Mathew Janczewski’s ARENA DANCES presents THERMAL
Hello, and welcome to this evening’s performance that I hope will be emotionally charged and physically impactful for you. I am so grateful to have you here with us in this room to share my thrill of live dance performance. I am filled with gratitude for the collaborators and expert participating organizations that showed such commitment to making this evening possible and enriching my life. I invite you to experience the evening, kinetically empathizing with movement and enjoying the music and incredible dancers on stage.
Before we begin, I’d like to share a little of my cultural background growing up in a small town of 13, 000 in Round Lake, IL, majority white and blue collar to low middle class upbringing. I now know is on the land of the Sioux, Crows and Blackfeet. The middle school was named Indian Hills which in my youth, had what I thought to be a large forest behind it. I would spend hours in that forest, imagining Native Americans on the land, their teepees, and graves. Growing up with my father watching John Wayne movies, I did not know nor understand the truth of colonialism and genocide that took place to steal the land away. We are now here at the American Swedish Institute, on land stolen from the Dakota and Anishinabewaki (Anishinabe) people at the behest of a government that enslaved Black Americans from 1619-1865. The United States owes a great debt to these peoples, and these crimes against humanity that have shaped the physical and social landscape that inform today’s conversations. (Ondine)
Thank you,
Mathew Janczewski
-The performance is approximately 45 minutes with no intermission-
THERMAL (2021)
Concept and Choreography: Mathew Janczewski
Music & Sound Design: Joshua Clausen
Paper Sculpture Installation: Kim Heidkamp
Dancers: Rachel Clark, Dustin Haug, José A. Luis
Improvisational cello: Michelle Kinney
Lighting Design and Operation: Jesse Cogswell
Biographies
Mathew Janczewski (Founder/Artistic Director) grew up in Round Lake, IL, and received his professional training at the University of Minnesota with a 1995 BFA in Dance. His pre-professional credits include performing the works of Maria Cheng, Merce Cunningham, Douglas Dunn, Bill T. Jones, Marge Maddux, Susan McGuire, Mark Morris, Doug Varone, and David Voss. In 1992, he made his professional debut as a company member with JAZZDANCE! by Danny Buraczeski. In 1997 Mathew joined the acclaimed Shapiro & Smith Dance Co., receiving worldwide acclaim for his evocative physicality and emotive performances with the company. Mathew has also performed locally, nationally and internationally with ARENA DANCES, Beth Corning, Black Label Movement, Hijack, Shawn McConneloug and her Orchestra, Minnesota Dance Theater, Jane Shockley, Robin Stiehm’s Dancing People Company, Morgan Thorson, Cathy Young & Dancers, and Zenon Dance Company and such artists as Bebe Miller and Jacek Laminski.
An award winning choreographer, Janczewski has created over thirty dance works with ARENA DANCES, enhanced educational outreach programs, developed commissions with local artists, as well as launched regional, national and international touring. He was awarded the Sage Award for Outstanding Performance (2005), a McKnight Choreographers Fellowship (2005), and cited as one of Dance Magazines “25 to Watch (2008).” Janczewski has been commissioned by repertory companies- aTrek Dance, Cleveland Repertory Company, and Zenon Dance Company, as well as university and arts programs – Carleton College, Gustavus Adolphus, Minnesota State University- Mankato, St. Olaf College, Perpich Center for the Arts, St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, and the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.
Rachel Clark is thrilled to be returning for her fifth season with ARENA DANCES. Since moving to Minneapolis, she has collaborated with and performed in works by Theresa Madaus, Laurie Van Wieren, Anna Marie Shogren, Halie Bahr, and Paula Mann. This past August she had the privilege to tour Paula Mann’s newest work, Pie Equals Square, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Rachel graduated with a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies from Carleton College in 2015.
