Linda Z. Andrews founded Zenon Dance Company in early 1983 as the combination of her two pre-professional troupes, Rezone and Just Jazz Dancers. In its nearly four decades of operation, Zenon became one of the premier repertory dance companies in Minneapolis, performing on local, national, and international stages. After Zenon closed its doors in 2019 due to lack of funding, Zenon Dance School continued to operate out of its 1989 headquarters at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts.
Zenon’s premiere performances happened on April 6–8, 1983, in Studio 6A, on the sixth floor of the Hennepin Center for the Arts. From the beginning, Zenon was a repertory company, meaning that it commissioned two to three new works from choreographers each season while also restaging one to two older pieces. In terms of style, Andrews described Zenon as "about 85 percent modern and 15 percent jazz."
Zenon continued to perform each fall and spring, and to celebrate a fall anniversary. The Ordway Music Theater (later renamed the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts) hosted Zenon in the 1980s. Sometimes, it subsidized costs and provided assistance with production and marketing. The young company also took advantage of the O’Shaughnessey spring dance series beginning in 1986 and the Nicollet Island Amphitheater’s summer dance showcase during what many consider to be the heyday of Twin Cities dance.
Zenon quickly earned a reputation for its bold movement and uncommon blend of modern and jazz, but also for its decision to pay its dancers a living wage––an uncommon practice in the industry. To cover this cost, the company hired managing and developmental directors (notably Gary Peterson in 1987), organized funding schemes that included pull-tab gambling, and drew from consistent returns on its school. Zenon remained at the mercy of private and public foundations, however, and was soon plagued by funding issues. A financial and creative opportunity arose in 1988 when chemistry sparked with Danny Buraczeski, director of the New York company Jazzdance. Buraczeski moved Jazzdance to Minneapolis and joined Andrews as co-artistic director of the joined companies in 1989. The merger afforded Zenon a three-year matching grant that nearly doubled its annual budget and increased exposure via performance opportunities.
The boon of the merger, however, didn't last long. When Buraczeski and Jazzdance parted ways with Zenon in 1992, the loss of associated grant money caused a temporary downturn in budget, and the company moved performances back into Studio 6A, its original venue.
In response to the dissolution of the merger, Zenon made a concerted effort to lay the foundation for artistic success via marketing and development plans in the early 1990s. Additionally, it hired dancers who would be with the company for decades to come, e.g., Greg Waletski and Devin Carey, and also Wynn Fricke, who returned as a favorite local choreographer after nine years with the company. Zenon also began to solidify its practice of showcasing work by international choreographers, like Susana Tambutti and luciana achugar. It scouted US choreographers who became well known: Andrea Miller, Kyle Abraham, Seán Curran, and Colleen Thomas. Zenon collaborated with Minnesota arts organizations over the years, and its dancers and ensemble received Sage Awards and McKnight Artist Fellowships.
By 1997, Zenon had graduated from Studio 6A and was performing at the Southern and other professional theaters. Ten years later, it maintained an annual operating budget of $500,000, classifying the modern company as mid-sized. Placing a capstone on their success, Zenon was featured in debut performances at the newly opened Goodale Theater at the Cowles Center in 2011. In an echo of Zenon’s 1980s relationship with the Ordway, the Goodale hosted the company’s subsequent performances at a subsidized rate for several years.
However positive, change eventually overwhelmed the company, and after losing annual support from the Jerome, McKnight, and Target foundations, it closed in 2019. Zenon hosted its final performances in the Goodale Theater June 14–16, generating an outpouring of press and acclaim. The central irony of the final performances was that for years, Andrews had called for the construction of a central theater for dance; she achieved that dream, but remained artistic director of a dance company for just eight years afterward.
Zenon Dance School and Zone, a performance project of the school featuring local choreographers, continued after the company disbanded.