The Cowles Center for Dance to Open in September in Minneapolis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jojTJd8Fbxo

Photo Shoot for Cowles Center Dance Images [Source: Cowles Center]

The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts will open in Minneapolis, Minnesota with a grand opening weekend September 9 – 11 that will feature:

“James Sewell Ballet, Zenon Dance Company, and Minnesota Dance Theater, along with Savion Glover, Jonah Bokaer (from Merce Cunningham Dance Company), Minnesota Chorale artists, and other performers.”

“Tickets for the first night of the grand opening will go for $1,000 a pop, according to executive director Frank Sonntag. The next evening, the same program will be offered for $150, with 200 seats up for free to the dance community. The performance will be followed by a big party.”

News Report on The Cowles Center for Dance [Source: Cowles Center]

The Cowles Center is designed with dance in mind from the theater to the educational spaces. In addition, studio and office rental space will be available and videoconferencing will allow connections to spots beyond Minneapolis.

Special dance-oriented touches for the theater include “dressing rooms with attached bathrooms with showers, the back-of-house hallways floored with special linoleum designed to be gentle on dancing shoes and the extra-large dressing room for performers with oversized costumes…The stage itself is a specially design ‘sprung wood’ floor with multiple layers of rubber and insulation to create the perfect surface for dancers.”

The Cowles Center is expected to raise the visibility of dance in an already rich arts community according to James Sewell of the James Sewell Ballet:

“What it’s going to do is give dance a platform for public visibility…People associate an art form with a place. Even though we have one of the best dance communities in the country, the average person doesn’t know it’s there at all. This is going to give us a platform to launch into the consciousness of the average person on the street.”

Official Site: The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts