Congratulations to the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago alums and faculty members who have been selected by Chicago Dancemakers Forum for its 2019 Greenhouse Awards and 2019 Lab Artists Program.
The Greenhouse Program promotes artistic growth in emerging Chicago dancemakers with financial support for the research or development of new work with mentorship from an established/mid-career artist. Two of this year’s four Greenhouse Awards recipients are Columbia College alums: Keyierra Collins ’16 and Marceia Scruggs ’17, both graduates of the Dance Center’s BA Program in Dance. Each will receive $4,000 for the development of new work with the support of a mentor, who is awarded $1,000 for their participation.
Collins’ mentor is Dance Center faculty member Raquel Monroe, and Scruggs’ mentor is Columbia College alum J’Sun Howard ’19, a graduate of the Dance Center’s Dance BA program.
Two other Dance Center faculty members, Daniel “BRAVEMONK” Haywood and Darrell Jones, are mentoring another Greenhouse Award winner, Reginald Cosper Jr. aka Sirr Tmo.
The Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Program awards cash grants of $15,000 to mid-career dancemakers along with a year of mentorship to aid in the research, exploration, and development of a new work. The program is the most significant, sustained source of support for individual dancemakers working in Chicago, fostering excellence and innovation while also building relationships among dancemakers, presenters, audiences and supporters. The 2019 Lab Artist Program recipients include Dance Center faculty member Jane Jerardi, who works in the media of choreography, performance, video installation, and writing. Besides teaching, Jerardi is the Dance Center’s media/technology coordinator. Her Lab Program project is Delicate Hold, a movement-based performance event that delves into the way we articulate our desires – and in particular, the way in which women express desire – in a kind of manifesto and embrace of empowerment. This meditation focuses on desire as it is articulated in Buddhist thought, feminist writing, and in the tenets of dance improvisation – how we might become deeply attuned to desire by staying in the moment.
Another 2019 Lab Artist Program recipient is Dance Center alum and faculty member Vershawn Sanders-Ward ’02, a graduate of the Dance Center’s BFA Program in Dance. Her project, “Experiments in Artivism,” will develop distinct tools/technologies to excavate deep embodied memories and refine her ability to use embodied research as the foundation of her dancemaking practice. These new tools will be put in practice to develop a solo work focused on the effects of female incarceration on families. Sanders-Ward is also the founder and artistic director of Red Clay Dance.
Chicago Dancemakers Forum fuels the field of dance by stimulating and nourishing the professional development and artistic fulfillment of Chicago’s individual dancemakers. The 2019 Greenhouse Award recipients and Lab Artists will be recognized during Chicago Dancemakers Forum’s 2019 Awards Celebration and Benefit on Thursday, July 11, from 5:30 to 8:30 PM at the Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario, Chicago. For tickets, click here.
