“Stray Pieces” at the Ritz Theater—A view

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by John Munger | 8/3/09 • Most of this show is fabulous work that needs to be seen. I recommend highly. But there are caveats, so bear with me.

The core of this show is contemporary ballet. Most of the main dancers are aged between about 25 and about 35 with a handful of exceptions above or below. They are grown-ups, they have taken thousands of dance classes, they have performed in a bewildering variety of second and third level national dance companies, and a few first level ones. Continue Reading

“Mansion of Dust” at the Southern—A view

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by John Munger | 8/2/09 • Several weeks ago my annual Rabbit Show showcase at Bryant Lake Bowl featuring “Shows that Got Into The Fringe” was graced with the opening five minutes of Joseph and Sara Scrimshaw’s “Mansion of Dust.” Joseph does schtick in general, plus a phony French accent a bit better than Sara (whose accent is phony Swedish), and Sara dances quite a bit better than Joseph.

But accents, schtick, and dancing aside, both move with extraordinary comedic skill and both are able to go over the top Continue Reading

Re: Trace at Colonial Warehouse—A view

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by John Munger | 8/2/09 • Well whaddaya know? The Colonial is that rather upscale-ish renovated building across from the Monte Carlo restaurant and it houses Interact, a splendid arts organization.

Ready At Will (RAW) Dance Collective is doing a site-specific piece in, beneath, up, down, around and outside this complex structure. Continue Reading

Another opening

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by John Munger | 7/31/09 • After over 40 years in the professional dance business you’d think someone would get tired of doing this arduous and monetarily unrewarding work. But somehow I keep needing to do this much as I need to continue breathing. It’s not the sort of thing where I’m capable of saying, “Been there, done that” and walk away.

My Fringe show, entitled “My Body Made Me Do This” opened last night at the Ritz Theater to a supportive audience of (I guesstimate) about 50. Not bad. Continue Reading

Fringe 2009: Dance performances

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by John Munger | 7/4/09 • As usual, there are about 20 dance shows in this year’s Fringe Festival. That might not seem like many out of 162 shows total. But the fact is, with five performances apiece over an 11-day period, these 20 shows add up to more dance performances in the Twin Cities than during any other 10-14-day period in the year. If you are a dance fan, cash in some vacation time from work and hook up with the Fringe.

The big news this year is that we have a flood of out-of-town dancemakers on hand. Continue Reading

Southern Theater catastrophe

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by John Munger • August 1, 2008 • As some of you may know, the Southern Theater is not only a Fringe Site but also one of a handful of focal points for the nationally recognized Twin Cities dance community. You may also know that July 15, two and a half weeks ago, brought news in the Star Tribune that the founding Artistic Director of The Southern, Jeff Bartlett, had been summarily dismissed by the Board of Directors.

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small aida: A View

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by John Munger • August 1, 2008 • For starters, the title of this Fringe show is all in lower case, no caps. This is in part a reference to the fact that this show is less than 60 minutes, with a cast of only two, but the grand opera, Aïda, is about as colossal as you can get.

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