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Dance Making, Dance Taking

Summer Class by SPDT

July 7-25, SPDT will present their Dance Making, Dance Taking course at FAIR School in Crystal, MN

through WMEP: West Metro Educational Program. The course is limited to 25 and open to

4th-12th graders. The company members of SPDT will engage students in a comprehensive

study of traditional and contemporary dance techniques, dance history, and choreography.

Each day will begin with a technique class in one of three styles: modern, jazz, or African based modern.

These classes will emphasize the connections between physical expression and personal

imagination to encourage a fully integrated learning experience.

To register, visit

www.wmep.k12.mn.us

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SPDT and Dancing Wheels

April 10-28, 2008

** UPDATE 04/29/08

The two-weekd collaboration between SPDT and Dancing Wheels was a success. To read how the tour went by Cleveland's

Plain Dealer Dance Critic, Donald Rosenberg, click below!

Plain Dealer Preview

Plain Dealer Review

 

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater will be on a two-week tour to Cleveland, OH performing their newest

dance/theater piece, Ways to Be Hold as well as working with and setting a new work,

Big Trucks and Leverage , on Cleveland based company Dancing Wheels & SPDT.

Dancing Wheels is the first modern dance company to integrate professional stand-up and

sit-down (wheelchair) dancers. The two companies will perform Big Trucks and Leverage during their

collaborative presentation of new works and world premieres, Double Exposure, at the

Cuyhoga Community College Performing Arts Center, April 26-28, 2008.

For Ticket information, call 216-432-0306

Tickets range from $12-$25 - all ticket sales are final!

Please indicate any special needs when making advance ticket purchases

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CONGRATULATIONS SPDT & PROJECT SUCESS

Project SUCCESS received the 2008 Sally Award for Education and accepted the award

on behalf of Project SUCCESS and Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater. The partnership and commitment

of these two groups to students and families in the Twin Cities makes the collaborative work possible.

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SPDT Ritz Theater Season

March 20-30, 2008
Ways to Be Hold & The Ends of Love

To watch a clip of The Ends of Love courtesy of iDream.tv, click here

To read a preview of SPDT's newest work, Ways to Be Hold, click here

** UPDATE 04/10/08

In addition to the preview video clip and article, SPDT also received attention during and post performance

with a story done during a rehearsal for new work, Ways to Be Hold by Marianne Combs,

Minnesota Public Radio and reviews by Camille Lefevre, Minneapolis Star Tribune

and Linda Shapiro, St. Paul Pioneer Press.

To view the story and video by Marianne Combs, click here 

The video allows the company's fluidity and performance to permeate the screen,

with commentary by Artistic Co-Director, Stuart Pimsler.

In Lefevre's review, "Pimsler effectively tackles serious themes" she states that

"Stuart Pimsler is a tremendously intelligent choreographer. He envelops such tough subjects as war,

human culpability and gender battles with aesthetic cloaks of desperate beauty."

Shaprio's review,"Pimsler aims at war, love", states that

"Pimsler's choregraphy tweaks and probes the conventional wisdom that surrounds our lives as

lovers, citizens, consumers, and 'warriors for peace.'

 

PRESHOW INFO

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater will present their 26th season at The Ritz Theater in Minneapolis,

March 20-30. The first week, March 20-23, will feature three works. A National Premiere,

Ways to Be Hold, is a work that filters a series of inquiries through both a global and personal lens,

asking;"What do we hold? How are we held? Who holds us back?"

Pimsler’s eight performers are caught between moments of tenderness and assault as they decide

how to respond in dangerous times. In Pimsler’s new work, he focuses on the extremes of being “held”-

the ways in which support can turn to restraint. Ways to Be Hold considers the allure of comfort and

the potential for public disengagement, inspired by Pimsler’s outrage over the war in Iraq.

This work marks Pimsler’s second collaboration with costume designer,
Sonya Berlovitz who has contributed a compelling visual component. Spoken-word artist Tiyo Siyolo

lends his vocal force to this new work as commentator and provocateur.


The first week’s program will also include SPDT’s riveting, repertory work, Sentry, described by the

New York Times "as one of the most powerful works to be seen in a long time". In addition,

a new solo work, by guest choreographer/director and long time company member of SPDT,

Vanessa Voskuil, will premiere her lastest dance-theater fusion Aperture.

