Walker Art Center presents
Choreographers’ Evening 2023
Curated by Darrius Strong
Saturday, November 25, 2023
4 pm & 7 pm
McGuire Theater
Choreographers Evening 2023
Curated by
Darrius Strong
Featuring
Ricci Milan
Gabrielle Abram
Luna Medhanie
Taja Will
Zoë Koenig
Jim Lieberthal
Asha Rowland
Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies
Rick Ausland
Anna Pinault
Julie Warder
Tonight’s performance runs approximately 75 minutes with no intermission.
The 4pm performance includes ASL interpretation by Gretchen Toay and audio description by Laura Wiebers.
Sensory Note: Strobe and flashing lights are used during portions of this performance. These may affect photosensitive viewers.
A Note from the Curator
As this year's curator, I carefully selected artists and works that embraced storytelling as a central theme. These works were designed to immerse the audience, stimulating their imagination and thoughts. I believe that during this time, artists have a vital role in fostering conversations and building a sense of community, and what better medium for this than art.
Throughout the audition process, I posed a key question to choreographers: "How do you incorporate storytelling into your creative process?" Recognizing the multitude of ways to convey a narrative, I anticipated an enthralling evening, showcasing diverse possibilities. With a variety of voices taking the stage, my hope was to provide a unique avenue for each member of the audience to connect with the works on a personal level.
It's truly an honor to serve as the curator for the 51st Choreographers' Evening production. I see it as my responsibility, both as a practitioner and a teacher, to pass the torch to the next generation of talented choreographers and artists within our community. I am immensely grateful for this platform and for the opportunity to share the stage with the exceptional artists I've had the privilege of selecting.
– Darrius Strong
About the Artists & Works
Ricci Milan
Time Down
Choreography, lyrics, and concept by Ricci Milan
Performed by Rhythm Street Movement: Drew Geck, Hilary Palmer, Anna Esposito, Ashley Gonzalez, and Ricci Milan (understudy/swing Tony van de Ligt)
Music by David Feily
Vocals by Andrina Brogden
Rhythm Street Movement is performing an original piece – a piece that brings focus to our most valuable, terrifying, simple, profound, un renewable resource. OUR TIME. Using intentional movement, rhythmic patterns in both classic and contemporary tap dance vocabulary, we attempt to paint a glimpse into the constant fight we are all in with the time we have. The time we’ve spent. The time in our imaginations. And the time we plan we wish we had...
Ricci Milan attended Larkin Dance Studio for 12 years. He did the "New York Thing" for a year performing tap and hip hop for the NBA, PBS, Compaq computers, choreographer showcases, botmisfas, the NCAA final four, on subway platforms, and with award winning recording artist Mya. Ricci also taught competition kids in New Jersey and joined up with some guys to create the original cast of Break the Floor. He then did the "L.A. Thing" for 9 months where he street performed with 10 foot 5 to pay the bills while he was coming up short at 100's of industry auditions. After a year at Gaylord Productions in Myrtle Beach and a year in Tokyo (Tokyo Disney Sea) he moved home to Minneapolis. He rejoined 10 foot 5 and they recharged and rebranded with the 2004 debut of the internationally acclaimed Buckets and Tap Shoes. In 2008 he turned his focus to the creation of a passion project, Rhythmic Circus, started as a dance competition choreographer, and began hosting events for Hall of Fame Dance Challenge. In his tenure with Rhythmic Circus he co-wrote, choreographed, and directed Feet Don’t Fail Me Now, completed 8 national tours, 4 international tours and performed a successful Broadway run at the New Victory theater. Ricci recently broke ground on a new creative company, Rhythm Street Movement, that has produced national advertisements and promotional content for TORO Corporation, Thompson Reuters, and Medtronic. They’ve also created and released a new hit holiday show and full length album entitled Who brought the humbug? He currently works as creative director of the Adrenaline Dance convention national tour.
