Sunday, June 12

Monday, June 13

Tuesday, June 14

Wednesday, June 15

Thursday, June 16

Friday, June 17

Saturday, June 18

Sunday, June 19

Partners:

S.R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology
Mies van der Rohe Society
Grant Park, Chicago Park District
Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture
Piano Forte, Fine Arts Building
Piano Forte Foundation
Holstein Park, Chicago Park District

The Dance Improvisation Fest is co-presented by Links Hall and The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago

Sponsored by:

Additional support by:

Arts Midwest

The Chicago Community Trust

Chicago Dancemakers Forum
Dance USA
Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation
Illinois Arts Council
James S. Kemper Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
National Performance Network

Sunday, June 12

11:30AM-2PM

Location: Links Hall
3435 North Sheffield

Free with Fest Pass or suggested donation $5

Contact Jam

Led by Matthew Griffin

Since 1978, Contact Improvisation has made its home in Chicago at Links Hall. Contact Improv is a unique dance form involving the awareness and use of weight, gravity, and the body’s pathways and mechanics. This physical investigation with a partner and with the surroundings is at the heart of this participatory practice.

JulieAnn Graham and Julia Mayer

2:30PM Artist Talk
3:30PM Performance

Location: S.R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology
3360 South State Street

Free with Fest Pass or advance registration
(Space is limited)

To Register call TDC Box Office 312-369-8330

Kinetic Sculptures

Sculpture artists Jeff Carter and Christopher Furman's installations The Common Citizenship of Forms (Carter) and It All Comes Back (Furman) discuss their installations in Mies van der Rohe's Modern masterpiece S.R. Crown Hall. Immediately following the conversation, JulieAnn Graham and Julia Mayer will lead improvisational dance and music artists in activating both installations with live performance -- carving new works of art through movement and sound in space. Reception will follow.

In partnership with the Mies van der Rohe Society.

Monday, June 13

Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser

Photo by William Frederking

1:30PM-4:30PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College
1306 South Michigan Avenue

Two-day Workshop Fee: $60/ $48 with Fest Pass
(Limited to 20 participants)

Click here to register for the workshop

FRAMEWORKS: Dance Improv and Design
(Part 1)

Taught by Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser

This two-day workshop is a laboratory for the investigation of dance improvisation through the lens of perception, imagination, and design principles.  Taking inspiration from the work of Joseph Cornell, the mixed media artist known for creating assemblage boxes which he called poetic theatres, we will develop compositional methods linking the natural world, the constructed world, and the imaginary. This workshop will include material drawing from release-based movement technique, somatic practices, contact improvisation, composition, and performance. Our aim is to provide students with deep dance experiences as well as methods that they can apply to their own compositional process and teaching.

*Participants must attend both Monday and Tuesday-see below

Graphic Design by Dan Mohr

7:30PM

Location: Links Hall

3435 North Sheffield

Tickets: $12/ $10 Students & Seniors
Save with Fest Pass!

Click here to buy tickets

SUPERCOLLIDER

Curated by Dan Mohr and Rachel Damon

For the final performance of this season of collision_theory, we're raising the stakes; in collisions past, participating musicians have had a history of playing together as a band, and the dancers have had working experience as collaborators in movement. This time around, we've assembled two novel assemblages of seasoned improvisers for an 8-way supercollision. SUPERCOLLIDER will present constantly shifting 'chapters' populated by different combinations of the artists involved, and will likely culminate with the entire group performing together. Come celebrate the risks and rewards of the cross-disciplinary improvised performances that collision_theory has been presenting since 2009!

Featuring dancers Rachel Damon, Benjamin Law, Nadine Lollino, and Jessie Marasa, and musicians Josh Berman (cornet), Carol Genetti (voice), Quinlan Kirchner(percussion), and Dan Mohr (voice, keyboards)

Tuesday, June 14

Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser

1:30PM-4:30PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College
1306 South Michigan Avenue

Two-day Workshop Fee: $60/ $48 with Fest Pass
(Limited to 20 participants)

Click here to register for the workshop

FRAMEWORKS: Dance Improv and Design
(Part 2)

Participants must attend both days of the workshop. See description above.

Wednesday, June 15

Nancy Stark Smith and Juha Viitamäki

Photo by Raisa Kyllikki Karjalainen

1:30PM-4:30PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College

1306 South Michigan Avenue

Two-day Workshop Fee: $60/ $48 with Fest Pass
(Limited to 20 participants)

Click here to register for the workshop

CONTACT AND MUSIC: Listening to Each Other (Part 1)

Taught by Nancy Stark Smith and Mike Vargas

Combining our practice of contact improvisation (CI) with the pleasure and discipline of listening to sound. In our two sessions, we’ll focus on essential CI principles and sensations to simplify and challenge our play with the physical forces and with each other in our dancing. We will move in silence and with many species of live and recorded music to develop conscious and varied relationships between what we hear, what we feel, and how we move.

