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Jan Bartoszek
lab artist, 2008

artist biography
Jan Bartoszek is the founder and artistic director of Hedwig Dances, the resident dance company at the Chicago Cultural Center. Her artistic credentials include eight choreography fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council and one from the NEA; a Ruth Page Award from the Chicago Dance Coaltion; mentorship of numerous dance artists and a leadership role in making dance a vital force at the Chicago Cultural Center. She has choreographed over 55 dances in her career that critics have described as "intelligent, accomplished, moving" (Chicago Tribune) and "poignantly human" (Chicago Reader). These dances have been presented throughout Chicago as well as at national and international performance venues. Throughout her career, Bartoszek has fostered a spirit of collaboration with other artists; combining choreography, visual art, text and music to create dances that resonate with emotional complexity and depth.

Jan Bartoszek has trained in a wide variety of Eastern and Western dance forms from modern dance to classical ballet to folk and ethnic dance. From 1974 until its closure in 1990, she was an integral player in the fertile milieu of MoMing Dance & Arts Center, Chicago's legendary performance center and school for contemporary dance. Bartoszek's choreography credits include work for Steppenwolf, Northlight, Live Bait and Court theaters, as well as with director Ping Chong. As a performer, she toured nationally and internationally with Ping Chong & Company and the Charlie Vernon Performance Company. Bartoszek has served on the Advisory Board of the Arts and Business Council of Chicago, dance panels for the Illinois Arts Council and the Oregon Arts Commission, and the Board of the Chicago Dance Coalition. She is currently on faculty in the dance department at Northwestern University and is the recipient of a 2008 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award to create a dance film based on her work, Ache of the Arc.



during the CDF year
JAN BARTOSZEK
Arch of Repose
Premiere: November 11, 2008
Music Box Theater
3733 N. Southport

Jan Bartoszek is the founder, artistic director, and choreographer of Hedwig Dances. For her CDF project, Bartoszek created Arch of Repose, a poetic, image-rich dance film. Collaborating with composer Carol Genetti, Hedwig dancers, and the film team of Bitter Jester Creative, the film unfolded in a series of episodes that revealed alliances and fissures among the six itinerant characters. The dream-like, timeless setting created an alternate reality that contrasted a labyrinthine interior space with a lush landscape. The film previewed at the 3rd Annual Dance for the Camera festival at the Chicago Cultural Center on October 14 along with a live performance and discussion with the creative team.

The premiere was a shared screening with Nadia Oussenko's film, On Falling...





 



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