Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater (SPDT) is a nationally-recognized performance company that has been co-directed by Suzanne Costello and Stuart Pimsler since its inception in 1979. In the U.S., SPDT’s work has been presented at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), Central Park’s SummerStage, Jacob’s Pillow, The American Dance Festival, the National Civil Rights Museum, and the Guthrie Theater, among many others. International presentations have included Canada, Europe, Israel, Taiwan, and Russia. A highlight of the company’s 25th Anniversary included an international tour sponsored by the Bermuda Ministry of Culture.
Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater (SPDT) is a nationally-recognized performance company that has been co-directed by Suzanne Costello and Stuart Pimsler since its inception in 1979. In the U.S., SPDT’s work has been presented at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), Central Park’s SummerStage, Jacob’s Pillow, The American Dance Festival, and the National Civil Rights Museum, among many others. International presentations have included Canada, Europe, Israel, Taiwan, and Russia. A highlight of the company’s 25th Anniversary included an international tour sponsored by the Bermuda Ministry of Culture.
SPDT has been a Twin Cities-based performance company for over 10 years. The company’s singular and elaborate work has garnered critical acclaim for its ability to situate highly physical, emotional vocabulary within stunning theatrical landscapes. In these imagistic worlds, SPDT creates poetic stories focused on love, loss, and the need for connection. SPDT’s gifted company of performers and collaborating designers continues to realize a signature vision of “theater for the heart and mind”.
The company has twice been presented by the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis. The Ends of Love was commissioned in 2007 for the inaugural season of its new space, and invited back in 2009 to present Tales of Longing over a two-week run. In 2006 Dancing Wheels, the first stand up/sit down company in the U.S. commissioned a new SPDT work, Big Trucks and Leverage, for both companies which was premiered to critical acclaim in Cleveland, Ohio. The company’s Undercovers, commissioned by Pathways, was presented at the Illusion and featured as part of a PBS documentary, Dance in the Dark, broadcast throughout the 2007-2008 viewing season. SPDT received a 2008 SAGE Award for Outstanding Performance for its recent work, Ways to Be Hold.
SPDT’s Community Connections Programs reach a diverse array of audiences both locally and nationally. The company’s outreach programs have prompted The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to cite it as a “national model” for its ability to be inclusive of a wide range of cultural groups (Learning Audiences, 1997). SPDT has been honored to serve as the resident company at F.A.I.R. Downtown, a WMEP fine arts interdisciplinary school located in Minneapolis. At FAIR, SPDT was responsible for the school’s dance curriculum including teaching junior and senior high school students in the areas of dance techniques, choreography, and history. Every year, SPDT’s WASH, Working with Artists, Sharing the Healing, brings together artists and caregivers in focusing on the connection between creative expression and personal health.
-
STUART PIMSLER
Selected by CityPages as Twin Cities “Artist of the Year” in 2004, is celebrating his thirtieth year as Artistic Co – Director of SPDT. His work has been honored with Choreography Fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts as well as a Major Fellowship and six Individual Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council. Mr. Pimsler has been commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, the Lila Wallace Arts Partners Fund, National Performance Network Creation Fund, the Jerome Foundation, the Wexner Center, University of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center, among others. Mr. Pimsler's first children's play, My Grandmother's Tsotchkes; Tales of a Gambling Grandmother had its national premiere in March 2010 at SteppingStone Theatre, St. Paul.
Mr. Pimsler holds an A.B. in English from Franklin & Marshall College and has a J.D. from Catholic University School of Law. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1975 and the following year was accepted as an M.F.A. Fellow in Dance at Connecticut College. His mentors have included Martha Myers, past Dean of the American Dance Festival and past Chair of the Dance program, Connecticut College, and Daniel Nagrin, whose solos Spanish Dance (1948) and Word Game (1968) he continues to perform.
As cultural acitivist, Mr. Pimsler has served on the Board of Directors of Dance/USA (1990-97) and the Steering Committee of the National Performance Network (1992-95.) In October, 2005, Stuart Pimsler founded the SAGE Awards for Dance which are an annual celebration of outstanding dance achievements in the Twin Cities community. He co-coordinates the yearly event with Dana Kassel. www.sageawards.org -
SUZANNE COSTELLO
joined SPDT in New York City in 1979 and became its Artistic Co-Director in 1984. During her career with the Company, she has been highlighted as a performer, choreographer, teacher and rehearsal director. As SPDT’s Director of Education, she has coordinated the Company’s yearlong residency at FAIR/ Downtown (2009-2011.)
