Dance Center Announces Novel Season of Dance Programming

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago has announced their fall programming season, which includes classes, discussion groups, virtual residencies for local artists, and more.

With travel curtailed out of public health concerns, the Dance Center is highlighting Chicago dancers and choreographers with its fall season. Season highlights will be comprised of production residencies, virtual residencies, and programmatic course offerings. In partnership with the Chicago Dancemakers Forum, the Dance Center will provide Chicago luminaries Nejla Yatkin and Jumaane Taylor with support staff and space to develop their respective projects. Yatkin’s project, dance film The Other Witch, will be available to Dance Center patrons and will premiere on Friday, October 23 at 6 p.m. Taylor will perform a work-in-progress showing of Ugly Flavors and The Jazz Hoofing Quartet, which will be livestreamed from the Dance Center on Saturday, November 7 at 7 p.m.

The Dance Center will also host virtual residencies with Chicago artists Kierah King (’20), Sara Zalek, and Jenn Freeman (’07) as a part of the Chicago Artists Performance Platform, which is supported by The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

Season programmatic offerings include classes taught by Chicago artists including Erin Kilmurray (’08), Steph Paul, Gina Hoch-Stall, and Anjal Chande, among others. In addition, a series of five technique classes called the Dance Center Sampler Pack will be taught by Dance Department Chair Lisa Gonzales and faculty members Ayo Alston and Paige Cunningham. The Sampler Pack is designed for high school students thinking about pursuing dance in college, Dance Center alumni, and dancers located in other parts of the country who do not normally have access to Chicago faculty.

“We have a platform that can highlight the incredible artists in our community and I’m thrilled to share their work with audiences everywhere. There are so many activities that aren’t possible in the traditional ways right now and we’re really motivated by the new possibilities that are suddenly available,” says Dance Presenting Series Director Ellen Chenoweth. “I wanted to create some programs and structures that highlight that we can still move together. We can still learn together and build connections. We can help make sure that we are alive to the current moment. We can expand what’s possible, in our imaginations, in our bodies, and in our dance spaces. We can celebrate the brilliance that is all around us. This spirit of abundance and newly available possibilities underlies the fall programming.”

Dance Center Patrons will be able to access all content for the general public with a donation of $20 or more. Dancers will be able to access all classes and programming with a donation of $120 or may purchase individual class offerings. All activities will be offered online.

Registration and sales will begin on September 1, 2020 and will be available online at dance.colum.edu.