Christopher Watson Dance Company

The Christopher Watson Dance Company (CWDC) was established to present the modern dance choreography of Artistic Director Christopher Watson. Our mission has expanded to include producing collaborative performances showcasing the diverse work of many individual choreographers, musicians, visual artists and dance companies. CWDC embraces the diverse and multigenerational composition of its artists whose ages range from 20-something to 70-something. Founded in California in 1991 and moved to Minnesota in 1994, this is the 35th season of performances.

Choreographer: Jennifer Mack is a Minneapolis based freelance movement artist that trained at Rochester Ballet School, Milwaukee Ballet, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, ODC, and on a Bukolt Scholarship at UW- Stevens Point graduating Summa Cum Laude with degrees in Dance Performance & Arts Management including minors in Art, Music & International Studies. She went on to dance & choreograph in Europe & the U.S. for 25+ years with numerous performing arts organizations & artists in various genres. Favorites including: Abby Wolf, Alternative Motion Project, AOT, Continental Ballet, Collide, Dance Co., Deborah Thayer, Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Hatch & Honeyworks Dance, Jagged Moves, James Sewell Ballet, Jess Forest, Jodi Melnick, Live Action Set, MN Opera, Rosy Simas, St. Paul City Ballet, Strange Loop Projects, Offleash Area & YEV. She was the former Ballet & Contemporary Director for Danceworks Performing Arts (2014-2024) & was awarded a Cowles Center Generating Room Residency (2020). She currently dances with Christopher Watson Dance Company, Kinetic Evolutions, and Movement by ME while teaching for Prima Classical Coaching, St. Paul Ballet, & Zenon Dance Schools. Much love & thanks to Christopher, fellow CWDC members, friends & family; especially my daughter, Zuzu.

Cultivate

At Cultivate Dance Collaborative in Waconia, Minnesota, we believe every body dances and every dancer has something valuable to contribute. Our mission is to create a welcoming environment where dancers are celebrated for who they are, the hard work they put in, and the joy they bring to the studio. We foster creativity, confidence, and individuality while providing personalized instruction that supports each dancer’s unique journey. Through movement, we strive to help every student grow both as an artist and as a person.

Choreographer: Maddie Burnham is the Co-Owner and Director of Cultivate Dance Collaborative and the Founder and Executive Director of 8:20 Dance Company in Waconia, Minnesota. With over 18 years of dance experience and more than a decade of teaching and choreographing, she is passionate about creating movement that fosters curiosity, connection, and authentic storytelling. A graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Dance and a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, Maddie blends artistry, wellness, and education in everything she creates.

Through Cultivate Dance Collaborative, 8:20 Dance Company, and Cultivate Wellness, Maddie is dedicated to building spaces where dancers and audiences alike feel inspired, challenged, and connected. Whether in the studio or on stage, her mission is to cultivate confidence, creativity, and community through the transformative power of movement.

DynAmic Dance Collective

DynAmic Dance Collective (founded by Aileen Norris (they/she) and Daniel Grove (they/he)) is an interdisciplinary movement group exploring queerness and disability within concert dance spaces. They have discovered increased possibility through collaboration, and seek to create dance spaces that feel joyful and caring. The full-length version of this work will premiere at Phoenix Theater on Sep 16th. Follow us @dynamicdance.collective on Instagram for more info!

Freshwater Dance Collective

Freshwater Dance Collective is dedicated to the mission of expanding the artistic boundaries of contemporary dance by presenting the choreography of regional and national artists. The company, formed in 1989, creates and produces quality professional modern dance in Northeastern Minnesota through public performances and special events. The company collaborates with musicians, visual artists, writers, and other choreographers to provide the company with opportunities to present the widest possible range of choreography, music, art, and subject matter to area audiences.

Choreographer: Doris Ressl founder of Dances on the Lakewalk and Artistic Director of Freshwater Dance Collective is a professor of dance and chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance at California State University Dominguez Hills.  Each year since 1996 the company shares outdoor dance with the Duluth community with performers and choreographers from the Arrowhead region, the Twin Cities, and Los Angeles.  We just celebrated our 30th Anniversary. In September 2021 she set a new work on Karlovsky & Company Dance in St. Louis,  in 2023 she was honored to dance in a work by Chicago choreographer Shirley Mordine, and in the Fall of '26 will create her last academic choreography as she begins her retirement from CSUDH.

KASM Dance Collective

KASM Dance Collective is a quartet of like-minded, multidimensional dance artists - all with various ties to Gustavus Adolphus College. Katy Becker, Allie Retterath, Sarah Hauss, and McKayla Murphy Zelaya have been working together as a group since 2020. This is their first year producing the Dances at the Lake Concert. 

Kinetic Evolutions Dance Company

Kinetic Evolutions is a contemporary dance company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and directed by Sarah LaRose-Holland. Kinetic Evolutions celebrates their 20th Anniversary this season! Their Anniversary concert will be held September 18-20, 2026 at Lundstrum Performing Arts. Kinetic Evolutions is thankful to have participated in annual performances of Dances at the Lakes in Minneapolis and Dances on the Lakewalk in Duluth since the company’s formation. 

