Mirage Performing Arts

Peavey Plaza, Downtown Minneapolis, June 2021.
Photography by Alice Gebura

MIRAGE Performing Arts is a Twin-Cities based group of performing artists who create a new and authentic expression of Classical Music and Ballet through innovative collaboration, programing and choreography. From concert halls to city streets, museums, amphitheaters and online, they perform at a variety of spaces and mediums to reach wider audiences. Mirage Performing Arts were featured by StarTribune, Minneapolis Downtown Council, Compassion International, ParkTV St. Louis Park, and Citizens Independent Bank.

_{Mirage Performing Arts was co-founded by Ballet dancer and choreographer Yuki Tokuda and Pianist Rie Tanaka after their first collaborative production “MIRAGE.”}

_{At Mirage Performing Arts, we believe that Classical Music and Ballet have the power to reach people’s hearts and transcend time and borders. Our mission is to create a performance where the audience can see Classical music and ballet with new light and understanding.}

Our Story

In 2019, we began performing on the streets of downtown Minneapolis with the hope to bring Classical music and Ballet closer to more people.

Fall of 2019, we had our inaugural concert “MIRAGE,” featuring five dancers and solo piano in St. Paul, Minnesota. Tickets for all three shows were sold out, and it was featured in “The Week’s Best Classical Concert” on StarTribune, listed alongside the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, we continued creating video contents, and most notably performed “Virtual Holiday Benefit Concert 2020,” which included the Nutcracker and other Piano solo works by Tchaikovsky. We successfully raised over $1,000 for a Covid-19 relief fund to help families in extreme poverty.

In the summer of 2021, we enjoyed the opportunity to perform live at the Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis, Veteran’s Memorial Amphitheater in St. Louis Park, and Winona County History Center. We were selected as a recipient of the Arts and Culture Grant from the City of St. Louis Park.

Who We Are

Yuki Tokuda

Yuki Tokuda, originally from Japan, moved to New York in 2000 to study ballet in New York at the Joffrey Ballet School. Since then, Tokuda has danced professionally with USA Ballet, Peoria Ballet, Metropolitan Ballet and she was the principal dancer at Continental Ballet for 7 years. Ms. Tokuda is a faculty member at Minnesota Dance Theatre, and taught master classes in Japan and the US including at Cathedral Dance Festival and Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is a two-time grant recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board.

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Rie Tanaka

Native of Osaka, Japan, Dr. Rie Tanaka is a concert pianist and music educator. She won the MTNA Young Artist Competition in the West Central Division, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, Schubert Club Competition, Chautauqua Piano Competition, Rosenstock International Piano Competition. She has lectured at the University of Arizona, University of Minnesota Duluth, and University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, as well as summer institutes and several MTNA chapters. She is a studio instructor at the Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Videos

Reviews

“_{^{You realized what the famous French philosopher Paul Valéry said : ‘It is a miracle how the discrete set of sounds in a musical score can evoke continuous movements.’ You realized and not only evoked continuous, real and very human movements, gestures. And all of that with a remarkable congruence of sound and gesture. My strongest congratulations to this very feminine great achievement. More of that would help understand better what music is about.}}“
Dr. Guerino Mazzola
Professor of Music – University of Minnesota