The Walker's performing arts department presented a season filled with innovative theater, dance, performance, and music from around the world. Dance highlights included the fourth season of Momentum: New Dance Works, featuring Minnesota dance creators in collaboration with the Southern Theater; the new experimental dance work Daylight (for Minneapolis) by Sarah Michelson, co-commissioned and presented by the Walker and involving more than 50 local performers; Prague-based Deja Donné's dance-theater work In Bella Copia, copresented with the local Russia/U.S. dance organization Link Vostok as part of the Central European Dance Exchange; the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's performances of Suite for Five (1956), Native Green (1985), and Split Sides (2003), copresented with Northrop Auditorium; the 33rd annual Choreographers' Evening curated by Minnesota choreographer Matthew Janczewski; Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's solo work ONCE; Joe Chvala and the Flying Foot Forum's signature dance piece Between the Fire and Ice (Mjøllnir II), commissioned by the Walker; and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company's performance of Blind Date, copresented by Northrop Auditorium.
Music highlights included Brooklyn avant-noise trio Black Dice and 13 & God with rock-metal trio Blood on the Wall; Grammy Award-winning guitarist Bill Frisell and his Unspeakable Orchestra with Hal Willner, copresented by the Walker, Northrop Auditorium, and the Cedar Cultural Center; the ambient electronic vocal music of Argentina's Juana Molina with Sea and Cake founders Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt; Jon Langford's The Executioner's Last Songs, with an accompanying exhibition of Langford's artwork at Rogue Buddha Gallery; music legend Jon Zorn with his jazz group Electric Masada; free jazz saxophonist-composer Douglas Ewart with his group Inventions; the rural desert blues of Tinariwen from Mali, West Africa, copresented with the Cedar Cultural Center; the Knock on the Sky collaborative performance by Myra Melford, Dawn Akemi Saito, and Michael Haberz, co-commissioned by the Walker; and the world premiere of Pine Eyes by new-music force Zeitgeist and composer Martin Bresnick.
Theater highlights included the world premiere of SUPER VISION by the Obie Award-winning Builders Association and digital designers dbox; the experimental theater company Mabou Mines' popular and critically acclaimed Mabou Mines Dollhouse; and Sekou Sundiata and his the 51st (dream) state exploring American identity post-September 11. The Walker also presented the 18th Out There festival of performance alternatives with the Southern Theater. The series featured the Walker-commissioned Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty by Dan Graham and Tony Oursler, with marionettes by Phillip Huber and live music by Japanther; the French-Austrian collective Superamas' Big Episode #2 (Show/Business); the Dutch collective Kassys on its first U.S. tour with Kommer; and the Everett Dance Theatre's Home Movies.
