Minnesota Fringe Festival

Advice from Camille LeFevre, Twin Cities dance critic: "Heartily applaud Erin Drummond, Denise Gagner, Laura Grant, Mandy Herrick, Mary Clare Lindsley and Taja Will. They're terrific performers and have made a fascinating work." Read Camille's whole article on MinnPost.

More advice from Alan Berks, Mpls-based playwright: "Go see site-specific work, specifically the Ready at Will Dance Collective's Re: Trace" ( from minnesotaplaylist.com).

And...from Ben McGinley, minnesotaplaylist.com's Fringe videographer and blogger: "by far, the most memorable fringe show experience I've had yet this year."

Finally, Twin Cities dance writer Lightsey Darst says "Re: Trace's explorations are delicious fun" on mnartists.org.

Ready At Will (RAW) Dance Collective presents Re:Trace, a site-specific performance, for the 2009 MN Fringe Festival. Using movement improvisation, choreography, and theatrical performance, RAW returns to the Colonial Warehouse Building in downtown Minneapolis, embarking on a visceral excavation of this historic site.

RAW's first exploration of the Colonial Warehouse, 2008's The Looming Project, was a "great perspective piece [with] great compositions" and a "fabulous use of space - discovering the different emotions that a building can contain" (2008 audience feedback). The performance deeply affected its viewers: "I...laughed out loud, but also felt I was tearing up throughout. It opened me up...[and] made ME break out of the role I expect of myself as an audience member" (2008 audience feedback).

Once the hub of the Minneapolis streetcar system, the Colonial Warehouse played a central role in the city's history. Now, office workers, yogis, and artists create new memories within its walls. Remnants of the historic building are still visible, however, and these physical layers remind today's visitors of the past labor and activity contained in its structure.

The 6 women of RAW invite their audience to step into this living, breathing building, following them as they move through hallways and arteries, into muscles, up and down stairwells, around corners, and over bony landmarks, dissecting the body of the Colonial Warehouse. Through bold movement and evocative images, the dancers create a world of imagined memories, helping their audience to "remember the body as powerful" (2008 audience feedback).

For more information:
Visit our Facebook page here.
Check out our photo shoot on site at the Colonial Warehouse Building here.
Watch our YouTube videos here.


Re:Trace is featured in the Downtown Journal's Fringe Preview! Check it out.




ABOUT READY AT WILL (RAW) DANCE COLLECTIVE
First-time Fringe producers, RAW is a collaborative ensemble of movement improvisers. Using unique, non-traditional spaces as context for generating performance, they create works that actively engage audiences, breathing new life into both the site and the experience of performance.

RAW's members are trained in modern dance technique, somatic movement, and contact improvisation, which together form the foundation of the

The cast

Erin Drummond
Role: Creator/Performer
Erin earned her B.A. in Dance from Columbia University. She has created and performed in New York, Tucson, Maine and internationally in Samoa and Bangkok. Since her return to Minneapolis, she has performed with Off-Leash Area, Wicked Sister Dance Theatre, Labor Force Dances and We Dance, as well as developing her own choreography for diverse venues. She is delighted to be working with RAW on this project, breathing into the architecture of time with the fresh potency of presence.

Denise Gagner
Role: Creator/Performer
Denise Gagner moved to Minneapolis in 2004 after graduating from St. Olaf College. Over the past 5 years, she has worked with and been inspired by many amazing Minneapolis dancers including the members of RAW. She is the School Coordinator for Zenon Dance Company and School and a dance teacher at many schools in Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. Come see Re:Trace, be inspired to dance, and then take her adult beginning modern class, Wednesdays 7-8:30pm at Zenon!

Laura Grant
Role: Creator/Performer
Laura Grant is a freelance performer, dance-maker, yoga instructor,
and arts educator, with a degree in International Relations from
Carleton College. Since moving to the Twin Cities, she has had the opportunity to work with many art-makers, including Sarah Jacobs, Justin Jones, Anna Marie Shogren, and Georgia Stevens. She has also shown her own work at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, Playwright's Center, Music Box Theater, Zenon Dance School, Macalester College, and Carleton College. Laura spent the last 3 years as the Fine Arts Coordinator at Ramsey International Fine Arts Center, a Minneapolis public school, where she also did arts integration work through Minneapolis Public Schools' Arts for Academic Achievement, Learning Through Music Consulting Group, and the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Laura is a founding member of RAW, and is full of gratitude that she gets to play with such awesome movers on a regular basis. She is looking forward to new adventures in the year to come...

