Here’s another one where I kept going back and forth on which dance show to pick and they’re honestly both so interesting to me that I can’t decide so I’m just going to list them both in another two-for.
First, there’s the local collaboration of the heads of Twin Cities Trapeze Center and Keane Sense of Rhythm Tap Company:
#18A - Tapeze
Twin Cities Trapeze Center
Created by Cathy Wind and Katie Kimball
Venue: TRP
Show Description:
What happens when you blend tap shoes and a trapeze? This fusion turns the stage into a dynamic playground where rhythm meets flight. A high flying symphony of movement, music and momentum.
Genre & Content: Dance
Warnings: None
The press pitch was:
Two local arts institutions, who have never worked together before, walk into a theater...
Don’t ask me how a trapeze is going to work in the TRP space but for that reason alone I’m super curious.
Also, the bios of the three artists involved (two tap dancers, one trapeze artist) are wild.
Precious little detail but I’m intrigued by the concept.
Then there’s the opposite in terms of detail from a nationally touring dance company based out of Boston, who are very chatty about their art and their process. And I do love a dancer who can make their art accessible to the clumsy and bewildered, such as myself:
#18B - husk/vessel
KAIROS Dance Theater
Created by Paula Josa-Jones and DeAnna Pellecchia in collaboration with the dancers
Venue: Southern Theatre
Show Description:
husk/vessel is a raw, physical reckoning with memory and identity—a visceral dance-theater work where the body becomes both container and storyteller.
Genre & Content:
Dance, Dance-Modern, Improv, Original Music, Physical Theater, Storytelling, Non-Verbal
Warnings: None
First up, there’s a video trailer, so you can see for yourself if this is your kind of dance:
Then there’s the name:
WHAT IS 'KAIROS'?
KAI•ROS | pronounced [KAHY-ROHS]
The ancient Greeks had two distinct words for time: chronos and kairos.
Chronos—the root of chronological—refers to quantitative, linear time. It is the time of clocks, calendars, aging, and deadlines. It marches forward in steady ticks, measured by the hands of a watch or the phases of the moon.
But time does not begin—or end—there.
Kairos, the lesser-known but far more profound counterpart, is what many philosophers and mystics refer to as deep time. It is qualitative rather than quantitative. It lives in long exhales, in laughter with old friends, in the quiet awe of watching a breathtaking sunset. Kairos is presence: a moment outside of measurement, where something meaningful can occur—something sacred, transformative, or simply true.
In kairos time, we lose track of chronos. A state of flow is activated—one that cannot be measured, only felt.
Mining this deep time is at the heart of all KAIROS Dance Theater’s creative projects. Our performances are designed to suspend forward-moving time, creating visceral, fully felt experiences that open a space—outside of clocks, beyond distraction—where something real can happen.
In these moments, audience and performers are invited to enter a shared rhythm, a collective breath. KAIROS is where the world softens, presence expands, and we are reminded—just for a moment—of the beauty of the world, the potential of our shared humanity, and the simple, profound truth that none of us are alone.
OK, I’m down for all of that. Then there’s the process that birthed the show they’ve been touring and now bring to Minneapolis. Per artistic director DeAnna Pellecchia:
“husk/vessel was created mostly during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the early days of this project, the dancers and I were crammed into my 16 x 18 home studio—separated from each other by boxes taped on the floor, and from Paula by a computer screen and hundreds of miles. From September 2020 to May 2021, we met twice a week, masked up, doing our best to stay healthy and keep dancing.
I’ve always aimed to make work that’s real and vulnerable, as does Paula—but the rawness present in those rehearsals was something else. The uncertainty of the world hung over the room, and all we could do was show up and surrender to it. We made the work for you—the audience we knew we’d be reunited with eventually—but with no clear sense of when, we danced for each other. Creating husk/vessel became a reason to keep going in a time when we didn’t know where we were headed, and a way to stay connected, despite the isolation.