*Participants must attend both Wednesday and Thursday

**For dancers with previous experience with CI

Rachel Damon and Amanda Timm

Photo by Eddie Eng

June 19(Reschduled date due to Rain on June 15)

4:30 - 6pm

Location: Grant Park, Agora Sculptures (SW Side of the Park)
Located at the corner of Roosevelt and Michigan Ave.

Free and Open to the Public

Chicago Park District Performances in The Parks

co-presents

Improvisation Jam in the Park: AGORA SCORE

Led by Rachel Damon / Synapse Arts with live music by Frank Rosaly.

Choose your own adventure at the Agora Score! Beginning with 30 minutes of introduction to the basics of improvisation, this event will grow into an open dance of follow-the-leader, a basic "score" to which you can add your own stylings at any time.

Let the live music take you, and find your own dance, or observe this massive convergence of movers and musicians through the windows created by the Agora statues.

New to improvisation? Did you run around outside as a kid? Then you're well prepared to join this event and choose your own level of participation.

Advanced movers may opt for contact improvisation, and musicians are welcome to add their instruments to the mix!

This project is co-presented by:

Nancy Stark Smith

Photo by Alfiya Rakhamanova

8:00PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College

1306 South Michigan Avenue
Free with Fest Pass or advance registration
(Space is limited)

Contact Box Office for Fest Pass: 312-369-8330

Chicago Dancemakers Forum Salon: Ranging Definitions and Curiosities of Improvisation

Including Nancy Stark Smith, Mike Vargas,

Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Bebe Miller, The Architects and Ensemble V

Sponsored by Chicago Dancemakers Forum and Dance/USA
Moderated by fest curator Lisa Gonzales

After the jam in the park, gather at The Dance Center with festival artists for open dialogue, food, and wine. Get to know local and out-of-town artists. Discuss, learn, question, and be inspired!

Thursday, June 16

9:00AM-12Noon

Location: Links Hall
3435 North Sheffield

Workshop Fee: $50/$40 with Fest Pass

(Limited to 15 participants)

Click here to register for the workshop

DanceMaking: Physicality and Context

Taught by Bebe Miller

This workshop aims at creating physicality to locate oneself in current times along with the reverse: finding context inside of physicality. Consider how to listen to the weight of a gesture and qualify actions, while remaining mindful the human context and expanding into the full range of technique. Participants will work at creating context in physical expression and its reverse: dancing to locate the self in current times.

12Noon

Location: Pianoforte
410 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 825

Free with Fest Pass or advance registration
(Space is limited)

Piano Salon

Performed by Mike Vargas

Mike Vargas began playing music in 1959.  His curiosity and love of collaboration have led him through many contexts and cultures, from cocktail lounges in Indonesia to New York's Lower East Side, and cancer wards to the Kennedy Center.  He started specializing in music for dance in 1978.  He works as a freelance composer across the USA and internationally, performing, teaching, recording, and improvising.  For the last 11 years he has been teaching and performing with Nancy Stark Smith.  He teaches on the faculty of the Smith College dance department.  He has released 9 CD's.

Nancy Stark Smith and Juha Viitamäki

Photo by Raisa Kyllikki Karjalainen

1:30PM-4:30PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College

1306 South Michigan Avenue

Two-day Workshop Fee: $60/ $48 with Fest Pass
(Limited to 20 participants)

Click here to register for the workshop

CONTACT AND MUSIC: Listening to Each Other (Part 2)

Taught by Nancy Stark Smith and Mike Vargas

Participants must attend both days of the workshop. See description above.

8:00PM

Location: Links Hall
3435 North Sheffield

Tickets $20/ $12 Students & Seniors
Save with Fest Pass!

Click here to buy tickets

Duet with Piece of String

Performed by Bebe Miller, Rebecca Bryant and Don Nichols, Suzy Grant and Donnell Williams, Carly Czach, and Synapse Arts' Factor Ricochet Ensemble: Rachel Damon, Adriana Durant, Michael Rioux, Marc Marcaranas, and Ni'Ja Whitson

Bebe Miller shares a bill with Midwestern improvisation artists in an evening of performance. Bebe's solo is part of a two-year interrogation of our Company's ongoing creative conversation. It seeds our current work-in-progress, History, which is our way of looking back—over the past 10 years in particular. It feels like story-ness, rather than the story of what we do. History, an evening-length duet and installation with Angie Hauser and Darrell Jones, will premiere in 2012/13.

