Dances at the Lake Festival

'Nested: Homage To MIchele Rusinko' was choreographed to honor the life and work of Michele Rusinko, who passed away January 22, 2024. Rusinko was an Associate Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College where she taught for 34 years. She was a tireless, brilliant and passionate advocate for dance and dance education.

RTDG has been producing, teaching, and performing in and around the Twin Cities since relocating from the Pacific Northwest. He has extensive experience as a producer, program arts administrator and choreographer. Ray is the sole producer and funder of the annual Dances at the Lake Festival.

Becky Heist directed the Dance Program at Macalester College from 1980-2015. Upon retirement she reemerged into the Twin Cities dance community as a performer, teacher, choreographer and dance filmmaker. She currently teaches a modern dance class at Tapestry studios along with collaborators Thern Anderson and Erin Thompson. Becky has been dancing and choreographing for the Christopher Watson Dance Company since 2016.

Kinetic Evolutions dance company was formed in 2006 under the direction of Sarah LaRose-Holland. We are a modern dance company that performs virtuosic and emotionally engaging work. Sarah moved from Florida to Minnesota in the mid 90s. She has performed with CWDCompany since 1996. Sarah presented the Kinetic Kitchen and Kinetic Playground dance series for 10 years. She has worked with several independent choreographers and dance companies throughout her career.

Jawaahir Dance Company is dedicated to presenting Middle Eastern dance as a living art form at its highest artistic level, to bringing the rich folkloric heritage of the Middle East to the theater stage, and to providing education about the dance in its authentic form. For over thirty years we have delighted audiences with artistically exceptional performances in both traditional and contemporary forms of Middle Eastern dance and music.

Keane Sense of Rhythm is a non-profit tap dance company and school with an outreach arm. Our youth tap ensemble advance their passion, dance skills, historic knowledge, and cultural understanding as members of Keane. Our Tappy Hour™ program serves over 175 adults and we serve St. Paul public schools with after school programming. We have 26 years of dance education in Minnesota and our teachers are passionate about dance.

Sivanuja Balaji is the artistic director of Nritya Kalakshetra - Academy for Performing Arts in South Indian Classical Dance. She has been teaching, performing and choreographing for more than twelve years. Sivanuja is starting classes in Woodbury and Minneapolis, Eagan and Maple Grove Temple. Specializing in Bharathanatyam, depth of natyashastras, Facial expression (Abhinaya), basic exercise and yoga for dance, theory of dance, theatre performance, Indian folk dance.

Ashley Ballet Arts Academy’s mission is to enrich lives through the art and joy of dance education. Our youth performance groups, Ballet Arts Youth Ensemble, are a group of dedicated students looking to further their training and artistic experience with performance opportunities.

YDE strives to enrich the residents of the Twin Cities and surrounding area by providing an environment of dance training and performance with emphasis on artistic, technical, and creative content. Classes include preprofessional training for the serious student and programming for the avocational and young dancer. The Ensemble inspires the general public to better understand and appreciate dance in its many forms, to preserve and promote ballet and cultural traditions.

MNBC is a ballet-based artist collaborative dance company dedicated to bringing the joy of ballet to the Twin Cities community. Our vision is to foster creativity, collaboration, and passion among advanced ballet dancers while inspiring audiences with the storytelling ability and inherent beauty of ballet.

Alys Ayumi Ogura: A Japanese native, Ogura is a Twin Cities-based storyteller and performance maker through her movements, voice and quirky humor. Anna Andaházy Salazar: Anna is a multicultural performer, artist, and Dance/Movement Therapist. Ogura and Andaházy Salazar met years ago while performing the works of Vanessa Voskuil and Emily Johnson/Catalyst, and they have since sought the opportunity to collaborate. Ogura is thrilled to choreograph a new duet.

We are Minnesota's premier volunteer Japanese Dance group. Our dancers perform at the Festival of Nations, the Lantern Lighting Festival at Como Park, and the Cherry Blossom Festival.