Celebrating the 40th

Emily Butcher is a queer acrobat. After receiving a B.A. in Dance from Wesleyan University, they completed the professional training program at the Actor’s Gymnasium with specialties in contortion and tightwire. Since moving to the midwest, they’ve performed and devised with several Chicago-based physical theatre companies. Their solo work has debuted at variety venues across Chicagoland, in disciplines ranging from contortion to bottlewalking to clown. Their work sits at an intersection of absurdity, memory, and fantasy, playing in fresh worlds onstage.

Who’s Your Ghost?

by

Emily Butcher

featuring

Emily Butcher

emilyfbutcher.com

Jacob Buerger, originally from Bolingbrook, Illinois, is a Chicago based performer and teacher. He earned his BFA in dance from Columbia College of Chicago and has performed works by Emma Draves, Carrie Hanson, and Fred Darsow; in addition, he has performed with The Puzzle League and Same Planet Performance Project and is working toward certification in Thai Body Work. Jacob joined Hedwig Dances and Concert Dance Inc in Summer 2018.

TBD

by

Jacob Joseph Buerger

featuring

Dancer/Camila Rivero Pooley
Dance/Amanda Boike
Animation/Hayley Montalvo

with music

Lykkie Li – Until We Bleed (Karaoke)
Lush – Four Tet

Kinnari Vora, a dancer and choreographer is trained in Bharatanatyam under guru Sarmishtha Sarkar from India. She has expanded her learning to Kathak, Indian folk, Kalaripayattu martial art and most recently contemporary dance. She is the co-creator of Ishti Dance Collective (with Preeti Veerlapati), principle dancer with Chicago based world music ensemble Surabhi .

Antarābhava: Existence in interval

by

Kinnari Vora

featuring

Kinnari Vora

with music

See attached

“Let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more common in mind than death….we so not know where death awaits us so let us wait for it everywhere. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.”
-The Tibetan book of living and dying by Sogyal Rinpoche

– Website: www.ishti.dance

Celia Calder is a multidisciplinary artist from Chicago, working in performance and wearable sculpture. They are a lighting designer and general tech person at Links Hall, and they have worked on all kinds of creative events across the US and Europe. They started learning partner dance during their time at Smith College, and have since taught queer partner dance workshops in Chicago and internationally. Their recent artwork has been concerned with the climate change crisis, the complexity of human connection, their experiences in the borderlands of gender, and the ways that these unexpectedly intertwine. See more of their work at celiacalderart.com.

*star*piece*

by

Celia Calder

celiacalderart.com
Music by Gina Tomkins & Ian Cooper of Bristol, UK

Jordan Kunkel is an independent dance artist and choreographer based in Chicago. She recently produced, curated and choreographed/performed in On Being Well, a performance that explored themes of mental health. With a dual degree in Dance and Journalism from Loyola University Chicago, Jordan strives to create and perform work that tells meaningful stories and addresses issues of social relevance. Outside of performance work, she also has a passion for arts-advocacy via dance administration and communications. Follow Jordan on social media (@jordankunkel) to learn more about her upcoming project: “Speak! Through The Body, Uninhibited.”

Speak! Through The Body, Uninhibited (Research 1)

by

Jordan Kunkel – dance performer
Jacob Chaparro – live musician

with music

Improvised, live musical accompaniment by Jacob Chaparro

To learn more, see bi-weekly video excerpts and blog posts on this project follow Jordan:
instagram: @jordankunkel
website: jordan-kunkel.com

Jenny Oelerich hails from Winnetka, Illinois and earned a BFA in Dance at the University of Illinois in Spring of 2019. During her time as an undergrad she had the privilege of working with Jan Erkert, Renee Wadleigh, and Abby Zbikowski among others. Choreographically, Jenny is interested in full-bodied movement phrases, working upside down, and duet work with her favorite partner: the floor. Jenny is a dance teacher with students ranging from 3 years old to adults, and has recently earned her 200 hour yoga teacher certification under Linda Lehovec. Since graduating, Jenny has re-located back to the Chicagoland area.

by means of cacophony pt. 2

by

Jenny Oelerich

featuring

Jenny Oelerich

with music

“War Machines” by Michael Wall

This work serves as a response to my recent senior thesis and investigates how dynamics are altered by taking material from a large group work and paring it down onto one body.