Margi Cole

Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago alumna and faculty member Margi Cole ’90, founder and artistic director of The Dance COLEctive (TDC), has been awarded a 2018 Art Omi: Dance Residency. Cole, a graduate of the Dance Center’s BA Program in Dance, will join nine other artists from around the world participating in a creative exchange from July 16 through August 6 at Art Omi’s campus in the Hudson Valley, north of New York City.

Art Omi is a nonprofit arts organization with residency programs for international artists, writers, translators, musicians, architects, and dancers. Art Omi believe that exposure to internationally diverse creative voices fosters tolerance and respect, raises awareness, inspires innovation, and ignites change. By forming community with creative expression as its common denominator, Omi creates a sanctuary for the artistic community and the public to affirm the transformative quality of art. Joining Cole in the 2018 Dance Residency program are artists from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Senegal, South Korea, and the U.S.

Margi Cole (Photo: Eric Olson)

“I am very honored to be selected and included in such a diverse, interesting and accomplished group of artists,” said Cole. “I am also proud to represent the United States and the Chicago dance community at large. What a great gift to have three weeks of creative exploration and peer exchange. I can’t wait!”

Art Omi: Dance residents experience each other’s creative process and the freedom to play in this program. The emphasis is not on a performance product, but rather a process of experimentation and collaboration. Art Omi provides resources that dancers and choreographers often lack: space, time and other artists with whom to work. The result is a model of creative process and community building that envisions consequences for the participants beyond the sphere of art making. Two informal public events give residents the opportunity to share their work: a Dance Salon on July 21 and a Dance Showing on August 4.

Founded by Margi Cole in 1996, The Dance COLEctive is a Chicago-based dance company that explores fresh approaches and unexpected twists by making and performing dance via solo and collaborative initiatives. Dedicated to teaching and mentorship, TDC motivates and nurtures the next generation of artists in the studio and beyond.