Art Hounds: SOLO presents the latest in new dance works

Ashwini Ramaswamy never misses a chance to see SOLO, the biennial showcase of dancers who've been awarded the McKnight Foundation's dancer fellowship. Each fellow gets to commission a new solo from a choreographer of their choosing from anywhere in the world. Ramaswamy says the result is an evening of world premieres in a wide range of traditions and styles. Performances are Friday and Saturday at the Cowles Center in Minneapolis.

Performer and vocal coach Jim Ahrens saw "Remembering Pins and Needles" last weekend, and recommends you check it out before it closes Sunday. The show is about another show, "Pins and Needles," which was a hit on Broadway in the 1930s. That show was developed by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union as entertainment for its members but became a popular success for its catchy anti-fascist tunes and pro-labor rhetoric. "Remembering Pins and Needles" tells the story of the popular musical and presents some of the numbers that weren't lost to time. Performances run through Sept. 16 at the Howard Conn Fine Arts Center in Minneapolis.

Arts administrator Jacinta Zens is headed to Kaddatz Galleries in Fergus Falls, Minn., to check out two exhibitions by Naomi RaMona Schliesman and Su Legatt. Schliesman's exhibition is titled "The Silver Lining" and uses large-scale sculptural pieces to deal with the aesthetics of place as well as wrestle with disease, death and faith. Legatt's exhibition "sideDISH" explores the culinary habits and traditions of rural Minnesota. She collects recipes, archives stories and photographing food dishes. Naomi RaMona Schliesman, who is also Springboard for the Arts' artist development director in Fergus Falls, will give a talk on the state of the arts in rural Minnesota.