Arts Activities Support

The most significant outcome of this project is that Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater has increased its audience members. The annual concert drew more people than last year. The outreach programs had doubled last year's due to the large crowd in Mall of America. Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater will focus on this opportunity next year and develop strategy to maximize the audience it can attract. -Yes, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater has achieved the artistic goals of presenting its annual concert, Colorful Yunnan, on December 4, 2016 at Brady Educational center in University of Saint Thomas. Nine dances which represented Mongolian, Tibetan, Korean (northeast region of China), and 6 distinct Yunnan tribes (Dai, Yi, Jinpo, Mosuo, Bai and Zhuang) were showcased. Audience members commented on how colorful those varieties were! Each dance was unique and stylish. Together, they dazzled the audience. After the annual concert, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater repeated some of the most popular dances in different outreach concerts. On January 28, 2017, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater performed in Mall of America for the TwinCities Chinese New Year celebration. On February 4 and 5, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater performed in Student Center in U of M for, again, Chinese New Year celebration, organized by U of M Chinese students. On February 12, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater performed in University of Saint Thomas Asian Student Association. In each outreach concert, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater received enthusiastic responds for its cultural and ethnic dances which were rarely seen outside of China. Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater has successfully reached its mission of bringing the world of Chinese dance and Chinese culture to the public and providing access to this art and promoting the art through the passion of its members. By presenting a variety of Chinese ethnic dances with authentic costumes and music, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater has become one of the most regarded cultural organizations. Many organizations invite Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater to perform at the cultural events. Some even collaborated with Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater in its 2016 annual concert: Xu Qian Music Center Chorus and Mr. Ying Zhang, a traditional Chinese musical instrument soloist. The Chorus performed songs that augmented Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater dances and allowed Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater dancers to change their costumers for the next dance. Mr. Ying Zhang delighted the audience by playing a rare Chinese castanets solo using "Radetzky March," a fusion performance of the east and the west! However, some audience members commented that the musical performances were "boring." They said they would rather wait for Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater dancers to be ready for the next dance than watching the musical performances. To rectify the audience's comments regarding added musical performances, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater will split the dancers into two groups. Each group will alternate; Group A will perform dance 1, 3, 5, 7... while Group B will performance dance 2, 4, 6, 8... thus the musical performances wouldn't be needed. Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater has successfully reached its intended community. The annual concert drew over 380 audience members which comprised of 62% Asian, 30% Caucasian, 4% Black, 3% Hispanic, and others. The outreach activities were attended by over 1,000 people! Yes, Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater's outreach effort in Mall of America on January 28, 2017 had attracted many audience members who had never seen Chinese dance before. They commented on how beautiful the dances were and they subscribed to Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater email list to receive future performance info. Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater has achieved its goals for making Chinese dance accessible to all by performing in varies cultural events. The outreach concerts were all free and audience members can subscribe to Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater email list to receive future performance info or visit website. Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater also gave away 50 free senior tickets and 100 free student tickets to Chinese school children who otherwise would not have come to the annul concert.