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.
– This week’s special guest is Megan Mayer, CANDY BOX Featured Artist –
Join us on July 13 for the premiere of Studio Stories Season 11!
To listen to previous episodes, click HERE!
More about today’s special guest –
Megan Mayer
I am an award-winning Minneapolis-based artist working with choreography, dance, experimental video and photography. My work pulls from minimalism, transposition, mimicry, grief, tenderness, wry humor, loneliness, social anxiety, fake bad timing and exacting musicality. By exposing tiny emotional undercurrents, I find virtuosity through vulnerability and gesture. Drawn to the edges of the experience of performing: the anticipatory rapid heartbeat before going onstage, and the regretful relief after exiting, my work often reveals where that switch lives in the body. I make deeply personal dances that celebrate the people performing them.
For 35+ years I’ve always held a full-time job in addition to being an artist. My job and dancemaking are so intertwined that I can’t consider one without the demands of the other. I make art work amidst the inequities and confines of late-stage capitalism and try to use my privilege to advocate for fellow artists and employees.
My work has been generously supported by two McKnight Foundation Choreographic Fellowships, residencies at the National Center for Choreography (Ohio), Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (Florida) and several local arts organizations, grants from MRAC, MSAB and Jerome Foundation, a Sage Dance Award and numerous choreographic commissions. www.meganmayer.com
Photo by Sean Smuda
Photo by Megan Mayer
Photo by Sean Smuda
Photo by Randy Karels
Photo by Megan Mayer
Photo by Megan Mayer
Missed last week’s episode? You can find all our previous interviews by clicking here!