Biographies
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CMC Founder & Artistic Director Kay Wendt LaSota Karla Beltchenko Rachel Bunting Precious Jennings Mindy Meyers Odbayar Batsuuri Rachel Bunting Atalee Judy Ayako Kato Karla Beltchenko Daniel Guidara Precious Jennings Atalee Judy Kelly Kane Ayako Kato Melinda Jean Myers Lyndsae Rinio Nana Shineflug Stone Damon Barry Bennett Stone Damon Jacob Snodgrass Suzy Grant |
- Chicago Tribune Obituary
- Videomentary "Nana - HerStory" Nana Shineflug is the founder (1972) and Artistic Director of the Chicago Moving Company (CMC), celebrating its 40th year as one of Chicago's finest modern dance companies. CMC has performed throughout the U.S; in Berlin, Germany; New York; San Francisco; Aspen, Colorado; and in many of Illinois' smallest towns; and is an Arts Partner with the Chicago Park District at Hamlin Park. Nana has received four Choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Service Award from the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education, the Chicago Dance Coalition's Ruth Page Award for Lifetime Service to the Field, the Columbia College Lifetime Achievement Award; and the Katherine Dunham Award for Excellence and Dedication to the Arts. She graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Mathematics and has a M.A. and Graduate Certificate in Laban Movement Analysis from Columbia College. Nana has been a guest lecturer in many Universities throughout the U.S., Currently she teaches at Columbia College Chicago in the Interdisciplinary Arts Graduate Program and the Theater Department; and teaches modern dance, Qi Gong and Psychocalesthenics at the CMC Studio. In 1998 Nana traveled to India and Israel where she exhibited her photographs, taught and presented dance performances; in 2000 she traveled to Brazil three times to work in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Sao Luis. In fall 2005 she taught in Tianjin, China, and with a Fulbright Grant taught in Ulanbaataar, Mongolia where CMC also performed. Nana has synthesized thoughts from Eastern and Western physicalities resulting in a theory she calls "The Conscious Body". Awards
-Four Choreographic Fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts
-The Katherine Dunham Award for Excellence and Dedication to the Arts
-Chicago Dance Coalition/Ruth Page Lifetime Service to the Field Award
-Three Illinois Arts Council Choreographic Fellowships
-Chicago Dance Award for Outstanding Contribution
-Ruth Page Award, Honorable Mention for the Dance Legacy Project
-Boulevard Arts Center's Presidents Award
-Two Illinois Alliance for Arts Education Service Recognition Awards
-Prestigious National Endowment for Arts Arts-Plus Partnership
-Columbia College Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award
Featured CMC Dance Artist Rachel Bunting is an identical twin. Being born into this relationship, its inherent themes of sacrifice, autonomy and inevitability permeate her work. She played with many types of art before she began dancing at age twenty-three. Within this form, she discovered her instinct for combining motion with image. In 2002, Rachel formed a company named "The Humans." The choreography highlights unexpected, scenic elements in which to relate both physically and symbolically. In 2007, she created a movement installation titled, "Let's kill our sadness" which was canopied by raw wool "clouds" and featured dancers armed with irrationally large scissors. Later that year, she created, "who I am (who I am not)" a duet that illustrates the curious experience of being a twin using mirrored cubes, a curtain of chimes, and a two-person owl mask to explore themes of magnetism and repulsion. The last two years marked Rachel's journey into "Paper Shoes," an evening-length work that examines the idea of passage. Included is a chorus of six dancers wearing white "horse heads" backward, creating odd body-pictures of distorted limbs. Arranged as a collage, "Paper Shoes" moves out of time, and is the genesis of Rachel's fascination with an episodic form.
Teaching Artist
CMC Graphic Designer & Web Mistress Atalee Judy teaches Advanced Falling Techniques & Conditioning for Professional Dancers.
Sundays 10-11:30a
Hamlin Park
More info at:
Atalee Judy is an experimental dancemaker, performer and the founder/director of BONEdanse Productions (AKA Breakbone DanceCo) established in 1997 and based in Chicago. Her athletic and poignant performances have consistently collided with socio-political commentary. Often recognized for her bold, unconventional choreographic decisions in creating works that are charged with a punk rock intensity and an honest use of gravity, she has established herself as a innovator, provocateur and a contrarian. Atalee has committed over 10 years of her career to codifying her own extreme movement style she coined The Bodyslam Technique, which she developed in 1998. Breakbone DanceCo creates visually driven dance theater. The ensemble of five core company members strives to make strong statements which challenge those who perceive dance as an aesthetic reprieve to one of a powerful reactionary movement rebellion.