Gabrielle Abram
Yōkai
Performed by Gabby "The Baddie" Abram
Music: de aqui no sales by ROSALÍA; edited by DJ Liam McLaughlin
This work explores the birth and creation of curses. Supernatural being broken from the negative energy of humans.
Gabrielle Abram, better known as Gabby “The Baddie,” is a Gary, Indiana, native. Abram is a self-taught, multi-lingual Hip Hop artist and has received training in ballet, modern, West African, and jazz at The Perpich Center for Arts and Education and TU Dance Center. More recently Gabby has worked with TU Dance as a Trainee in their Cultivate Program. In 2020 Abram was chosen as a Momentum New Dance Works Fellow and was awarded the Creative Support for Individuals grant from The Minnesota State Artist Board in 2022. Gabrielle is a core company member of STRONGmovement, directed by Darrius Strong, and is co-owner of BGC Productions, a Film and Media Production company dedicated to creating, collaborating, and producing art that elevates and inspires black and POC artists, along with business partner Rayna Howard. In 2018 at The Lab Theater Abram co-produced Listen, a collective of 9 choreographers sharing Pan-African perspectives and personal stories of black identity. In November of 2021, Gabrielle made her choreographic debut with Release set on The Threads Dance Project as a Tapestries 5.0 Choreographer. Abram continues to produce, dance, and create work in the Twin Cities.
Luna Medhanie
Close
Performed by Luna Medhanie, Karen Yang, Peter Dang, and Mahelia Hunter
Close by Wolftyla
Close is an act describing a person who's afraid to fall in love despite having the desire to. A fear that weighs heavily when allowing someone parts of you that are most intimate and sacred. It’s a common story that's been translated into movement to show the hesitation in fully trusting someone you want to build with. The act of rejection when handing someone something as fragile as your heart sparks fear and anxiety that makes us too scared to experience anything emotionally intimate. As the song progresses, there's a shift in energy representing finally choosing to trust and as a result, falling in love. This story is shown on stage through partner work, lyric play, and the overall changes of mood. As you watch and reflect, you might ask yourself, what makes you afraid to love?
Luna Medhanie is a 19-year-old up-and-coming artist born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She’s been surrounded by all sorts of artistry for as long as she can remember, inspiring her to get involved young. Her pride in being Eritrean has motivated her to help create space for her community in the dance scene. Luna has trained in styles such as Hip-Hop, Contemporary Hip-Hop, Jazz Funk, and has dabbled in heels since she was 14 years old. She is a choreographer before anything else, dedicating the past two years to teaching at studios for weekly classes and workshops. Luna has led and instructed classes at The Workroom, Hothouse, and Tu Dance Studio as well as participated in workshops for Envision and The University of Minnesota’s dance club, Choreos. Recently, she's been exploring her interest in performance and had the opportunity to work in Malcolm x Mauriee’s set at the Groovy X Reveal Summer Showcase as well as performing with recording artist Rheesa. Luna’s goal is to take her talents to the next level and teach studio classes and direct her own sets around the world.
Taja Will
An excerpt from Dearest Liberator, DISASTER! DISASTER! DISASTER!
Created in collaboration with Margaret Ogas and Marisol Herling
Audio excerpts: Canon D major; Hanayome Ningyo (Performed by Margaret Ogas, Taja Will, and Marisol Herling (in order of appearance)
Music composition by Eric Gonzalez
Our queer Latine squad of contemporary avatars deliver an excerpt-mashup of DISASTER! We invite all energies at once, WATER, AIR, FIRE, EARTH, moon, ghost, catastrophe, compost, restoration and ancestors. We call to action vibrational awareness of ecosystem solidarity, and elemental sovereignty. Save the dates for the premiere of Dearest Liberator, DISASTER! DISASTER! DISASTER! An evening length work running for four performances on April 24-27, 2024, at the Red Eye Theater.
