Most Minnesotans have strolled through the Walker Art Center to marvel at stunning contemporary artwork, or they’ve toured the iconic Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (we love you, Spoonbridge and Cherry!). But did you know the museum also hosts performing arts?
The Walker announced its 2025-2026 performing arts season yesterday, and the exciting lineup “fearlessly confronts the urgent issues defining our world, brought to life through captivating movement, light, sound, projection, text, and indelible stage images,” according to a press release.
“Liveness is the essence of performing arts, and there is a kind of magic when performers exchange energies with viewers in real-time,” said Philip Bither, McGuire director and senior curator of performing arts, in a statement. “I am grateful to share this highly curated mix of some of the most innovative and accomplished performing artists working today, whose creations offer us inspiration, transgression, refuge, and glimpses of hope.”
The season, which kicks off Sept. 13, will feature music, dance, and a wide range of theater productions—including an “experimental clown artist.”
While the full schedule can be viewed online, here are a few highlights to look forward to, broken down by category:
Music
AACM@60! (Sept. 13, 2025, McGuire Theater)
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), composers Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet) and Amina Claudine Myers (piano) will join forces with Minneapolis multi-instrumentalist Douglas R. Ewart, improvisational dancer Lela Pierce, and a cross-generational quintet of AACM members for a truly unique musical experience.
Jlin: ‘n! = 3! (Permutation of Three)’ (Oct. 2, 2025, McGuire Theater)
Acclaimed electronic composer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Jlin (who was called one of the “most forward-thinking contemporary composers in any genre” by Pitchfork) will make her Twin Cities debut with this production. With the help of a percussive dance improvisor, a violinist/composer, and members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the performance will chart new sonic territory—mirroring the artist’s trajectory into the “wider unknown.”
Photo by Lawrence Agyei
An Evening with Gabriella Smith & yMusic (Nov. 8, 2025, McGuire Theater)
As an environmentalist and composer, Gabriella Smith channels both the beauty of nature and the effects of the climate crisis in sound. Accompanied by chamber ensemble yMusic, this performance will showcase Smith’s new work, “Aquatic Ecology”—the piece brings hidden ecosystems to life through raw and processed field recordings from sources like Californian tide pools and Polynesian reefs.
Dance
Aszure Barton & Ambrose Akinmusire: ‘A a | a B : B E N D’ (Sept. 18-19, 2025, Northrop)
This large-scale dance piece from choreographer Aszure Barton and trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire “amplifies the circular dialogue between dance and music, transforming the theater into an alternate universe.” On stage, 12 hooded figures move in and out of unison, their motion set to a live score composed and performed by Akinmusire. Ballet is remixed with vogue, jazz with electronica, and analog with digital to create this one-of-a-kind performance.
Photo by Fabian Hammerl
Shamel Pitts | ‘TRIBE: Marks of RED’ (March 20-21, 2026, McGuire Theater)
A “visceral journey of rupture and rebirth” led by dancer/choreographer Shamel Pitts, this performance explores the multiplicities within Blackness through ritual, movement, and sound. Pitts draws inspiration from sumo wrestling, butoh dance, and techno music in this Afrofuturist piece, anchored by an all-femme cast of dancers.
Rosy Simas: ‘A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind) (May 14-16, 2026, McGuire Theater)
Created by transdisciplinary and dance artist Rosy Simas (Seneca Nation of Indians, Heron clan) this piece is a dance work, installation, and community engagement project in one. Set to a score of sounds from Seneca lands, this dynamic Native contemporary dance work draws the audience into a “space of relationality.” A related visual art exhibition on Simas will be on view February-July 2026 at the Walker.
Theater/Performance
Tiago Rodrigues: ‘By Heart’ (Oct. 28-29, 2025, McGuire Theater)
In this interactive performance by acclaimed Portuguese playwright Tiago Rodrigues, 10 volunteer audience collaborators take the stage to learn a sonnet, while Rodrigues weaves in personal stories and literary references throughout. “Inspired by his grandmother, who must increasingly rely on memory as her vision deteriorates, the artist engages memory as a tool of resistance. In a time when key words and ideas are being scrubbed from the record, Rodrigues reminds us that it is we who are the keepers.”
Photo by Christophe Raynaud de Lage
Alex Tatarsky: ‘Sad Boys in Harpy Land’ (Jan. 8-10, 2026, McGuire Theater)
Part of a four-show series titled “Out There 2026: Radical Clowning and Dark Humor,” “Sad Boys in Harpy Land” is a clown show about wanting to die. Self-proclaimed experimental clown artist Alex Tatarsky confronts anguish with humor through a series of vignettes that embrace the “messy maze of shared struggle.” (Tickets are currently only available as part of a four-show series package. Single for shows in the series tickets go on sale Sept. 3.)
Photo by Maria Baranova
To learn more about the upcoming performing arts season and purchase tickets, visit the Walker Art Center’s website.