Ms. Costello’s choreographic work has been honored with three Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and has been commissioned by national dance companies and individual artists. In the recent past she has directed and choreographed CATS for Broadway at Iroquois, Louisville; Go, Dog, Go! for Metro Theater Company, St. Louis, and Stage One, Louisville; and choreographed Grimm Tales for Children’s Theatre, Minneapolis. She has also been a guest artist at numerous colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad. She has been a Sage Cowles Land Grant Guest Artist and an Affiliate Faculty at the University of Minnesota.
In New York City, Ms. Costello performed with several companies, including Billy Siegenfeld & Dancers and David Gordon Pick Up. Co. She has continued her association with Mr. Gordon, who has set a number of works on SPDT. Recently she worked with colleague Joe Goode in San Francisco who created a new solo for her, Movie Star Life. Ms. Costello first began her study of dance at Washington University, St. Louis where she graduated with a B.A. in Dance. -
KURT BLOMBERG
Kurt is a South Korean adoptee who grew up in Mounds View, MN. He is currently at the university of MN pursuing a B.A. in dance. Kurt has had the pleasure of working with Black Label Movement, Time Track Productions, and Eclectic Edge Ensemble. He had also performed in the Minnesota Opera's production of Romeo and Juliet in 2008, and UW-River Falls Dance Theatre 04, 05, 06. This is Kurt's second year working with SPDT.
-
BRIAN EVANS
Brian J. Evans is enjoying his third season with SPDT immensely! Being a recent graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College having received a B.A. in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in dance he is humbled and honored to be part of his second family and this wonderful dance community here in the Twin Cities. Since arrival to Minneapolis Brian has had the privilede of working with a vast array of choreographers: Julie Warder, Jim Lieberthal, Maria Tierney, Marciano dos Santos and Denise Armstead to name a few! Having recently concluded his second season as a principle singer/dancer for Valley Fair on the Gazebo stage he is excited to have you share and live within the world Tales from the Book of Longing! He would like again to give this Twin Citeies dance community a rousing applause and would like to thank anyone he has worked with in the past and for those he has yet to in the future. He plans to find out whether or not the world produces art, or if art produces the world! Brian would like to thank his friends and family for their support in pushing him to follow his dreams and to follow them with passion.
-
CADE HOLMSETH
Cade Holmseth grew up in Minnesota where he continues to reside and pursue his passions. He has danced with Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater for four years now and is lucky to work with such wonderful artists. He has also danced professionally with Kelly Cawthon, Matt Jenson, Risa Cohen, Vanessa Voskuil, Mathew Janczewski, Denise Armstead, and several others in addition to creating work of his own. He recently presented his first evening length theater/dance production at the Red Eye Theater.
Currently he is also trying his luck with running a business and is trying to grow his massage and bodywork practice in St. Paul. -
HEATHER KLOPCHIN
Heather Klopchin is an Associate Professor of Dance at St. Olaf College. She is passionate about performing, choreographing, researching, and teaching dance and considers herself very lucky to be able to live her life so involved in movement and expression. Heather has performed with ARENA Dances, Zenon Dance Company, Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Linda Lehovec & Dancers, Joe Chvala Flying Foot Forum, and Dancing People Company. She is very excited to be performing with Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater!
-
KARI MOSEL
Kari Mosel hails from Eau Claire, Wisconsin where she grew up riding horses, climbing trees, and tripping over her own feet. She received her BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota in 2004. Since graduating, Kari has had the pleasure to dance professionally for Shapiro and Smith Dance, Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater, Jim Lieberthal, Marciano Silva dos Santos, Kats D and the Paneer Project, Time Track Productions, and apprentice for Zenon Dance. In addition to performing, she serves as an administrative assistant for both Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater and Shapiro and Smith Dance. In addition to choreographing her own work on a smaller scale she has just recently set a commissioned work on the University of River Falls Dance Program. This is Kari's fourth season with SPDT. She feels extremely humbled and blessed to be part of this amazing community and truly thinks of them all as family. Much Love!
