Audio Mathew Janczewski 'resonates' through dance (story audio) Photos ARENA Dances Choreographer Mathew Janczewski Everything Reflects View full slideshow (4 images) More from MPR State of the Arts Resources Southern Theater Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Mathew Janczewski 'resonates' through dance
by Marianne Combs, Minnesota Public Radio
March 24, 2004

ARENA Dances explores the shape of the body, relationships and the surreal in its latest concert "resonance." (MPR Photo/Marianne Combs)

Many dance companies have their own schools and regular concerts to keep them financially healthy all year long. Meanwhile ARENA Dances exists just beneath the radar, surviving from one concert to the next,usually performing just once a year.

St. Paul, Minn. — Mathew Janczewski talks through a series of moves with eight dancers in a warehouse studio in northeast Minneapolis. Janczewski started his company ARENA Dances soon after graduating from the University of Minnesota back in 1995. But since then he's only been able to put on one concert each year.

	Choreographer Mathew Janczewski

"I have five jobs right now - three out of the dance world," says Janczewski. "I work for an architect, I work for a furniture rep and I cater. And all of them have been audience members of mine who just wanted to help me do what I want to do. I'm scraping...I'm just getting by."

Janczewski has been dancing ever since he's been on his feet. He remembers Sunday mornings as a child dancing in the livingroom while he waited for his family to get ready for church.

"It really was a natural thing," says Janczewski. "I remember also my sister was in dance lessons too, so I would always try to peak through - I mean it's totally the Billy Elliot story. She and I would always play in the basement and I would lift her. So yeah, it started from day one."

Janczewski's mother took the hint, and started renting movies starring Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Over the years Janczewski has absorbed movement both in school and on the street.

	Everything Reflects

In order to keep himself in shape and save up for his annual dance concerts he's both taught and taken classes in a variety of styles. He's known for producing eclectic and highly stylized work.

In his latest concert "resonance" he's incorporated everything from hip hop to buddhist prayer into his decidedly modern pieces.

In his duet "Everything Reflects," Janczewski and dancer Robert Haarman slowly mirror each other's movements. At other points they hurl themselves at one another, ending in a tight embrace. Janczewski says he was inspired by how his own hands fit together like two pieces in a puzzle.

"I wanted to experiment with that," says Janczewski. "With two people and trying to find those curves and folds and bends within each other's bodies."

	Hold On

Several of the pieces play on the power dynamics of relationships. In "Hold On," four couples battle for what they need, whipping between intimate vulnerability and open aggression. One partner slowly lowers the other to the ground, cradling her by the neck, then suddenly they're wrestling and jerking each other around. Janczewski calls it an antagonistic duet.

"I purposely kept each couple out there - the four couples dancing - because I thought it was so interesting how your eye as a viewer just goes from to the other and each of them are doing it so completely differently. I love that it's like all these different worlds all at the same time."

As the dance progresses, the couples combine into a group piece...a dancer is tossed from one pair of hands to the next like flotsam on a stormy sea. Finally each makes his or her exit, leaving the stage bare and still.

Mathew Janczewski's ARENA dances presents its latest concert "resonance" through Sunday March 28th at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. The evening includes works set to the music of Phil Kline, David Lang and Bjork. Next the company plans to travel to St. Petersburg Russia to perform "resonance" in the Open Look International Dance Festival.

Then Janczewski will go back to work at his five other jobs as he prepares for next year's concert.

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