Northern Minnesota is under a new alert until Friday at 7 p.m.

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

For the first time in well over a year, this week’s Art Hounds recommend three live, in-person only performances.

 is excited to see live dance on stage again, and his pick this weekend is the show

“They use the foundational steps of breakdance,” Strong said, and they “find ways to bend, flip that, collaborate that with contemporary movement.” He appreciated how the St. Paul-based collaborative dance ensemble works together as a cohesive unit on stage, as well as their stated goal, “to expand awareness on topics that address marginalized and underserved populations.”

This show has been in the works for two years, after COVID-19 delayed production. Featuring choreography that explores loss, fragmentation and contradiction, the show includes original music composed by troupe member 

. “60/40” runs Thursday through Sunday at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Thursday night’s tickets are pay-as-able. Face masks are required, with socially-distanced seating in the theater.

is back and screening films in-person this weekend. Minnesota filmmakers, veteran and emerging, compete by creating films that are at most seven minutes. Minneapolis writer and director 

 didn’t submit a film this year, but he credits past comedy and drama shorts with helping boost his visibility early in his career and allowing him to explore new genres in a low-stakes environment. 

“I owe a lot to Z-Fest in the sense of helping me galvanize my friends and colleagues in making short films.” Royce said the creative focus of Z-Fest helped revolutionize the Minnesota film scene.

The screenings are Friday and Saturday at 7 and 9 p.m. at Emagine Willow Creek in Plymouth, Minn. The theater will be operating at full-capacity seating, with masks required.

As music concerts return to in-person venues, Simon Calder, host of 

Back to the City Minneapolis Music Conversation

 on YouTube, recommends the music of StoLyette, an innovative Minneapolis-based group performing Friday night at 10 p.m. at 

Part of their distinct style, Calder says, evolved as bassist Ben Clark created a way to recreate guitar and other nonvocal components of a band using one instrument. It’s a complex process that involves a delay pedal, multiple amps, and “a pitch shifter or two,” said Calder. That couples with Irene Ruderman Clark’s vocals in both English and Russian.

 when she was 11. Calder learned in an interview with the musician that when she was 12, “suddenly there was this moment of clarity when she could understand what her schoolmates were saying. And I feel that especially as we're shifting between different registers and even languages, it is almost as if the listener or the audience is invited to experience that shifting.”

Emily Bright

Author

It’s the first time in well over a year that we have been able to feature three live, in-person only performances. BRKFST Dance Company performs “60/40” at Southern Theater in Minneapolis, StoLyette plays at Icehouse and Z-Fest screens this year’s crop of seven-minute films by veteran and emerging Minnesota filmmakers.

It’s the first time in well over a year that we have been able to feature three live, in-person only performances. BRKFST Dance Company performs “60/40” at Southern Theater in Minneapolis, StoLyette plays at Icehouse, and Z-Fest screens this year’s crop of seven minute films by veteran and emerging Minnesota filmmakers.

Art Hounds recommend live, in-person dance and music performances

A man jumps over a group of people who are kneeling.

Art Hounds recommend live, in-person dance and music performances

Go Deeper.

Like this?