-
BLAKE NELLIS (apprentice)
Blake Nellis is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, improviser, musician, big brother and friend. He graduated from Luther College with a Bachelor's Degree in Theatre/Dance & Music. He has taught and traveled the world in search of beautiful, creative ways to connect with the people around him. He is learning how to play more freely, dance more expressively,challenge more consciously and connect more fully.
-
ROXANE WALLACE-PATTERSON
Roxane Wallace-Patterson is active in the arts as a performer, teacher, dancer, and choreographer. She holds a BA in Philosophy and an Ethnic Studies minor from the University of California at Berkeley. Currently, she is a teaching artist for the Vocal Essence "Witness" program and the Children's Theater Company. In addition to this, she is an eight year member of the Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater Company. Constantly engaged in her field, Roxane has worked with choreographers and directors of both regional and international acclaim. Her proficiency and experience in dance includes Modern, Jazz, West African, Hip-Hop, Improvisation, and dance theater. In 2004 she was named "Best Dancer" in the City Pages "Best of the Twin Cities". In 2006, she wrote, choreographed, directed, and produced the original ensemble production "Evolution of a Soul Sista". In 2007 she was a recipient of a SAGE Award for Dance for "Outstanding Performer" and recently, she was honored with a 2008 McKnight Fellowship for Dancers, administered by the Southern Theater and funded by the McKnight Foundation.
** Photography by V. Paul Virtucio
Tales From the Book of Longing
Premiered at the Guthrie Theater in 2009.
Inspired by the poetry of Leonard Cohen and the music of Antony and the Johnsons, Tales from the Book of Longing unfolds in an episodic landscape of sinuous moments out of reach and quiet scenes of missed chances. This evening length work weaves its way through a world of frayed relationships teetering on the edge of change.
Music: Antony and the Johnsons, Otis Redding, Carla Bruni, Anouar Brahem, Philip Glass, Henryk Gorecki, Ethel, Neverwas, Michelle Kinney, and Giya Kanchelli
“when we say a work is ‘adult” we usually mean it contains nudity, or that it’s depressing. But Pimsler’s work is adult in another sense: full of the vivid and complex emotion of adult life”
-Lightsey Darst (MN Artists)
Ways To Be Hold
Honored with a 2008 Minnesota SAGE Award for “Outstanding Choreography”, explores the dynamic of holding and being held filtered through a series of personal and global inquiries. The performers are caught between moments of tenderness and assault as they decide how to respond in dangerous times. Spoken word artist Tiyo Siyolo narrates this compelling work with courage, grace and a ferocious spirit.
“Ways to Be Hold is a searing portrait of empowerment, fear and struggle set to
elegiac music of Ross Edwards. An intensely fascinating and disturbing experience,
it was danced with generous flair by the exceptional Pimsler Company.”
- Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The Ends of Love (2007)
The Ends of Love, which was commissioned and presented by the Guthrie and conceived, written and directed by Stuart Pimsler, offers an abridged history of love and relationships filtered through the wisdom and candor of a nine-year-old boy.
Set in an imagistic world of emotional movement and intimate dialogues, The Ends of Love muses on love, lust and loss from youth to old age, while referencing works from Plato’s Symposium to Nicole Krauss’ The History of Love to Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The full-length performance features seven dancers and four musicians, including composer Michelle Kinney playing cello, as well as a lush film by Paul Augustin.
“In this new theater and dance piece,”, “the work of Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater
can be passionate to the point of electrifying and at other times intimate, delicate
and humorous. The subject matter of The Ends of Love is a perfect
match for the virtuosities of this company.”
- Michael Bigelow Dixon
Total Surrender
Total Surrender takes its title from a poem by Rumi while considering the possibility of a “mighty peace” rather than conflict. The first rehearsal for Total Surrender began on September 11, 2001 and evolved as a daily journal, chronicling Mr. Pimsler’s response to a changed world. The accompanying musical score, Peaceable Kingdom, was created by nationally recognized composer Ingram Marshall.
“A work that grows more complex and profound with each viewing”
-Star Tribune
Zero Circle
by Rumi (1207-1273)I. Be helpless, dumbfounded,
Unable to say yes or no,
Then a stretcher will come from grace
to gather us up.
II. We are all too dull-eyed to see that beauty.
if we say we can we’re lying.
