Presenting and commissioning innovative performances since 1940, the Performing Arts program offers a season that spans contemporary dance, experimental theater, new jazz, avant-folk, new global and alt-classical music, and the multiple hybrids of forms in between. More

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Performances

The Sound of Surprise: A Vijay Iyer Mini-Festival

“Vijay Iyer is, simply put, one of the most interesting and vital young pianists in jazz today.” —Pitchfork Thursday, March 1 Wadada Leo Smith + Vijay Iyer Duo (world premiere) Vijay Iyer - Solo The Vijay Iyer Trio (Marcus Gilmore, Stephan Crump, Vijay Iyer) Friday, March 2 Mike Ladd + Vijay Iyer Duo Vijay Iyer… More

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Performances

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

“[Jones’] gifts: pungent, purposeful character development, compelling storytelling and pure-dance interludes of slippery and often deeply romantic choreography.” —Washington Post Bill T. Jones, one of America’s most accomplished dancemakers, creative force behind Broadway’s Spring Awakening and Fela!, and… More

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Julie Caniglia

Chance Ruminations

In Bill T. Jones’ Story/Time, the MacArthur “Genius” and Tony-winning choreographer takes inspiration from John Cage’s 1959 work Indeterminacy, sharing a series of poetic reflections, organized by chance and punctuated by dance and music. In the spirit of the… More

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Philip Bither

Internal Revolution

Given the tumult in the Middle East, it’s no surprise that Lebanese theater-maker and visual artist Rabih Mroué is interested in revolution. But he doesn’t see his work as activism. Eschewing the term “political theater,” he says, “If there’s a revolution, it’s… More

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Paul Schmelzer

Last Dance

For five decades, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the Walker have had deep ties, from commissions and residencies to a 2008 performance in a granite quarry and the Walker’s acquisition of the company décor and costumes in 2011. Fittingly, when the company… More

• Monk’s Tower

  Via onbeing.org Accompanying its recent segment on Meredith Monk, On Being links up video of a haunting performance by the vocalist with dancers and musicians inside a 78-foot-tall tower designed by artist Ann Hamilton.

• Kraftwerk in Residence

  Via moma.org Over eight nights in April, MoMA hosts the German experimental electronic band Kraftwerk who’ll perform each of their eight albums, one each night, going from 1974’s Autobahn to the 2003 album Tour de France.

• King For Two Days

  Via thecurrent.org Performances from the Walker’s 2010 mini-festival of music by Minneapolis drummer Dave King (The Bad Plus, Happy Apple, and others) makes up the backbone of a new documentary screening February 24 at Missoula’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

• Instrumental Innovation?

  Via theatlantic.com Never heard of a Harpejji, Tenori-on, or Eigenharp? That’s likely because established rock musicians seem “more inclined to try just about any instrument other than a new one.” Why? One inventor blames the “music industrial complex.”

• Pirate Radio

  Via theverge.com Neil Young’s concern about digital music isn’t filesharing—”Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around”—but the sound quality of MP3s, which he says contain only 5 percent of the audio from the original recording.

• Baring All

  Via villagevoice.com Becca Blackwell has performed nude before, but it “feels different” doing it in Untitled Feminist Show, which debuted at the Walker before heading to NYC. “I have no props or words to draw attention away from the loadedness of my junk while I’m trying to be myself.”