and director of Real Actions Pantsula. He was born in 1980 in Johannesburg and lives and works in Orange Farm, Sedibeng. Under Sello’s leadership, Real Actions Pantsula has developed into one of the most successful pantsula dance crews in South Africa and toured in Europe and the US. Beside his experience as a dancer, choreographer, artistic and administrational director of Real Actions Pantsula, Sello has been organizing, judging and participating in dance battles internationally. Sello is passionate and talented teacher and has solid international experience in giving pantsula dance workshops for all audiences. He has mastered different pantsula styles and other street dances like hip-hop, house, or Chicago footwork, and can explain the specific characteristics and the historical development and significance of the pantsula movements.
For more information: www.impilomapantsula.com
RESIDENCY EVENTS
Impilo Mapantsula was in residence in the Twin Cities May 28 - June 17, 2018. They created a new work for 12 area Hip Hop dancers, for Maia Maiden Productions, our partner for the 2018 residency. Mdoyi, Xaba and Modiga taught classes in pantsula, tapsula and gumboot at The Cowles Center. They participated in a variety of community events, including a Meet the Artists public talk and pantsula demonstration at Indigenous Roots Cultural Center in St. Paul. On June 15 & 16th, the artists premiered a commissioned work as part of ROOTED: Hip Hop Choreographers Evening at the Wellstone Center in St. Paul, MN.
Saturday JUNE 2nd, 2018 10 am - 12 pm
Tapsula / Gumboot Class **
At the Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, Studio 5B (5th floor)
528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55403
Monday JUNE 4th, 2018 7 - 8:30 pm
Pantsula Class**
At Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center 788 East 7th St., St. Paul, MN 55106
Saturday JUNE 9th, 2018 10 - 11:30 am
Pantsula Class**
The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, Target Education Studio (2nd floor)
528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55403
Saturday JUNE 16th, 2018 4:30-5:30 pm
Pantsula Class
Wellstone Center, 179 Robie St E, St Paul, MN 55107
RESIDENCY EVENTS:
Tuesday MAY 29th, 2018 6:30 - 8:00 pm FREE
Meet the Artists: Public talk and pantsula demonstration at Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center, 788 East 7th St., St. Paul, MN 55106
Featuring: Vusi Mdoyi, Sello Modiga, and Sicelo Xaba; 2018 McKnight International Choreographers
Maia Maiden; Director and Curator of ROOTED
Moderated by: Arleta Little; Arts Program Officer & Director of Artist Fellowships, McKnight Foundation.
Monday JUNE 11th, 2018 7:00 - 10:00 pm FREE
Open Rehearsal of new dance work At Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center 788 East 7th St., St. Paul, MN 55106
Friday JUNE 15 and Saturday JUNE 16, 2018 7:00 pm
World Premiere Performance choreographed by Impilo Mapantsula, performed as part of ROOTED: Hip Hop Choreographers’ Evening at the Wellstone Center, 179 Robie St E, St Paul, MN 55107
Sachiko "La Chayí" Nishiuchi
2017 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
A native of Osaka, Japan, Sachiko “La Chayí” Nishiuchi is a Twin Cities-based Flamenco dancer, teacher, choreographer and organizer. Besides her work as an independent artist, she dedicates her time for community work in Flamenco including directing Twin Cities Flamenco Collective. Sachiko attained her artistic name “La Chayí” from one of her great teachers, Pilar Montoya Manzano “La Faraona”, to honor and remember her.
She has received awards, recognition and grants from Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota SAGE Awards for Dance, and New York State Flamenco Certamen. Sachiko is the recipient of a 2017 McKnight Dancer Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center and funded by the McKnight Foundation.
Her dance and choreography have been commissioned and/or presented by The Walker Art Center, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, The Southern Theater, and Hamline University. She was a resident artist of Zorongo Flamenco from 2003 to 2009. She attributes her artistic formation to her most significant mentor, Zorongo's Artistic Director Susana Di Palma.
