Mathew Janczewski is the founder and artistic director of ARENA Dances, a modern dance company based in Minneapolis since 1995. He received his BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota in 1994. Mathew has danced with a variety of Minnesota choreographers, including Beth Corning, Shawn McConneloug, Robin Stiehm and Cathy Young. He was a company member of Shapiro & Smith Dance and JAZZDANCE! by Danny Buraczeski for seven years with both companies. Besides running ARENA Dances, Mathew currently is associate faculty at the University of Minnesota and Carleton College teaching Modern Dance and for the third year in a row create work for the St. Paul Conservatory of the Performing Arts.

Mathew received a 2005 Sage Award for “outstanding performance” for Solo Lounge and is a recipient of a 2005 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Choreographers, administered by the Southern Theater and funded by the McKnight Foundation. In Fall 2006 ARENA celebrated its Tenth year Anniversary at the Southern Theater. Mathew’s choreography for ARENA was presented by the SCUBA network in Philadelphia in March 2007 and performed at Symphony Space and City Center in New York in January 2008. Mathew is Dance Magazine’s “25 to watch” for 2008 and traveled to Budapest, Hungary in March 2008 to perform Plastic Language at the L1 Dance Festival with ARENA. The company had several tours this year including Philadelphia, Missouri, Michigan and ARENA’s New York DEBUT at Joyce SoHo. Now in its 14th season, Mathew is busy with ARENA touring to New York in January, Michigan once again, our 3rd annual ARENA Bikini fun party! and Open Eyes April 8-11, once again at the LAB.

Since 1992, Mathew has choreographed more than 30 contemporary works and several companies have performed Mathew’s distinctive movement. Special projects and commissions have included choreography for the Repertory Project of Cleveland, St. Olaf College, Minnesota Dance Theater, State University of New York – Potsdam, University of Minnesota, Perpich Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, and Zenon Dance Company and School.