Bonnie Brooks Announces Departure from Dance Center

Bonnie Brooks, Presenting Series Director and Lead Curator for the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago and Columbia College Chicago Dance Department Associate Professor, has announced her departure, effective May 31, 2017.

Brooks concludes 18 years of leadership with the Dance Center and the College, serving as Dance Department Chair and Series co-curator from 1999 to 2011. She was appointed Lead Curator of the Presenting Series in January 2015 and Presenting Series Director in August of that year. During that time, Brooks worked closely with Dance Center staff to strengthen international relationships and broaden outreach to academic and public audiences.

Prior to joining Columbia College Chicago, she served as president and executive director of Dance/USA, the country's principal service organization for dance, from 1990 to 1998. Her activities with the Chicago dance community have included serving as a board member of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park when it opened in 2003 and Audience Architects from 2012 through 2014 and, with colleagues from Links Hall and the Museum of Contemporary Art, co-founding the Chicago Dancemakers Forum.

"Bonnie's contributions to the Dance Center are as substantial as they are wide-ranging," said Chair of Dance Peter Carpenter. "From serving as department chair to being a thought leader as a tenured faculty member to leading the Presenting Series, she has left an indelible mark on this organization; we look forward to seeing her continued contributions to the field in the months and years ahead."

The Dance Center is seeking an interim director for the 2017-18 Presenting Series, announced earlier this month. The 44th season, which opens in September, features the Chicago debut of choreographer Cynthia Oliver's COCo. Dance Theatre; the return of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan and companies led by American choreographers Reggie Wilson, Doug Varone and Bebe Miller; and Chicago companies including Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak and the choreographers participating in Elevate Chicago Dance. Subscriptions go on sale June 5 and single tickets go on sale July 5 at colum.edu/dancecenterpresents.

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago is the city's leading presenter of contemporary dance, showcasing artists of regional, national and international significance. The Dance Center has been named "Chicago's Best Dance Theatre" by Chicago magazine, "Best Dance Venue" by the Chicago Reader and Chicago's top dance venue in 2014 by Newcity, and Time Out Chicago cited it as "...consistently offering one of Chicago's strongest lineups of contemporary and experimental touring dance companies." Programs at the Dance Center are supported, in part, by the Alphawood Foundation, the MacArthur Fund for the Arts and Culture at Prince, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Irving Harris Foundation, Arts Midwest Touring Fund and the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to Friends of the Dance Center for their generous contributions to the Dance Center's work.

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