Cowles Center Announces Schedule for Inaugural Fall Forward Festival

The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts has announced the schedule for its inaugural Fall Forward Festival, a month-long series of evening performances, featuring 10 local dance groups from a variety of genres and levels of experience. It’s one of the Cowles’ largest and most fulfilling projects to date, a project that has been in the works since before the pandemic.

“We are certainly proud and excited to bring the festival to life and share this diverse group of artists with our community,” said Cowles Center co-director Jessi Fett in a press release.

The festival will run over the four weekends of October 29 – 30, November 5-6, November 12-13, and November 19-20, 2022 on the Goodale Theater Stage. Each weekend will feature a new roster of dancers, where audience members new to the dance community will be able to experience a sampler of genres in one sitting, and avid dance-lovers will be able to see their favorite performers as well as new (and equally spectacular) performers to the Twin Cities dance-scene.

“At the core of the festival is the intent of sharing the stage with as many artists as possible, cross-pollinating audiences with a variety of dance groups and genres, and of course to celebrate our amazing dance and movement community,” said Joseph Bingham, co-director of the Cowles Center.

Check out the schedule for each weekend below, and don’t forget to grab your tickets ($30 per weekend, Pay As You Are for livestream tickets).

• October 29 and October 30, 2022: The kick-off weekend will comprise traditional rhythms and dances of Guinea West Africa from Duniya Drum and Dance Ensemble, accessible and anti-elitist ballet from Twin Cities Ballet, and improv-driven jazz from Rhythmically Speaking.
• November 5 and 6, 2022: The second weekend of the festival will share Threads Dance Project’s goal to radically re-imagine dance as essential to a new abolition movement and Atlantis13’s exploration of colonialism and the essence of Blackness. “We are excited to not only be immersed in our own dance narratives but to forge collaborative and affirming connections in the community,” said Peace Madimutsa of Atlantis13. “Dance knows no bounds and manifests itself beyond just one genre.”
• November 12 and 13, 2022: Experience the power and passion of Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, the interdisciplinary aesthetics of Black Label Movement, and the story-driven, contemporary work of Crash Dance Productions.
• November 19 and 20, 2022: The final weekend of the Fall Forward Festival will conclude with HIJACK’s Cowles’s stage debut and Co-Artistic Director of Ragamala Dance Company Aparna Ramaswamy’s return with a new solo highlighting cultural wisdom and imagination.