On October 11th, 2011 MANCC Choreographic Fellow Emily Johnson received an Outstanding Performance Minnesota Sage Award for The Thank you Bar. The Thank you Bar was developed in part at Florida State University during Johnson's 2009 MANCC residency where Johnson conducted research on home, origin and displacement. Johnson premiered The Thank-You Bar at Out North, in Anchorage, Alaska in 2009 and has toured the work extensively. In March 2011 Johnson shared nine performances of The Thank-You Bar at the Southeastern American College Dance Festival, which took place at Florida State University. 

The Minnesota SAGE Award’s are presented annually to honor choreographers, dancers, educators, presenters, scenic and lighting designers, visual artists and others who continue to make the Twin Cities a national center of dance. The 2011 Sage Award gala featured performances by past SAGE honorees HIJACK, a 2010 MANCC Choreographic Fellow, and Penelope Freeh a MANCC McKnight Foundation Partnership Artist who will be in residence in 2012. 

Johnson will return in January 2012 for her forth MANCC residency to continue developing a new performance/installation, Niicugni (Listen), centered on movement, story, and sound housed within a light/sound installation of hand-made, functional fish-skin lanterns.