Choreographer: Sarah LaRose-Holland is the Artistic Director of Kinetic Evolutions dance company. She is Co-Chair of the DanceMN Steering Committee, VP and Treasurer of Freshwater Dance Collective, and former board Treasurer and Guest Curator at Patrick’s Cabaret. Sarah presented the Kinetic Kitchen and Kinetic Playground dance series for 10 years, Directed Riverbend Dance Arts for 7 years, and celebrates the 20th Anniversary of Kinetic Evolutions this season. She is happy to be celebrating her 30th Anniversary of both dancing with Christopher Watson Dance Company and performing in the Dances on the Lakewalk in Duluth. 

Mary Willmeng

Mary Willmeng is an independent choreographer, teacher, and dancer living in Minneapolis, MN. She danced with Mordine and Company Dance Theater, the 58 Group, Breakbone Dance Company, Adriana Durant Dance, and Ayako Kato in Chicago before relocating to Colorado in 2009. During her time in Colorado, she performed with Cindy Brandle Dance Company, Mary Wohl Haan, and Rachel Oliver Young. She has set her work on Simantikos Dance Chicago, Trifecta Dance Collective, and the students at Zenon Dance School for their Zone and Block Z programs. For the last three years, she has self-produced shows as part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival with her group, Willmeng Dances. Currently, she is a teaching artist at Zenon Dance School and Young Dance. She is thrilled to be a part of Dances at the Lake this year!

Minnesota Ballet Collective

The Minnesota Ballet Collective (MNBC) is an innovative ballet performance group based in the Twin Cities, with the primary goal of sharing the art of classical ballet with Minnesota communities. Our mission is to foster creativity, collaboration, and passion among advanced ballet dancers while inspiring audiences with the storytelling ability and inherent beauty of ballet. If you would like to learn more about MNBC, find us on social media @mnballetcollective, or online at www.mnballetcollective.org.

Ray Terrill Dance Group

Ray Terrill Dance Group creates contemporary dance that balances expressive physicality with thoughtful artistic inquiry. Founded and directed by choreographer Ray Terrill, the company draws upon more than five decades of creative work while continuing to engage new generations of performers and audiences. RTDG presents original choreography that explores human experience through movement, image, and collaboration.

Choreographer: Ray Terrill is a choreographer, performer, teacher, and arts leader whose career spans more than fifty years. He is the Artistic Director of Ray Terrill Dance Group and the Executive Director of Minnesota Dance Consort. Influenced by the German expressionist lineage of Mary Wigman, his choreography investigates memory, identity, human connection, and the expressive potential of movement. His work has been presented throughout the Pacific Northwest and Midwest.

Romero Cannady

Romero Cannady is a choreographer, educator, and founder of Remnant Dance Conservatory based in Minnesota. His work blends contemporary dance, Horton technique, African diasporic movement, and theatrical storytelling rooted in discipline, faith, and emotional honesty. Through rigorous training and performance, Remnant Dance Conservatory prepares dancers for both artistic excellence and purposeful leadership. Cannady’s choreography often explores themes of endurance, transformation, spirituality, and what remains after seasons of testing. His evening-length works and youth-centered performance projects are designed to create powerful, community-driven dance experiences that center both technical rigor and human connection.

Sansei Yonsei Kai

Sansei Yonsei Kai (SYK) is an all-volunteer, multicultural, and multigenerational dance organization founded around 1974 to promote and preserve traditional Japanese dance. For over 50 years, SYK has continued the long-standing traditions of the Japanese American community in the Twin Cities, sharing culture, history, and artistry through performance.

Young Dance

Since 1987, Young Dance has been transforming lives through movement. The Performing Company is a vibrant community of curious, committed dancers ages 7 to 18 who use movement to explore who they are and how they connect to the world around them. Through creativity, collaboration, and joyful risk-taking, Company members discover the power of their own artistic voices while creating meaningful work together. Learn more about us at www.youngdance.org, or contact Artistic Director Anat Shinar at anat@youngdance.org with questions.

8:20

8:20 Dance Company is founded by a student who attended Gustavus Adolphus College with a Dance Honors and Theatre Double Major. This company’s mission is to evoke the audience with curiosity and create a space where the dancers and viewers are connected with each other. By combining both theatre and dance, 8:20 Dance Company strives to present work that the audience will be able to connect with on a more personal level. The subtle movements and constant kinesthetic flow within the bodies of the dancers creates an environment in which all can attempt to create their own stories. We hope that our work provokes thought and conversation throughout the members in the audience. Ultimately, we wish that each person will be touched by our movement and moved by our story.

Choreographer bio: Clara Douglas is a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point with degrees in Dance and Arts management. Douglas is originally from Ashland Wisconsin but has recently relocated to the twin cities and is dancing with 8:20 Dance Company. Douglas has produced three full staged works and is teaching at various studios in the twin cities and northern Minnesota. Douglas’s work is rooted in ideas of human connection and her view points on thought processes deemed societal norms.

Choreographer Bio: Adrienne Guenther (she/her) is a movement artist, teacher, and choreographer based in Minnesota. Adrienne approaches art making through exciting and generous movement that values the longevity of the artists embodying it. Through her work, she questions how people are interconnected with others and the environment in which they inhabit.