That No will behead us.
And shut tight our window onto spirit
III. So let us rather not be sure of anything
Beside ourselves, and only that, so
Miraculous beings come running to help.
IV. We shall be saying finally,
With tremendous eloquence, Lead us
When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,
We shall be a mighty kindness.
The Men from the Boys
A comic/tragic exploration of male rituals and relationships. A contemporary gladiator confronts a figure of authority in a work with a most unexpected ending.
“Pimsler fashions a pas de deux for the two men that blends wrestling take-down moves with pseudo-balletic lifts and turns, a brilliant…analogy.”
-The Pittsburg Press
Sentry
SPDT’s original scenic designer and visual coordinator Ronald Aiji Kajiwara suggested the initial idea for this work. Aiji brought a photograph to our studio of a young, Lebanese soldier who lay wounded in a hospital bed. Most of the photo was black and white but behind the young man was a window stuffed with pastel colored sandbags. The beauty and the horror of this image struck Aiji. This was the inspiration for Sentry.
At the time this work was created, Ronald Reagan was in office. The U.S. was not at war, although Reagan warned of the potential global dangers of renegade countries acquiring nuclear arms. Although we had not performed this work in a number of years, the current political climate inspired us to bring this work back into the repertory.
“One of the most powerful anti-war works to be seen in a long time”
-New York Times
Rooms of Disquiet
Rooms of Disquiet unfolds as a mysterious dream shared by seven characters intersecting each other’s lives. The origins and partial dialogue for this work spring from the short, short stories of Franz Kafka who created a world of lust, craving and loneliness. This is SPDT’s most cinematic work, which has been performed in both traditional venues as well as site specific settings.
Joy
An autobiographical portrait of “An Artist as a Young Jew.” Through movement and conversation directed to imagery relatives in the audience, Mr. Pimsler describes his childhood in New York City, growing up to become an attorney and eventually emerging as Artistic Director of SPDT.
The Columbus Dispatch
Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater's Season (2011-2012)
SPDT on TOUR
-
December 6-9
Gustavus Adolphus College
Repertory TBD
Company Performances December 8th at 7:00 p.m.
St. Peter, MN -
January 3-6
Carleton College
"Ways to BeHold","Tales from the Book of Longing", "Word Game"
Company Performance January 6th at 7:30 p.m.
Northfield, MN -
January 11-15
Michigan State University
Repertory TBD
Wharton Center for the Performing Arts
East Lansing, MI -
Jan 30 - Feb 10
"Family Albums"
5th Grade Residency
Student Performance on February 10th at 2:00 p.m.
Aquila Elementary, St. Louis Park, MN -
March 9-12
SPDT Home Season
World Premiere of "We, the Others" along with Repertory TBD
Company Performances on March 9th and 10th at 8:00 p.m. and March 11th at 7 p.m.
The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts
Minneapolis, MN
July 2011 - June 2012
-
SPDT Invited to Perform at Tanzmesse Festival in Dusseldorf, Germany
We are proud to announce that Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater has been invited to perform at the Tanzmesse Festival in Dusseldorf, Germany in August of 2012. SPDT was the only US company invited to participate in the festival and will be performing our acclaimed work, Ways to Be Hold , previously honored with a Minnesota SAGE Award for "Outstanding Choreography" in 2008.
-
SPDT Residency at Winona State University
Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater (SPDT) spent a week working with students at Winona State University, setting a piece, Islands, on students, working in classrooms, and performing for the Winona community. Take a look at what we were up to!
-
Transforming the Doctor-Patient Relationship: Telling the Story at Michigan State University in Lansing, MI.
A collaboration between the Michigan State University Federal Credit Union Institute for Arts & Creativity at the Wharton Center, the Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater Company and the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The public continues to become more active partners in issues relating to their health and wellness. Healthier lifestyles are being informed by a heightened awareness regarding the importance of exercise, diet, spiritual sustenance and other attitudinal shifts. As the American public lives longer and longer, they are more willing to share in the responsibility of caring for themselves. As a result, the healthcare provider has the opportunity to engage their patient in a more collaborative healing process.
What are the necessary ingredients (and the importance) for illuminating the patient's entire story that goes beyond their medical chart?
