Open Court: An Informal Showing by Dance Rec Pickup League

This new site informed work by Dance Rec Pick Up League explores park spaces, aspects of recreation and play, community and congregation, and the environments of park offerings. This will be an inclusive experience for the audience where they can choose to play with us, alongside us, or enjoy as a spectator.

Friday, July 17 at 10:00am
At the southwest corner of Commons Park. Free!

This informal showing will be rain or shine. A few chairs and benches are on site. Otherwise, this will be a standing show with some potential audience participation. Feel free to bring your own lawn chair. There are games set up in the Commons; stay afterwards to play! Bring your own snacks or a ball, or stay and have lunch from a food truck on 4th Street. Port-a-potties are available on Park Ave.

Dance Rec Pickup League is Erika Hansen, Eva Mohn, Gabriel Anderson, Jamie Ryan-Karels, Leslie O’Neill, and Sarah Baumert—a group of friends who recreate together. We create proposals, scores, games, and questions as a way to make dances. This work has developed from weekly collaborative sessions at the Commons Park in Minneapolis. This activity is made possible by the Bridge Fund for Dance program through the City of Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs Department.

The most direct way to get to The Commons in downtown Minneapolis is by taking bus Routes 3, 7, 10, 14, 17, 22, or the METRO C Line to the stops right next to U.S. Bank Stadium. The park sits directly across the street from the U.S. Bank Stadium LRT Station. On-street parking is available. The closest parking ramp is the Armory Parking lot at 500 South 6th St.

24th Annual Dances at the Lake

Dances at the Lake returns for its 24th annual season on Friday and Saturday, July 17 and 18, at 7:00pm at the Lyndale Rose Gardens near Lake Harriet. This free outdoor dance concert features two evenings of performances by professional and student dancers in one of Minneapolis’s most scenic settings. The event showcases the vibrancy of the Twin Cities dance community while providing free access to professional-quality performing arts. Guests are encouraged to bring picnics, lawn chairs and/or blankets.

This year’s selected choreographers include Aileen Norris and Daniel Grove, Anda Flamenco, Christopher Watson Dance Company, Cultivate Dance Collaborative, Javan Mngrezzo, KASM Dance Collective, Kinetic Evolutions Dance Company, Mary Willmeng, Minnesota Ballet Collective, Ray Terrill Dance Group, Remnant Dance Conservatory – Romero Cannady, Sansei Yonsei Kai, and 8:20 Dance Company.

Dances at the Lake is presented by KASM Dance Collective.

Free Showing of Alexis Robbins’ New Work for Rhythmically Speaking

Rhythmically Speaking (RS) is hard at work on our 18th annual summer show Groovers & Makers 2026, and we’re fortunate enough to be working with tap choreographer Alexis Robbins/kamrDANCE, a visiting artist with a company based in New Haven, Connecticut. We’d love to share with you what she’s creating with us, so we invite you to come get a sneak peek of her new work for the company.

Saturday, July 18 from 3:00-3:30pm
Location: BallareTeatro

Come get a taste of what we’ve been cooking up before catching the whole show at the end of July!

This activity is made possible in part by the Bridge Fund for Dance program through the City of Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs Department.

Flamenco Íntimo in St. Paul – Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre

On July 23, Strip away the big stages and experience flamenco exactly how it was born: up close, raw, and intensely connected.

Flamenco Íntimo welcomes you into the setting of a traditional Spanish tablao—an intimate space where art thrives on personal connection rather than spectacle. World-class guest musicians join forces with a celebrated guitarist and three powerhouse dancers in a spontaneous dialogue of gesture, rhythm, and movement. Together, they shape the performance in real time right before your eyes. Join us for an unforgettable evening of passion and artistry.

Thursday, July 23 at 7:30pm and 9:00pm
Book 7:30pm tickets here! 
Book 9:00pm tickets here!
Seating is limited.

Artists
Artistic Director: Deborah Elias
Guest Singer: José Cortés
Guest Guitarist: José Manuel Alconchel
Guitarist: Ross Fellrath
Dancers: Deborah Elias, Rachel Holmes, and Molly Kay Stoltz

This activity is supported, in part, by the City of St. Paul Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program.

Black Dance Improvisation

Join us for an evening of live performance research, curated by Leslie Parker, featuring two improvised solos developed through Black Dance Improvisation (BDI). BDI supports dance creatives exploring Black improvisation as performance research, providing space to devise, develop, and perform original solo work while honing dance aesthetics, professional development, drawing from Pan Black/African consciousness and informed by lineages of experimentation as an embodied practice.

Doors open 6:30pm on Thursday, July 23 and Friday, July 24 at Barbara Barker Center for Dance.

This event is free and open to all. Donations are warmly welcomed on a sliding scale of $10–$30 to support Black Dance Improvisation and to help sustain this work.

Flamenco Íntimo in Minneapolis – Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre

On July 24, strip away the big stages and experience flamenco exactly how it was born: up close, raw, and intensely connected.

Flamenco Íntimo welcomes you into the setting of a traditional Spanish tablao—an intimate space where art thrives on personal connection rather than spectacle. World-class guest musicians join forces with a celebrated guitarist and three powerhouse dancers in a spontaneous dialogue of gesture, rhythm, and movement. Together, they shape the performance in real time right before your eyes. Join us for an unforgettable evening of passion and artistry.