Through improvisation and shared readings, poetic imagery began to surface: archetypal figures washing, weaving, carrying, praying, playing, fighting, surrendering. These images felt universal, timeless—fleeting glimpses of humanity’s essence, even as the world around us unraveled. We let ourselves be physically consumed by giant swaths of fabric—hiding, revealing, holding our smiles, tears, and fears in plain sight. That fabric became a true partner, cradling each of us through the darkness (I now understand why “blankies” are so comforting to children).
When we finally came together in person with Paula in June 2021, after nearly a year of virtual rehearsals, the piece took on a new dimension. We had room to MOVE—to fully carve out the expansive, 45-minute performance you’ll see today. But the intimacy, vulnerability, trust, and deep connection that shaped this work in its earliest days—they’re still there. They’re stitched into the very guts of this piece.
The pandemic revealed so many hard truths—so many lessons we still need to learn. One of the biggest is this: there’s far less separating us than we think. Masks, clothing, body size, race, gender, space, time—these things may appear to define us, but underneath, we are all just skin, fascia, muscle, and bone—reaching for one another, finding our way forward, through what’s heavy, toward what’s human.
If nothing else, I hope that’s what you feel as you watch…”
They’re also really great about acknowledging the musicians who created the music they’re using, and the other artists in the company who helped in the development of the show. You can see all that on the Cast and Crew, and More Information tabs of their Fringe show page.
And lastly there’s just, well, everything else:
“husk/vessel is part of The RISE Tour, KAIROS Dance Theater’s first national tour, bringing our raw, physically intense, and emotionally-driven work to communities across the U.S. in 2025. From Boston to Minneapolis, Atlanta to NYC, and San Diego, we carry with us the stories, questions, and connections born in the rehearsal rooms during the height of the pandemic.
Each stop on the tour offers an opportunity to deepen conversation, build community, and affirm the transformative power of live performance.
At a time when democracy is under threat, social divisions are deepening, and the fight for equity and justice continues,
The RISE Tour serves as a powerful call to action.
Through movement, storytelling, and community engagement, RISE amplifies voices of resistance and resilience, reminding us all of the power of collective action in shaping a more just and inclusive world.
At its heart, husk/vessel is rooted in the belief that presence and vulnerability are radical acts—forms of resistance—and essential to healing a fractured world. We are so grateful to share this leg of the journey with you.”
And I do mean everything else:
“Known for its immersive, multi-sensory performances that transcend traditional boundaries, KAIROS has emerged as a nationally touring company with work presented across New England, New York, California, Georgia, and Minnesota. Internationally, the company’s bold, interdisciplinary projects have been featured in Korea, France, and Russia—bringing its distinct blend of dance, theater, and visual storytelling to diverse communities and spaces around the world.
Founded in 2012, KAIROS creates visceral, socially engaged performance works that fuse physical rigor with emotional depth, bringing audiences into intimate encounters with pressing cultural, political, and universal questions about identity, purpose, and belonging. Through immersive dance-theater, interdisciplinary collaboration, and a deep commitment to community, KAIROS engages the body as a site of memory, resistance, and transformation.
The company’s work lives at the intersection of dance, theater, visual art, and multimedia. KAIROS often partners with composers, filmmakers, designers, and writers to create layered, immersive environments that transcend traditional performance formats. Signature works explore themes of grief, resilience, and collective healing—not merely telling stories, but offering rituals of reckoning, spaces for reflection, and invitations to rise together.
In addition to its performance work, KAIROS is dedicated to broadening access to the arts through year-round community programming. The company offers artist talks, open rehearsals, workshops, and cultural events designed to engage diverse audiences and deepen understanding of dance as a tool for connection and transformation. Each season, KAIROS produces 2–3 original productions, building bridges between artists and communities across the United States and beyond.”
I am very often a sucker for an artist who can hold forth and just talk about their art. These folks are that. Just reading all that made me feel better, and those moments are rare. So if seeing the dance tops the written presentation, I’m going to enjoy a lot of dance this year at the Fringe.
Maybe you didn’t need to nerd out and read all that to know that you wanted to see it, or it wasn’t your thing, but I appreciated the artists laying it all out there, so I thought it was worth sharing in a slightly longer post.
Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.
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