Now in its eighth year, Chicago Dancemakers Forum is pleased to announce its support for the creative work of these four dancemakers as they embark upon the 2010 Lab Artist Program, beginning this spring. The four Chicago-based recipients, Rachel Bunting, Rachel Damon, Meida Teresa McNeal and Erica Mott, 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:

Rachel Bunting is an independent dancer, choreographer, and artistic director of The Humans. For her CDF project, Bunting will create Paper Shoes, immersing herself in nostalgic processes to create a series of vignettes, rooted in the aesthetics of a contemporary fairytale. Bunting will explore connected themes of rites of passage, memory, and sexuality, by way of image, metaphor and object.

Rachel Damon is a multi-media artist, dancer, and artistic director of Synapse Arts Collective. Damon’s project, Factor Ricochet: Embodying the Gender Spectrum (working title) is a dance study of gender expression as exhibited by the human body, taking into account personal experiences and scholarly research. Damon will investigate the body and voice as a soloist and in cooperation with others to travel the spectrum of gender options.

Meida Teresa McNeal is a choreographer, ethnographer and performance scholar who uses the medium of dance to tell stories about communities. Her proposed piece is The Sweetgoddess Project, which explores the movement principles and aesthetic ideas of Chicago house music and dance culture through the experiences of women of color. The Sweetgoddess Project places women squarely at the forefront of this often male dominated form, embracing the presence of femininity, community, sensuality, pleasure and empowerment as integrated components of Chicago house culture. 

Erica Mott is a choreographer, dance theater maker, and puppeteer whose work is particularly informed by observation of specific environments. Mott will create Dancing Forms, an evening length performance emerging from a deep investigation into and application of object manipulation, puppetry, and principles of energetic presence to create new and integrated dance choreography. Dancing Forms will include collaborations between Mott and internationally celebrated artists Sara Shelton Mann, Clare Dolan and Royal De Luxe.