Taja Will is a queer, non-binary, disabled, Latine adoptee, simultaneously a choreographer, performer, educator and Healing Justice practitioner. They initiate solo projects and are the Artistic Director of the Taja Will Ensemble, collaborating with core company members Marisol Herling, Marggie Ogas, and an incredible team of designers. Their work aims to embody contemporary states of socio-cultural reality, and an aesthetic of futurism composed of the diaspora experience. Ritual, ghosts, queer visibility, disability access, non-narrative drama, brown babe squad, conceptual complexity and environmentalism populate Will’s work. In 2024 they’ll premiere three new works including, Merge, in March, a collaborative endeavor with Mathew Janczewski and Cowles Center commission. The same evening they’ll serenade audiences with a haunting new solo of live vocals and movement. Dearest Liberator, DISASTER! DISASTER! DISASTER! premieres late April at the Red Eye Theater. An immersive, intimate performance on climate catastrophe and elemental sovereignty, a dark but realistic comedy.
Zoë Koenig
Total Heat Death
Co-developed with Nora Nygard
Performed by Zoë Koenig
Original score by Nora Nygard
Total Heat Death collapses the pressures of an ending universe, personal loss, and the spectacle of performance to expose a preoccupation with turbulent, unseen forces. A brutal exercise in relinquishment and rebellion, this performance on the brink finds catharsis in physical extremes and transformation in an expansive sound landscape while confronting the simulated nature of the show.
Zoë Koenig is a Minneapolis-based dance artist committed to producing surreal works that balance a search for physical and emotional extremes with humor and absurdity, forming an expansive movement palette and distinctive musical score for each dance through intensive research and experimentation. She has presented work in Minnesota at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, the Southern Theater, Squirrel Haus Arts, Praxis Gallery, and the Off-Leash Art Box. She has danced in the works of numerous choreographers including Sarah Abdel-Jelil, Nieya Amezquita, Leila and Noelle Awadalla (Body Watani), Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Martha Graham, Chris Johnson, Joanna Lees, Erika Martin, Brenna Mosser, Katy Pyle, Gina T’ai, and Kate Wallich, among others. Koenig was a 2019 Generating Room Artist at the Cowles Center for the early development of her work Cloud Cover which premiered in 2022 in the Analog Dance Works production Tellus. Her most recent work Duel Duel Revolution (2023) was commissioned by Alternative Motion Project. She is the recipient of a 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals grant for the development of an evening-length work, Physical Prizes, in collaboration with musician Nora Nygard.
Nora Nygard is a composer and songwriter from North Dakota currently based in the Twin Cities. Since 2008, Nygard has published numerous solo albums alongside hundreds of releases with various groups, including her experimental multi-genre project Citizen Scientist. After growing up touring with punk and emo bands, she dedicated herself to sound design and synthesis while working as an audio engineer recording and producing for commercial projects and independent artists. Her most recent album The Ghosts Beneath Our Feet (2022), the result of a fifteen-year creative process, documents grief, dysphoria, alienation, and the experience of being haunted by dead loved ones. Nygard collaborated with choreographer Zoë Koenig on the sound design for Cloud Cover (2022) and Duel Duel Revolution (2023). Their collaboration has since evolved into an ongoing practice of simultaneous choreography and music development for new performance works that consider and unsettle relationships between sound, movement, and audiences.
Jim Lieberthal (Dynamic Shape Construction)
Archangel Convergence
Performed by Davente Gilreath and Hassan Ingraham
Music by John Adams
Costumes by Stephanie Karr Smith
The appearance of protective forces of the universe - on the lookout for their assignments. Co-created with the input of Davente Gilreath and Hassan Ingraham.