Friday, June 17

The Architects

Photo by Stephen Aubuchon

10:00AM-2:00PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College

1306 South Michigan Avenue

Workshop Fee: $30/$24 with Fest Pass

Click here to register for the workshop

The Architects Workshop

Taught by The Architects

Accompaniment by Ensemble V

Cultivate awareness as an entry point to movement improvisation and discover how composition emerges from an attuned group. This workshop balances in-depth solo exploration with rigorous practice in spontaneous ensemble dance-making. Fresh perceptions and new choices are set in motion through provocative open-ended questions; each kinesthetic/conceptual proposition creates windows into authenticity, connection, depth, and range. Ensemble

V, The Architects’ musical collaborators, will be co-leading the workshop. 

On Your Mark (The Architects)

Photo by Kshistow Krjijanowsky

8:00PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College

1306 South Michigan Avenue

Tickets: $20/ $12 Students & Seniors

Save with Fest Pass!

Click here to buy tickets

Collaborations... from Scratch

Performed by Nancy Stark Smith, Ray Chung, and Mike Vargas, and Ensemble V and The Architects

Longtime improvisational collaborators The Architects (dance) and Ensemble V (music), along with Nancy Stark Smith (dance), Ray Chung (dance) and Mike Vargas (music), will pair off to spin an elaborate sensory world from scratch. Working with no predetermined score, other than the time of the performance, the space in which it will happen, and a history of shared work, they will compose a piece of theater in the moment.

11:00AM-1:00PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College

1306 South Michigan Avenue

Two-day Underscore Fee: $75/$60 with Fest Pass

Click here to register for the Underscore

The Underscore Talk
(Part 1)

Taught by Nancy Stark Smith

The Underscore, developed by Nancy Stark Smith, is a long jamming/contact/improvisation score that guides dancers through a series of "changing states"—from solo relaxation and sensitizing to gravity and support, through group circulation and interaction, contact improvisation engagements, opening out to full group improvisation, and back to rest and reflection. The “Underscore talk” (required for participation in the practice) will give some background and outline the structure in detail, to be followed [the next day] by the physical practice itself, which will include periods of silence and periods of live music improvised/ composed by Mike Vargas. Bring your own paper and pen.

*Participants must have prior experience in Contact Improvisation

**Participants must attend both the talk and the workshop

2:00-6:00PM

Location: Links Hall

3435 North Sheffield

Free and Open to Fest Pass Holders, workshop participants, and festival artists only

Open House

Links Hall is opening its space for artists and dance lovers to simply hang out, stretch, move, connect and relax.

8:00PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College

1306 South Michigan Avenue

Tickets $20/ $12 Students & Seniors
Save with Fest Pass!

Click here to buy tickets

Utopia Parkway

Created and performed by Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser

Utopia Parkway is an evening-length dance performance work that pays homage to the synthetic process of surrealist artist Joseph Cornell, created and performed by Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser, and combines the collaborative efforts of media artist Nathan Ruyle, musicians Jesse Manno and Ty Burhoe, and lighting designer Kevin Rechner.

Assemblage boxes inspired by the works of

Joseph Cornell will be exhibited in The Dance Center lobby created by Marwen students through an improvisation construction course taught by Katie Osediacz in collaboration with Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser. This project is supported by an NPN Community Fund Grant.

Utopia Parkway is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Links Hall in partnership with the University of Utah, Kenyon College, and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: npnweb.org

12Noon-4:00PM

Location: The Dance Center of Columbia College

1306 South Michigan Avenue

Two-day Underscore Fee: $75/$60 with Fest Pass

Click here to register for the Underscore

The Underscore Practice (Part 2)

Led by Nancy Stark Smith

Live music by Mike Vargas

Participants must attend both the Underscore Talk and Practice. See description above.

Every house has a door...

Photo by John Sisson

2:00PM

Location: Holstein Park
2200 North Oakley

Available only through Fest Pass

Contact Box Office for Fest Pass: 312-369-8330

They're Mending the Great Forest Highway

Directed by Lin Hixson

Performed by Every house has a door...

Derived primarily from found movement mining YouTube archives and inventions from the dancers in response to prompts, They’re Mending the Great Forest Highway takes its structure from the written score of Béla Bartók’s “Contrasts.”

Three male dancers embody the notes for each instrument and perform to a live composition by DJ and classically trained pianist Charissa Tolentino. The creation of this performance has been supported by a Lab Artist Award from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum.