The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) has announced that 2022 is the Year of Chicago Dance: a year-long celebration of Chicago’s cultural contributions to the art form.
Art on theMART is queuing up four new projections for 2022 that will spotlight Chicago dance and the dancers, choreographers and visual artists that bring the medium to its full potential.
“Everyone knows Chicago as the birthplace of a variety of music genres, including jazz and house music, but Chicago’s contributions to the art of dance go hand-in-hand with this musical legacy,” said Cynthia Noble, director of Art on theMART. “Art on theMART is proud to provide a prominent canvas for local dancers, choreographers and visual artists to showcase their work.”
Choreographer and Chicago native Carrie Hanson has created a new projection with her dance company, The Seldoms. Derived from an earlier work-for-stage, Floe is a piece that spotlights climate change, extreme weather, vanishing ice, denialism, bodies of water and, ultimately, bodies. Floe invites Chicagoans to approach climate change, mitigation and adaptation efforts with clear eyes, resolve and “big shoulders.”
Hanson teamed with several long-time collaborators for this project. A stellar team of visual artists (Bob Faust, Liviu Pasare and Andrew Glatt) assembled a dynamic, emotional projection by weaving dance, word and image. Mikhail Fiksel crafted a soundscape that includes field recordings of icebergs, water and rain; Maria Pinto created architectural garments in an array of watery blues; Seth Bockley provided text that moves from irreverent to elegiac. Performers include Sarah Gonsiorowski, Damon Green and Maggie Vannucci.
Floe will be on-view during Art on theMART’s upcoming summer season from May 6 to June 29, 2022.
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Trap Moulin Rouge by Jasmin Taylor, in co-production with Motion/Pictures Dance Project, takes audiences to Chicago’s South Side to showcase the vibrant culture and dance that emanates from it. Taking sonic and aesthetic inspiration from the 2001 film “Moulin Rouge,” Trap Moulin Rouge combines classical, R&B and jazz melodies with a variety of dance styles with the aim of creating and promoting equity in Chicago through the performing arts. Trap Moulin Rouge is slated for Art on theMART’s fall season running from September 8 through November 17, 2022.
Also featured in Art on theMART’s fall season is a new projection by dance company leader Shkunna Stewart and filmmaker Wills Glasspiegel which features youth dance groups like Bringing Out Talent who are known for performing at parades and in dance contests across the city. Their new projection includes original animations from dancer Brandon K. Calhoun, an electronic music soundtrack and a marching band. Glasspiegel and Calhoun collaborated with Art on theMART in 2021 on Footnotes, a projection focused on Chicago Footwork dance and music that won TimeOut Chicago’s Best in the City Award for the category of public art.
Additional content for fall 2022 includes Love Letters, a projection by Chinese-born, Chicago-based artist Yuge Zhou, which portrays a lively courtship dance between two urban dwellers searching for each other through a labyrinth of colorful geometrics with growing curiosity, electricity and affection. Love Letters features original choreography by Hannah Santistevan, performances by Rebecca Huang and Joffrey dancer Xavier Nunez, computational animation by Mary Franck and Patrick Steppan, sound by Ben LaMar Gay. Yuge Zhou recently won the juried ArtPrize 2021 and a fellowship in Media Arts from the Illinois Arts Council, and is a resident at NEW INC, an incubator for the New Museum in New York City.
For more information on Art on theMART, visit artonthemart.com.
