Ready to dance on a frozen St. Paul lake? It's just one event at expanded Great Northern fest

On a chilly February afternoon, about 50 performers will gather on a frozen Como Lake in St. Paul and move so slowly, so precisely that it becomes a dance.

"Slow Show" is one exhilarating event among dozens that the Great Northern announced this month. During an 11-day stretch from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6, the winter festival will celebrate the state's cold climate and diverse cultures with more than 50 talks and screenings, art installations and performances, some staged on frozen lakes and along sacred rivers.

The pandemic shifted much of last winter's Great Northern, the first curated by executive and artistic director Kate Nordstrum. But it offered "a lot of hints" at what the festival would become, she said.

The 2022 fest will double in size from last year, with events indoors and out joining the festival's foundational activities — the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the City of Lakes Loppet and the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.

"I really feel like this festival is about the mix and about a holistic experience," Nordstrum said. "It all adds up to something you can feel pretty deeply."

There will be pop-up art exhibitions and talks on climate change. "Bdote" is an outdoor experience that delves into sites significant to Dakota people. "Conservatory," an artist-designed, ice-enclosed greenhouse, centers on Black life.

Nordstrum saw a version of "Slow Show" in California, where French dancer/choreographer Dimitri Chamblas lives and teaches. The pair had worked together on a Liquid Music performance at the American Swedish Institute in 2019. Chamblas and Kim Gordon, of Sonic Youth, made a duet of dance and music, an edgy, intimate experiment that earned raves.

The show grew out of Chamblas' research into extreme slowness, "how the meaning of a movement can be transformed by the rhythm," he said via Zoom. "If you have a pedestrian action, and you change the time of it, you start inviting dance."

Each performance has been shaped by place, first Los Angeles, then France and the West African nation of Burkina Faso. With the help of locals, Chamblas gathers dozens of dancers and non-dancers — and in some cases, refugees — to rehearse together for several days. Los Angeles-based musician DJ and artist Eddie Ruscha composes the score using audio he records in the city.

"Minneapolis is a dream because of this idea of being outside in an extreme environment," Chamblas said.

West Africa was "so hot, dusty, sandy — a brownish-orange visual environment," he noted. Minneapolis will offer another kind of extreme: cold, icy and bluish-white.

The festival is recruiting dancers, ages 12 to 80, for the 20-minute Feb. 5 performances. No dance expertise required; apply here. And to see the full schedule of events, go to thegreatnorthernfestival.com.