Just do it

9 x 22 Dance Lab

Where? Bryant-Lake Bowl
When? The last Wednesday of every month.
What? Named for the modest dimensions of the BLB stage, 9 x 22 is a dance program of curated showings of experimentation and works-in-progress, for artists at all stages of their development. Dance makers of all styles and levels of experience welcome. A discussion moderated by choreographer/curator Laurie Van Wieren follows each performance, giving audience and choreographer alike the opportunity to react and explore the work together. There are three slots to be filled every fourth wed of the month with the exception of December and August. We look for a mix of experiences and styles of dance making, physical theater and body-focused performance art.

How do you get involved? Talk to Laurie at the next 9 x 22 or email her.

A note from Anna (MinnesotaPlaylist Intern): For my $6, 9 x 22 is consistently the most interesting night of live performance going on in the Twin Cities. Laurie is a great curator and the element that makes it stand out among other showcases of new work is that after each showing she moderates a discussion between the choreographer and the audience, so that they may together react to the work that was shown and explore where it may go and how it may change. This is the part of the night that makes it most interesting as an audience member. How often do you get to react out loud to what you’ve just seen? There is feedback of all kinds: there are often great dance minds in the audience but there are also “laypeople” and everyone speaks up. Check it out.

Artery 24

Where? Soap Factory
When? 6 pm, Friday, July 24 – 6 pm, Saturday, July 25.
What? Artery 24 is an action-packed, experimental showcase for performance and new media now in it’s sophomore incarnation at The Soap Factory. Artery 24 features performance ranging from: dance to experimental theatre to live art, and new media ranging from the interactive to the projected. Artery 24 is a harried land of ambition, imagination and endurance spanning a non-stop period of twenty-four hours. This pioneering event invites the audience to come and go as they please or dares them to brave extended hours of cutting edge programming — the choice is yours!

How do you get involved? 2009 Applications happened in early April. For information on 2010, email the curators.

Ball’s Cabaret

Where? Southern Theater
When? Every freakin’ Saturday night! Midnight!
What? Since August 5th, 1991, Leslie Ball, curator of BALLS Cabaret, has maintained one of the most unique venues for performing arts anywhere. What began as a six-week experimental project has turned into an institution in the Twin Cities performing arts community. BALLS is by definition "Guerrilla Theatre,” so it adapts to existing sets, light cues, and hours. After all the regulars have gone home we come in and do our thing. It seems that after midnight most creatures seem less inhibited than they are in the hours before midnight. BALLS is a place for artists to take a chance — and works best when both artists and audience members loosen up. We howl at full moons. We sing along. We pass around Hershey's Kisses for a spark of energy. We are all in this together.

How do you get involved? Talk to Leslie Ball at the next Balls or call 612-340-0155 ext. 325.

Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater

Where? The Bryant-Lake Bowl
When? All year round.
What? Take charge of your ideas/ambition and produce up your own show.
How do you get involved? Email about availability. BLB’s Artistic Director, Kristin Van Loon, will get back to you and tell you everything you need to know.

Choreographers’ Evening

Where? The Walker Art Center McGuire Theater
When? Usually two performances in one night at the end of November.
What? For more than 30 years, Choreographers’ Evening has served as the major gathering for the Twin Cities’ vital independent dance community. Witness and celebrate the remarkably diverse range of Minnesota dance — from established choreographers playing with new ideas to some of the freshest talent on the scene. This evening of short works has ranged from ballet to clogging, classical Indian dance to Spanish flamenco, dramatic dance-theater to comic vignettes.

How do you get involved? Unlike a lot of other programs which start the process with filling out an application, you apply to be chosen for Choreographers' Evening with an audition. Audition a short piece for the curator that will, if you are chosen, end up being the piece you will present in Choreographers' Evening at the Walker. Auditions are early this year, July 9 - 11! Email Michele Steinwald for more info.

Kinetic Kitchen

Where? Patrick’s Cabaret
When? The next Kinetic Kitchen performances are scheduled for October 2-3, 2009 and December 11-12, 2009.
What? A series for emerging and established choreographers.

How do you get involved? Email Sara LaRose Holland, Kinetic Kitchen’s curator.

Minnesota Fringe Festival

Where? Various Minneapolis performance venues
When? July 30 - August, 2009
What? Producing companies and individual artists sign up for the Fringe by application and are selected by lottery. Artists pay an application fee and are provided with a venue, five performance dates, promotion, technical support, workshops in various areas of self-producing, and they receive 65% of their box office revenue. Not all the work is new work, but lots of it is, and the Fringe Festival audience is uniquely excited about seeing new work.

How do you get involved? Read more here, then sign up online when applications become available, usually in the Fall each year. Email the staff with questions.

Minnesota State Arts Board: Artist Initiative grant

Where? It’s your call
When?The next recipients will put up their projects in 2010.
What? This pilot program supports and assists artists at various stages in their careers. It encourages artistic development, nurtures artistic creativity, and recognizes the contributions individual artists make to the creative environment of the state of Minnesota. Grants will be awarded for career building and for the creative development of artists. Some artists may choose to request funds to create new work, but that isn't a requirement of the program.

How do you get involved? The Arts Board alternates disciplines eligible to apply from year to year. Music, photography, media arts/new media, poetry, and prose applications will be accepted during this grant round (fiscal year 2010). Dance, theater, and two- and three-dimensional visual arts grants were awarded last year (fiscal year 2009). The application deadline this year is july 30. But if you want to apply in dance or theater you will have to wait until next year. Go to this page and contact any of the Program Officers for additional information or answers to specific questions.