She lived and studied the art of Flamenco in Seville, Spain from 2010 to 2015 which became the foundation of her current dance and work. Besides her daily life surrounded by the culture of Flamenco in Seville, she owes her current artistic direction and foundation to the following incomparable artists and teachers; Farruquito, Javier Heredia, Juan del Gastor, Luis Peña, Miguel Funi, and Pilar Montoya Manzano “La Faraona”.
SOLO Choreographers Pepe Torres, Angelita Vargas, Luis Peña
Krista Langberg
2017 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
Krista Langberg is originally from Great Neck, New York. She is a freelance performer currently touring and performing Soft Goods, made by the visionary artist Karen Sherman. In a professional career spanning over thirty years, she has had the opportunity to work with many other exceptional artists. Most recently she performed and toured SHORE (2014/15), made in collaboration with choreographer Emily Johnson and director Ain Gordon, and worked with choreographer Chris Schlichting from 2010-2015, on the creation and performance of Stripe Tease and the Minnesota SAGE Award-winning production, Matching Drapes.
Krista was a member of Susan Marshall & Company in New York from 1994-2002, creating original parts in six evening length works, including the role of Lise in the Susan Marshall/Philip Glass Opera Les Enfants Terribles. Previous to that, she danced with New Dance Performance Laboratory (MN), Zenon Dance Company (MN), and the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble (CO). In these formative years Krista had the chance to work with outstanding artists, including Douglas Dunn, Bebe Miller, Donna Uchizono, Milton Myers and Donald McKayle. She has been an adjunct faculty member at Macalester College since 2007, working as a teacher, advisor and choreographer, and lives with her two daughters in Saint Paul, MN.
SOLO Choreographer Karen Sherman
Herb Johnson III
2017 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
Herb Johnson III graduated from Perpich Center for the Performing Arts in 2010 and studied 3 years at Lundstrum Center for Arts. Herb is now at the University of Minnesota as a Hip-Hop dance instructor. He currently choreographs and performs solo and in groups 612 Crew, DeadPool, and Kudeta. Professional work includes iLuminate from America’s Got Talent, ROOTED: Hip Hop Choreographers’ Evening, and The Ordway Theater's production of A Chorus Line.
Herb also travels the nation as his alias “Jus Herb” to compete in battles in places like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Las Vegas. In the future, Herb plans to continue traveling and challenging himself creatively in performance, choreography, and battles to further optimize his talents.
SOLO Choreographer Tight Eyez
Deneane Richburg
2017 Choreographer Fellow
Photo credit: Tim Rummelhoff
Deneane Richburg grew up competing in figure skating and received her MFA in dance and choreography from Temple University in 2007, an MA in Afro-American Studies from UW Madison, and a BA in English and African American Studies from Carleton College. She has created work for both the ice and stage, including Aunt Sara’s Escape, a piece about Saatjie Baartman (also known as the Venus Hottentot) which premiered on the ice in 2009 at Ridder Ice Arena on the University of MN campus.
Through her company, Brownbody, she has also created work for the stage including These Blues Women, and Living Past (Re)Memory—a duet based on Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved. In 2013 Brownbody remounted this work for the ice. Working with Lela Aisha Jones, Richburg was also the Co-founder of The Requisite Movers, a Philadelphia based initiative that seeks to support the work of Black female choreographers. Deneane has danced for a number of choreographers including, Chris Walker, Jose Fransico Barroso, Andrea Catchings, Dr. Kariamu Welsh, and Lela Aisha Jones and has performed with Off Leash Area, Pangea World Theater Company, Flyground and Kariamu and Company. In 2015 Brownbody was a proud recipient of a 2015 Minnesota SAGE Award for Dance and a John S. and James L. Knight Arts Challenge award.
SuperGroup
2017 Choreographer Fellows
Photo Credit: Tim Rummelhoff
SuperGroup is the Minneapolis based performance collaboration of Erin Search-Wells, Sam Johnson, and Jeffrey Wells. Since forming in 2007, SuperGroup has presented work at venues across the Twin Cities cluding the BLB, the Red Eye, Bedlam Theatre, the Ritz, and the Walker Art Center, as well as nationally at the Invisible Dog Art Center (NYC, presented by the Joyce Theater), Velocity Dance Center (Seattle), Temple University (Philadelphia), and ODC (San Francisco).
