Now ONLINE
Contact:
EMAIL
BMN: 651-222-7919
CBA:
651-290-0513
249
East Fourth Street,
St Paul, Minnesota, 55101
MISSION:
Ballet Minnesota is dedicated
to creating and sharing
artistry in dance
through public presentations
and education.
BMN
Executive Director:
Cynthia Betz
651-222-7919
BMN Artistic Director
CBA Co-director
Andrew Rist
Email
651-290-0513
CBA School Director:
Cheryl Rist
Grant
Writer:
Art Penfield
Production
Manager:
Jim
Arnold
Board
President:
Lisa
Gray
Volunteer
Coordinator:
Mary
Klein
20th Anniversary Ball Chairperson:
Julia
Lauwagie
Consultant
Physical Therapist :
Maryann
Johnson
.
Photoghrapher
2007:
Dave
Trayers
Schools Perfromance
Coordiantor:
Ellen Cochran
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" BLACK DOG CAFE "
Choreography: Andrew Rist
Sets: Jim Arnold, Cynthia Betz
Costumes: Cheryl Rist
Lighting: Dave Wangen
Dancers (2007) Erin Warn, Julia Heggernes, David Schmidt, Allen Gregory, Ted Southern, Maryann Johnson,
Antone Gregory, Garvin Jellison, Elizabeth Hobbs, Megan Simon, Rachelle Horowitz, Karmyn Grant,
Marisha Johnson, Rebecca Pelletier, Maren Gray, Sarah PelletierMargaret Ulland, Julia Valen, Jacqueline Lis
Last performance:
October 19-20, 2007
Premiere performance:
October 13-14, 2006
Fitzgerald Theater, St Paul, Minnesota
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Ballet Minnesota performed its fall concert at
the Fitzgerald theater to celebrate
the opening of its 20th Anniversary
Season.
Works featured were 'Italian Symphony' &
'Black Dog
Cafe'.
BLACK DOG CAFE
featured Minnesota folksinger Charlie Magurie &
Spoken Word
Artists Desdamona & Carnage (Ill Chemistry).
A New section was choreographed and added to Black Dog Cafe featuring
the music "Ill Chemistry" (Desdamona & Carnage)
Photograhy for 2007 Fall Concert by Dave Trayers
 
 
2nd Performance: Fitzgerald Theater: October 2007
St Paul, Minnesota
Dancers (2007) Erin Warn, Julia Heggernes, David Schmidt, Allen Gregory, Ted Southern, Maryann Johnson,
Antone Gregory, Garvin Jellison, Elizabeth Hobbs, Megan Simon, Rachelle Horowitz, Karmyn Grant,
Marisha Johnson, Rebecca Pelletier, Maren Gray, Sarah PelletierMargaret Ulland, Julia Valen, Jacqueline Lis
Featured Guest Artists:
Charlie Maguire (singer/songwriter)
Desdamona (singer / songwriter)
Carnage (rap artist)
Frank Brown (Sculptor)
Ta-Coumba Aiken (painter)
James Penfield (painter)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Article: Minnesota Daily, written by Megan Kadrmas
October 18, 2007
CULTURE CLASH AT THE BLACK DOG CAFE
Local hip-hop duo teams up with Ballet Minnesota to bring the streets to the fine arts.
The story of how it all started starts much like the story itself.
It was a hot, humid, heavy day in July. The area around the Black Dog Cafe in St Paul's Lowertown
district teamed with sweaty, sticky music fans watching the ominous thunderstoms roll in.
Eventually, this cruel act of Mother Nature led to the clashing of two musical cultures, and to the
beginning of our story.
On this fateful day, during the Black Dog Block Party, the rain began to fall with such force it
threatened to wash away the concert all together. While teh event's organizers scrambled for
a back-up plan and fans scurried for shelter, Ill Chemistry had an idea: act quickly to kee
as many fans as possible from dashing to their cars and high-tailing it home.
