Pramila Vasudevan is a cultural worker, choreographer and trans disciplinary artist. She is the founding Artistic Director of Aniccha Arts (since 2004), an experimental arts collaborative producing site-specific performances that examine agency, voice, and group dynamics within community histories, institutions, and systems. This is her fifth year as director of Naked Stages at Pillsbury House Theatre, a 7 month program for early career performance artists. The pandemic has had devastating consequences for artist communities and she is currently researching what it means to build self sustaining artist ecologies that are not dependent on traditional funding models.

Pramila is on a personal journey to examine her caste privilege in her body, artistic, spiritual and daily life, as she searches for paths to be in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. She was born in the US, lived in India and has been studying, living, and working on stolen Dakota land for about 25 years. During the pandemic Pramila and her family have been taking walks to the Bdote - a place of genesis, regeneration and beauty, close to Fort Snelling which is a site of genocide of the Dakota people. She is committed to continue learning about the history of her Tamil ancestry as well as where she lives and works and further building relationships with members of indigenous communities here and learning about her neighborhood and this land. 

Dance training with, Louise Revere Morris, 1926-1936; dance training with, Doris Humphrey, 1926-1936; dance training with, Charles Weidman, 1926-1936; dance training with, Hanya Holm, 1926-1936.

Gary Peterson has been a part of Minnesota’s dance community for nearly 40 years. In addition to his work as managing director of Ananya Dance Theatre and research collaborator with Dr. Ananya Chatterjea, he has served as dance student, consultant, and as executive director of James Sewell Ballet, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, Zenon Dance Company, and the Southern Theater. He has produced professional dance performances at more than 300 domestic and international venues, including seven New York City engagements, Bermuda, Iceland, and Ethiopia. Gary’s perspectives are informed by experiences in law office management, legislative lobbying, federal multidistrict litigation, political candidacy, public affairs radio broadcasting, newspaper publishing, and by public service on the Washington staff of Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. In 2017-18, he secured the location and led the build-out of Ananya Dance Theatre’s Shawngram Institute for Performance & Social Justice in Saint Paul. He holds a BA degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota, and serves as a director of the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Prolific is perhaps the best word to describe Myron Johnson's career as Artistic Director and Choreographer of the Ballet of the Dolls and the Ritz Theatre. He's produced well over 150 ballets and shows no signs of slowing down or softening an edge that has defined his 50 years on the stage. But as he transitions into a new phase of his career, Johnson's 2011 solo show Songs for a Swan reflects on his training with Marcel Marceau in Paris in the 1970s, dancing in New York in the 1980s and the past 20 years performing and creating in the Twin Cities.
Prolific is perhaps the best word to describe Myron Johnson's career as Artistic Director and Choreographer of the Ballet of the Dolls and the Ritz Theatre. He's produced well over 150 ballets and shows no signs of slowing down or softening an edge that has defined his 50 years on the stage. But as he transitions into a new phase of his career, Johnson's 2011 solo show Songs for a Swan reflects on his training with Marcel Marceau in Paris in the 1970s, dancing in New York in the 1980s and the past 20 years performing and creating in the Twin Cities.

A dedicated performer, teacher and creator, Karen Long Charles received a BFA Ballet/BS Computer Science from Texas Christian University and M.Ed. in Administration from Georgia State University.  Charles has performed with numerous dance companies including Room to Move Dance Company (Atlanta, GA), Susan Warden Dance Company (Kansas City, MO) and was awarded a fellowship to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Charles served as Director at Perpich Arts High School and she was the founding Principal/Executive Director at Main Street School of Performing Arts. Charles has created/presented works for James Sewell Ballet, Carleton College, Macalester College, Main Street School of Performing Arts and Perpich Arts High School.

Threads Dance Project was founded by Karen L. Charles in 2011. Karen and her Threads Dance Project were nominated for a SAGE Dance Award for Outstanding Performance in 2015, have successfully toured to sold-out audiences in Atlanta, GA, and co-hosted the 2017 McKnight International Choreographer, Salia Sanou, of Burkina Faso/France.

