The Director of University Dance Theatre and faculty member Toni Pierce-Sands along with Cowles Visiting Artist Uri Sands were named 2011 Artists of the Year by City Pages.
(see citypages.com Dec. 21)
" More than a couple of talented artists who happen to be life and artistic partners Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands are dancers with a mission. When they combined their initials to form TU Dance in 2004, they were determined to create a company and school that reflected the increasing diversity of the Twin Cities' urban community," writes Linda Shapiro. "In its relatively short life, TU Dance has managed to achieve artistic success, popular acclaim and broad reach in the community."
In the past year, these distinguished artists opened a state-of-the-art dance center offering dance a wide variety of experiences from ballet to Afro-Brazilian Dance, evolved a crack ensemble of performers animating Uri's multilingual choreography which has earned numerous awards attracting national attention and loyal fans, and their Ordway concert last May was the first ever to sell out the 1,000 seat house. Most recently their collaborative talents as choreographer and director were seen in the dance " ...And Let Go " as part of UDT's Dance Revolutions concert at Rarig Center.
