Alumni of the
Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago are participating as choreographers, dancers, and mentor panelists for
New Dances 2018, presented by
Thodos Dance Chicago and
DanceWorks Chicago on Friday, June 29, at 7:30 PM and Sunday, July 1 at 5 PM at the newly-renovated Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, Chicago. In
New Dances 2018, choreographers will share and reveal their skills as creators, directors, and choreographers with a premiere work of up to 15 minutes each. The six new works have been developed with response from mentor panelists — established artists within the dance community who work directly with the choreographers during the development of their pieces, as well as following the final performance.
Chris Johnson
Among the six choreographers whose work is featured in New Dances 2018 is Chris Johnson, a 2007 recipient of a Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis (GL-CMA) from Columbia College Chicago.
Dwigth Alaba
Duoduo Wang
The company of 15 dancers includes Columbia College alums Dwigth Alaba ’17, a graduate of the Dance Center’s BFA Program in Dance, and Duoduo Wang ’17, a graduate of the Dance Center’s BA Program in Dance.
Vershawn Sanders-Ward
Anna Trier
The mentor panelists include Columbia College alums Vershawn Sanders-Ward ’02 and Anna Trier ’10. Sanders-Ward, founder and director of Red Clay Dance, is a graduate of the Dance Center’s Dance BFA program. Trier, associate director of Chicago’s cutting-edge performance venue Links Hall, graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts.
“Excited to have NEW Dances choreographers be mentored by a diverse group of panelists, who look at dance through their own particular aesthetic and represent a spectrum across the dance ecology from artistic director to administrator to advocate,” says Julie Nakagawa, artistic director of DanceWorks Chicago. “The added resource of guidance from a panel during the creative process and their imparting of knowledge and mentoring is an important one as Thodos Dance Chicago and DanceWorks Chicago strive to support each of these artists in their creative growth and achievements. We cannot wait for the audience to experience what is being created,” says Thodos Dance Chicago’s artistic director, Melissa Thodos.
