Extended Biography
Joe Tennis grew up in suburbia - Eagan, Minnesota - the youngest of two brothers. He played & competed in many sports from pre-school through high school including: baseball, basketball, football, soccer, track and ultimate frisbee. He started his studio dance training at 9 years old at Pat Peare School of Dance (PPSD) - his access point was their flourishing ‘Boys Group’. He trained & competed at PPSD for 8 years in tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical and hip hop. Brad Schaffer led their renowned tap program, which is where Joey’s early dance emphasis resided. His senior year of high school, Joey attended Spotlight Productions Dance Studio where his overall training intensified with opportunities to learn from industry master teachers.
Joey attended the University of Minnesota, Duluth his freshman year and ended up transferring to the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities where he received his BFA in Dance, completing the four year program in three years. Tennis was honored to receive the Gertrude Lippincott scholarship for academic promise in the dance program as well as the Charles & Myrtle Stroud scholarship. His classes centered around technique, composition, theory & performance. At the University, he had the opportunity to perform alongside the Martha Graham Dance Company & Brian Brooks Moving Company at Northrop Auditorium. He was also cast in works by Greg Dolbashian, Brian Brooks, Michel Kouakou, Scott Rink & Luke Olsen-Elm. His technique professors included Carl Flink, Michel Kouakou, Erin Thompson, Abdo Sayegh Rodriguez, Joanie Smith & Emilie Plauché Flink among others. Theory classes were led by Ananya Chatterjea & Diyah Larasati. In composition, JT’s work was selected to represent the University at the ACDA festival at which adjudicator Edisa Weeks claimed JT has a “cinematic sensibility” and “wonderful musicality”.
UMN College of Liberal Arts
Interview, May 2018
’ A Thoughtful Approach to Dance ’
During his time in college, JT had the opportunity to compliment his course load by dipping his toes in professional performance. He danced and choreographed with Crash Dance Productions for 4 seasons, danced in Rusalka with the Minnesota Opera, guest danced with ARENA Dances, and performed with the debuting STRONGmovement. Upon graduation, JT got offers to dance for local contemporary companies Black Label Movement and Daara Dance Company.
His first year post-grad, he spent dancing & traveling; with Daara Dance Company for a residency and premiere in Bielefeld, Germany, with Black Label Movement for a Florida tour and Minnesota season, and with Zenon Dance Company for a tour to Dallas. He continued as a company member with Zenon Dance Company up until their farewell show - the company had to close its doors after 36 years. He’s eternally grateful for the seventeen months he spent there evolving from the opportunity to work with choreographers Gregory Dolbashian, Wynn Fricke, Mariusz Olszewski & Colleen Thomas and dancing rep by Kyle Abraham, Stephanie Batten-Bland and Danny Buraczeski.
Joey actively pursues concert dance but has also taken on commercial gigs and freelances many things that have come his way. He connected with director/producer/choreographer John Mark (John Mark Creative) for a gig at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Int’l Airport during Super Bowl LII, as well as in music videos for artists The Masked Intruders and Andrew Thomas. He also worked with Stacy Boeddeker & Nate Poole on a music video for Chris Rupp and made his feature film debut, courtesy of choreographer Berit Ahlgren of HoneyWorks in John Kaiser’s Only Dance Can Save Us that premiered at the Twin Cities Film Festival.
Joey danced for close friend & colleague Laura Osterhaus Rosenstone on her debuting Slo Dance Company show/production Relative. He has performed the role of Nutcracker in Cohesion Dance Project’s Nutcracker On The Rocks in Helena, Montana, as well as premiered and reprised the role of (biblical) Joseph in Prairie School of Dance’s Christmas Show. Tennis has also worked with Sam Lewis on her show Impulse that premiered at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, with Zhauna Franks on a Gatsby themed opening number for The Smile Networks annual black tie gala/fundraiser and with Juliana Johnson on the trio Field Notes (1-3) that premiered at Minnesota Dance Festival. Joey was grateful to reconnect with ARENA Dances in the fall of 2021 for their 26th Minnesota season show Run With Me, which also toured in northern Minnesota.
He’s had the privilege of collaborating with HoneyWork’s Berit Ahlgren numerous times on projects including the multidisciplinary production Give Ear, that had it’s opening night striped amongst the first COVID lockdown, and then reappear as a film version a year later with an official live premiere scheduled for the summer of 2023. He has also worked with Berit on Flight at Candy Box Dance Festival, initial processes for Ashwini Ramaswami’s Invisible Cities production coming January 2023 and has taken part in HoneyWorks + Hatch Dance’s inaugural & second ‘Live @ The Shed’ productions bolerobolero and La Dolce Vita (LDV). Tennis was greatly pleased to share an improvised duet with Blake Nellis at LDV’s pre-show works-in-progress titled Stay Where You Fall. Most recently, he worked with Ahlgren on the first iteration of Randy Reyes’ original play Essential.
In summer 2021, Black Label Movement shared a two-week intensive in Minneapolis with the Limón Dance Company where he was privy to train in the Limón technique daily. In winter 2021, Tennis attended Vim Vigor’s intensive — further deepening his floorwork and partnering practices and introducing dance-theater techniques into his performative modalities.
Joe’s been a mover with Black Label Movement since 2017 and their Media Manager since 2019. He’s forever thankful to Carl Flink (Artistic Director of Black Label and Director of the U of M Dance Program) for his guidance, support and wisdom over the last seven years. He also allowed me the privilege of enjoying two Minnesota season shows, three national tours, a Ted Talk/short film and numerous other performance opportunities, as well as Bodystorming workshops. Tennis has currently put his performance involvement on pause upon entering a new geographic chapter of his life.
In summer 2022, Joey spent six weeks in Maine at Bates Dance Festival. The first three weeks as a mentor for the Youth Dance Workshop, and the following three weeks attending the Professional Training Program studying with Claudia Lavista (floorwork), Joy Davis (Countertechnique), Angie Hauser/Chris Aiken/Bebe Miller/Darrell Jones (improvisation) and David Dorfman (repertory). He also took masterclasses with Doug Varone, Heidi Henderson & Maree Remalia (gaga).
Joey currently lives in New York City and sleeps in Jersey City — digging in, evolving and finding his way — he’s spending an abundance of time training in class, synthesizing alone in the studio.. He’s had the opportunity to perform in Heather Dutton’s ‘Pass The Potatoes’ during Spark Theatre Festival and in Mar Angela Talavera Tejeda’s work as part of Doug Varone’s DEVICES Program.