Arts Tour Minnesota

James Sewell Ballet toured the proposed Lover/Your Move Tour to eight greater Minnesota communities: Staples, Red Wing, Dawson, Austin, Grand Rapids, Luverne, Faribault and Duluth. Not only did we reach new Minnesota communities – and others locations not visited in many years – but we brought our unique contemporary work along with prominent Twin Cities’ song and theater artists on the tour with us and featured in the Lover work. This was a treat for audiences, and they told us so! Your Move was the other piece on the program. We were able to reach out to the local dance communities, solicit video of Their Moves in advance, and include their specific movement and dance participation in the staged productions at each location. Many of the local participants expressed genuine thanks and were thrilled to be involved with the James Sewell Ballet artists in this high level engagement. We did seek feedback from people attending performances via verbal and survey response to know we made a significant impact. 2: Our efforts to work with the selected presenting communities was an outgrowth of James Sewell Ballet’s participation in a Minnesota Presenters’ Conference the year before. Since that was the platform to pre-determine interest in the Lover/Your Move Tour that we completed, James Sewell Ballet’s Artistic and Executive Directors spoke with venue representatives at the original conference. That gave us the confidence and opportunity well in advance to know we had reliable and networked partners that could make our plans successful, in both reaching and involving dance audiences. Beyond our presenting partners in the eight communities, we also reached out to local dance schools and instructors to plan our activities and maximize results with the Your Move work. We got excellent feedback about the experience from the actual participants. We can effectively use this approach in other Minnesota communities in the future.