I made my first-ever trip to Minnesota in 2008. The occasion was "Merce on the Rocks," the Walker Art Center's monumental staging of Merce Cunningham's "Ocean" in a quarry near St. Cloud. Since then, Cunningham has died, his sets have been added to the Walker collection and I've relocated from Washington, D.C., to the Twin Cities.

What I'm looking forward to most in 2016 is the Walker's next major homage to Merce: "Merce Cunningham: Common Time," five months of programming (starting Feb. 8) that includes music by his late partner John Cage, art by Robert Rauschenberg and, of course, lots of dancing. Standout members of Cunningham's now-closed company will perform chamber works at the museum, while at the University of Minnesota, French company CCN Ballet de Lorraine will remount two larger-scale pieces as part of the Northrop's jaw-droppingly-good touring lineup.

Theater-wise, there's not a whole lot that excites me on the Twin Cities' largest stages. That's because so many shows programmed by the Guthrie, the Jungle and other theaters have already debuted back East. What I eagerly await, however, are unexpectedly good performances by artists who don't send out fancy press releases. May they still find my in-box.