Crazy Energy

“We were always the maverick company,” muses Linda Andrews, founding artistic director of Zenon Dance Company, recalling the early days of her modern/jazz ensemble. “People didn’t think I was going to make it.” But Zenon has proved the skeptics wrong—this fall marks its twenty-fifth season.

Zenon is a repertory company, meaning that Andrews engages various choreographers from around the country to create work for her company. Andrews has a good eye for talent. She worked with Bill T. Jones, Bebe Miller, Doug Varone, and many others before they became stars, and she continues to find up-and-coming choreographers. “We’re on the pulse of what’s happening in American modern dance,” Andrews insists.

These days, though, the choreographers come to her. “I felt honored to be able to go and work with them,” says Colleen Thomas, a New York choreographer who recently created work for Zenon. Andrews is a big part of the draw. “She knows what the artist is trying to get at, and she knows how to get it,” says Thomas.

“For me, the core is artistic excellence—articulating the choreographer’s vision, and not stepping on the stage unless we can do it,” Andrews says. And the dancers respond. Company member Christine Maginnis can certainly count stamina among her fierce graces. She’s been dancing with Zenon for all of its twenty-five years and says the work and the company continue to challenge and sustain her. “Each year so far it’s always made sense to sign up for another one,” she exclaims. “Really, the beauty of Zenon is that it’s always evolving.”

Zenon celebrates its anniversary season with a concert this month at the Guthrie’s proscenium theater. “We’re stepping out, taking risks,” Andrews says of the decision to perform in such a large space. She hopes the Guthrie visibility brings in some first-time audience members, and she’s programming accordingly. “You need to develop a palate for modern [dance]. So I try to mix my shows to make them accessible, yet challenging.” Accessible includes a snappy premiere from jazzmaster Danny Buraczewski; challenging might describe Colleen Thomas’s brooding yet darkly comic work. Whatever the mood, Andrews is sure of one thing. “We’re going to heat it up,” she says.

How hard is it to keep a dance company going for twenty-five years? “Oh, god—I gave up. It’s really hard,” laughs Linda Shapiro, who started the now-defunct New Dance Ensemble around the same time Andrews started Zenon. Fundraising is the big struggle. Of all the professional dance companies that were in Minneapolis when Zenon began, only Zenon survived without interruption or significant decline.

Andrews sighs at the thought of running her company for another twenty-five years. “We’ll continue to produce the highest level of dance I can,” she says, but gets excited again when she talks about her dancers. “We still have the crazy energy here,” she says. Nov. 30–Dec. 2. McGuire Proscenium Stage at the Guthrie, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls., 612-377-2224