Mandy Herrick
Role: Creator/Performer
Mandy Herrick dances, choreographes, and improvises around indoor and outdoor spaces. She has performed throughout the midwest with many dance makers such as Jane Hawley (Iowa), Jin-Wen Yu (Madison, WI), Rosy Simas, Sarah Jacobs, Vessel Performance, the BodyCartography Project and as a founding member of the Ready At Will (RAW) Dance Collective (Minneapolis). Her site-specific choreography, improvisation and film work investigate the relationship between internal and external environment, body ecology and place. Her recent work, The Looming Project, inhabited the Colonial Warehouse last May and spawned the process for Re:Trace. She has been a Guest Artist at Luther College, Young Dance and the Zenon Dance Scholarship Program and is a Certified Global Somatics(TM) Movement Educator and Practitioner. Mandy holds a B.A. in Theatre/Dance from Luther College and works at the Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts.

Mary Clare Lindsley
Role: Creator/Performer
Mary Clare Lindsley is a somatic movement therapist, dancer, and mom. She is intrigued by the intersection of physical and emotional limitations and the process of moving through it. She is thrilled to be dancing with RAW and hopes this performance finally launches her Hollywood career.

Taja Will
Role: Creator/Performer
Taja is a dancer/choreographer grounded in somatic principles and improvisation to make and perform work. Her work has been shown throughout the United States and Internationally, most recently at Foro Performatica in Cholula, Mexico. In Minneapolis Taja has shown work in 9x22 at the Bryant Lake Bowl, and Kinetic Kitchen at Patrick's Cabaret. In addition to working with Ready At Will, Taja dances with Body Cartography, Mandy Herrick, Cathy Wright, and co-directs TAJIMdances with her artistic partner Tim Rehborg.

Ready at Will (Raw) Dance Collective

Re:Trace

Fri., Jul. 31 @ 7:00 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 1 @ 4:00 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 2 @ 2:30 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 7 @ 7:00 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 8 @ 8:30 p.m.

Venue Colonial Warehouse
For ages 2+
Created by Ready At Will
genres Dance, Improv
features Audience participation, World premiere, Regional premiere (Minneapolis-St. Paul), Original script/choreography, First-time Minnesota Fringe Festival producer

Overall rating

User reviews

Guided by choices
by Chris Kopka Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
Imagine our incredible luck: Contemporary dance in a women's bathroom. But that's deep into the show (and I don't want to spoil it for the rest of you).

A bit coy, that program, suggesting we play with our perspective. I found myself at one point in a corner, far away from the vast, vast majority of other viewers, fortunately a bit in the dark. The eyes of the audience were focused on the six dancers - incredible, each one. My eyes swept back and forth between the audience and the dancers (and of course the space).

Run through the halls? Do!

And do not be afraid to be guided by the many choices offered in this show.

Fortunately, for all of you who missed it, there's talk of an extra show or two post-fringe.

very cool!
by Josh Berman Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
This was my first 2009 Fringe show & it set the bar high. The audience (me included) was a little timid at the start - we weren't sure how much we could move into each space without interfering with the dancers. But we quickly warmed to the concept and were soon moving (and even running :) to keep with the show. My favorite part was the segment in the darkened hallway, where the dancers used music, the ambient shadows plus shadows cast by innovatively employed headlamps to compliment their captivating movements. Fun and absolutely Fringe-worthy!

Relish in the Moment
by Jill Foster Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Re:Trace is site-specific as they do use the space quite specifically. Take a journey through space content enough to carry the experience. My advice through any audience-traveling show is to retain balance as an audience member and performer. There’s a silhouette part of the show that needs some urging from the ushers to get you to where you need to be. Maybe a hole in the choreography, sure, but just listen. Believe me, you’ll appreciate what they have to offer from their intention, and yes, sometimes in works like these you have to listen to the cues…and let go in your experience.

Conceptually brilliant
by Laura McClanahan Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
The site has some great secrets and the dancers were able to utilize them in very clever ways.
The antiquity and the previous uses of the building might have been explored a little more, but otherwise it was completely engaging with moments that were startling and heart rendering.
Being stuck in an elevator does cause everyone, including the dancer, to panic, but it brought a new dimension to the piece and hopefully taught the ushers to have a key to the stairway door!
Loved the ending!

fringy and phenomenal
by Dave Stagner Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
Much modern dance suffers from the passive role of the audience, and attempts to engage are often contrived and pretentious. Not so with re:Trace! Making superb use of a very interesting BYOV space, the audience must follow the dancers, and choose their own perspective and level of interaction. Sometimes, dancers shove past you, seemingly oblivious to the audience. They're as ethereal as ghosts and visceral as a fistfight, all at once. If you love modern dance, this is a must-see. It's creative and provocative in ways that modern dance absolutely should be and almost never is.

