Photo by Heather Gray

Erinn Liebhard

Tonight, Rhythmically Speaking Dance will be dancing up a storm at Lee's Liquor Lounge with jazz band GST. The evening will include several improvised, visual approaches to GST's music. It's going to be a mix of opportunities to watch the dance group do their thing. Folks can also get in on the action as well, as audiences are welcome to hit the dance floor.

More »

Minneapolis-based dance duo Hijack (Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder) are teaming up once again with New Orleans-based performer and choreographer Scott Heron for a two evening engagement at Bryant-Lake Bowl. It should be mad fun. The trio last collaborated on "smithsonian," which was performed at Bedlam and Open Eye before premiering in New York City at Dixon Place in 2010. This weekend is a chance to see Hijack and Heron's separately created work as they're in the process of making something new.

More »

Photo by V. Paul Virtucio

Husband and wife team Brian Sostek and Megan McClellan of Sossy Mechanics are hoping to raise money for the Southern Theater by offering six free shows of "Trick Boxing" at the space. Audiences are asked to donate what they think the performance is worth afterward. Shows started up this weekend, and are scheduled throughout the week through Saturday.
 
More »

Photo by Liz Josheff

Zanaib Musa

This weekend, Red Eye Theater will present its annual Works in Progress event. The series showcases a group of new pieces that have been in development over the course of the past six months at the space. It's all part of the theater's New Works 4 Weeks festival, which runs through June 23, and is an example of Red Eye's commitment to supporting artists in the beginning stages of new work.

More »

Pleasure Rebel, the experimental dance, performance, and video series at the Bryant-Lake Bowl, is back tonight with a new lineup of artists who are working to push experimental forms. City Pages took a moment to chat with the series' curator, Nastalie Bogira, about tonight's performance, about queerness, experimental performance, and the Twin Cities scene.

More »

Photo by Steve Niedorf

"Booba" by Andrea Miller

The spring concert of Zenon Dance Company and School's 30th anniversary season carries a few of endings. The company will be honoring longtime dancer Greg Waletski, who has been dancing with the troupe for 22 years. He plans to retire after the two weekends of performances. The school also recently lost John Munger, one of its most beloved instructors, when he died on April 30 at the age of 67. He had been teaching there since 1990.

"It's just awful," says artistic director Linda Andrews about Munger's passing. "He was such a nice man, and he had taught at Zenon forever. We're going to really miss him."

More »

This Friday, ARENA DANCES is back for its annual fashionable fundraiser, ARENA Bikini. Now in its sixth year, the party features swimwear by top local designers. This year's runway includes looks from Richard Beckel, Adrienne Yancy, Max Lohrbach, Jay Nelson, Anita Jensen, and Raquel Redmond, plus boutiques MartinPatrick3, Nani Nalu, and Rainbow Road.

"ARENA Bikini gives designers a way to step out of the box and make something different," says Sandy Simmons, event producer. "Adrienne, Jay, and Anita are the only designers who typically make bikinis, so the other designers are really going out of their element."

More »

Photo by Tim Rummelhoff

Cambodian dance group Khmer Arts Ensemble is in town this weekend to present the Minnesota debut of their work "A Bend in the River," a piece exploring revenge through contemporary Cambodian dance, puppets, and music. The performance on Friday features a preview at Solera Restaurant with Black Label Movement's Carl Flink and Emilie Plauché Flink, and today at 4 p.m. there will be a public conversation between Khmer's Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, who's a survivor of the Khmer Rouge, and Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy at the Nolte Center for Continuing Education. 
More »

Photo by Ingrid Alm for Lunchboxx.org

Shannon Blowtorch

Shannon Blowtorch is the kind of person that if something is in front of her, she's going to learn how to use it. That's what happened to her back when she was the entertainment director at Pi Bar. There, she just started teaching herself how to use the DJ equipment that was in the space.

After Pi's brief lifespan (2007-2008), Blowtorch began DJ-ing around town, and was so successful that she does it full time now. This week she's got two events. The first is BOMP or Bust!, a dance party that started in Bedlam's old space, and moved around quite a few times before settling at Ground Zero. The second is at Hell's Kitchen's Grown & Sexy: A Way Gay St. Paddy's Day, a happening catering to the LGBTQ community.

We talked with the Blowtorch, the mastermind of some of the best parties in town, to find out about the upcoming events and what she's been up to lately. 
More »

Photo by Eric Saulitis

For their show this weekend at the Cowles Center for Performing Arts, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre and School takes on the work of Chilean Nobel Laureate Gabriel Mistral in a piece that explores the poet's "mad woman" poems. It's one of two world premieres in an evening of three works that concludes the company's 30th anniversary season.  More »