Formed in 1995, ARENA has performed nationally in Minnesota, Iowa, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. In 2001, the Walker Art Center recognized ARENA Dances in commissioning “Struggle to Nothing” as part of Momentum: New Dance Works. The company performs in a variety of venues (including the Southern Theater, Patrick’s Cabaret, Walker Art Center’s Choreographer’s Evening, Red Eye, Minnesota Fringe Festival and others) in order to reach out to new audiences. In that same vein, Bankrupt City Ballad, a work based on the dance marathons of the 1930s in collaboration with Theater Latte Da premiered in the Fall of 2005 which now has been demonstrated and taught across the state of Minnesota through the Shubert’s educational outreach program.
In the summer of 2005, ARENA taught and performed at the 7th Open Look International Summer Dance Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia and the 3rd TOUCH Festival in Arkanghelsk, Russia. ARENA Dances has been a company in residence in the rural Minnesota communities of New York Mills, Winona, and Morris. ARENA just celebrated its tenth year of performing in the Twin Cities with the performance of ten at the Southern Theater in the Fall of 2006 and is currently working on the multi-media modern dance piece, Ugly with international music pioneer Morton Subotnick with a commission by the Walker Art Center to premiere October 18-20, 2007 at the McGuire Theater at the Walker Art Center.