Jim Lieberthal has been working creatively since 1979. Originally interested in opera directing, he made his way from an orchestral musician (cellist) to the theater (acting, production and stage management) to dancing. Choreographic work has included working with artists with alternative abilities, employing mechanical assistance in their work as dancers and actors. While studying in Madison, Milwaukee, and Manhattan (the 3Ms!) he focused on work in Kabuki and Noh theater, Ballet, Hortan, and Wigman dance techniques. Film work, television and modeling have been part of the total portfolio as well as experience in musical theater. Jim has received a McKnight Fellowship Award (Mer-Peace 1984), Best of the Year (Cri de Coeur Lavender Magazine 2007) and a Sage Award for Performance (Listen by Rosy Simas 2013). 18 seasons of Nutcracker, multiple appearances at the Minnesota Dance Festival, three evening length shows of original work, book for a musical theater work Lost Childe/musicke, creating a collaborative video essay to encourage change: Heart Gears Shifting, and writing the scenario while co-writing a libretto for a new opera: Split-Second/LIFE, round out the current experience. In his spare time, he has taught Pilates Mat and Reformer to students for 20 years. He is also thinking of creating a podcast series…
Asha Rowland
The Alchemist's Shadow
Performed by Asha Rowland
Music by Paulo Fresu, Omar Sosa, and Natacha Atlas; and Sheila Chandra
A shadow, untethered, for the first time, feels the warmth of light. The Alchemist’s Shadow is a multi-interpretive focus of a larger story called The Alchemist’s Soul. An exploration of freedom after repression and of what happens when someone faces their shadow-self. The work serves as an introspective research that draws parallels from imperious driven global oppressions. Simultaneously, the Alchemist’s story is the multifaceted journey of transformation, self-discovery and self-realization tropes.
Asha Rowland is a multi-disciplinary artist and dancer with a focus in Bharatanatyam, various African idioms of dance, Raq Sharqi (mentored by Sabah Saeed), Hip Hop, and more. A disciple of Smt. Hema Rajagopalan and Smt. Krithika Rajagopalan of Natya Dance Theatre, she has been training in Bharatanatyam since the age of 8. She taught Bharatanatyam and her own experimental movement to Chicago land area youth for over 6 years and has been a professional group and solo performer since 2014 after her arangetram. Asha is an ensemble member and collaborator with Lakshmi Rampopal's, Lykanthea, as a dancer and vocalist. The Lykanthea ensemble is currently working towards their forth-coming album, Some Viscera. Her personal work and movement has been a guide and a by-product of exploring her multiethnic heritage; driven by curiosity of cultural intersections, ancestry and community connections. Her multimedia solo work is based in storytelling, world-creation, character development, and puzzle-making all encompassed around social justice concepts and mythology with a purpose of illuminating global power dynamics and imbalances. Often drawing from her dreams has led her to explore themes on reality, time, paradoxes, illusion, and how to convey subjective perspective.
Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies
You are the only one in this Hangout (Version)
Performed by Annie Carlson, Helen Hatch, and Addie Smith
Music by Jan Jelinek, Aphex Twin, and Vulfpeck ft. Mike Viola
Created in collaboration with the cast, You are the only one in this Hangout is a quartet for three dancers and the ghost of Margaret Thatcher. We work to make work about work that is still, in the end, work. Special thanks to Doug Varone and the DEVICES program for catalyzing this work and supporting its development.
Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies (she/her) is a multidisciplinary choreographer, dancer, and movement educator based in Minneapolis. She is Ballet Co. Laboratory’s 2023 Laboratory II Emerging Choreographer and a member of the 2023 cohort of Doug Varone and Dancers’ DEVICES choreographic mentorship program. Born and raised in Lexington, Massachusetts, Hannah trained at the Lexington School of Ballet, the Boston Ballet School, and the Joffrey Ballet School, later graduating from Reed College and the Vertigo International Dance Program in Jerusalem. She is a founding member of sub.set dance and an alumna of ODC’s Pilot Program (cohort 72) and her work has been presented at Manhattan Movement Arts, the Ten Tiny Dances festival, TBA: The Works, the Northwest Film Center, hq pdx, SpectorDance, Studio Azul, and ODC’s Studio B. Hannah is also an accomplished lindy hop and authentic jazz dancer and regularly teaches and competes around the country. Find her at hannah-mm.com.
