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. Enjoy live jazz, appetizers and cocktails, and connect with community and loved ones. Part of the celebration will be the announcement of the Shirley Mordine Dancemaker Fund in honor of her prolific legacy and lifelong commitment to dance.
If you have a photo, video or cherished memory of Shirley, please upload to the HMS Media Dropbox folder on or before July 25, 2025.
Shirley Mordine (January 8, 1936 - May 2, 2025) was born and raised in Oakland, California. She received her early training at the San Francisco Ballet School and attended Mills College where she shared her senior concert with Trisha Brown. Anna Halprin, Welland Lathrop and Arch Lauderer are among Mordine’s most influential teachers and mentors. She danced with the Welland Lathrop Company for 10 years. Mordine settled in Chicago in the late 1960s and, in 1969, founded her company The Dance Troupe, later called Mordine & Company Dance Theater. The same year, Mordine established the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, leading the Dance department until 1999.
Under Mordine’s direction, the Dance Center evolved into a multifaceted institution at the national forefront of dance education. In 1974, she launched the Dance Presenting Series, creating the city’s only platform dedicated solely to dance and with Dance Center Executive Director Woodie T. White, Ph.D. created Dance Africa/Chicago, presented by the Dance Center from 1991-2005.
A teaching, learning, and performing arts center, the Dance Center is Chicago’s leading training program for contemporary dance and its public programming has engaged companies from around the world. In light of her extensive and consistent contributions to the field of dance and to the student and professional life of Columbia College, Mordine was presented with Columbia College’s Presidential Medal for Distinguished Service in 1999.
During and after her time at Columbia College, Mordine continued creating dances for Mordine & Company for 50 years becoming the Midwest’s longest-running modern dance company.
“I always think of making dances in terms of what I observe in the world,” Mordine said in 2017. “’Every dance should be new, strange and beautiful.’ I don’t remember who told me that, but I like it.”
