City of Chicago :: Year of Chicago Dance
Mayor Lightfoot, DCASE and the Community Dance Neighborhood Designate 2022 as The “Year of Chicago Dance”
Citywide, year-extended aim on dance will address crucial issues facing Chicago’s dancers and the industry of dance like funding, space, and capacity developing
CHICAGO–In deep partnership with the nearby dance community, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Functions (DCASE) Commissioner Erin Harkey have specified 2022 as the “Year of Chicago Dance.” This citywide, year-extensive concentration on dance is the initial of its form in the U.S. The collaborative initiative will activate Chicago’s dance field to address vital difficulties struggling with dancers and the subject of dance like funding, area, and ability making — and to take into consideration the sustainability of this work. The Yr of Chicago Dance will, of course, also consist of dance performances, social dancing, and exclusive gatherings for the public in dozens of venues all through the city.
Chicago is a hub for arts and tradition and boasts a thriving dance group — house to some of the leading contemporary and ballet corporations in the U.S. these days with an approximated 425 dance educational facilities/studios, 344 presenters/venues and hundreds of other companies and the birthplace of Footwork and other dance designs — but in accordance to a recent report on “Mapping the Dance Landscape in Chicagoland,” practically two-thirds of our dancers and choreographers get paid fewer than $15,000 annually from dance and 12 {99d7ae7a5c00217be62b3db137681dcc1ccd464bfc98e9018458a9e2362afbc0} work entirely with no pay.
“The pandemic took a especially devastating toll on our undertaking arts market as demonstrates have been canceled, venues ended up closed, and artists faced monetary insecurity,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “Through the ‘Year of Chicago Dance,’ we will be able to more revitalize our arts and culture scene as very well as display off our remarkable dance field to the relaxation of the region. DCASE and I are proud to offer you this effectively-deserved spotlight to the dance community, which continues to deliver us splendor, tradition, and experiences of a life time.”
“Following these past two tumultuous a long time, the 2022 Calendar year of Chicago Dance is a a great deal-wanted spark of hope and inspiration for our dance local community,” mentioned Maricza Valentín, CEO and Creative Director of Latin Rhythms Dance and a very long-time Chicago SummerDance instructor. “From instructors to choreographers, feeling like we are getting witnessed, read, and deemed is an wonderful reward.”
The 2022 12 months of Chicago Dance follows the successes of 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020/21 initiatives, which highlighted Chicago’s general public artwork, our artistic youth, and the city’s vivid theatre and tunes scenes. Companions will include dance services businesses Chicago Black Dance Legacy Task, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, and See Chicago Dance — as nicely as Art on theMART, Evening Out in the Parks at the Chicago Park District and quite a few other presenters and funders.
Celebrating 10 decades in 2022, Night Out in the Parks at the Chicago Park District (ChicagoParkDistrict.com) is dedicated to bringing dance programming and events to all of Chicago’s 77 community areas. Audiences can search ahead to a number of genres of dance which include theater, music, and films highlighting dancers and choreographers, all in celebration of Chicago’s rich and lively dance scene.
Today’s announcement is aligned with Artwork on theMART (ArtontheMART.com), celebrating the 12 months of Chicago Dance with 4 new projections as part of its summer months and tumble seasons highlighting the choreographers, dancers and visual artists that deliver the medium to its whole probable: Floe by Carrie Hanson, an untitled piece by Shkunna Stewart and Wills Glasspiegel that includes youth dance teams, Lure Moulin Rouge by Jasmin Taylor, and Like Letters by Yuge Zhou.
See Chicago Dance (SeeChicagoDance.com) — the main company organization for dance in Chicago, whose mission is to advocate for and strengthen a numerous assortment of dance companies and artists by expert services and programs that establish and interact audiences — will mark the 2022 Yr of Chicago Dance by presenting Chicago Dance Thirty day period in June and by curating a sturdy roster of performances in partnership with Navy Pier, the Chicago Park District, and the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Task. Other initiatives incorporate a Dance for Camera Creation Residency, a neighborhood needs evaluation, and re-envisioning its journalism system.