Rick Ausland
Finding My Groove
Performed by Rick Ausland
Thank you to Alejandra Iannone
Music: Live looping and improvography by Rick Ausland; an excerpt from Air On the G String, by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by the Bach Philharmonic Orchestra
I’m excited to return to perform at the Walker Choreographers’ evening for the 3rd time. From a very young age I’ve been inspired by tap dancers, musicians, theatre tech workers, and magicians. With this work I have explored the overlap of things I find interesting and like to learn about. In 2020, a near-fatal bike accident and pandemic gave me many hours alone in my apartment. I had the realization that one can only do their life’s work, while they are still alive. I pulled out my soldering iron and started creating my electronic tap floors during that time. Then I plugged the floor into a Loop Station and discovered I could not only create multi-layer beats, but also explored adding sound effects to my tap sounds like how a guitar player uses pedals. Naturally I began dancing to the beats I would create. This year it was proposed that “everyone incorporates a hint of orange into their outfits.” Within all of this I discovered moments of humor, rhythm, and magic.
Rick Ausland is a co-founder of the Minneapolis-based dance and music companies 10 Foot 5 (1997-2002), and later Buckets and Tap Shoes (MN Fringe Favorite 2004, ’05, ’07, ’11, ’13, ’14; Minneapolis City Pages “Best Dance Performance 2005”). He was a featured guest on the next to last episode of A Prairie Home Companion (2016), nominated for a 2013 SAGE Award for “Outstanding Performer," Fall for Dance at NY City Center (2007), Vail International Dance Festival (2007, ’08, ’09), St. Louis Tap and Heritage Festival at the Fox Theater in St. Louis (1999), 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, CA (2001), has performed internationally in Austria, Ecuador, Finland, Malta, Russia, and in 39 of the 50 states including Hawaii and St.
Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.
In the Twin Cities, Rick has had the honor of performing at the Cowles Center for Performing Arts (Buckets and Tap Shoes 2012, DREAMS 2013), Twin Cities Tap Festival 2017, ’18, ’19, ’21), Guthrie Theatre Dowling Studio (2011), McGuire Theater at the Walker Art Center, the Fitzgerald Theater, McKnight Theater at the Ordway Center, First Avenue Mainroom (2005, ’06, ’07), Dakota Jazz Club, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, The Southern Theater, Music Box Theater, and the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand. Rick has choreographed and taught dance throughout Minnesota at schools including; Lundstrum Performing Arts, Larkin Dance Studio, Heartbeat Dance Studio, Ballare Teatro, Main Street School for Performing Arts, Children’s Theatre, Perpich Center for Arts Education, the St. Paul Conservatory, and Zenon. He is a graduate of Larkin Dance Studio and the Perpich Center for Arts Education (Media Arts Major) and has more than 25 years of experience in sound design, recording, editing, lighting, photography, and event production. Rick serves as the co-director of the Minneapolis-based immersive theatre company Sparkle Theatricals, and is the host of the Have Tap Shoes Will Travel podcast available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you find your favorite
podcasts.
Anna Pinault
Anthem for You and I (Excerpt)
Performed byGabrielle Abram, Heaven ShaRae Calvert, Jillian Kramschuster, and Sam Meryhew
Sound editing by Anna Pinault. “Leave My Head Alone Brain” by Wesseltoft Schwarz Duo, “The Reminiscence” by Altered Natives.
Anthem for You and I is a work in progress for TU Dance's CULTIVATE, A Trainee Program supported by the Bob and Kathie Goodale Legacy Fund.
