by Zachary Whittenburg

Full-frontal nudity in photos of Joseph Ravens were in the performance artist’s application to participate in Pop-Up Art Loop — an initiative to fill vacant, street-level retail with art — in summer 2010. However, as Deanna Isaacs outlined in her cover story for the Chicago Reader, concerns about the triptych of portraits by Alan Rovge found Ravens walking away from the temporary gallery at 220 S Wabash Ave, and to Chicago Artists Coalition’s subsequent cancellation of five months of performances, curated by Links Hall for PUAL.

Salon NOTEBOOK: Difficult Conversations: Cultural Divides

by Zachary Whittenburg

On April 16 at the Chicago Cultural Center, prompted by interdisciplinary artist Baraka de Soleil, four panelists and their audience kicked off a discussion about culture by attempting to lasso that rampant word with other words.

Hema Rajagopalan, artistic director of Natya Dance Theatre, identified culture’s three main ingredients in her view — beliefs, practices and values — but swiftly added that they are “always going to be influenced by the surrounding environment. It’s important that we understand that [culture] transforms and evolves.”

“I don’t think anyone says, ‘I want to be a body-based performance-artist when I grow up,’ ” opined Peter Carpenter, a dancemaker among other things.

Seated to Carpenter’s left, on one of four white benches arranged in a square, was Yolanda Cesta Cursach, among other things associate director of performance programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The two met on March 26 at DEFIBRILLATOR, a gallery for performance; both wore sneakers and faced a small number and wide variety of creatives. Everyone spoke at length at least once during the two-hour talk.

Chicago Dancemakers Forum is pleased to announce its support for the creative work of these four dancemakers as they embark upon the 2012 Lab Artist Program, beginning this spring. The four Chicago-based recipients, Paige Cunningham, Kristina Isabelle, Mark Jeffery, and Victor Alexander Ramirez, were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates through a rigorous application process. Each artist will receive a $15,000 award for research and the creation of a new work, plus process-oriented support to facilitate their creative development. Proposed projects include:

Salon NOTEBOOK: Difficult Conversations: Supply and Demand

by Zachary Whittenburg

At the beginning of this year at a conference in Washington, D.C., the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts said, with regard to theater companies in the United States, "You can either increase demand or decrease supply. Demand is not going to increase, so it is time to think about decreasing supply."

Rocco Landesman hit a nerve.

Difficult Conversations: Tackling the Tricky Issues

Difficult Conversations is a year long Salon series presented by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum that seeks to tackle tricky and provocative topics at the heart of today's dancemaking field. The goal of these Salons is to create space for dialogue around the complex issues today's dance artists face, with realism, honesty and a dash of hope. Difficult Conversations = No whining allowed. Just seeking solutions...

First Event - Save the Date!

Co-presented by Chicago Artist Resources and the Chicago Dancemakers Forum

Salon NOTEBOOK: Dance Improvisation Fest

by Zachary Whittenburg

 The panel of ten on-the-spot choreographers and composers brought together by the first improvised dance festival in Chicago wore garments on June 15 that hit most of Roy G. Biv's signposts on the rainbow. Colors of fabrics on bodies seated in an arc, onstage at the Dance Center of Columbia College, included crimson, an orangey red, a grassy green, primary blue, lavender, black and white. No one wore yellow, but the prevailing energy at that and other events I attended during the week was sunny enough to call the spectrum complete.

Wednesday, June 15th, 8pm
Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago
1306 S. Michigan Ave.
FREE and open to the public

RSVP at:  312-369-8330

Tuesday, April 19th, 6pm-8pm
Woman Made Gallery
685 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60642

FREE!
Light snacks and beverages will be served!

Space is limited! Please RSVP to chicagodancemakers@gmail.com .

Salon NOTEBOOK: Sara Shelton Mann and Erica Mott

by Zachary Whittenburg

Just after sundown on April 19, storm clouds assaulted Chicago with hail and rain, grounding 450 flights out of O'Hare and flooding the city's streets. Although scientists don't exactly know how, or why, massive amounts of electrical potential built up between the earth and these clouds, discharged in the form of multimillion-volt strikes.

Safe inside Woman Made Gallery on Milwaukee Avenue, CDF Lab Artist Erica Mott spoke of her beginnings in puppetry, mask work and sculptural costume. "I'm fascinated with what the body can transform itself into with the aid of a covering," she explained, extending her left arm with a pen in her hand. "When do you stop seeing a pen and an arm, and start seeing a third thing? And if there's space between me and an object, how does that affect things?"