Dustin Haug grew up in southern Minnesota and attended St. Olaf College. Although he was very active in the dance department and spent a good deal of time studying chemistry, he earned a BA in Visual Art in 2000. He moved to Seattle, WA after graduation and began working with KT Niehoff’s lingo dance theater in 2002, creating and performing in several evening-length works, including Speak to Me, Relatively Real, and Inhabit. In the summer of 2007, Dustin moved back home to Minnesota. Locally, he has shown his own work at The Walker Art Center’s Choreographer’s Evening, Zenon’s Dance Zone, Choreographer’s Evening at the Ritz, Bryant Lake Bowl, and SPCPA’s Evening of Dance. He has also had the pleasure of working with numerous local choreographers such as Body Cartography Project, Rosy Simas Danse, Patrick Scully, Maggie Bergeron and Dancers, and Chris Schlicting. Dustin joined Mathew Janczewski’s ARENA DANCES in 2013 to help create and perform the evening-length work The Main Street Project. He has taught modern dance and contact improvisation at Zenon Dance School since 2008; dance, chemistry, and physics at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists from 2008-present.
Lately, he splits his time between teaching science and coordinating the academic program at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, teaching modern dance technique at Zenon Dance School, teaching and performing with ARENA. When not dancing, Dustin enjoys brewing beer, riding bike, caring for the garden, camping with his family, walking Flora, reading to Anawynn, and playing Wingspan with Kelly Jo.
José A. Luis was born in Veracruz, Mexico and raised in Racine, Wisconsin. Considered a “late-dancer” he began his formal training at UW-Milwaukee, graduating with a BFA in dance. He performed and created works locally before moving to dance professionally in Chicago. Collaborative, undergraduate, and post-undergraduate pieces led to festivals, residencies, as well as progress showings during this time. Now in Minneapolis, he hones his introspective, honest approach to dance making as an independent solo choreographer. The artistic and personal growth across borders formed a nine year dream to self-produce an evening length show — in September of 2021 this dream became reality. Challenged by dancing for artists again (after a seven year hiatus) and teaching, José approaches movement in 2022 with the intent to accept, challenge, and learn as we are, human. For more: www.jose.dance.
Collaborators:
Joshua Clausen described by Public Radio International as “powerful” and “poignant,” Joshua Clausen’s works frequently fuse strong rhythmic textures and intricate patterning with narratives from history, mass culture and current events.
Clausen is a 2018-2019 McKnight Composer Fellow, currently collaborating with ARENA DANCES and artist Kim Heidkamp on THERMAL, an interdisciplinary installation and evening-length performance at the American Swedish Institute, the chamber ensemble 10th Wave, and ceramic artist Anna Metcalfe. Other recent collaborations include Hold My Hand with ARENA DANCES (Fitzgerald Theater), Crossfire with HUB New Music (Boston), a mass choir performance of Requiem at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and the film VESSEL with members of the FIX collective, directed by Joe Horton (Minneapolis Institute of Art).
Previous honors include awards from the Jerome Foundation Fellowship, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the American Composers Forum and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Performances include the 2018 Tribeca New Music Festival, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Ensemble Mise-En, ShoutHouse, Verdant Vibes in Providence RI, and the American Composers Forum showcase. Clausen’s music has been featured on PRI’s The World with Marco Werman and Classical Minnesota Public Radio.
Clausen is a member of the Spitting Image Collective, and a board member of the 113 Composers Collective, both Twin-Cities groups dedicated to composer-curated programming.
Kim Heidkamp is a fine artist based in the NE Minneapolis Art District. She has received degrees in Studio Art and Art History from Bethel University and a Post Bacculaureate Certificate in Sculpture. You can find her work in various galleries and buildings around Minneapolis and St. Paul. Her work comes alive through delicate paper sculptures that create a moment of meditative stillness, capturing suspended in time what seems to be a living, moving creature or a growing natural landscape. Finding inspiration in an ever-changing environment, her artwork tells a story of perception and evolution of the world around us. If you are interested in her work or want to learn more about it, visit kimheidkamp.com
ARENADANCES Board of Directors:
Catherine Dannenbring, Chair
Marisa Epstein
Betsy Maloney Leaf
Deanna Thompson
Managing Director: Bergen Baker
Administrative Intern: Hunter Batterson
We’re proud to partner with the following community Organizations:
Tofte Lake Center and Ely, MN Climate Change Chapter; City of Duluth Parks & Recreation – Gichi-Ode’ Akiing Park
This performance and the 2021-2022 season is made possible with the generous support of the following ARENADANCES Sponsors:
And a special thanks to our 26th Anniversary Season Sponsors:
