Columbia announces fall lineup for 49th Dance Presenting Series
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago announces its 2022 Fall Season, which includes two performance series—Elevate Dance Chicago and B-Series B-All-Access: Celebrating Accessibility and Inclusion in Hip-Hop and Street Dance Culture featuring guest artist Bill Shannon.
“At the Dance Center, we are honored to be able to hold the space for this work to take place, and for the coming together of community in celebration of the dancing body,” says Lisa Gonzales, Associate Professor and Chair of Dance at Columbia.
The first of the two dance series to be hosted and presented by the Dance Center this fall is the Elevate Chicago Dance 2022 festival, produced by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum as part of the Year of Chicago Dance. Featured Chicago artists performing on the Dance Center stage will include Ginger Krebs, Hedwig Dances (choreography by Jan Bartoszek), and Donnetta Jackson of M.A.D.D. Rhythms.
Elevate Chicago Dance highlights the extraordinary artistry of Chicago's radically diverse dancemakers and features performances, workshops, and showings at venues across the city.
The second set of performances, the Fall 2022 B-Series festival, B-All Access, will celebrate extravagant bodies and enliven the notion that everyone is a VIP. Through workshops, conversations, performances, dance jams and battles, B-All Access explores what Hip-Hop and street dance cultures teach us about erasing abled/disabled binaries and disrupting notions of otherness.
The B-Series will also feature guest artist and former Chicagoan Bill Shannon who will perform his hour-long solo work Maker Moves. Masterfully moving on crutches and a skateboard, Shannon navigates unexpected twists in this semi-autobiographical physical performance narrative.
“At a time when empathy seems a rare gift, dance can remind us of our need for one another and our capacity to open,” says Gonzales. “Each of these incredible artists offers a unique inroad into the transformative power of the body and of dance.”
More Dance Presenting Series performances and events are planned for Spring 2023 and will be announced later this Fall.
Performance dates and times are the following:
ELEVATE DANCE CHICAGO (Oct. 13-14, 2022)
Thursday, October 13, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 2 hours with intermission)
Friday, October 14, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 2 hours with intermission)
B-SERIES: B-ALL ACCESS
Celebrating Accessibility and Inclusion in Hip-Hop and Street Dance Culture
Maker Moves (by Bill Shannon)
Thursday, November 3, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 60 min.)
Saturday, November 5, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 60 min.)
B-Series Break Open Battle and Jam
Friday, November 4, 5:00–10:00 pm
* All B-Series events are ticketed, but admission to the B-Series open battle and jam is free of charge.
General admission tickets are $30. Tickets for students with a current college ID are $10 and additional discounts are available for Columbia faculty, staff and dance industry members.
Single tickets go on sale September 6 and will be available online or by visiting the Dance Center box office at 1306 S. Michigan Ave. The box office can be reached at 312-369-8330 and is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4-10 pm, and Fridays from 2-10 pm, and for two hours before each performance.
Effective Tuesday, September 6, the Campus COVID-19 precaution level is at medium making masks optional in indoor campus settings. Columbia continues to hold safety measures in place informed by guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, and consultations with epidemiology experts from Rush University and the University of Chicago. Additional health and safety protocols have been set in place, including a larger lobby, increased cleaning measures, and an upgraded air filtration system.
The Dance Center
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago is the city’s leading presenter of contemporary dance, showcasing artists of regional, national, and international significance. The Dance Center has been named “Chicago’s Best Dance Theatre” by Chicago Magazine, “Best Dance Venue” by the Chicago Reader, Chicago’s top dance venue by Newcity, and Time Out Chicago cited it as “…consistently offering one of Chicago’s strongest lineups of contemporary and experimental touring dance companies.”
Programs at the Dance Center are supported, in part by, the Alphawood Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Martha Struthers Farley and Donald C. Farley Jr. Family Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Presenting Series is also supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