Raised in Minnesota, Anna Pinault worked as a dance artist and educator in New York City for nearly a decade. In 2022, she landed back in the Twin Cities once again to pursue the next season of her creative work. Anna’s most recent work includes Ashwini Ramaswamy’s Invisible Cities, TU Dance Company’s The Three Women Project, and projects with Black Label Movement, Joe Chvala’s Flying Foot Forum, Rovaco Dance Company, and the Des Moines Metro Opera. Her work as an educator has included Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Neighborhood Playhouse, Daya Yoga Studio, the NYC Public School System, Zenon Dance School, Hothouse Minneapolis, and the TU Dance Center, among others. Anna also practices Thai Bodywork, and is studying for her MS in Human Movement Science. Her passion for bodily education spills into both her teaching and artistic work. Her current choreographic creations explore the creation of imagery and architecture by transposing rhythm and other musical languages onto the body. Her powerful energy is unique in its ability to quickly morph from style to style, all while maintaining a supple articulation and water-like quality.
www.annapinault.com Instagram: @anna_pinault
Julie Warder
Ce Me!
Performed by Aneka McMullen and Julie Warder
Music: Gospel Blues by Joe Louis Walker
Video Design by Julie Warder
Video Editing and Input by Cheryl Warder-Reeves
Photos for Video: Toni Pierce- Sands (Kari Mosel, photographer), Beverly Cottman, Jacqueline B, Smith, Maple Lee-Thompson, Latha Zogaa, Katie Sample, Dianne McIntyre (Photo created by Ian Douglass), and Velma G. Warder. Permission to use photos granted from individuals or their estate. All remaining photos from Creative Commons Licenses.
Ce Me is about two African American women who once again are unable to get employment because of their race. The work goes through frustration, anger, and building of self-resolve; supporting each other they devise a plan. A video of iconic, inspirational women of color plays throughout the piece.
This piece is dedicated to my mom who passed away March 6, 2023.
Julie Warder began dancing with Uchawi African Dancers under Richard D. Thompson (Artistic Director of St. Paul’s History Theater), and also studied ballet and jazz under Myron Johnson (Artistic Director of Ballet of the Dolls). She would later dance with Ballet of the Dolls. She received a BFA in Dance from University of the Arts in Philadelphia where she also trained with Philadanco and was a member of Leja Dance Theater for several years. As a Choreographer / Dancer she has danced in many productions including (The late) Laurie Carlos’ Late Nite Series, Kinetic Kitchen, Rhythmically Speaking, Renovate Choreographer’s Evenings, 16 Feet, and The Walker’s Choreographers’ Evening. Julie would go on to be the first “Local” Choreographer for Rhythmically Speaking’s The Cohort, choreograph a new work on St. Paul Conservatory of the Performing Arts students for their “J-Term” performances, and choreograph new work for Thread’s Dance Project’s Tapestries 7.0 Residency under Karen Charles, Artistic Director.
About the Curator
Darrius Strong is a highly accomplished choreographer, dancer, and educator based in the Twin Cities. His creative work has garnered recognition and been featured at the Walker and other venues as well as in programs such as Choreographers’ Evening and Rhythmically Speaking. As the founder and artistic director of STRONGmovement and the director of the hip-hop program at Eleve Performing Arts Center, Strong continues to push boundaries and inspire others through his innovative approach to movement.
Strong’s work has been featured in the 2015 New Griots Festival and on a billboard in New York City’s Times Square in 2016. In 2017, he received the Momentum New Works recipient award, acknowledging his outstanding contributions to the field. He has served as the movement director for the Guthrie Theater and Ten Thousand Things Theater, and has created works for dance companies including Threads Dance Project, Flying Foot Forum, Alternative Motion Projects, TU Dance, and James Sewell Ballet. Additionally, Strong has dedicated the past seven years to bringing hip-hop knowledge and technique to Anoka Middle School for the Arts, making a significant impact on the next generation of dancers.
Beyond the realm of dance, Strong has made his mark as a movement director for musicians. He has collaborated with bands such as Noneabove and has provided movement direction for groups performing at prestigious galas and other events. Recognized for his artistic excellence, Strong is a recipient of the 2019 Jerome Hill Fellowship and the 2021 McKnight Fellowship for Choreographers, celebrating and solidifying his position as a trailblazer in the dance community.
)