Atalee Judy teaches dance technique, choreography & performance from a history influenced by over 16 years saturated in the Chicago dance community as well as her studies in Europe. Atalee holds a BA in Dance, Performance & Choreography from Columbia College Chicago with honors in outstanding achievement. She spent over 10 years of her career dedicated to codifying a style of movement she coined The Bodyslam Technique - a tiered level of systematic lessons on how to fall. Her work & teachings are informed by personal experience and investigative research. Socio-political commentary has often been catalysts for her work and her topics that she explores in workshops. Her interdisciplinary approaches to conceptual concepts are based on the idea that all elments are open to explore to get the voice and vision out there and hear loud and clear. As a teacher, Atalee promotes independent thinking and problem solving through exploration, visualization techniques, writing, improvisation, and word play.
Guest classes and residencies include: Visceral Dance Center, Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, University of Texas-Austin, New Trier High Schoool, InSight Arts, Dialogue Dance Center, Kostroma Russia, Links Hall, Hamlin Park Studio, Chicago Cultural Center, and Hedwig Dances.
Over the past 16 years workshops & studies include: Nana Shineflug, Amanda Kreis, Sheldon B. Smith, Shirley Mordine, Rachel Rosenthal (DbD), Jan Erkert, Mary Ward, Timothy Buckley, Rinde Ekert, Margaret Jankins, Suzanne Linke, Tim O'Slynne, Laurie Macklin, Susan Marshall, Urban Bushwomen, Pauline De Groot (Amsterdam), Wim Vandekeybus (Brussels), Ultima Vez (Brussels), Inaki Azpillaga (Brussels), The Park Studio (Amsterdam) and those are just some of the highlights.
Teaching Artist Called "compelling to behold" by Jack Anderson of the New York Times, Ayako Kato is a dancer and choreographer who hails from Yokohama, Japan, and has been active as a part of vital Chicago dance community since winter 2004. Kato's dance pursues to exhibit the absolute moment of the beauty of being, resisting and/or affirming the imperfectness of human beings among the imperfect human conditions. She cherishes intangible space/silence/stillness created by movements and energy. In 1998, Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape (AUH), which was called Art Union Humanscape until 2008, was established by Kato and double bassist, Jason Roebke. The company presented: over one hundred music and dance duos by Kato and Roebke; extended collaborations with other musicians and dancers; Kato's over forty choreographic projects/works from solo to larger ensemble, which have included interdisciplinary collaboration with musicians, visual artists and choreographers; and most recently a dance installation project. She is currently working on Dear BACH project, which is movement exploration with music by J.S.Bach and initiated with 51 minute dance-piano duo by Goldberg Variations in 2010; group piece Incidents project since 2010, which is empirical dance influenced by Butterfly Effect, Ripple Effect, and Mirror Combinations from Euclidean Plane Isometry; and dance installation with video artist Edyta Stepien since 2011. The duo by Roebke and Kato was recognized through Japan, Europe and the US tours, which included Joyce Soho season in NYC. The extended collaboration received a Crosscut Sound and Movement Collaboration Grant with cornetist Josh Berman, and the group was invited by the 32nd Annual Chicago Jazz Festival to perform at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park in 2010. Kato was selected as one of 14 indispensable female artists, The Dynamic Women of Chicago Dance in 2010 in the TimeOut Chicago and also selected for "People to Watch" in dance in the Chicago Reader in 2009. Kato's performances have been critically acclaimed also by the Chicago Tribune, Village Voice, Chicago Reader, TimeOut Chicago and SeeChicagoDance. Kato has received awards and honors, including the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, funding from The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Japan Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, Illinois Arts Council and the City of Chicago. Having classical ballet background in Japan, Kato started to receive her modern dance training in the United States and obtained MFA in dance from the University of Michigan. She also pursued eastern movements/methods and studied Butoh with master Kazuo Ohno, one of the founders, Tai chi and Noh Theater dance. She studies dance anatomy with Irene Dowd since 2007 through summer intensives in NY. She is currently teaching at Chicago Moving Company's community class, The Space Movement Project Company class and her own Art Union Humanscape dance technique class. Kato has been also curating the dance series currently called Dance Union, formally Epiphany Dance Experiment, since November 2008. Since fall 2010, Kato is an artist in residence and she is truly appreciative for generous support, warmth and friendship given by Nana, Kay, an dby the other two artists in residence, colleagues Rachel and Atalee.
