Art Hounds: Joyful dance and Syrian heartbreak

"Drop The Mic: The Experience"
Curio Dance presents "Drop The Mic: The Experience" at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis.
Dan Norman

This week on Art Hounds: Curio Dance grooves to Jimi Hendrix.

Social dancer Gale Jensen is thrilled to be going to "Drop The Mic: The Experience" this weekend. Choreographed by the co-founders of Curio Dance, Dario and Giselle Mejia, the performance combines hip hop, Brazilian zouk and jazz funk set to the music of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Prince, among others. Performances run Friday through Sunday at the Cowles Center for Dance in Minneapolis.

Lisa Bergh, executive director of Hutchinson Center for the Arts, recommends taking in the faculty show at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University. Bergh says the show features work by skilled artists in a host of media, including book arts, ceramics, painting and video — she was particularly moved by a video piece that examined the 24-hour news cycle in the wake of the drowned Syrian boy who washed up on the shore of Turkey. The show runs through March 19.

Painter Steph Guidera plans to attend "Latino Art Migration," a group exhibition that explores the displacement, nostalgia and anxiety of migrants and immigrants. At a time when immigration is being fiercely debated, Guidera says, she's looking forward to learning more about what it means to be an immigrant in the United States. The show runs through Feb. 24 at Concordia Gallery on the campus of Concordia College in St. Paul.

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