Friday, July 24 at 8:00pm
Book your tickets here!

Artists
Artistic Director: Deborah Elias
Guest Singer: José Cortés
Guest Guitarist: José Manuel Alconchel
Dancers: Deborah Elias, Rachel Holmes, and Molly Kay Stoltz

Regional Gathering on Dance Education and Disability Hosted by Young Dance

Young Dance is excited to host a Regional Gathering on Dance Education and Disability: A Practice of Belonging, July 24-25, 2026 in St. Paul, Minnesota. This convening is sponsored by Art Spark Texas with financial support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Part of a national series of gatherings supported by Art Spark Texas and the NEA, this two day event will bring together dance and arts educators, presenters, and creators for workshops, panel discussions, think tanks, and a performance as we explore ways we practice belonging through inclusive dance and dance education.

All events are free for participants and registration is now open!

Presenters and session topics include:

  • Daniel Grove and Aileen Norris: Dreaming and Defying: Dynamic Disability in Dance
  • Taja Will: Writing an Access Rider or Receiving One: Advocacy Tools
  • Gretchen Pick: Writing Curriculum Think Tank
  • Pushmakers: Pushing the Boundaries: Cultivating Community Leadership in Disability Dance (Virtual presentation)
  • Petra Kuppers: Crip Drifts: An Eco Soma Sensing of Our Communal Space
  • Curio Dance: Launching a Dance Troupe for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: A Collaboration Between an Occupational Therapist, Professional Dancer, and Self-Advocate
  • Stephanie Heit: Mad Conductors
  • Kairos Alive!: Kairos Alive! Dancing Heart™ Workshop: Neuro Arts and Nature
  • Scott Artley Consulting: A Field Guide to Disability Models in the Wild: mental models of disability and how they shape the everyday practice of access
  • Feel the Beat: Body Tapping: Rhythm You Can Feel
  • Dreamstorming Access: A Creative Pedagogy Centering Access and Belonging
  • Silva Laukkanen: 7 Word Sentences

For the full event schedule visit our website at https://youngdance.org/dance-disability/. Have questions? Reach out to Gretchen Pick at gretchen@youngdance.org.

This gathering also continues Art Spark Texas’ barrier-free dance education research, launched in 2021, and follows the national hybrid convening held in San Marcos, Texas (October 2024), focused on expanding access for people with disabilities. Learn more at: https://www.artsparkdance.org/refocusing-dance-education/.

Free Performance Featuring Artists at the Forefront of Dance and Disability

As part of our Regional Gathering on Dance Education and Disability: A Practice of Belonging, Young Dance will host a public performance on Friday, July 24 at 7:30pm.

This free performance features artists from across the country who are working at the forefront of dance and disability. Performing artists/creators include:

Stephanie Heit 
Petra Kuppers
Daniel Grove
Anat Shinar
DreamStorming Access (Brian J. Evans, Michaela Knox, Kelsey Peterson, Gretchen Pick, Gabriel Rodreick) and more!

Performance information:

Friday, July 24 at 7:30pm
Location: St. Paul Ballet Studio 4
Free (donations accepted)
General Admission seating (limited seats), walk-in only

Part of a national series of gatherings supported by Art Spark Texas and the National Endowment for the Arts, this two-day gathering will bring together dance and arts educators, presenters, and creators for workshops, panel discussions, think tanks, and a performance as we explore ways we practice belonging through inclusive dance and dance education.

All events are free for participants. For the full event schedule and to register to attend, visit our website at https://youngdance.org/dance-disability/. Have questions? Reach out to Gretchen Pick at gretchen@youngdance.org.

This gathering also continues Art Spark Texas’ barrier-free dance education research, launched in 2021, and follows the national hybrid convening held in San Marcos, Texas (October 2024), focused on expanding access for people with disabilities. Learn more at: https://www.artsparkdance.org/refocusing-dance-education/.

Grounds x PILLLAR: Contemporary Dance at Your Local Coffee Shop

Bringing dance to your local coffee shop, Ruby Josephine Dance Theater’s (RJDT) Grounds explores spaces where we experience moments of ordinary and extraordinary human connection.

First meetings, debates, routines, confessions, arguments, plots, and daydreams. Around a shared cup of coffee, we gather and move together. At a Grounds pop-up, you will experience not just an up-close contemporary dance performance, but conversations with strangers, shared creative community, and a new way of experiencing a familiar place.

Monday, July 27 at 7:00pm
PILLLAR Forum Cafe and Bar
Tickets: Free/pay-as-able

This Cultural Districts Arts Fund activation is funded by the City of Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs Department.

Photo by The Studio Aura

Quick Study No. 3

Quick Study is a performance series that examines how the audience and performer make sense of dance, or whether sense-making is necessary at all. Drawing from infant cognition research, early experiences, and a lifelong obsession with dance, Maggie Zepp loosely measures audience engagement and invites viewers to consider their own methods of interpretation. This performance gathers the experiments and audience discoveries from the series into one last study.

Wednesday, July 29 at 7:00pm
Free. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Performance is about 30 minutes long – just a quick study.