Arena Dances

ARENA DANCES is thrilled to return to Peavey Plaza this year. Each of the works being performed features an ensemble of different character and composition:

Run With Me, for a quartet of men dancers, is inspired by the writings of David Wojnarowicz, a multidisciplinary artist who vividly captured his personal battle with AIDS while living in New York City’s East Village in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Erased Steps, will be a sneak peek into the premiere of this new work set for August 24+25 at Union Depot, St. Paul. It is an abstract dance theater work that features 15 dancers whose relationships are gradually revealed through the works’ deft abstraction, incorporating dance, original score by MN composer Zack Baltich, visual symbolism and imaginative staging. Shining a light on both personal and societal expectations, Erased Steps exposes themes of the past and the present; what things seem like on the surface versus what they might actually be. 

quartet is a well-traveled foursome: in 2006, Carleton College’s Semaphore Dance Company took this piece choreographed by Janczewski to the American College Dance Festival Association’s National Festival concerts at the Kennedy Center in May.

The performance features dancers, Gabriel Anderson, Joe Crook, Kendall Edstrom, Non Edwards, Dustin Haug, Doug Hooker, Annika Hansen, Isaiah Langowski, Sarah McCullough, Javan Mngrezzo, Gibran Murrieta, Jacob Nehrbass, Leslie O’Neill, Addison Reine, Betsy Schaefer Roob, Laura Selle-Virtucio, Maeve Seymour, Elliana Vesely, and Allison Wheeler.

Learn more at arena-dances.org.