Forward Momentum

Every year, Twin Cities dancers and dance enthusiasts look forward to July’s Momentum, which features four new works by emerging choreographers. The Walker Art Center and Southern Theater’s selection and support make Momentum a coveted event among dancers and choreographers, and provides an exciting glimpse at the work of up-and-coming artists. Here’s a sneak peek at this year’s premieres.

Chris Schlichting’s “Fantasy”

Chris Schlichting: “Fantasy”
Schlicting’s dance is contemporary and human, featuring big movements, sweeping architecture, and a sense of an underlying grand order reminiscent of ballet or planetary orbits. Dedicated to exploring dance’s borders, Schlichting can be counted on to create pieces full of big ideas and bold movement.

Maia Maiden with Ellena A. Schoop: “The Foundation, et cetera”
Generations of African-American history—from Africa to civil rights to now—spark and blend in a rich mix of hip-hop, step, African traditional dance, dramatic theater, and spoken word. Maiden and Schoop draw these forms together with the pulse of the beat, which grounds the luscious free play of bodies moving as the spirit takes them.

Anna Marie Shogren: “Upstairs Bathroom”
Shogren is smart and funny and as keen on tickling you with telling details as she is on exploring grand performance concepts. Her choreography quotes jazzercise and Hollywood with the nerdy-cute, sexy-awkward flair of a girl making a kissy-face in her mirror. Think beige sneakers, eighties nostalgia music, and—strangely enough—the Grim Reaper.

Eddie Oroyan with Laura selle virtucio: “Brown Rocket”
A volatile relationship spinning out of control drives this physical work. Live music accompanies Oroyan and dancer Laura Selle Virtucio as they demonstrate the emotional muscularity that’s made them both stars of the local modern scene, hurling each other around with abandon yet somehow finding space to be lovely in midair.

Momentum: New Dance Works, July 17–19 (Schlichting and Maiden) and 24–26 (Shogren and Oroyan). Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls., 612-340-1725

Why Dance?
This month, six recipients of the McKnight Fellowship for Dancers gather at the Southern Theater for Solo, a program where they will perform solos created specifically for them. We seized the opportunity to ask these artists one simple question: Why dance?

“It’s always been a part of my everyday life,” says percussive/jazz/modern dancer Karla Grotting, who grew up dancing in her mother’s studio. “What it gives me now is a real deep satisfaction, an expressive outlet, a creative place—it’s just a great joy.”

Flamenco dancer Colette Illarde’s work with disabled adults informs her perspective: “Since I was given the facility [to dance], I feel like it’s my responsibility. Every day I feel so lucky that I am able.”

For ballet dancer Mifa Ko, communication is the key: “If I can tell a story or a message, that’s my goal.”

“I’ve just always been moved to move,” says modern dancer Laura Selle Virtucio. But like Ko, she also wants to “say something very truthful that is accessible to people.”

For ballet dancer Abdo Sayegh, dance is a “way to interpret life, a way to discover the world. For me, it’s everything,” he says. Solo, July 11–13, Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls., 612-340-1725