ELEVATE CHICAGO DANCE 2018

BREAK OUT! 2013

LAB ARTIST 2004

Upon moving to Chicago in 1969, Shirley Mordine founded the Dance Center of Columbia College and directed it until 1999. Under her direction, the Dance Center has evolved into a multifaceted institution at the national forefront of dance education. A teaching, learning, and performing arts center; the Dance Center is Chicago’s leading training program for contemporary dance, and its public programming has engaged companies from around the world. In light of her extensive and consistent contributions to the field of dance and to the student and professional life of Columbia College, Mordine was presented in 1999 with Columbia College’s Presidential Medal for Distinguished Service. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mordine received her early training with Welland Lathrop and Anna Halprin and studied at the School of the San Francisco Ballet. She was a member of the Welland Lathrop Company in San Francisco for ten years. After graduating from Mills College with a degree in dance, she accepted a position at the University of Minnesota where she taught dance for three years. On coming to Chicago in 1969 Mordine founded Mordine & Company Dance Theater and created several seminal works for the Chicago dance scene including Journey, RSVP, Tongues, and Sky Tale. Mordine received the first Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to the Field of Dance, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. She also received the Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement for Edge Mode, Part I, her groundbreaking work combining movement with text, film, video, slides, and computer images. Sid Smith of the Chicago Tribune called this “a master work.” Mordine created the prelude work Subject to Change for the Dubufffet sculpture in the landmark Dancin’ in the State event at the State of Illinois Building in 1993. She also created the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art’s first site-specific work, Weather Watch, in its new current location. Mordine has continued to create many dances over the last 48 years including Time Stilled and Quest in collaboration with cellist Alison Chesley and visual artist John Boesche, Life Speak with experimental composer Shawn Decker, ” I Haven’t Heard from you” set to music by Mozart, and Pushed to the Edge with Hema Rajagopalan of Natya Dance TheatreIn 2005 she was awarded a grant for choreography from The Chicago Dance Makers Forum Lab Artist Award supported by the Chicago Community Trust, The Museum of Contemporary Art and the Dance Center of Columbia College as well as numerous special project grants from the Illinois Arts Council. In addition to her creative accomplishments, Mordine is recognized as a master teacher who excels in integrating the skills of dance technique, choreography, and performance.