MINNEAPOLIS, (April 10, 2007) – The Minnesota Shubert Center and Minnesota Dance Theatre announced the establishment of an interactive online program, which will allow students, teachers, and audience members to watch, learn and give feedback on the production of Wynn Fricke’s Close to Silence production. The interactive program will begin on April 16, 2007, continuing for four weeks.

The Minnesota Shubert Center’s Follow the Creative Process Program “Universal Language: Cultures Connected through Dance” will allow students of all ages to visit the Minnesota Shubert Center’s Web site to receive daily updates about choreography, inspiration, cast, and design. There will be photo galleries, videos and interviews with dancers, choreographers and production staff for students to view. Through the use of the Shubert’s groundbreaking technology, teachers can sign up to have their classes participate in two-way, interactive education sessions, creating unique classroom settings and exposing students to an otherwise unavailable experience into the realm of stage production.

Participants can further their involvement in the program by participating in the “My Expedition” initiative, which allows students to chat with the artists through web conversational tools and suggest changes to the production. Participants will create individual projects with the guidance of the artists and production team, all to be displayed during the opening performance.

Throughout the program, students will also learn about the Sufi-Islamic culture through the artistic traditions of Arabic calligraphy, poetry by Muhammad Jalaluddin Rumi and the traditional dance of the Whirling Dervishes.

This program is available free of cost to participants. To sign up visit: www.mnshubert.org/closetosilence. The Web site will be active April 16 - May 11, 2007.


About the Minnesota Shubert Center
The Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center is a home for dance and music that honors tradition, nurtures innovation, encourages exploration and presents programs that delight and inspire. Integral to the Center’s mission is providing high-quality arts education to students throughout the State of Minnesota. www.mnshubert.org

About Minnesota Dance Theatre’s Close to Silence
Choreographer Wynn Fricke’s new work, Close to Silence, conceptualized by Fawzia Reda, is a contemporary dance inspired by the gestures of Arabic letters and the poems of Muhammad Jalaluddin Rumi, the 13th century mystic. www.mndance.org

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