Art Hounds: Stories in movement and music
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Choreographer Taja Will has watched performances of the Naked Stages Fellows in Minneapolis for years, and they always appreciate the innovative voices of the solo performers.
Each performance is the product of a seven month-long fellowship, which allowed the artists to learn the business side of art while developing a creative work with a director of their choice.
The works are transdisciplinary, often combining text, movement, and music along with creative use of the space.
This year, both the 2020 cohort, Alia Jeraj, Atlese Robinson, C. Michael Menge, and the 2021 group, Alys Ayumi Ogura, Margaret Ogas, Ashembaga (Ashe) Jaafaru, performed for a limited audience in December. The performances are available for ticketed streaming Jan. 15-30 via Pillsbury House and Theatre in Minneapolis.
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Beth Hall of Duluth recently visited the AICHO Gallery to see a new exhibit by local artist Ellen Sandbeck, entitled “As Long As the River Shall Run.” The show comprises a series of giclée prints of Sandbeck’s multicolored, multilayered paper art. Each represents a section of the Mississippi River from its watershed to the Gulf.
The exhibit at the American Indian Community Housing Organization in Duluth explains which of the species shown in the art works are endangered, native or invasive. Sandbeck includes extinct species, leaving the viewer to consider the effect of their loss on the food chain.
“What struck me besides the educational aspect of it was the sheer beauty and layered colors which gave everything depth and sometimes movement [seen] when standing back,” Hall said. A closer look reveals scissor cuts intricate enough to appear drawn.
The exhibit is open to limited admissions, Tuesdays and Thursdays 4 to 6 p.m. through Feb. 25 at AICHO, with a community workshop on papercutting Feb. 3 at 7 p.m.
Visual artist K. Daphnae Koop of Brooklyn Center plans to see the Moving Company’s performance of “Anamnesis” for a third time when it reopens this month at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. The show, subtitled “bits and pieces from a supposed previous existence,” knits together a series of sometimes-fantastical subplots under the frame of putting on a play.
What keeps Koop returning to this show is the way it inspires a range of emotions. “There were absolutely heart-rending scenes left for a moment to settle in the air, and then with a new line and a chuckle the scene was over and the moment had passed,” Koop said.
“The first time I saw the play especially, I felt like I had just been through my emotional experience of the last two years — they encapsulated it in an evening of theater.”
The show runs Thursday, Jan. 13 through Jan. 30. Masks are required, as is proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within 72 hours.
