Margi Cole (Photo: William Frederking)
The Dance COLEctive, a dance company founded and led by Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago alumna and faculty member Margi Cole ’90, returns to the stage September 14 through 16 with REboot, a concert program featuring three world premieres by Chicago choreographers. This marks the company’s first performance series since its 2017 shift in mission, structure and artistic focus, when Cole shifted her 22-year-old company from the traditional ensemble model to a project-driven entity with a greater focus on solo work.
The Dance COLEctive is producing the concerts in collaboration with Third Way Projects, a new platform devised by former Dance Center chairperson Bonnie Brooks that aims to facilitate and support performance projects, writing initiatives and healthy, sustainable infrastructure for dance in Chicago and beyond.
Margi Cole (Photo: Katie Graves)
For REboot, Margi Cole — a graduate of the Dance Center’s BA Program in Dance, and now an adjunct faculty member at the Dance Center — is choreographing a new work for four dancers. In line with the overall concert theme, this quartet explores the vulnerability of peeling down layers, its discomfort and its beauty.
Peter Carpenter (Photo: Katie Graves)
In addition, Cole is commissioning new works from two frequent choreographic collaborators. Peter Carpenter, who is taking a leave of absence as chair of the Dance Center to serve as interim chair of the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department, is creating a solo for Cole that features his distinctive combination of movement and politically savvy text. For this new work, Carpenter and Cole revisit the common platitude of modern dance often attributed to Martha Graham, “The body never lies.” Their investigation pairs this idea with current discourses surrounding truth, deception and “alternative facts.”
Colleen Halloran (Photo: LF Blondell)
And Dance Center alum and faculty member Colleen Halloran ’91, also a graduate of the Dance Center’s Dance BA program, is creating a new dance for three performers that examines the perception of truth and considers, “Can we trust memory when we recall an emotional event?”
Keesha Beckford
Keyierra Collins
Lydia Feuerhelm (Photo: Andy Slavin)
In addition to Cole, performers include Dance Center faculty members Keesha Beckford and Dardi McGinley Gallivan; Dance Center alums Keyierra Collins ’16 and Lydia Feuerhelm ’14 — both graduates of the Dance BA program — and Chloe Grace Michels ’15, a graduate of the Dance Center’s BFA Program in Dance; and Dance Center student Keisha Bennett. Performances take place September 14 through 16 at 7 PM at Dovetail Studios, 2853 W. Montrose, Chicago. For tickets and more information, click here.
