Chicago Dancemakers Forum's 2021 Digital Dance Grants supported selected local dance creators in their artistic growth in using digital technologies during the era of COVID-19. In 2021, ten Chicago-based dancemakers were each awarded $10,000 for the development of new digital dance works. The ten grantees and their projects reflect a spirit of collaboration, experimentation, and exploration. Within five months, these artists developed digital dance works that will premiere during the summer and fall of 2021. Grantees received technical assistance and opportunities for relationship building and cross learning.
When:
The ten grantees:
Through a collection of 45-minute podcast episodes, Alyssa Gregory in collaboration with Anjal Chande (2019 Lab Artist)/Soham Dance Space, explored the processes of individual Chicago artists in a work that they have either created or performed in.
"The Process" podcast aims to demystify dialogue about making dance through inquisitive conversational interviews.
Through a four-episode docuseries titled,
“Shaping Lens,” Annie Franklin and Kenny Washington collaborated to both educate and highlight artists and non-artists on the process of creating strong visual screen productions. This project worked off the intersection of movement and cinematography to showcase a five-step process from brainstorming to producing a dance film.
Antibody Corporation, through a project titled, “Hypostasis of the Aetheric Body,” featured three main components that aim to capture the astral body: 1) documentation of physical reality, the outside world, with emphasis on its deterioration; 2) exploring the purely digital and virtual through digital animations, the semblance of the aetheric; 3) mind-body practice in the form of dance and lucid dreaming practice. Collaborators: Adam Rose (2014 Lab Artist), Andrew Braddock, April Lynn, with Thorne Brandt.
Ashwaty Chennat and Abhijeet Rane continued their collaboration of “Moods of Nayika” as they explorde gender, queerness, and the body in South Asian arts and traditions. This project distorts and amplifies the recurrent theme of the “Nayika" through 8 mini-episodes that combine the art of dance and drag with cinematography, digital aesthetics and artistic post-production.
In collaboration with multiple local artists, B’Rael Ali Thunder created an interactive dance mural on Chicago's South Side, through virtual and augmented reality technologies. Audiences be invited to scan their smartphones over painted dancers to bring their movement to life and experience the stories they are showcasing. The work centers on topics such as freedom, resistance, evolution, and the human spirit.
Inspired by the partnerwork found in Afro-Latin social dances, Maria Luisa, in collaboration with Que4 Radio and Taylor Street Media, built a virtual social dance experience. With the use of live-broadcasting, green screen technology, and video editing, this project explores socially distant social dancing by reimagining the partner cueing and physical connections embedded in these dance forms.
Inspirado por el baile en pareja que se encuentra en los bailes sociales afrolatinos, María Luisa, en colaboración con Que4 Radio y Taylor Street Media, construirá una experiencia de baile social virtual. Con el uso de transmisión en vivo, tecnología de pantalla verde y edición de video, este proyecto explorará el baile social socialmente distante al reinventar las señales de la pareja y las conexiones físicas integradas en estas formas de baile.
Ginger Lane, Ladonna Freidheim (ReinventAbility), and Jon Satrom (studiothread) explored the intersections of inclusive dance, disability culture, and digital art through, “Digitally Reinventing Imperfection.” These artists hope to examine the false promises of digital art and bring imperfection and distortion forward as they explore the change of stage. They created a virtual performance piece and a digital dance creation tool that finds its home as a software and was open to the community for participation.
Silvita Diaz Brown, in collaboration with film artist Alexandra Yasinovsky and other artists created a dance film titled, “Visita a Nuestros Muertos,” inspired by Día de los Muertos. Dedicated to Brown's mother, this film follows four individuals as they connect and dance with loved ones whom they have lost. The film culminates in the celebration and joy surrounding death in Mexican culture. Cinematography: Antonin Lelievre | Dancers: Ileana Nadine Mauricio, Juan Enrique Irrizarry, Dylan Roth and Silvita Diaz Brown | Music: Wiebe Dirk | Text: Lani Montreal with translation to Spanish by Silvita | Costumes: Silvita and Elizabeth Collins
Yoshinojo Fujima aka Rika Lin (2017 Lab Artist), Subhash Maskara (Mumbai), Hekiun Oda (Kobe/Chicago), Matsuya Nozawa (Kyoto), and Toyoaki Sanjuro (Tokyo/Chicago) are creating an interactive dance film based in virtual reality and interactive website technologies that will allow audience members to choose what components of the work they experience. Pushing away from expected norms and expectations, this project aims to experiment with Japanese classical dance and the new boundaries that a virtual world creates.
Zachary Nicol is exploring questions of visibility, concealment, and paradox in a two-part work, with support from advisor Catherine Sullivan (2016 Lab Artist). The first part, a short dance film, features two dancers and the second part, a website, acts as a virtual repository for twelve commissions by Black artists as they digest, exchange, and respond to questions of generating into a space of refusal.
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Selection Review Panel: Ginger Farley, Shawn Lent and Adia Sykes
Nonvoting reviewers and notetakers: La Mar Brown, Shweta Dharap, Catherine Eng, Liam "L" Fleming, and Mabel Lujan