-
April 1-3, 2011
Michigan State University
Lansing, Michigan
"Stuart Pimsler and Suzanne Costello, Artistic Co-Directors of the nationally acclaimed Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater are initiating a series of workshops which will consider issues relating to the Doctor-Patient relationship. The focus of their work integrates the arts through story-telling and non-verbal exercises that invite participants to explore their individual, creative expression. Since 1992, Mr. Pimsler and Ms. Costello have traveled worldwide offering their Caring for the Caregiver Programs for thousands of healthcare providers.
SPDT honored as "Best Practice" by NEA Arts in Healthcare!!
The Arts in Healthcare have grown into an international movement that works to infuse the full spectrum of the arts into healthcare settings—including design, visual, performing and literary arts —resulting in programs and healthcare environments that are welcoming and uplifting for caregivers, patients, their families, and visitors. Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater is one of only eighteen organizations recognized nationally as a "Best Practice" in Arts and Healthcare and the ONLY Performance Company!
For more information or to be placed on our mailing list, please contact SPDT at SPDanTh@aol.com
-
WMEP Summer Scholar Institute
Monday-Friday - 8:30-11:30 - July, 2010During Dance Taking, Dance Making, SPDT will teach students grades 4-9 about historically significant choreographers who have contributed to the diverse cultural community of dance in America such as Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, David Gordon and others through videotapes and class discussions.
Each daily session will conclude with the study of choreography, emphasizing and encouraging the unique differences of every participating student. Students will be required to maintain daily journals that will include notes about choreography and dance history as well as daily writing assignments inspired by a creative issue raised in class.
The three-week workshop will conclude with a final showing of short pieces choreographed by the students under the direction of the SPDT teaching artists. This showing which will also include a question and answer session, is open to families and friends and will be presented in the dance studio. Students registering for this workshop must be available to attend for the full three-week session.
www.wmep.k12.mn.us -
CONGRATULATIONS!!! 2008 SAGE Award Recipient
Congratulations to Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater on the honor of receiving a 2008 Minnesota SAGE Award for Dance for their "Outstanding Performance" of Ways to Be Hold!!
If you missed seeing Ways to Be Hold this Spring at the Ritz Theater, you have a second chance to see the award winning piece October 24 & October 25 at the Jawaahir Studio Theater during SPDT's Salon 7 Series!
For more information about Salon 7 please contact us! 763-521-7738 -
6th International Conference on the History of Youth and Community Work June 26, 2008 7:30pm
Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater will present a Family Matters performance with 5th graders from FAIR School during the 6th Annual International Conference on the History of Youth and Community Work. Held overseas last year, SPDT is honored to be part of this annual conference and teaming with scholars, youth and community leaders to address issues on learning from historical and personal history.
Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 7:30pm
Minnesota Humanities Conference Center
987 East Ivy Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55106 -
SPDT and Dancing Wheels
April 10-28, 2008** UPDATE 06/16/08
An excerpt from a Dancing Wheels member's letter to SPDT: "I wish to thank you for the time that you and your company spent with Dancing Wheels in the collaboration of Big Trucks and Leverage. The piece convey's a huge chunk of the meaning of Dancing Wheels: showing physically integrated dance, bringing awareness of disability in a positive way (and equal way), and ultimately lifting the human spirit as your company strives to do."** UPDATE 04/29/08
The two-week collaboration between SPDT and Dancing Wheels was a success. To read how the tour went by Cleveland's Plain Dealer Dance Critic, Donald Rosenberg, click below! Plain Dealer Preview | Plain Dealer Review Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater will be on a two-week tour to Cleveland, OH performing their newest dance/theater piece, Ways to Be Hold as well as working with and setting a new work, Big Trucks and Leverage, on Cleveland based company Dancing Wheels & SPDT. Dancing Wheels is the first modern dance company to integrate professional stand-up and sit-down (wheelchair) dancers. The two companies will perform Big Trucks and Leverage during their collaborative presentation of new works and world premieres, Double Exposure, at the Cuyhoga Community College Performing Arts Center, April 26-28, 2008. -
CONGRATULATIONS SPDT & PROJECT SUCCESS
Project SUCCESS received the 2008 Sally Award for Education and accepted the award on behalf of Project SUCCESS and Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater. The partnership and commitment of these two groups to students and families in the Twin Cities makes the collaborative work possible.