Ill Chemistry, which consists of rapper Desdamona and beat-boxer Carnage, were at the party
only to host the concert. They were supposed to keep teh line-up on track, fill the void between
acts and energize the crowd.
Even though it was raining cats and dogs outside of Black Dog, Ill Chemistry decided it was only
proper host etiquette to convince attendees to stick around until Plan B was ready. They grabbed
an amp and a couple of mics and began to play a spontaneous set inside the cafe, with the
lightning serving as their stage effects and the pounding rain and rattling thunder accompanying
Carnage on the beats.
It was at this exact moment that two cultures collided. But Desdamona and Carnage had no idea
at the time that someone was listening to them and liking what he was hearing.
They didn't know about the impact they made that day on a man until Desdamona's manager
called her weeks later to tell her that this man bought every one of their CDs during the block
party and had choreographed a ballet to some of their songs.
The man, Andrew Rist, is the co-founder and artistic director for Ballet Minnesota.
He was at the block party looking for music to use in a ballet he created about the Black Dog Cafe.
"I had never seen them before," Rist said of Ill Chemistry. "They just started singing in the corner
of the cafe. It was this amazing time."
Rist was so impressed with the hip-hop duo that he knew he found what he was looking for. He picked
a handful of songs from the CDs he purchased and eventually created choreography to the tracks as
part of his larger ballet project, "Black Dog Cafe." "I wanted to do more with their music but I ran out of
time," Rist said.
He said the movement in the ballet is inspired by the interactions he watches at Black Dog Cafe: people
coming and going, laughing and crying, bumping into old friends and making new ones.
This web of human interactions weaves certain movements into the ballet as well. Instead of having
Ill Chemistry's CD playing during their section of the show, they will join the dancers live on stage.
The two entities, the worlds of refined art and gritty streets, will be interacting with each other
throughout the act, Rist said.
"As I sat there, the whole place was moving to their own rhythm," Rist said of the Ill Chemistry concert
at the block party. "So the dancers will be interacting witht he band in the sense that, at points, they
circle her as she's singing.
There will be no prima donnas in pink tutus and pointy shoes, but some of the elements of classical
ballet movements are incorporated into the show. The section with Desdamona and Carnage features
more updated, modern dancing with some reggae and hip-hop inspired moves added in.
Both Carnage and Desdamona said they are excited to work with Ballet Minnesota.
"It's cool to me that people want to dance to me beat-boxing," Carnage said. "Our music isn't
actually drums, so it makes me feel good that people still feel it like they do with drums."
Ballet meets hip-hop at the intersection of music and self-expression, Ill Chemistry said.
"We're all also pushing boundaries with this," Carnage said. "Things can have a connection,
like this, if people are willing to go outside the box."
Also, Desdamona said, the show will motivate Ill Chemistry to push their sound in a new direction.
"When you put two things that maybe seem like they don't fit together, that's when new things
are created," Desdamona said. "New realities and new ideas come out of that."
The differences between the musical styles doesn't worry Desdamona, since she said she's worked
with dancers in the past.
"The difficult part, actually, for us is going to be not being able to really get in and rehearse with them
a lot," Desdamona said.
Ill Chemistry's busy performance schedule prevents them from rehearsing frequently with the dancers,
so Ballet Minnesota uses their recorded tracks for practice. The hip-hop pair will have to recreate
their recordings bery closely because of this, which is a departure from the improvisational tone of
their concerts.
Cultural differences won't just occur on stage at the Fitz. The audience, tempted by the offer of free
admission to all of the ballet's showings, will probably represent a diversity of ages and musical
preferences, too.
Children and their parents, hip-hop fans, dancers, Black Dog patrons and older people who support
the arts will most likely all attend, Carnage said.
"I think it'll be a really diverse crowd," he said. "And not necessarily a hip-hop crowd, either."
The hip-hop group isn't worried about this diversity, though.
Just as they proved on that fateful day in July, theya re ready to play whenever, wherever, and win
people over in the process.
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