Momentum: New Dance Works

Where? The Southern Theater
When? July 16-25, 2009
What? The Momentum dance series was created to promote the work of an exciting new generation of dance and dance-theater creators in Minnesota. The series enables innovative, under-recognized choreographers to have their work presented by the Walker Art Center and the Southern Theater as well as provide professional development opportunities facilitated by the co-presenters. Momentum seeks out applicants from a full range of styles, cultures, aesthetics, and approaches that represent contemporary dance in the world today.

How do you get involved? Email Dana Kassel with questions.

Naked Stages

Where? Intermedia Arts
When? Performances last year were in October and November.
What? Naked Stages, presented by Intermedia Arts with support from the Jerome Foundation, is an intensive performance art mentorship program that gives artists the space to dig deeply into their creative process. Founded and developed by Eleanor Savage, Naked Stages is directed by Obie Award winning artist Laurie Carlos with administrative support by local artist Molly Van Avery. Naked Stages is designed to give artists a supportive environment for building their performance and production skills while creating an original performance art piece. The nine-month program culminates with a series of public performances, which allow artists the opportunity to debut their work and truly communicate their ideas to an audience.

How do you get involved? Email with questions.

Northern lights: art(ists) on the verge

Where? The Weisman Art Museum
July 5 – August 23
What? While there are many students and practitioners of so-called new media art in the Twin Cities and Minnesota, there is a paucity of opportunities and support to critically develop and present such work. The ultimate goal of the AOV Fellowship and Mentorship programs is to create sustainable habitat for the local ecology of experimental art practice with the following key elements: critical support and evaluation, monetary and technical resources, audience development, and institutional recognition. Six commissions are awarded. Some are are outright Fellows for the production of new work. The other commissions are part of a 9-month, experimental Mentorship program for the development, production and exhibition of new work. The Mentorship program began in September and, over 9 months, artists have bi-weekly individual and group mentoring sessions and critical workshops by visiting curators and artists. The Fellows and participants in the Mentorship program have a joint exhibition in the summer of 2009.

How do you get involved? Email for more information.

Playwrights' Center membership

Where? The Playwrights' Center
When? All year round
What? Founded in 1971 by five writers seeking artistic and professional support, The Playwrights' Center is now the biggest and most innovative playwriting center in the country. Programs in three core areas of focus:

• Center membership is available for $50 a year to anyone who wishes to join.
• Through the McKnight and Jerome Foundations, the Ruth Easton Fund, and other partners, the Center now awards over $200,000 each year in fellowships, residencies, commissions, and development funds.
• The Ruth Easton Lab gets plays written by Core Members ready for production.

How do you get involved? General Membership is available to anyone and can be purchased online. Fellowships and Core Membership are selected by application.

Red Eye Theater Works-In-Progress and Isolated Acts programs

Where? Red Eye Theater
When? New Works 4 Weeks (their new works festival) runs every weekend in June!
What? If you participate in Works-In-Progress you share a weekend of evenings with other creators, your piece being about 20 minutes long. If you are chosen to be an Isolated Acts artist you have a weekend of performances all to yourself, presenting a full evening of work. Works-In-Progress gives area artists access to space and other practical resources necessary to develop ideas for performance. What's more, it provides time for those ideas to incubate, for the possibility of learning from daring experiments that fail, or unexpected discoveries that beg for further exploration. The program brings together artists with a wide range of experience — from different disciplines and points of view — to dialogue with and respond to each other's work using structured feedback protocols. Works-In-Progress is about nurturing connections among people and ideas and, through that process, about creating community.

How do you get involved? Works-In-Progress has an application process. The new application is available on the Red Eye's Web site in late October or early November, with a deadline typically after Thanksgiving in late November or early December. Isolated Acts does not have an application process. It is curated by Red Eye Artistic Director Steve Busa. Each year he typically invites at least one piece or artist who developed work in a prior year's Works-In-Progress program, so as to provide a sequence of opportunities to artists, although it's not a guaranteed sequence. For Isolated acts Steve also approaches artists whose work has intrigued him, and he takes recommendations from others — from former IA artists and the Red Eye's Critical Core artists — about potential artists/projects to consider. Also, individual artists do and should make inquiries by email to Steve Busa when they have work they believe is appropriate for the program.

Sample Night Live

Where? The History Theatre
When? The first Wednesday of every month: Act One - G-rated - 7:00 p.m. Act Two - Unrated - 8:15 p.m.
What? You're a brilliant artistic genius who doesn't get the recognition you deserve. We know who you are. We used to be you. Hell, some of us still are. Marketing is hard, but Sample Night Live is easy. Sample Night Live gives you FREE EXPOSURE TO AUDIENCES who will love your work and come back for more. Show up and perform a seven-minute sample of your very best work and sit back while dozens of people discover you and sign-up for your mailing list. That's it. Done. Check that off your list.

How do I get involved? Email them to sign up.

SCUBA National Touring Network for Dance

Where? Velocity Mainspace Theater in Seattle, the ODC Theater in San Francisco, Temple University in Philadelphia, and the Southern Theater in Minneapolis.
When? SCUBA presentations at the southern were last weekend. Next application deadline is June 26, 2009 and the 2010 performances will fall between February and May.
What? SCUBA Touring Network is in its seventh season. This program is geared towards early to mid career artists who are looking to begin their national touring experience and have developed dance work ready for a small-scale tour. The artists chosen from the roster of Minnesota dance artists will get either get an evening-length performance or split an evening-length performance with other performers.

How do you get involved? By application, due June 26, 2009. For more information, visit the Web site, or contact Dylan Skybrook by email or by calling 612-340-0155, ext. 319.