Chicago Dancemakers Forum Launches City-Wide Production Residency Pilot Project

With an investment from the Walder Foundation, Chicago Dancemakers Forum is launching a City-Wide Production Residency Pilot Project which matches dance making artists with performance venues (mostly closed to audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic), while promoting new collaborations, paid artistic development, employment for designers and technicians, and innovative ways of sharing dance with audiences and other supporters. The artists in residence were selected by the host venues in collaboration with Chicago Dancemakers Forum.

The 2021 pilot residencies are:

· BraveSoul Movement at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago

· Ivelisse Diaz at Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center

· La Vuelta Ensemble at UrbanTheater Company

· Rigo Saura at Ruth Page Center for the Arts

· South Side venue (to be announced)

In partnership with Performance Response Journal, a writer-who is also a practicing artist, curator, cultural producer, and/or all of the above-will be embedded into each residency and paired with each dancemaker/collective while they are in this process of making a new work. Together they share space, process, dialogue, reflection, and creation. Embedded Writers for the 2021 residencies include Ana Daniela, Benji Hart, and Khalid Long.

Ginger Farley, Executive Director, shares, "Chicago Dancemakers Forum is incredibly fortunate to engage these artists in dynamic interactive artistic process with one another and to build new and strong relationships with presenting partners across Chicago in support of dance and dancemaking. We are grateful to the Walder Foundation for their timely entry as a new and generous artist-centric funder in the performing arts."

Two of the venue partners, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center and Ruth Page Center for the Arts, are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. In April, all residency artists and collaborators will be invited to join a Learning Lab co-produced by Chicago Dancemakers Forum and The Harris Theater for Music and Dance (an invitation-only event).