2027 Performance Partnership Program
The Southern Theater’s Performance Partnership Program (PPP) is a competitive program that gives artists and non-profit performing arts organizations the opportunity to present their work at The Southern Theater. Our desire in offering this program is to support emerging artists and underrepresented stories, offering a space for individuals and collectives to work on their craft and build an audience without financial burden.
Here's our list of '27 Partners!
GABBY "THEBADDIE" ABRAM
Gabby "TheBaddie" Abram is a multilingual dance artist whose work is manifested through improvisation, research, community outreach, teaching, and much more. Gabby produces impactful and intriguing dance and theatrical content through the mediums of film and live performance to elevate and progress the mindset of black communities while striving to generate more accessible opportunities for black women creatives.
CORPUS DANCE WORKS LLC
PHANTOM CHORUS THEATRE
Phantom Chorus Theatre (PCT) was founded in January 2022 and consists of roughly 20 local artist collaborators. Their members have experience working with companies such as Mad Munchkin Productions, Matchbox Theater, Red Eye’s Works in Progress, the Fringe Festival, local cabarets, and our own artistic projects. PCT is a grass-roots non-profit theatre company that specializes in collaborative, experimental, original works or adaptations. Through the mediums of puppetry, movement, and music, they strive to harness the power of imagination and wonder – to make the impossible real.
ALTERNATIVE MOTION PROJECT
Alternative Motion Project (AMP) empowers and connects communities through highly physical, evocative, and collaborative contemporary dance experiences. AMP was founded in 2011 to create professional opportunities for Twin Cities dance artists & to engage with students and audiences so they may connect deeply & intentionally to the performance experience.
JULIET IRVING
Juliet Irving aka Sonny Dee is a Black, femme multimedia artist, choreographer, writer, and graphic designer hailing from Monetta, South Carolina. Invested in cultivating imagination and practices of tenderness in rural Black and brown communities, her multidisciplinary practice originates from a childhood spent crafting performances withher sister for a dedicated audience of cows. This evolved into a collaborative practice of immersing audiences and performers into fantastical worlds of possibility integrating environmental installation, improvisation, and audience interaction. Their current work is rooted in the exploration of biomythography as a method of recovering the ancestral stories and communal knowledge. They also assist in producing the visions of other creatives through their work in dramaturgy, creative direction, and experiential design.
NAKEEMA KING
Nakeema King is the Dance Director at Red Lake Nation College in downtown Minneapolis and holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. As a dancer, choreographer, and producing artist, she has collaborated with nationally recognized artists and companies, including Cynthia Oliver, Rennie Harris, and the Limón Company. Her work centers Indigenous perspectives, culture, and storytelling through multidisciplinary performance. Her productions, Assimilation and Indigenous Spirit, explore the intergenerational impacts of Indian boarding schools and celebrate Indigenous identity through movement, live music, and Anishinaabe art. Through her artistry, King creates space for Indigenous stories and voices to be seen, heard, and celebrated.
YUKINA SATO
Yukina Sato is a Japanese dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker with an interdisciplinary artistic practice grounded in contemporary dance and multimedia performance. She has collaborated with acclaimed performing artists and companies including Abby Zbikowski / Abby Z + New Utilities, Black Label Movement (Carl Flink), Crystal Perkins / Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Bebe Miller, and Diavolo – Architecture in Motion, among others. She is currently a company member with Abby Z + New Utilities and performing in the new work All Purpose Room (2026) at New York Live Arts.