Contact: Dana Munson

612.206.3630

dmunson@thecowlescenter.org

Minneapolis, Mar. 24, 2016 –Guggenheim (2010), McKnight (2002 & 2009) and USA Artist Fellow (2011), Morgan Thorson, is in residence at The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts to further develop her project, Still Life. After a summer residency at Weisman Art Museum in 2015, Thorson continues to mediate themes of death and loss through the gradual elimination of choreography—including how do dancers intentionally kill choreography and what happens when they have nothing more to do. With rehearsals in the Cowles Center’s Target Education Studio, Thorson will also develop the role of the attendant, to explore remembrance, comfort and ritualized touch as companions to endurance, anticipation and stillness. Culminating with a technical residency on the main stage, cutting edge technology in both lights and sound will be synthesized with movement and text during this period of research. Still Life has been developed locally through a partnership between The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts and the Weisman Art Museum.

Working in partnership with local artists is core to the mission of The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, which is significant in supporting original dance in Minnesota. The Cowles Center participates in several community partnerships, such as this one with choreographer Morgan Thorson and the Weisman Art Center, that are collaborations at the core, going beyond financial or promotional needs, to learn about specific key values that we share with local artists and invest in the growth of our shared desires and concerns.

Thorson’s Still Life will be presented during The Cowles Center’s 2016-17 season in the Goodale Theater, March 16, 17 & 18.

Funding Credits

Still Life is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Performance Space 122 in partnership with American Dance Institute, Weisman Art Museum, INOVA (Institute of Visual Arts) and NPN. Still Life was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, and has received support from the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University. This project was developed in residence at Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, the Weisman Art Museum, and The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, and The Creative Exchange Lab at Portland Institute of Contemporary Art. NPN’s Creation Fund is supported by the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), for more information: www.npnweb.org. National Dance Project receives lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; National Dance Project and the Creation Fund are supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

About Morgan Thorson

Morgan Thorson is a dance-maker based in Minneapolis. Her original dance works synthesize movement, light, sound, and objects while taking into consideration the site of the work, representation of the body, and history of the field. Her projects, made to activate spaces and interrogate dance production, are described as having “an explosive physicality tempered by sinuous lines and subtle drama” (Minneapolis Star Tribune). She has been touring her productions since 2002.

Thorson is a United States Artist (2011), Guggenheim (2010), and McKnight (2009, 2002) Fellow, and has received two Sage Awards for Outstanding Performance (2008 and 2007). Her work has received support from The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Residency and Fellowship Program (2009, 2011 and 2015), and she was the resident artist at the Centre Choreographique National De Franche-Comte in Belfort, France, as well as a MacDowell Artist Colony Fellow in 2012. She has received three New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project grants (2008, 2012 and 2015).

Thorson's work has toured to theaters and festivals worldwide, and has been commissioned and presented by Walker Art Center, On the Boards in Seattle, Red Cat in Los Angeles, PS 122 in New York City, and Alverno Presents in Milwaukee among others. She has created works for Zenon Dance Company, James Sewell Ballet, Barnard College and several national universities. Her first three-month public residency/exhibition was installed at Weisman Art Museum June-September, 2015.

A certified Skinner Releasing Technique instructor, Thorson is a Creative Campus Fellow at Wesleyan University where she engages students and professors in interdisciplinary practices and develops pedagogy in Dance, Drawing, Archaeology, and Religious Studies. As a performer, Thorson has worked with Ann Carlson, Jennifer Monson, Tino Segal, Karen Sherman, and HIJACK, and provided dramaturgy for Ann Carlson and the group DanceBums. She is a member of the Minneapolis Tuning Club and the founder of ORG, ongoing research group.

About the Cowles Center

The Cowles Center for Dance & The Performing Arts is the Twin Cities’ flagship for dance in Minnesota. Centrally located in downtown Minneapolis, The Cowles Center includes the refurbished 500-seat Goodale Theater; the former Hennepin Center for the Arts, home to 20 leading dance and performing arts organizations; the state-of-the-art Target Education Studio, housing The Cowles Center’s innovative distance learning program; the Illusion Theater; the James Sewell TEK Box; and the U.S. Bank Atrium. The Cowles Center is a catalyst for the creation, presentation, education, enjoyment and celebration of dance and the performing arts in the Twin Cities.

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