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WHITE BEAR/VADNAIS HEIGHTS PRESS
Teen accused of coercing girls into sex acts A White Bear Lake Area High school student reportedly coerced a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl into performing sexual acts. Alexander Patrick Lindeke, 18, was charged June 1 with first-degree and third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Lindeke reportedly met the Lindeke 12-year-old girl on a website called hotornot.com, where he requested she send him a sexually explicit video. Around May 25, the girl, accompanied by her 13-year-old friend, met Lindeke at Cummings Park
in Arden Hills, according to the complaint. Lindeke reportedly threatened to publish the explicit video unless both girls performed oral sex on him in his vehicle. The 13-year-old girl positively identified Lindeke in a six-person photo lineup. Lindeke was arrested on May 29 at the White Bear Lake Area High School-South Campus. The vehicle he had driven to school that day matched both the victims' descriptions of the vehicle. Lindeke pleaded not guilty. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 8. The North Branch Police Department recently investigated Lindeke in another incident involving
a minor female he reportedly met on the same hotornot website. Lindeke reportedly Skyped with the female and coerced her into exposing her breasts. Lindeke reportedly threatened to post the revealing photo online unless the girl sent him a topless photo of her 8-year-old sibling. Lindeke transferred to South Campus last fall from a private school in St. Paul, according to a District 624 spokesperson. Lindeke enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard last December and was scheduled to attend basic training in August, according to his Facebook page. — Emma Theis
Sibling dance school founders (literally) light up stage and screen If you go Curio Dance performance 'Drop the Mic' When: 7:30 p.m. June 19-20, 2 p.m. June 21 Where: Cowles Center for Dance & The Performing Arts, 528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis Details: $25. Curio Dance troupe and other groups and soloists perform classical, Latin and urban professional dance to music including live jazz trumpet, Latin congas, upright bass, and contemporary piano. Family-friendly. Contact: Tickets at 612-206-3600 or thecowlescenter.org. Info: www.curiodance.com.
– Submitted photo
1670 Legacy Parkway East • Maplewood, MN
Dario and Giselle Meja have been dancing together since they were tykes. by Michelle Miron Lowdown Editor STILLWATER — Their dance troupe earned national recognition in 2011 as one of four national finalists on the NBC talent competition show “America's Got Talent.” Since then, siblings Dario and Giselle Mejia have performed in New York as part of the off-Broadway show “iLuminate” based on that dance routine, an innovative piece featuring head-totoe costumes with wireless lighting systems choreographed to movement. On July 1 the Mahtomedi High grads (ages 33 and 31) and Dario's wife Caitlin open the new dance school Curio Dance in Stillwater's Valley Ridge Mall, offering a variety of dance instruction for youth and adults. The 1,800-square-foot facility supplements existing ballet studios in the area by also offering jazz, modern, tap, experimental, ballroom, and Latin social dance and yoga. The school will “encourage performance rather than promote competition” at venues including local schools and churches; seeks to coordinate programming with Stillwater Community Education; and is partnering with local program Music Together in the Valley for baby and toddler classes. The hope is that it will also act as a feeder program for the 40-member, nonprofit professional dance troupe of the same name founded by the Mejias. The metro-area group performs next June 19-21 at Minneapolis' Cowles Center. Giselle still lives in Mahtomedi. The siblings grew up studying dance at Maplewood's Larkin Studio and performing locally; their father is a prominent Latin dancer who hails from Ecuador, and Dario was born there. After high school he earned a full scholarship to The Juilliard School and Giselle graduated from State University of New York Purchase College. After college Dario danced with the Mark Morris Dance Group in New York and Minnesota Dance Theater; both belonged to Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. Giselle studied and taught in multiple locations including Ecuador and Spain. They've also taught and/or performed at metro venues including the Guthrie Theatre, Intermedia Arts and MSU-Mankato. In 2009 they founded the
Curio Dance troupe, a vehicle for talented local dancers to seek funding as a nonprofit and secure regional performances. Right now it's financed primarily through the St. Paul-based GiveMN. org. The name stems from the curiosity dancers feel while exploring the dance process, Dario explained. “You get past the fear and anxiety, and you're capable of accomplishing amazing things with your body. Then you continue with that curiosity and dive into this huge pool of new dance moves.” Members of the troupe snagged the “America's Got Talent” audition after a show scout saw them perform in lit costume at the Guthrie Theater in 2010 (a friend of Dario's developed the technology). While the act didn't win the $1 million show prize, the Mejias went on to cocreate and perform for 18 months in an off-Broadway and touring show based on its premise. The show has since changed its name and cast and is touring overseas. “We're really the creator of all those illusions,” Dario said of the show's special effects, which give the appearance dancers are split in half. “Giselle and I have experimental minds that bend past imagination to see what we can possibly create.” While both siblings have taken breaks in the past couple years to teach at places like Minnesota Dance Theatre and Lundstrum Center for the Performing Arts, they've since left the eightperformance-a-week “iLuminate” to move forward with their careers. Both seek a less stressful lifestyle. Dario and Caitlin now have a 6-month-old daughter, Cosette, while Giselle has a 6-year-old son named Theodore. “I like seeing the same [students] come into a room and being able to see them grow, and being able to perform with the same people,” Dario said. “So many in L.A. and New York are chasing that glorious, wonderful audience that's really cheering for them and blowing them away, then they go home to very little. Fame is very temporary. I really feel like we're in a better place.” In addition to the June 19-21 “Drop the Mic” performances, Curio will plans to perform at certain Summer Tuesday events in Stillwater this season. It will also be a part of Stillwater Log Jam; performances are planned at Teddy Bear Park at noon
Friday, July 17. “That will be more of a fun, jazzy, hip hop, upbeat kind of dance, and Latin social dancing that's always easy and anyone can join in,” he noted. Also being offered, he said, are Curio performances meant to liven up the guests at weddings, bar mitzvahs and other celebrations. “We call it 'Hora Loca,' or 'crazy hour' in Spanish,” he explained. “We come in as a parade of dancers, like at Carnival, and get everyone up and dancing to the salsa and merengue.” When he isn't working, Dario likes to camp, hike and “celebrate the outdoors”; he said he's environmentally conscious and into reducing consumption. His five-year plan involves funding his troupe to the point full-time members can be paid regular wages and perform across the Midwest. He's brainstorming new dance themes; one idea is a show based on the music of Bob Dylan. As for the new studio, he's hoping to create “a good communal space for people to interact with the form of dance to lead them in a positive direction.” He pointed to a recent review of his troupe in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that said it “celebrates joyful moves of the world.” “That's really what I try to create with our mission,” he added. “It's that blending of traditional, classic and urban dance style, the ability to bring about joy. It's really all about having fun, in the end.” Contact Curio at 651-2740946 or www.curiodance. com.
CELEBRATE DAD With a Riverboat Cruise, Gourmet Buffet and Cool Jazz!
Jazz Me On The Water Cruise on the St. Croix Sunday, June 21st 12:00 – 4:30 RSVP to Mary Jass @ 651-756-1859
“They call it music, but it’s just this side of magic” Harold Jones ~ Drummer with Count Basie
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