2010 Dancers At Work Forum Series

Chicago Dance Crash

Chicago Cultural Center

Curator: Meida Teresa McNeal

What and who defines Chicago’s dance scene? Over the course of 2010, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs will host a series of Dancers at Work forums designed to bring together dance artists and dance supporters in panel discussions and workshops encouraging the growth of Chicago dance.  Participants include dance presenters, critics and practitioners across a dynamic spectrum of styles from modern, folk, ballet, contemporary and urban styles of movement practice.

NEXT UP!

April 10: Creative Chicago Expo

A day-long series of hands-on workshops targeting practical issues such as how to start a 501c3, how to locate and write grants to make new work, and how to fully document your performances with video, image and criticism, or use multimedia in performance.

May 4: Dance + Technology: What is happening NOW

Co-presented with the Chicago Dancemakers Forum
As a special culminating event to a series of smaller spring salons hosted by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF) and Silverspace Studio, CDF will expand the dialogue with this special super-sized salon at the Cultural Center. Featuring a broad range of viewpoints on how to explore, integrate and take advantage of current digital media tools, the conversation features artists from the region and nationally who are working with technology in their dance making practices in provocative and unexpected ways.

**********************************************************************

Click here to listen to audio for these past forums.

January 26: Growing the Local Dance Scene

1 Garland            6–7:30 pm

The forum opens with a roundtable sampling of emerging, mid-career and established artists discussing the sustainability of dance-related careers in Chicago. How are dance artists locating and creating new opportunities to perform and broaden their audience base? What practical strategies are dance artists using to create exposure (print or email marketing, Facebook, face-to-face networking, collaborations, etc.)? Dance artists share their respective solutions for finding resources to help their creativity and their organizations develop and thrive.

Panelists include: Erin Carlisle Norton/The Moving Architects, Shirley Mordine/Mordine & Company, Mark Hackman/Chicago Dance Crash, Kevin Iega Jeff/Deeply Rooted Productions

February 8: New Directions in Presenting Chicago Dance

5th Floor            6–7:30 pm

In this forum, dance artists learn about the range of spaces available for presenting new dance work in Chicago. Presenting organizations discuss their missions in featuring dance to local audiences in addition to opportunities or services they offer for developing local artists. From new community collectives to experimental spaces to established presenting venues, this panel will offer the scoop on ways to build a profile as a dance artist in Chicago.

Panelists include: Roell Schmidt/Links Hall, Yolanda Cursach/MCA, John Schmitz/Dance Chicago, Bonnie Brooks/Dance Center of Columbia College and representatives from Epiphany Episcopal Church and the 2010 Chicago Fringe Festival in Pilsen

March 8: Dance and Criticism

5 West           6–7:30 pm

Art criticism everywhere, and particularly dance criticism, is on the decline in print media.  In this panel, local critics imagine how we can use other formats such as radio, internet and video to offset the decrease of criticism in print. This crisis is placed within the context of Chicago’s own need, as the nation's third largest metropolis, for a stable and robust base of sources to review and support the diversity of dance in the city. How do we create more opportunities to get to know dance artists and their specific approaches to creating movement? Can we conceive new models for dance criticism?

Moderated by Professor Susan Lee, Department of Dance at Northwestern University. Panelists include: Zachary Whittenburg/Time Out, Laura Molzahn from SeeChicagoDance.com, and Brian Hieggelke from New City. 

 ******************************************************************

Coming in FALL 2010!

September 14: The Future of Dance Companies & Independent Dance

What does today’s dance company look like in this fragile economy where the arts are often underfunded, understaffed and underserved with resources?  What kinds of structures are artists conceiving to sustain their creative visions? This panel will look at strategies for making contemporary dance work from maintaining a resident company to pick up projects to creating dance collectives that share the credit and labor of making work.

October 19: Approaches to Movement

In this dynamic moment for dance the distinctions between different forms are increasingly blurred.  How do we recognize the validity of different kinds of movement vocabularies? This forum shifts the series focus from the practical to the aesthetic as participants discuss the issues of broadening recognition, respect and contextual understanding for different movement styles. Local dance makers share their ideas about dance practice and dance making across a wide expanse of approaches including contemporary, modern, postmodern, ethnic/traditional, classical, improvisation and critical scholarship.

November 16: What Does Dance “Do” For the World?

Co-presented with the Chicago Dancemakers Forum
What is the purpose of dance performance in the 21st century? Is the function of art led by the interests of entertainment and financial profit? Is it a tool of civic education and community-building tool?  This panel explores a revitalized interest in the effect of dance on its audience. From the impact of teaching artists to the discussion of a new cultural policy, there is a growing conversation about defining art’s value in contemporary American society. A panel of dance artists will address how they approach and apply these broad issues in art and art-related educational programming to their own creative work and practice.