Kanopy Dance Company 2 & Academy Showcase
Overture Center-Promenade Hall 201 State St., Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Shawn Harper Photography
Kanopy Academy dancers on stage.
Kanopy Academy dancers.
media release: Watch the next generation of dancers and choreographers in Kanopy Dance Company’s pre-professional training program, Kanopy 2, and the Kanopy Dance Academy ignite the stage with new ideas, new expressions and even original choreography developed by the dancers themselves at The Next Generation of Dance, a showcase performance on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at 2 & 5 PM at the Overture Center for the Arts.
Reception to meet the Dancers Immediately Following the 5PM Performance
For Tickets: https://www.overture.org 608.258.4141
$40, adults; $35 groups of 4 or more; $20, students and ages 18 and under
Special highlights of the Next Generation of Dance include: “The Season of Wolves” choreographed by Level 3 dancers to a traditional Japanese folk song, Sakura Sakura” depicting spring; “Bye Bye Blackbird” choreographed by Kanopy Dance Company’s Alex Trofka to Lisa Minelli’s iconic classic jazz standard for Kanopy 2 dancers; “Cheetahs in a Fairyland”, exuberantly choreographed to Saint Saëns’ humorous musical suite, “Carnival of the Animals”, by dancers in Level 1&2, and “Zero Viscosity” ---an uninhibited, adrenaline ride with an energetic Big Band feeling choreographed by Kanopy Dance Company member Edward Salas.
Kanopy Dance Academy (KDA) and its 100 + students are integral to Kanopy cultural mission. As Kanopy Dance Company’s official dance school, KDA offers a comprehensive program of modern dance, choreography, and ballet as well as rare opportunities for students to learn a repertoire of master works from nationally acclaimed guest artists as well as techniques by underrepresented choreographers whose work has not been widely taught.
About Kanopy Dance
Kanopy is a quintessential modern dance company and resident organization of the Overture Center for the Arts. While Kanopy “informs” its works through its roots in the Martha Graham tradition, the Company has developed its own brand, shaping a fresh dimension and visual language to advance modern dance. Kanopy’s artistic directors, Robert E. Cleary and Lisa Thurrell, have created dynamic new artistic benchmarks in the field by training professional dancers, choreographing new works and collaborating with internationally recognized guest artists. In addition to presenting an annual season of concerts at its home, Promenade Hall at the Overture Center, Kanopy undertakes select touring engagements in Chicago, Minneapolis and New York City, and participates in outreach programs throughout the region.
Kanopy was one of only six companies word-wide vetted in observing “GRAHAM100,” a three-season celebration of Martha Graham Dance Company’s 100th Anniversary, with our production of Graham: In HER Voice.
In the fall of 2024, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts filmed Kanopy’s production of Polaris at the Overture Center featuring celebrated guest artists Daystar/Rosalie Jones, founder of the first indigenous modern dance company in the U.S., Daystar: Contemporary Dance Drama of Indian America, and Daniel Fetecua Soto, former soloist, Limón Dance Company, for inclusion in the prestigious Jerome Robbins Dance Division Archives. located in Lincoln Center.
Kanopy 2 is Kanopy’s studio company and pre-professional training program. For more information, please visit https://kanopydance.org/.