Jaw Dropping
by Cassandra Butler Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
By far one of the best shows I've ever seen. Extremely engaging and clearly thought out from each space to the next. The show truly exemplified art in 3D, with a mass assortment of beautiful shapes and designs. Definitely a must see!

Amazing and Unique Performace
by Patty Lefaive Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
This six amazing women weave you in and out of their performance as they take you on the exploration of raw beauty, energy and emotion as you travel through the beautiful, historic landmark. This is a must see.

Lots of Surprise and Invention
by Kate Fern Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
This experience surpassed my expectations. I felt wholly satisfied-- so many breathtaking moments and striking shapes. Several times I was completely wow'ed by the fresh ingenuity, in all ways (sound, use of space and the charming details of the building, surprise, light, nuance..) . All six of the performers were captivating. Sometimes I am nervous about site-specific or experimental works, but the ushers and performers helped create a comfortable and accessible environment.

Re:Trace
by Deb Zachar Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
This production is about going on a journey and experiencing the 5 dancers and their experiences through their many and varied movements separately and together. It was amazing to me. If you are one who is open to new experiences of art, this one you will enjoy!

An Experiential Experience
by John Munger Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Six skilled dancers, all young women, mysteriously led the 25 of us on a journey through the bowels of the Colonial Warehouse, across the street from the Monte Carlo Restaurant. Bodies hang from hooks, doorknobs, stairwell railings and doorjambs. There is darkness and there is light. One scene is set with three dancers, visible only by their lower legs, in the stalls of a bathroom. At one point near the end we all stood gazing a distance at the direction we were supposed to look at. The dancers were among us in black jumpsuits, also gazing. One at a time they sprinted away to .. well .. the next thing. If you worry about the phrase, "site-specific" be reassured. This is two or three generations worth of inventiness and sophistication beyond some group cavorting like Isadora Duncan in a city park and adoring the shrubbery. The performance is indeed a performance, organized and carefully conceived. It also is danced. Yet the experience for me was neither familiar theater nor familiar dance. It was its own experience. For more dtail and commentary see also my Fringe dance blog on www.tcdailyplanet.net

John Munger

A captivating performance
by Paul Dosh Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
This impressively original performance kept Saturday's sold-out crowd captivated for the entire hour of improvised and choreographed exploration of this historic space. Clear communication and guidelines made it easy for audience members to interact with the performance at a level that made them most comfortable, ranging from observation to outright dancing with the performers, as well as having the audience members become part of the physical space that performers moved around, over, and under. The team of six dancers were a terrific ensemble that have obviously danced together a great deal, resulting in a strong and creative give and take. Though they never smile, the performers at several points exhibited an inviting playfulness that delighted our audience. Two highlights for me were the stairwell, where Taja Will did an amazing minutes-long inverted sliding descent of the metal bannisters as three dozen audience members filed by, brushing against her precariously suspended form, and the backlit corridor where Laura Grant took center stage with an extended slow motion solo segment whose every silhouetted movement held the eyes of all 40 audience members. It was really cool. Highly recommended!!

Built-Environment meets Body
by Britt Carlson Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
These six women move cleverly throughout the old Colonial Warehouse, highlighting both their own contemporary skill and the beauty of classic utilitarian architecture from 100 years ago. The dancers move on multiple levels of the old building while the audience moves with them, experiencing the performance intimately and remotely. This melding of architecture and improvisation is not to be missed.

Uniquely Moving
by Johanna Lewis Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Improvisational dance is new to me and I'm so glad for the introduction by the fine dancers of RAW. Over the course of the performance their inquisitive movements conveyed myriad emotions...frustration, playfulness, peace, resignation. It's a powerful collaboration, highly recommended.

Places you don't normally think about
by Dave Romm Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Very fringy and highly recommended. Six women wordlessly explore several levels of converted warehouse space. They writhe on the floor, climb walls, create shadows, run though the crowd. All viewpoints are unique. Precisely what they're doing and why is never explained, but you won't look at office space in quite the same way again. A Shockwave Radio Theater Review.

Longer reviews with pictures at Baron Dave's LiveJournal and snarky comments on Facebook.

Simply amazing
by Steven Gagner Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
What an amazing piece of movement. So many spaces all over the building being used (hallways, bathrooms, walls) and if that weren't enough you could freely roam about the performers. This is a must see of fringe!

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