Featuring Voskuil's poetic sense of stage design, ceebral imagery,

and unique physical style of emotional storytelling Aperture is a humerous,

absurdist, and dark psychological drama performed by Artistic Co-Director of SPDT, Suzanne Costello.

SPDT will then present The Ends of Love, March 28-30, a piece commissioned and premiered by

The Guthrie last season. Due to sold-out audiences and critical acclaim, The Ends of Love is being

reprised due to popular demand. The Ends of Love returns this season with an expanded SPDT

performer ensemble. Set in an imagistic world of emotional movement and intimate dialogues,

The Ends of Love muses on love, lust and loss from youth to old age. Michelle Kinney’s
original score, filmmaker Paul Auguston’s video and Sonya Berlovitz’s costumes
provide lush musical and visual layers to the evening length work.

“Layering humor, pathos, smart talk and carefully honed movement with live music by Michelle Kinney,
Pimsler and his gifted company propel the audience from contemporary skirmishes in the battle of

the sexes to a mythical world.” -- Linda Shapiro, St. Paul Pioneer Press.

TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE
$22 per ticket or a special $33 double-weekend package price
For reservations, call the RITZ BOX OFFICE at 612-436-1129

Please indicate any special needs when making advance ticket purchases

For more information, please contact SPDT at:
SPDanTh@aol.com or 763-521-7738

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WASH: Working with Artists, Sharing the Healing 2008

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater's 7th Annual WASH: Working with Artists, Sharing the Healing

three-day symposium was held Friday, March 14; Saturday, March 15; and Sunday, March 16

at The Barbara Barker Center for Dance on the University of Minnesota's Campus (West Bank).

This year's participants included dancers, textile artists, psychologists,

nurses, writers, social workers, and many more.

        

The WASH: Working with Artists, Sharing the Healing Group 2008

WASH was designed to give caregivers the opportunity to process their experiences

as well as gather new tools for the important work they do. Simultaneously, the artists are

introduced to new ways in which to expand their creative process. Through the collaborative

work over the weekend, the participants then go back into the community to share

their collaborative wisdom through satellite events.

Please contact us for more information or to be placed on the WASH 2009 interest

WASH

C/O Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater

1937 Glenwood Parkway

Minneapolis, MN  55422

SPDanTh@aol.com / 763-521-SPDT (7738)

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Go, DOG. Go!

SPDT Artistic Co-Director, Suzanne Costello, just completed a month long residency in St. Louis, MO

in which she set movement & directed local performance company, Metro Theater Company,

for their newest performance piece, Go, DOG. Go! The performance opened on January 18, 2008

and will run through February 10, 2008.

For more information, visit:

Metro Theater Company

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FAIR School Residency

FAMILY MATTERS VI

Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater is in residency at FAIR School in Crystal, MN from

October 29-November 16, 2007. This is SPDT's sixth year to lead the FAMILY MATTERS

residency to the fifth grade class. SPDT explores family and heritage with the 5th graders

to help show where they came from and how they are all connected.

The FAMILY MATTERS PROJECT performance is at 7:00pm on Thursday, November 15th at FAIR .

Please contact SPDT for more information:

763-521-SPDT (7738)

SPDanTh@aol.com

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DANCE IN THE DARK

Exploring perceptions around death

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater will be performing at The First Annual Linda Francis Cartee Memorial Event

for Pathways on October 25, 2007 from 6:30-9:30pm at the Illusion Theater in the Hennepin Center.

DANCE IN THE DARK is the first of a planned series of annual events named after Linda Francis Cartee,

a Pathways' participant, service provider, and board member who faced death with

a courage and vitality that continues to inspire all who knew her.

SPDT will be performing a new work, Undercovers, which explores the fine line between beginnings and

endings through a montage of movement, music and fragments of dreams with members of

SPDT and participants from Pathways'. The evening will also feature photographer, Alec Soth;

humorist and playwright, Kevin Kling; and memoirist, Patricia Hampl.

For Ticket Information please contact

the Illusion Theater Box Office

612-339-4944

Please indicate any special needs when making advance ticket purchases

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The Sheltering Home Chronicles

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater will be part of the Sheltering Home Chronicles on October 18, 2007.

