SHOWS

DanceBridge Showcase Fall 2011

Presented by Millie Kapp, Annie Maurer & Ni’Ja Whitson

Thursday, December 08
6:00 PM — 8:00 PM
Dance Studio
Pay-what-you-can; $5 suggested donation

DanceBridge is an initiative of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, in partnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, to support Chicago’s professional dance artists and choreographers. Its goal is to foster the creation of new and innovative work, particularly work that engages and challenges an audience and pushes the boundaries of the dance world. Toward this end, free rehearsal space is offered for 12 week periods in the Dance Studio of the Chicago Cultural Center as well as a performance opportunity to present the new or developing work.

Read the DanceBridge Fall 2011 blog

The Performances:
Millie Kapp & Annie Maurer & Matt Shalzi – A Face on the Doorway
Between September and December of 2011, Millie Kapp, Annie Maurer and Matthew Shalzi worked in collaboration to make, “A Face on the Doorway.” They took turns guiding rehearsals and being in the role of “outside eye.” They used narrative directives as inspiration for movement, and as they went, signifiers would seep in and leak out from the movement generated. These significant fragments were organized, scrambled, and woven together, resulting in a deranged story, constantly slipping between meaning and nonsense.

Ni’Ja Whitson - Awakening (A series of starts)
A work capturing the moment of a series of starts, the moments of awakening. Inspired by unfinished marble sculptures created by Michelangelo (C1516-1519), specifically “The Awakening Slave” which captures the moment of freedom.

The artists:
Millie Kapp (New York City) , Annie Maurer (Boston), and Matthew Shalzi (Chicago), have been working together in Chicago for a year and a half. In that time they have made and exhibited three works in Chicago, at the School of the Art Institute’s Sullivan Galleries, Roxaboxen Exhibitions and The Archer Ballroom. They have also shown their work at The Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis.

Ni’Ja Whitson, MFA is a transdisciplinary artist, activist and writer who creates work, engages a nexus of postmodern and African diasporic performance practices. Whitson approaches art as a space for the exploring the deep, difficult, and divine through intersections of body, text, technology and criticality. As an artist and choreographer she has worked with Guillermo Gomez-Peña and La Pocha Nostra, Sharon Bridgforth, Baraka de Soleil and Alison Knowles. She creates and exhibits as an interdisciplinary installation and performance artist, an independent mover and choreographer and writer.

i still live here from Ni’Ja Whitson on Vimeo.

root shock from Ni'Ja Whitson on Vimeo.