Providing a snapshot of Minnesota’s dance landscape, Momentum illuminates the skill and passion of the next generation’s most promising artists. Featuring two companies each evening, Momentum showcases new voices and ideas that speak to the latest combinations in dance while solidifying the Twin Cities as a hotbed of fresh, experimental, and often under-the-radar talent. This year Chris Schlichting, Maia Maiden in collaboration with Ellena Schoop, Anna Marie Shogren, and Eddie Oroyan premiere new works co-commissioned by the Walker and the Southern with the support of the Jerome Foundation.

July 17-19
Chris Schlichting
love things

In love things, a kinetic conversation with images of America in the 1970s and '80s, Schlichting pulls from vernacular and formal dance as well as Top 40 songs, videos, and treasured objects from his youth to consider the construct of fantasy evoked by pop culture.

Maia Maiden with Ellena A. Schoop
The Foundation, et cetera

The Foundation, et cetera evolves through a timeline of parallel events, snapshot conversations, and Caribbean, Senegalese, and step dance movements as Maiden and Schoop, members of the hip-hop and Black Panther generations respectively, explore the basis of identity, civil rights, and African roots in America.

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July 24-26
Anna Marie Shogren
I'm a jerk

Yes, a jerk, but I’'m a jerk is intended as a friendly piece. Shogren (voted best dancer in City Pages' 2008 "Best of the Twin Cities") navigates the edges of minimal movement and flamboyant actions with over-the-top, campy death imagery as she demonstrates socially awkward behaviors and attempts sincere non-jerkiness.

Eddie Oroyan
Brown Rocket

Oroyan explores the masochistic persistence and quixotic passion of two lovers through sweeping movements, playful choreography, and aggressive partnering. Set to a live indie-pop score, Brown Rocket reveals the thrill of new love's fiery takeoff and its inevitable crash.

Call for Artists:
Proposals for next year’s Momentum: New Dance Works series will be accepted through August 6, 2008. Click application guidelines to view.

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