What is Contemporary? Symposium

Call for Session Proposals Opens June 16, 2025
(October 15-16, 2025)

Calling all practitioners, scholars, educators, students and enthusiasts to submit session proposals for the 2025 Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago Symposium! Contemporary means distinctly different things in different dance contexts from concert to community, club to cultural, competition to commercial. For the 2025 Symposium, co-curators and Dance faculty Keesha Beckford and Dardi McGinley Gallivan invite session proposals from all parts of the dance ecosystem to discover and uncover together what is contemporary in dance.

 

Join us

Celebrate Shirley Mordine

Saturday, August 9, 2025 from 5-9:00 p.m.

Join family and friends to toast Shirley's extraordinary life with shared stories and imagery from her 50+ years as a choreographer, dance educator, and presenter.

 

May 5, 2025

It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of our visionary founder, Shirley Mordine, who led the Dance Center from 1969 until 1999.

Shirley Mordine’s impact on Columbia and the broader dance community is immeasurable. A pioneering force in contemporary dance, her leadership transformed the Dance Center into a nationally recognized institution for dance education, performance, and public engagement.


David Rousseve/REALITY, from Stardust, photo by Yi Chun.

Urban Bush Women in Hep Hep Sweet Sweet, photo by Rick McCullough.

About

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago is the city’s leading presenter of contemporary dance – bringing international, national, and local artists to Chicago audiences. The Dance Center has served as a focal point for dance and performance in Chicago since 1974.

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We could not do our work without the generous support of our individual supporters, the Friends of the Dance Center, and institutional funders. Your donation directly supports the artists that we present.  

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from Irene Hsiao’s Merely a Mistake A Score for your Door.

Explore On the Ground, the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago’s online publication. With support from The Walder Foundation, it features interviews with Chicago dance artists, checking in on dance communities, sharing work from our virtual residencies with choreographers, and exploring the Dance Center’s video archives.

 

banner image: from what we un/wound by: Kierah {KIKI} King; pictured l to r: Mya Mccellen, J Stephens, Lucy Williams, and Caitlin Wonsowski; photo by: Julie Lucas for Columbia College Chicago.