Hennepin Ave.

It isn’t often that a new venue devoted to dance opens in this country. What’s the impetus behind the Cowles Center, where you’re executive director, in downtown Minneapolis?

Raising dance to a level that’s been enjoyed by music and theater here for a very long time, providing a venue that is discipline-specific, and just wait until you see it. This is going to be one of the finest venues in the whole world for dance, with amenities that [dance] artists usually have to make do without.

Did you ever think you’d live in Minneapolis?

Nope, and I had never set foot here. But it was divine intervention; I felt like this job had my name all over it.… I always thought that I’d spend the rest of my life in New York but, honestly, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. To build cultural infrastructure—that doesn’t come along very often.