Threads was also honored as one of six companies featured in American Dance Abroad’s (ADA): Pitchbook Volume II (Winter 2016) for In-Development Projects, for the Fall 2017 premiere piece “Uncertain Reality.” ADA’s publication is used as a representation of American dance around the world at festivals, performances and marketed to international programmers.

A native of Mendota Heights, MN, Neil Greenberg studied from the age of 11 with Minnesota Dance Theatre and School, taking class and performing alongside Toni Pierce(-Sands), Robin Stiehm, and Lea Thompson (see photo).  He moved to New York City in 1976, and was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1979-1986.  As a choreographer he is known especially for his Not-About-AIDS-Dance, which employs his signature use of projected words as a layering strategy that provides doors into “meanings” in the dance, while also raising questions about the nature of meaning-making. Among his awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, two New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards, repeated fellowships from the NEA, a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and repeated support from the MAP Fund and NYSCA.  He has created two works for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. Greenberg is currently Professor of Choreography at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, and has previously taught at Purchase College, Sarah Lawrence College, and UC Riverside.  He served as dance curator at The Kitchen in NYC from 1995-1999.  His most recent project, To the things themselves! (2018), continues his interest in the move away from representation toward an experience of the performance moment in and of itself.

https://vimeo.com/channels/neilgreenberg

neilgreenberg.org

Laurie Van Wieren has been a creative force in the Twin Cities for 30+ years. Her choreography has been shown in the Twin Cities, nationally, and in Europe. 9x22 Dance/Lab, her monthly showcase, is the pre-eminent performance platform for local and visiting choreographers. She’s developed work for the Walker Art Center’s Open Field performance, which highlighted 100 local choreographers.

Van Wieren has curated performance for the Southern, Ritz, Bryant Lake Bowl Theaters and Soo Visual Art Center. She is a recipient of fellowships/grants from McKnight, Jerome, Bush, NEA, Rockefeller Foundations and Mn State Arts Board. She has received a Special Citation SAGE Award and a SAGE Award for Outstanding Performance. Van Wieren received a City Pages Artists of the Year in 2016 for her solo dance Temporary Action Theory and her ongoing curation. She is currently making site-specific ensemble dance performances for parks and large spaces and a series of solo works for small spaces. 

Amy Behm-Thomson studied dance at the University of Minnesota. She was a very active member of the Minneapolis dance community for over 15 years. 

Amy joined ARENA Dances in 1999 and Zenon Dance Company in 2000. She has also performed with Dancing People Company, Ragamala Music and Dance, Catalyst - Dances by Emily Johnson, and Cathy Young Dance. 

She is the proud mother of two young children living in North Carolina with her husband and teaching yoga at Franklin Street Yoga.

 Greg Waletski is a graduate of Chaska High school and St. Old College. He has been a member of the Twin Cities dance scene for over 30 years. For 22 of those years he was a member of Zenon Dance Company. His most recent projects have been dances by Megan Meyer, including (FW) Redux which has been interrupted by Covid. In 2013 Greg began a career transition to American Sign Language/English Interpreting and now works as an Interpreter. He was awarded McKnight Fellowships for Dance in 2000 and 2013, and a SAGE Award for outstanding performer in 2011. He is also a DJ, spinning soul 45s at the monthly dance night, Hipshaker. 

Since starting Zenon in 1983, Linda has earned accolades for developing the
company’s unique modern and jazz aesthetic by commissioning repertory
works from such choreographers as Bebe Miller, Dwight Rhoden, Bill T.
Jones, Bill Young, Llory Wilson, Joe Goode, Stephanie Skura, David Dorfman,
Doug Varone, Danny Buraczeski, Daniel Rousseve, Cathy Young, Keely
Garfield, Johannes Wieland, Seán Curran, Colleen Thomas and Andrea
Miller. She studied at the Martha Graham School, Alvin Ailey Dance Center,
the Juilliard School, and with Alvin Nikolais, Lynn Simonson and Merce
Cunningham. She holds a degree in dance and drama from Hollins College in
Virginia. Linda has taught dance and creative movement since 1972, and has
developed Zenon Dance School into a recognized training center for
vocational and professional dancers. She is the mother of two amazing
daughters, Laura and Lily, and lives in St. Louis Park with her two cats, Ollie
and Jack.