Chicago Dancemakers Discussion board (ChicagoDancemakers.org) celebrates the Yr of Chicago Dance with Elevate Chicago Dance: Emerge, a competition highlighting the incredible artistry of Chicago’s radically numerous dancemakers. Elevate (October 2022) options performances, workshops, and showings by Chicago-dependent dancemakers at venues across the city including the Chicago Cultural Centre, The Dance Centre of Columbia University Chicago, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, and Significant Marsh Park. Elevate also promotes regional artists through meetings and discussions with area, countrywide, and intercontinental dance presenters. In addition, Chicago Dancemakers Discussion board presents regular artist-to-artist gatherings for neighborhood dancemaking artists to network, share their current artistic apply, and engage in open up dialogue.
In celebration of the 12 months of Chicago Dance, Chicago Black Dance Legacy Undertaking (ChicagoBlackDanceLegacy.org) in partnership with the Reva and David Logan Middle for the Arts at The University of Chicago will present two dynamic performances in the spring and summer to advance the organization’s mission and amplify diverse voices in dance in the course of the metropolis. This celebration builds on the vision to help dance programming, facilitate obtain to funding, and create ability for senior and creative management of the project’s 8 spouse businesses: Ayodele Drum and Dance, Chicago Multicultural Dance Center, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Forward Momentum Chicago, Joel Corridor Dancers & Center, Muntu Dance Theatre, Najwa Dance Corps, and Red Clay Dance Enterprise. CBDLP will also start a historic archive venture that aims to protect and rejoice the historical past of Black dance in Chicago.
In 2022, DCASE (Chicago.gov/DCASE) will existing lots of acquainted plans, all free of charge, together with the considerably-liked Chicago SummerDance, bringing a selection of social dance and are living songs downtown and in neighborhoods across the town, specific dance concert events in Millennium Park and much more. For dancemakers, the Chicago Cultural Center’s Dance Studio will grow to be offered as soon as once more by way of a forthcoming application system, supplying house for new operate advancement and alternatives for general public engagement through workshops, artist talks, and do the job-in-progress showings. And the DCASE Cultural Grants System will assistance Chicago’s dance market by means of its CityArts System project grants (Application opens February 7 at ChicagoCulturalGrants.org.) and its Personal Artists Program grants — like up to six Esteemed Artist Awards of $15,000 for every artist for their substantial contributions to the dance field. (Application for that program closed in January awards will be built in April.)
DCASE in partnership with Chicago’s philanthropic neighborhood will be making other economic sources available to dance marketplace experts and organizations in the course of this yr.
Christopher “Mad Dog” Thomas, a Chicago footwork dancer and 2022 co-receiver of the Us citizens for the Arts’ Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities, notes, “Over the last 16 many years with Kuumba Lynx I targeted on utilizing footwork as a instrument of resistance to deal with root bring about of social, environmental, and cost-effective problems. A Calendar year of Chicago Dance will open a window of chance to talk about what happens to black and brown dance communities when they are straight influenced by gentrification, schooling, police, policy, and no area for financial income to sustain their designs of urban dance.” In 2022, Thomas will take a look at codifying his type of Chicago Footwork whilst establishing new choreographies that inform the stories of how bodies respond to certain traumas.
For updates during the calendar year, take a look at Chicago.gov/DCASE and join the conversation on social media working with #YearofChicagoDance.
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Chicago Section of Cultural Affairs and Special Occasions
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Occasions (DCASE) is committed to enriching Chicago’s inventive vitality and cultural vibrancy. This includes fostering the progress of Chicago’s non-financial gain arts sector, independent operating artists and for-revenue arts firms providing a framework to guide the City’s long term cultural and financial development, by way of the Chicago Cultural Program promoting the City’s cultural assets to a worldwide viewers and presenting substantial-top quality, cost-free and inexpensive cultural programs for residents and readers. For more info, visit chicago.gov/dcase.
DCASE programming is supported by the Chicago Transit Authority.