Featured CMC Dance Artist Karla Beltchenko attended and taught at Western Illinois University and has since danced professionally with The Humans, Cindy Brandle Dance Company, Mordine & Company Dance Theatre and as a guest artist with many others. Karla brings with her a rich and varied choreography background in both modern and jazz.
Featured CMC Dance Artist Precious Jennings has been a performing member of The Humans since 2006, and since 2009 she has been a part of Chicago Moving Company as a performer and teaching artist. Both companies had the pleasure to travel to Mongolia in 2010 to teach and perform. She is also currently working with local teacher and choreographer Ayako Kato. Her dance training began at the age of four in the state of Iowa, which included ballet, tap, jazz and modern; she moved to Chicago in 2001 to further her training. She has studied with teachers across the US in workshops and has performed with many independent artists and companies in Chicago. Most recently she completed training with Irene Dowd for movement based on PNF patterns. Precious graduated from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine for Bodywork and Massage in 2005. furthered her training in Thai Bodywork with Chuck Duff, Anthony James and traveled to Thailand to study with Terdchai 'Mac' Chumphoopong in 2009. In addition. she was a work-study student at Moksha Yoga for teacher training in 2005-2006. She is currently adjunct faculty at Columbia College Chicago teaching Body Movement for Actors and teaches across Chicago in after-school programs.
Class Accompanist
barrybennettsounds.com
Special Projects Coordinator Suzy Grant is a dancer, improviser and most recently, production manager. In 2008, she received her B.A. in dance from Columbia College Chicago. Since that time she has provided production support to Peter Carpenter, Jonathan Meyer and Khecari, and BONEdanse/Breakbone DanceCo. Suzy recently began working with the Chicago Moving Company as Special Projects Coordinator. Over the past year Suzy has performed in works by BONEdanse/Breakbone DanceCo., Jyl Fehrenkamp, Matthew Hollis, Peter Carpenter, Portable Dance, Szewai Lee and STD. She helped to form the collaborations STD and Portable Dance and also helped to produce Portable Dance's first concert in April, 2009.
Affiliate Artist Kelly Kane, originally from Minneapolis, MN, moved to Chicago in 2010, where she has since had the pleasure of delving in to a new and different artistic community. Kelly has been honored to explore, investigate, and perform with several Chicago choreographers including Rachel Bunting/The Humans, Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape, Heather Hartley, and Casey Murtaugh. In her studies as a BFA Dance Major at The University of Minnesota, and at NYU Tisch School of The Performing Arts, Kelly previously performed in works for such artists as Carl Flink, Morgan Thorson, Karen Sherman, Shapiro & Smith, Gina Gibney, Robert Battle, and Ronald K. Brown. As passionate about choreography as she is for performing, Kelly has been honored to have her own works selected and shown at the American College Dance Festival, Kinetic Kitchen, Millennium Park Fashion Focus Week, and Link's Hall. Recently completing her yoga instructor certification, Kelly is also excited to expand her career in teaching.
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Daniel's intention is to develop a modern expression of traditional Internal martial arts (Taijiquan, Baqua Zhang, Hsingyiquan) that is both practical and versatile in its application while consistent with what he believe's to be one of the original intents of these arts, the cultivation and discovery of prime skills simpatico with Taoist ideas.
All martial arts begin as a means to resolve external conflict and as the practitioner progresses they become more a means to resolve internal conflict. The classics say "The martial will teach the civil and the civil will teach the martial". A child, lacking vision or experience is immediate in its needs both in time and space. With time we see ourselves as part of a larger community, human and natural. We are all greater than are perception of each other.
Taijiquan is not slow, Taijiquan is not fast, Taijiquan is not soft, Taijiquan is not hard. It is all these and more. Taijiquan is "Grand Harmony Boxing" or "Boundless Fist" Embrace the splendor.
Teaching Artist
Class Accompanist
Affiliate Artist Stone Damon is a Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist whose wide-ranging musical talents were previously utilized by the popular Celt-rock group the Drovers as drummer and percussionist and is the brainchild of the eclectic world pop band Ulele. In addition to singing lead vocals and providing percussion, Stone writes most of the songs and plays trombone, piano, hammond b-3, marimba, electric bass, national guitar, keyboard bass, flute, snare, and fife. He also designed and built the world's first electric cello.