The Sheltering Home Chronicles is a celebration for 87 Years of Child Sheltering in North Minneapolis. 

The performance will be held at the Main Minneapolis Library at 6:30pm along with live music and

other presentations by local artists.

For information on The Sheltering Home Chronicles, contact Kate Searls at 612-239-1079

** UPDATE

After SPDT's performance at the library, SPDT received an email from the Founder and Director of the

Sheltering Home Chronicles, Kate Searls. It included the following:

"Wow! Thank you so much for SPDT's contributions to our October 18th event at the MPLS Central

Library! I can't easily describe how exciting and magnetic that performance in the atrium was. PLEASE

share with the dancers how very compelling that experience was for all of us. I really didn't want it to end."

"Thank you again and again for getting involved in 'I coulndn't live at home' and especially for bringing

such an important and persuasive work to our event!"

--Kate Searls

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Midwest Aphaisa Conference

SPDT Artistic Co-Directors, Stuart Pimsler & Suzanne Costello, will be guest speakers at the

Midwest Aphasia Conference on September 25, 2007. Stuart and Suzanne will be speaking to the

Stroke Survivors about how they can find Meaning in Movement.

For information on how to book SPDT, please contact us at:

763-521-7738 (SPDT) or SPDanTh@aol.com

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Dance Making, Dance Taking

Stuart Pimsler, Suzanne Costello and members of SPDT will be teaching Dance Making, Dance Taking,

a summer residency for the West Metro Educational Program at FAIR School July 9-27.

The culminating show for the two-week WMEP residency will be Friday, July 27th.

For information on the performance, please contact us at:

763-527-SPDT (7738) or SPDanTh@aol.com.

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      The Hmong Youth Group at             Hmong Performing                   Hmong Youth Group

        the Neighborhood House            My Name is Tong Xiong           being silly before the show

April 11-June 23, 2007:

The Family Matters Project is Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater's newest community inclusive project.

SPDT partners with a variety of Twin City social service organizations who serve the needs of diverse,

cross-section communities.

Currently, SPDT is presenting The Family Matters Project to members of The Hmong Youth Group

at the Neighborhood House in St. Paul over the course of eleven-weeks.They meet with the participants

every Wednesday and through story-telling, gesture, and movement creation, the workshop will explore

issues of family, community, and individual diversity.

The culmination of this season's Family Matters Project, Relatives ALL, will be: a new stagework,

My Name is Tong Xiong, performed by The Hmong Youth Group; Loteria, a video exploration of a

Senior Citizen community brought together through the game of Mexican Bingo; and excerpts from SPDT's

newest dance/theater work, The Ends of Love, commissioned & premiered at the Guthrie this past February.

Relatives ALL will be at 3:30pm on Saturday June 23rd at the Paul & Sheila Wellstone Center at the

Neighborhood House in St. Paul. Admission is $10 or a non-perishable food donation to the

Neighborhood House food shelf. We hope you can join us!

For more information on this community inclusive project, please contact us at

763-521-7738/SPDanTh@aol.com or visit the Neighborhood House at www.neighb.org

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The Guthrie premiere of The Ends of Love was such a success, SPDT will be performing it again

in March 2008 at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis along with a new performance work!

Check back for more information!

 

THANK YOU to all of you who were in the audience for the premiere of The Ends of Love at the GUTHRIE February 15 -18! We were thrilled to have the theater at capacity for all four performances. It has been an incredible year for us and the great success of this new beloved piece has been the perfect climax for our 25th anniversary year!

If you were unable to make it to the show or are curious to hear what was written about The Ends of Love

click the links below!

City Pages

Star Tribune

Pioneer Press

Mpls/St. Paul Magazine


 

WASH

Working with Artists, Sharing the Healing

Symposium March 9-11, 2007

Barbara Barker Center for Dance at the University of Minnesota

WASH 2007 was another successful year for the artists and caregivers who attended the 6th annual WASH symposium. They explored the intersection of creative expression and healing together during this three-day workshop. If you are an artist or caregiver and are interested in participating in WASH 2008, please contact us at SPDanTh@aol.com!