Their most recent project, PEOPLE I KNOW:, collaboration with esteemed Twin Cities performance leaders Deborah Jinza Thayer, Derek Phillips, Judith Howard, Mary Moore Easter, Miriam Must, and Venus de Mars premiered at the Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis, November 2016. SuperGroup’s work has been supported through commissions from the Walker Art Center, the Red Eye Theater, and the Southern Theater and grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. SuperGroup has led performance workshops at Temple University, Macalester College, and the University of Minnesota and has created work with students at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, Young Dance, and Zenon Dance Zone. In addition to work with SuperGroup, Erin, Jeffrey, and Sam all maintain independent creation and performance lives, working with many artists including: Morgan Thorson, Fire Drill, Daniel Linehan, BodyCartography Project, Karen Sherman, Paige Collette, Abigail Browde, Chantal Pavageaux, and Justin Jones.
Susana di Palma
2017 Choreographer Fellow
Photo by Tim Rummelhoff
Susana di Palma is a theater/flamenco choreographer, dancer and teacher. She studied with great maestros of flamenco in Spain and lived and worked there. In 1983, She founded Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater in Minneapolis. Since that time, she has created over 30 full-length works. Apart from Zorongo, di Palma has choreographed for the Guthrie Theater, Flamenco Vivo, Other Tiger Productions and other venues.
A beloved teacher, she taught at the University of Minnesota for over 25 years and is part of The Cowles Center’s Distant Learning Program. She is director of the Zorongo School.
Susana di Palma Touring Information
Salia Sanou
2017 McKnight International Choreographer
Photo by Antoine Tempe
Salia Sanou is a choreographer and dancer from Burkina Faso, born in Léguéma. At a young age he was introduced to the Bobo rituals and traditions, and his early training in African dance was with Drissa Sanon (Ballet Koul Odrafrou de Bobo Dioulasso), Alasane Congo (Maison des jeunes et de la culture de Ouagadougou), Irène Tassembedo (Compagnie Ebène) and Germaine Acogny (Ballet du Troisième Monde).
Salia Sanou was for many years the artistic director of the Choreographic Encounters of Africa and the Indian Ocean, and he was in residence from 2008 to 2011 at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin. In 2011 he established his own company Perpetual Movements. He is co-founder and co-director of the Center for Choreographic Development La Termitière in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The first of its kind in Africa, this initiative is dedicated to creation and training worldwide.
He has created numerous choreographic works, including Beyond Borders (2012); Doubaley (The Mirror) with Japanese musician Takumi Fukushima; Clamor of Arena created in July 2014 for the Montpellier festival; Kupupura created for Tumbuka Dance of the Mozambique National Ballet, where he was guest choreographer; and Desire for horizon created in Paris in July 2016 for the Theatre National de Chaillot.
He is the recipient of many honors and awards, including first prize for contemporary African dance (AFAA) awarded during the National Culture Week in Burkina Faso; the Trophée Cultures France des Créateurs sans frontières; and he was named an officer in the order of Arts and Letters by the F
rench Ministry of Culture for his choreographic work around the world. He is the author of Afrique, danse contemporaine, published jointly by the Cercle d’art and the Centre National de la Danse de Pantin.
Through his work, Salia seeks to make visible the strength, poetry and musicality of a changing Africa and he aims to create work that reflects real life and the challenges of our time.
“The flow of ideas and cultures are personally very important to me, making us see, hear and understand the creative power as a vehicle of tolerance.” - Salia Sanou
For more information visit his website here
RESIDENCY EVENTS
Sanou will began his residency in Minneapolis in October 2017, and created a work with Karen L. Charles's Threads Dance Project, our partner for the 2017 residency. Sanou taught classes for Threads company members, and participate in a variety of community events. In November, Sanou attended technical rehearsals and the premiere of his commissioned work at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts on Nov. 3-4, 2017.