A.P. Looze

A Dream of Brightness (Try, Try, Try, Try) 

Collaborator: Diver Van Avery

In A Dream of Brightness (Try, Try, Try, Try), A.P. Looze surrenders to presence to conjure a living prayer. With their voice, bass, and looping pedal, A.P. will leave behind perfection and agenda, and instead stand in a pillar of light to channel messages of love from the Akashic Records. The Akashic Records are a sphere of energy/plane of consciousness that hold insights about the infinite, unconditional love that is available to all of us. Through asking questions and receiving/channeling answers and playing in the field of Akashic insights, this performance-prayer is an offering to the highest good of the present moment.

A.P. Looze is a white, trans interdisciplinary artist living in Minneapolis. Their performances, visual art, music, and installations are reflections of deep personal inquiry and emphasize transformation, love, and embodiment. They seek the truth and go on heartfelt and honest adventures to find it. Often they use personal stories, spiritual experience, humor, mythologies and the psyche to create work that allows themself to find a resonant belonging in their own body. Their original staged works have been produced by institutions and events such as 20% Theatre, Patrick's Cabaret, Queertopia, Pleasure Rebel, Pillsbury House + Theater and The Guthrie. They were a Jerome-funded 2018 Naked Stages Fellow (Pillsbury House + Theater), and a Jerome-funded 2019 Artist on the Verge Fellow (Northern Lights).

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

José A. Luis

By The Time We’re Through

Choreographer/vision: José A. Luis (he/him)

Lavender Daughter (band): Dustin (he/him), Lola Red (they/them), Seth James Hynes-Marquette (he/him)

Dancers: Doug Hooker (he/him), Steven Michael LaFond (he/him)

In the choreographer’s first study on power dynamics, (un)known curiosities intersect between new and past collaborators. Two dancers and a band are led into this dream, looking for exchange of direction and trust. Power is found in learning who we are through process and not product. The artists hold strength in surrendering, shifting, and witnessing each other, for each other. The work risks failing, but this fear balances the reality of how we arrive, to confront what’s yet to come.

José A. Luis was born in Veracruz, Mexico and raised in Racine, Wisconsin. Considered a “late dancer” he began his formal training at UW-Milwaukee, graduating with a BFA in dance. He performed and created works locally before moving to dance professionally in Chicago. Collaborative, undergraduate, and post-undergraduate pieces led to festivals, residencies, as well as progress showings during this time. Now in Minneapolis, he hones his introspective, honest approach to dance making as an independent solo choreographer. The artistic and personal growth across borders formed a nine-year dream to self-produce an evening-length show. In September of 2021 this dream became reality by honoring the people who have shaped his voice. Challenged by dancing for artists again (after a seven-year hiatus) and teaching, José approaches movement in 2022 with the intent to accept, challenge, and learn as we are, human. For more:www.jose.dance.