Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance History
Stories are among our most potent tools. We need to unearth old stories that live in a place and begin to create new ones. We are story makers, not just story tellers. All stories are connected, new ones woven from threads of the old. (Paraphrased – Robin Wall Kimmerer)
Join ARENA DANCES every Thursday lunch break for new podcasts, hosted by Artistic Director Mathew Janczewski. This series will share the histories of notable Twin Cities dance artists and the evolution of the industry’s landscape through time. Each week will feature a new guest of honor, sharing their story and impact on this gem of an arts town.
— Our special guests this week is Vanessa Voskuil —
To listen to previous episodes, click HERE!
More about today’s special guest –
Vanessa Voskuil is a choreographer, director, performer, writer, designer, and teaching artist. Ranging from large community-inclusive performance works to ensemble and solo works for site-specific locations and theater settings, her work has been described as “visually arresting,” “boldly and uncompromisingly moving within its own time and its own logic,” and “interlaced with surrealist sensibility and bracing intelligence.”
Voskuil has received two Minnesota Sage Dance Awards for Outstanding Design and nominated twice for Outstanding Performance. She has been honored twice with a McKnight Fellowship for Choreography (2009, 2015) and awarded “Best Dancer 2015” by City Pages in addition to her cast for “en masse” in 2009. She has been honored by Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine as “Best of the Year 2015.” Voskuil has been named one of the “7 Artists to Watch” by Minnesota Monthly Magazine and recognized by the Star Tribune as one of “9 Minnesota Artists to Expect Great Things.”
Her work has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival (NC), Walker Art Center, The Southern Theater, Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, Minnesota Visible Fringe, Red Eye Theater, Off-Leash Area, and Flaneur Productions, and supported by the Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Sewell Family Foundation, American Composers Forum, Moore Family Fund for the Arts of the Minneapolis Foundation, Forecast Public Art, Northern Lights.mn, and Dakota West Arts Council. In 2017, she was awarded a 3-month artist residency and travel fellowship to Japan provided through the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.
From 2003-09, Voskuil served as co-founding, artistic director of award-winning, ensemble-based performance company, Live Action Set. In 2010, Voskuil co-founded the Minnesota Dance Film Festival and served as the festival director until 2013.
As a teaching artist, Voskuil has taught through Zenon Dance school, University of MInnesota, and Live Action Set. She has held choreographic residencies at the American Dance Festival (NC), Carleton College, Macalester College, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Zenon Dance School, International Music Camp, and Guild Incorporated.
As a performer, Voskuil has performed with Emily Johnson’s Catalyst Dances (1998-2005), Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater (2001-2009), Skewed Visions, Theatre Novi Most, and Off-Leash Area.
Voskuil holds a BFA in Dance and a BA in Theater from the University of Minnesota.
Photos John Koch and Tim Rummelhoff
Missed last week’s episode? You can find all our previous interviews by clicking here!