The BLM Mission

RISK – WORK – CHALLENGE – MAKE

Embrace Risk >>> Caution rarely leads to powerful art.

Work Hard >>> Thought provoking, athletic movement theater comes from sweat, patience and discipline

Challenge Always >>> Make art that pushes personal and societal boundaries.

Make Art >>> Make your own stuff, it’s good for you and your local community.

Black Label Movement (BLM) is a Twin Cities based dance theater dedicated to creating wildly physical, naturally virtuosic, intellectually and emotionally engaging art. Led by Carl Flink, this collective of dance artists seeks to push the mind, body, and heart to the edge of what is possible and beyond.

Our History

BLM was founded in the fall of 2005 by choreographer Carl Flink as a creative laboratory and performance platform for his unique brand of intensely athletic contemporary dance making. The company name comes from the generic food brands of the late 1970s and 80s which simply bore white or yellow labels with bold black lettering declaring what each product contained e.g. Fruit Cocktail, Peas, Corn Flakes, etc. Flink and his friends called these black label foods. The no frills, you get what you see nature of these products was a perfect fit for Flink’s aesthetic. The addition of Movement to the company name captures the intensely physical nature of the company, as well as its goal to be a socially conscious dancers’ collective in support of the choreographic voices of all of its company members, which BLM calls movers.

Since 2005, BLM has quickly grown to be one of Minnesota’s established contemporary dance companies. BLM has moved beyond the borders of Minnesota with appearances at the 2011 Bates Dance Festival, the White Oak Plantation – the original home of Mikail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Project, numerous college residencies including an upcoming residency at the University of Kansas, and the 2011 Chicago Humanities Festival. Most recently, BLM in collaboration with Science Magazine correspondent John Bohannon presented Zero Gravity Dance and A Modest Proposal at the 2011 TEDx Brussels in Belgium. The video of A Modest Proposal went on to become an enormous viral internet hit.

Carl Flink, Artistic Director

Carl Flink is the choreographer and artistic director of the movement theater Black Label Movement based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN (www.blacklabelmovement.com). He is also the Nadine Jette Sween Professor of Dance and Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

From 1992 – 1998, he was member of the New York City based Limón Dance Company, performing the works of Jose Limón, Donald McKayle, Ralph Lemon, and Daniel Nagrin among others. A short list of other dance companies and choreographers he has performed for includes Creach/Koester Men Dancing, Paul Taylor, Joanna Mendl Shaw, Paul Taylor, Janis Brenner and Shapiro & Smith Dance.

His choreography is recognized and embraced for its intense athleticism, daring risk taking and humanistic themes that often address diverse social, scientific, political and working class subjects in addition to more abstract dance approaches. Dance programs and arts institutions across the United States have presented or commissioned his choreography including the Bates Dance Festival, Minnesota Orchestra, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Stanford University, University of Iowa, Mount Holyoke College, Brigham Young University, Carleton College and Roger Williams University. His new commission “HIT” for the Chicago-based dance company premiered at The Dance Center of Columbia College of Chicago March 10, 2011. He is currently in the third year of a creative collaboration called The Moving Cell Project with biomedical engineer David Odde. He created two presentations with BLM and John Bohannon for the 2011 TEDx Brussels, including the internet hit, “A Modest Proposal.”

Beyond the dance world, he graduated from Stanford Law School in 2001 and worked as a staff attorney with Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. protecting the legal rights of low-income family farmers and promoting sustainable agriculture until 2004. He also holds a B.A. in Political Science and Women Studies, summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota. Most importantly, he raises his three daughters Willa, Freyja and Iris with his life partner and BLM Artistic Associate Emilie Plauché Flink.

Emilie Plauché Flink, Artistic Associate

A member and soloist with the Limón Dance Company from 1989 – 1999, Emilie also performed for and was greatly inspired by Annabelle Gamson and Martha Clarke. She has also danced in works by Ralph Lemon, Doug Varone, Phyllis Lamhut, Garth Fagan, Jiri Kilian, Anthony Tudor, Colin Connor and Paul Taylor, among others. During her time with Limón, she was a frequent faculty member of the Limón Institute in New York City and conducted master classes across the country. In the spring of 1998, she was a Sage Cowles Guest Artist at the University of Minnesota’s Dance Program along with her husband and former Limón partner, Carl Flink. As a choreographer, she has created commissioned work for San Jose State University, The Carlisle Project, Roger Williams University, Chattanooga Ballet, Of Moving Colors Dance Company, Baton Rouge Ballet, and Minnesota’s Springboard Dance Company. Emilie is a recipient of a 2010 McKnight Fellowship for Dancers. Emilie is the mother of three daughters; Willa, Freyja and Iris. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance from the Juilliard School.

Eddie Oroyan, Artistic Associate

Eddie has been with BLM since its genesis; he also dances with Shapiro & Smith, and Zenon Dance Company. He experience spans Creach/Company, Keith Johnson, Maggie Bergeron, Eva Mohn, Joe Chvala and the Flying Foot Forum, and Metropolitan Ballet. Eddie received a 2010 McKnight Artist Fellowship. He was featured as “Dance Artist of the Year 2006” in City Pages and given honorable mention in the Star Tribune’s 2006 Artist of the Year. Eddie’s choreography has been recognized and performed in ACDFA Gala concerts and at the Bryant Lake Bowl, Phipps, Varsity, Southern, and the McGuire theatres in the Twin Cities area. His work has also been commissioned in several Twin Cities Arts schools, UW-River Falls, and Hamline University, while his piece, “Melisma,” was presented at the 2006 Choreographer’s Evening. His latest exploration, “Brown Rocket,” was performed at the May 2007 BLB – 9 X 22 and was developed in the 2008 Momentum Series.

Sharon Fischlowitz, Executive Director

Sharon Fischlowitz is the Executive Director of Black Label Movement. Formerly the Executive Director of Minnesota Justice Foundation, she served in various roles from VISTA attorney to Executive Director. She earned a Comparative Arts degree from Washington University and a J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law. She also manages the Center for Medieval Studies at the University of Minnesota where she feeds her passion for early medieval law codes. She has been connected to dance through Carl and Emilie for many years.