FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 13, 2013

Contact: Erin Harney

PR and Marketing Consultant

Minnesota Dance Theatre

651-398-7528 or erineharney@icloud.com

MDT Fall Repertory Featuring

World Premieres and Audience Favorites

MINNEAPOLIS September 13, 2013; Minnesota Dance Theatre will open their season October 4^th at The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts with an eclectic and exhilarating mix of dance; premiering two new works and revisiting two favorites.

Serenade for Two choreographed by Charles Askegard, MDTs new Associate Artistic Director, will be performed to Igor Stravinskys Serenade in A, with pianist,Tom Linker . The world premiere features guest dancers Clifford Williams and MDT alumn and frequent guest, Kaitlyn Gilliland. Gilliland is currently a member of Craig Salsteins Intermezzo Dance Company and the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, in New York City. Williams, an artist-in-residence with Complexions Contemporary Ballet worked with Askegard previously at Ballet Next and collaborates regularly with Dwight Rhoden.

Edifice Wrecks, a new work by MDT Artistic Director Lise Houlton in collaboration with Dane Stauffer and company dancers is a series of what ifs with a musical mix of artists from Purcell to Mozart. Lise and Dane are challenged and inspired by the extraordinary ensemble of dancers while playing with allegorical what ifs.

The critically acclaimed A Stair Dance by Eliot Feld, created in memory of tap dancer Gregory Hines, is brought back to the stage by MDT company dancers. It ranges from the subtly sexy to the athletically ambitious and is set to the music of Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Steve Reich, who was called by the New York Times, Americas greatest living composer. Feld has choreographed 145 ballets since 1967 and his work has been performed worldwide. He is co-founder of the Joyce Theater, founder of Ballet Tech Company and School, performed in the Broadway cast of West Side Story and played the role of Baby John in the film version.

The company will remount the Loyce Houltons Boccherini Dances, first performed in 1985. As founder of MDT, Houlton was drawn to the worlds of modern dance and classical ballet, always intrigued by the beauty and possibilities between the two. In 1947, before she became Mrs. Houlton, she was a renegade dance gypsy in New York City, running between classes of George Balanchine on the west side and Martha Graham on the east. She was inspired by the visionary dance energies of that era. Boccherini Dances is the result of those inspirations.

The 2013-2014 MDT Company Dancers are Sam Feipel (11^th year), Raina Gilliland, Helen Hatch, Katie Johnson, and Justin Leaf with apprentices, Katie Deuitch and Amanda DeVenuta.

Show Times

October 4, 5, 11 & 12 at 8 pm

October 6 & 13 at 2 pm

Tickets

$24.00 $36.00 includes fees

Box Office

Tuesday Friday, 11AM 5PM, Saturday and Sunday two hours prior to performances

Phone 612-206-3600

Online: http: //www.thecowlescenter.org

In person: 528 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403

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ABOUT MINNESOTA DANCE THEATRE

For the past fifty years the mission of Minnesota Dance Theatre has been to create masterful and provocative dance performances, which entertain and inspire audiences. Minnesota Dance Theatre (MDT) was founded in 1962 by Loyce Houlton, one of the first American women to gain international recognition as a choreographer, teacher and producer. In 1995, Lise Houlton was appointed artistic director, having recently retired from an acclaimed international performing career that included Stuttgart Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.