PODCAST 184: Twin Cities
Release Date: 3.17.25
TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:
Twin Cities with Joanna Lees, Jesse Schmitz-Boyd, Erinn Liebhard
Episode 184: Show Notes.
Nestled along the Mississippi River, Minneapolis and Saint Paul offer a unique mix of natural beauty and culture. Winters are harsh, but skyways provide warmth, and frozen lakes set the scene. When summer arrives, the cities buzz with life, from thriving arts and food scenes to passionate sports fans. Each season brings a fresh energy to this dynamic and welcoming community. Today, we’re joined by three dance artists who call the Twin Cities home—Joanna Lees, Jesse Schmitz-Boyd, and Erinn Liebhard. Together, we dive into the Twin Cities dance and arts scene, exploring how they found their way there, their roles in the dance world, and how the region’s geography (and harsh winters) shape the artistic landscape. They share insights on leading dance companies, navigating the audition scene, and the importance of carving out a niche. We also discuss the concept of “all-encompassing physicality,” available resources for artists, and the gaps they hope to see filled in the local dance community. Tune in for a rich conversation on what makes the Twin Cities such a unique and inspiring place for dance!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Listeners are introduced to our three amazing guests: Joanna Lees, Jesse Schmitz-Boyd, and Erinn Liebhard.
- Their roles in the dance world and what brought them (or kept them) in the Twin Cities.
- What ‘Twin Cities’ means and how the geography influences the dance scene.
- How the winter (with its snow and ice) impacts their art and dance-making.
- They highlight their experiences leading dance companies in the Twin Cities.
- We discuss the ins and outs of the audition scene in the Twin Cities.
- Joanna expands on the concept of “all-encompassing physicality.”
- Jesse touches on the necessity of moving towards a “niche” in the Twin Cities dance scene.
- The vibe of the dance community and different dance hubs in the area.
- They expand on the different resources available in the Twin Cities.
- The gaps (or downsides): changes and developments they’d love to see.
- Each guest expands on what makes their dance life in the Twin Cities special to them.
ABOUT Joanna Lees
Joanna Lees (she/her) is a choreographer, performer, producer, director, filmmaker, and educator based in Minneapolis, MN. Her current research involves cultivating empowerment and healing through trauma-informed artistic practices. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, Joanna graduated cum laude with distinction with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Business from The Ohio State University (2007). There, she was an Arts Scholar and the recipient of the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum Scholarship. She also performed in Doug Varone’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) in collaboration with BalletMet Columbus.
Joanna moved to Minnesota in 2008 and showcased her own choreography independently before co-founding the Minneapolis dance company, Alternative Motion Project alongside Kristin Howe in 2011. Joanna serves as the Artistic + Executive Director and has led in creating performing opportunities for artists, educational outreach programs for public school students, and innovating within audience engagement initiatives. As a performer, Joanna has worked with a variety of local choreographers including, Body Watani (Noelle + Leila Awadallah), Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Khary Jackson, Erin Drummond, Penelope Freeh, Jennifer Glaws, Kristin Howe, Heather Klopchin, Erinn Liebhard, Blake Nellis, Darrius Strong, and Taja Will.
In 2020, Joanna earned her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Modern Dance at The University of Utah (Salt Lake City). Whilst there, she served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Dance and received the L. Scott Marsh Mentorship Award & a University Teaching Assistantship. Joanna performed works by Charles O. Anderson, Stephen Koester, Sara Pickett, and Christine McMillan. She performed in work by Doug Varone in collaboration with Doug Varone and Dancers and was selected as a choreographer for Varone’s DEVICES mentorship program, showcasing her work, Spiral Into Control, in New York City (2018). An excerpt of her MFA thesis, B E C O M I N G, was selected to represent the University of Utah in performance for the American College Dance Association Northwest Regional Conference at Gonzaga University (2020). Her work has also been presented in the Chicago area, Louisville, KY, and Kalamazoo, MI.
Joanna served as a faculty member at Winona State University where her original work, Entropy, represented WSU at the 2024 Northwest-Central Regional Conference (Northfield, MN).
photo by: Bill Cameron
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ABOUT Erinn Liebhard
Erinn Liebhard (she/ her) is a Twin Cities, MN-based (traditional lands of the Dakota and Ojibwe people) dance artist making opportunities for people to experience the reflective and connective power of groove through performance and education. Having grown up dancing socially at her dad’s rock band’s gigs, she discovered young the exhilaration of playfully experiencing groove alongside others. Guided by this inspiration and a fondness for jazz and American social dance ideas, she’s worked with creatives as varied as hip-hop dance theater artist Rennie Harris and the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers Appalachian clogging company. She acknowledges that as a dance artist working in jazz and American social dances, forms with African diasporic roots and branches, anti-racism and intersectional justice efforts must also be central in her work. In performance, she makes and performs new staged works and presents those of others through her company Rhythmically Speaking, and performs freelance and as self-created character “Nerdette” for St. Paul Saints Baseball’s Entertainment Team. She also creates new works for high schools, colleges and professional companies. Her creative works emphasize groove, interaction and improvisation and are inspired by both social and concert dance movement while often driven by contemporary jazz music. In education, she has been faculty for many area arts high schools and universities and is currently teaching at Carleton College, St. Olaf College and Winona State University. She also conducts educational outreach through her company and is an active writer, residency artist and conference presenter. She is driven to help connect people to themselves, one another and the moment through rooted and innovative embodiment of groove.
photo by : Galen Higgins
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ABOUT Jesse Schmitz-Boyd
Jesse Schmitz-Boyd is a Twin Cities-based choreographer, dance artist, and educator known for his innovative approach to movement and performance. He is the founder and artistic director of Rogue & Rabble Dance and has been a company member of Alternative Motion Project (AMP) for over a decade. A dynamic collaborator, Jesse regularly works with Off-Leash Area, performing at venues like the Cowles Center and participating in the Neighborhood Garage Tour across Minnesota. His recent project, Dredged and Dammed: A Confluence, created with Elizabeth Flinsch, is an experimental dance exploring the history of the Mississippi River.
Jesse’s choreography is characterized by its unique blend of humor, emotional depth, and exploration of human connection. His movement language fuses flowing, off-kilter gesture with an emphasis on disruption and play, drawing from fall-and-recover techniques while embracing complexities and contradictions. His work often reflects a self-aware meditation on the futility of fully capturing these complexities, inviting audiences to engage with both the absurd and the profound.
In addition to his own compositions, Jesse has performed in works by a diverse group of accomplished choreographers, including Michael Estanich, Jennifer Glaws, Heather Klopchin, Brianna Rae Johnson, Erinn Liebhard, Brenna Mosser, Kristin Howe, and Joanna Lees.
Jesse’s choreography has been showcased at venues such as the Red Eye Theater, The Southern Theater, DanceBarn Festival (Battle Lake, MN), The Lab Theater, Minnesota Fringe Festival, The Ritz Theater, and Movement Arts Day (Eau Claire, WI). His piece 35 Different Angles From Which to Hate Yourself was named one of the Star Tribune’s “10 Must Sees” at the 2017 Minnesota Fringe Festival, with the paper praising it as “pretty darn funny”. In 2022, his work TRAITOR received a Golden Lanyard Award at the Minnesota Fringe Festival.
With a degree in Dance and Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, Jesse’s interdisciplinary background informs both his creative process and his perspective on movement. He has taught dance, movement, and performance to students of all ages across Minnesota and Wisconsin since 2003 and currently serves on the faculty at The Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis.
photo by: Bill Cameron
Connect:
- jsbdance.com
- Instagram.com/rogueandrabbledance
Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
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