Salon NOTEBOOK: Joe Goode

by Zachary Whittenburg

 February 15 at Links Hall, Joe Goode outlined his life through the lens of his work. The stories reached back as far as the days when fellow schoolboys' reactions told him his war sounds were impressively realistic. It "fool[ed] the kids in my neighborhood into thinking I was one of the guys," he said. Goode arrived in New York City at 20, six-foot-four and 140 pounds, with long hair and "beautiful feminine qualities" he refused to suppress.

Tuesday, February 15, 6:00-8:00pm
Links Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield Ave.

FREE!

Chicago Dancemakers Forum is thrilled to announce the 2011 Greenhouse Awardees, recipients of a new CDF program that responds to the need for more mentorship and financial support opportunities for emerging choreographers in the Chicago dance community. The six month long Greenhouse Program promotes artistic development in emerging choreographers through financial support for the creation of new work, and by fostering a mentorship relationship from an established/mid-career artist in the Chicago area.

The 2011 Greenhouse Awardees are: Justin Cabrillos, Joy Davis, Emma Draves, Ginger Krebs, and Adam Rose.

Learn more about the Greenhouse artists HERE

"What Does Dance 'DO' For The World?"

Monday, November 22
6:00-7:30pm
FREE!
Chicago Cultural Center

Join us for this insightful panel discussion featuring Peter Carpenter, Ananya Chatterjea, Michelle Kranicke and Boogie McClarin.

by Zachary Whittenburg

It was probably a coincidence that the two dancemakers chosen to launch the 2010-11 CDF Salon Series, October 11 at Woman Made Gallery near the mouth of Milwaukee Avenue, were dressed almost identically. Emily Johnson wore a shift, in green and navy fabric suggesting palm fronds or zebra stripes, with patent brick-red flat boots. To her left, Molly Shanahan sat shod in matte maroon boots, wearing a dark blue-green dress cut similarly to Johnson's. Although their latest major works--The Thank-you Bar and Stamina of Curiosity, respectively--diverge in many ways, they share a common spirit in slant rhyme, alike the way their outfits were alike. Having followed Shanahan's work for some time, I noted when Johnson, with whom I was unfamiliar until that week, explicated the transmittal of an idea through movement in words that could just as easily have come from Shanahan herself.

"CDF Salons are fantastic - like an awesome graduate school seminar, but with free wine and no exams."  - 2009 CDF salon participant 

CDF Salons are an informal series of salon-style, Artist Talks with local and national dance artists committed to pushing their creative approach forward. Each conversation focuses on an invited artist's process in making movement-based work.

2010/2011 CDF Salons:  INSIDE/OUTSIDE

This season, CDF focuses on the concept of "Inside/Outside" and will pair a Chicago based artist with a visiting artist, to create a duo/dialogue.The conversations explore similarities and differences in work style, regional influences, and areas of inspiration and challenge.

JUST ANNOUNCED!: Monday, October 11: Molly Shanahan + Emily Johnson

 Please join CDF on Monday, October 11  at Woman Made Gallery, for the kick off event to its 2010-2011 Salon series, featuring a conversation with Molly Shanahan, Artistic Director of Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak and Emily Johnson, Artistic Director of Catalyst Dance.

2010 Dancers At Work Forum Series

What and who defines Chicago’s dance scene? Over the course of 2010, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs will host a series of Dancers at Work forums designed to bring together dance artists and dance supporters in panel discussions and workshops encouraging the growth of Chicago dance.  Participants include dance presenters, critics and practitioners across a dynamic spectrum of styles from modern, folk, ballet, contemporary and urban styles of movement practice. CDF is thrilled to be a partner on these events at various points throughout the year.

FIRST OF THE SERIES: Growing the Local Dance Scene

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
6pm - 7:30pm
at The Cultural Center

Zachary Whittenburg's latest Salon NOTEBOOK entry covers our most recent Salon on Monday, November 23, that featured a richly textured conversation with Mexican Butoh artist Diego Pinon...

So if you miss a Salon, check here a few days after the event for the latest Salon NOTEBOOK posting, to find out all about the artist and what they shared. Also, we welcome your additional comments and thoughts about each Salon on our discussion board on the website homepage.

Zachary's latest Salon NOTEBOOK entry covers our most recent Salon on Monday, October 26, that featured a panel discussion about the legacies of Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham, and Michael Jackson...

CDF is thrilled to launch Salon NOTEBOOK, a new offering of a series of essays by writer Zachary Whittenburg to provide insight and commentary following each of the CDF/Silverspace Salons during the 2009-2010 season. 

So if you miss a Salon, check here a few days after the event for the latest Salon NOTEBOOK posting, to find out all about the artist and what they shared.  Also, we welcome your additional comments and thoughts about each Salon on our discussion board on the website homepage. 

Zachary's Salon NOTEBOOK series begins with his commentary on the recent Salon on Monday, September 14 with German choreographer, Raimund Hoghe...