Kerry Reid of the Chicago Reader wrote a remembrance of Shirley Mordine, our founder, alongside another loss for Chicago theater, Fred Anzevino, the founder of Theo.
“Mordine, 89, founded the dance department at Columbia College Chicago and the college’s influential Dance Center. During her 30-year tenure at Columbia, which began in 1969, she instituted the center’s Dance Presenting Series in 1974, which brought contemporary dance artists from around the country to Chicago, often placing them in conversation and collaboration with local talent…
In a 2000 profile of Mordine for the Reader, Laura Molzahn noted that Mordine’s work evolved from pieces with a ‘theatrical bent’ (Mordine had been a drama major at Mills College in Oakland, California) to dances that [started with a movement phrase or two and the story grew out of the process.’ When asked on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of her own company what dance meant to her, Mordine said simply, ‘Dance saved my life.’ She is survived by her former husband, Glenn Mordine, and children Alex, Ann, and Michael.”
