TU Dance

Toni Pierce-Sands, founder and artistic director of TU Dance, bringing dance education and performance to the Twin Cities for the past 20 years, talks about the story behind TU Dance.

Creators and Guests

BA

Producer

Britt Aamodt

JK

Producer

Joely Kelzer

What is Minnesota's Legacy?

Minnesota's Legacy showcases the organizations and the people who have benefited from Minnesota’s Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment in sound-rich 90-second segments.

Opening: This is Minnesota's Legacy: A look at the organizations and people who have benefitted from Minnesota's unique Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.

Britt Aamodt: Dance is about being present in the body, the body in motion on stage before an audience. Toni Pierce-Sands understood that almost better than anyone. She'd been dancing since she was six.

Background music – heavy tone, some keys

Toni Pierce-Sands: The Twin Cities, when I was coming up through dance and becoming an artist, that was not really accessible at that time.

Aamodt: Certainly not for dancers of color. Years later, after a successful career outside of Minnesota, she returned and was surprised at how diverse the Twin Cities had become—and how that was still not reflected in local productions.

Percussive claps

Aamodt: So in 2004, she and her husband founded TU Dance in St. Paul to make the stage accessible to everyone. The center supports contemporary dance through its professional troupe and performances.

The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund has also helped it to train a new generation of dancers. Twenty years on, TU Dance remains a creative hub—

Pierce-Sands: where young people and professional dancers and creators have a place.

Closing: Minnesota's Legacy is a production of AMPERS, with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, more at ampers dot org.