Program Information
Program A:
Laura Chiaramonte is a choreographer, videographer, performer, and educator who has worked professionally in the dance field throughout the United States and abroad for the past twenty-five years. Her movement research lies within the intersections of dance somatics and interdisciplinary art forms synthesizing sound, moving images, design, and technology into performance. Laura is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor of Dance, Dance Media Coordinator, and Archivist at the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign, Video Archive Director for the Bates Dance Festival, along with serving as the Director and Curator of the Flatlands Dance Film Festival, dedicated to supporting and presenting the art of dance cinema.
Esteban Donoso is a researcher-artist-scholar from Quito, Ecuador who works in the mediums of dance, performance and film. He is interested in somatic approaches to movement, oral histories, and auto theory as devices that can help us re-construct our personal and interconnected histories. Esteban holds an MFA from UIUC (’08) and just completed his PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University in Toronto, Ca. His artistic work has been shown in Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Belgium, Switzerland, France, U.S. and Canada. In 2020-2021 he was associate researcher at apass (Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies) in Brussels, Be.
Mark Kater: Program Note: This work was inspired by my grandfather Harold Whitcomb. He played drums and piano/organ. After WW1, he improvised for silent movies at theaters like The Chicago Theater and Music Box. Gramps, thanks for all your smiles, laughs and poppin’ your false teeth out after one of your famously gleeful Scat Hambone routines.
Mya McClellan (she/her) is a versatile Chicago-based artist. She received a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021. Mya is an improviser, choreographer, and performer currently touring with Ohio-based Abby Z and the New Utility.
Laina Reese Werner-Powell is a performing artist, choreographer, writer, and professor of dance. Laina received her MFA in Dance Performance & Pedagogy and Certificate of Study in Feminist Methodologies & Sexualities from Arizona State University; with her BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Laina comes from a rigorous professional and performing career in dance- including intensive study and touring with companies such as The Ailey School, Ailey II, A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham, Joel Hall Dancers & Center, MGM Performance Group, Las Vegas Talent Agency, and more. Currently Assistant Professor of Dance at Illinois State University, Laina specializes in the teaching and curricular advancement of contemporary Modern, Jazz, Afro-Caribbean, and Hip Hop dance.
Chris Johnson makes work that speaks to the human condition, drawing attention to matters of social justice. Critics have lauded her work as “stirring,” “mesmerizing” and “ingeniously shifty.” Johnson was awarded the inaugural commission of the Side Street Studio Arts Going Dutch Festival and earned First Place for Choreography at the New Prague Dance Festival in Prague, CZ. She has been selected to present work nationally and internationally for DUMBO Dance Festival in NYC, Dance St. Louis-Spring 2 Dance, Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, Detroit Dance City Festival, Going Dutch Festival, Women in Dance Leadership Conference, and World Dance Alliance. Her work won the Laureate and Grand Prix at the Seventh International Competition: Festival of Choreographic Collectives in Moscow. Her dance “Wreath of Memories” was performed by special invitation at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She has also presented her work in Tanzania, France, Germany, Newfoundland, Belgium and throughout the United States at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts in Chicago, The Union Theater in Madison, Wisc., in St. Louis, Kansas City and Sacramento. Her work has been regularly selected for the gala concerts at the American College Dance Association regional festivals. She performed and choreographed professionally with Dale Scholl’s Dance/Art in Sacramento and taught for the Sacramento Ballet.
Danielle Gilmore and Melissa Pillarella are Chicago based artists, trained and mentored under the direction of Shirley Mordine since 2011. Gilmore is originally from Yuma, AZ, attended the University of Arizona, receiving her BFA. Pillarella originally from Chicago, IL, received her BFA from the University Illinois. Gilmore and Pillarella have performed at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Columbia College, Smart Museum, Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Link’s Hall, Stage 773, Hamlin Park, and See Chicago Dance with Mordine and Company Dance Theater. Gilmore and Pillarella first premiered choreography in 2018 as part of Mordine’s Mentoring Project and have continued to create separately and collaboratively. In 2019, “To: and From:” a duet created by Gilmore and Pillarella in collaboration with Mordine, premiered for Mordine and Company Dance Theater’s 50th Season. Since then, Gilmore and Pillarella have toured in throughout the Midwest and performed in Death’s Door Dance Festival, Cleveland Dance Festival and Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival. As part of the Mordine Legacy Project they are working to preserve performance and repertoire of Shirley Mordine and Mordine & Company Dance Theater.
Program Note: “To: and From:” is a duet created by using the original source material of Shirley Mordine solo, “Letters to my Son”, 1979.
Isabella Saldana is a Chicago-based dancer, choreographer, and educator. She earned her BFA in Dance, following a Pre-Physical Therapy track at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Isabella has trained in a variety of techniques such as modern, Umfundalai, contemporary, ballet, pointe, and ballroom and has had the honor to perform in works by Bevara Anderson, Abby Williams Chin, Anna Rogovoy, Ty Lewis, and Sojung Lim. This concert marks her first professional choreographic debut! Isabella plans to continue choreographing, performing, and teaching dance prior to returning to graduate school to earn her DPT.
Program B:
Alexandria “Alex” Kinard (she/her) is a dance artist, choreographer, and teacher from Louisville, Ky . Alex holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UofI), where she also obtained her 200hr Yoga teacher certification. During her time at UofI, she has performed in works by Donald Byrd, Endalyn Taylor, Dr. Curtis Kemal Nance, Linda Lehovec, Danzel Thompson Stout, and Bevara Anderson. Alex has been an apprentice with Parsons Dance Company, a second company member at Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, a Mark Morris Company Shadow, a mentee with Camille A Brown, and is currently in her second season as a touring company member with Red Clay Dance Company. As a choreographer, Alex has presented works for various showcases in Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL, and Urbana, IL. Most recently Alex was selected as an emerging choreographer for the 2024 Trifecta Dance Collective’s Emerging Choreographers showcase in Chicago, IL.
Program Note: This solo made in reverence to my first dance teacher Lanita Neil who has made the transition to become an ancestor. Without her, I wouldn’t be the dancer or person that I am today. I can succeed because of the many life lessons she granted me. I want to honor her legacy and what she was able to do for so many black girls from Louisville, KY who grew up to be professional dancers, teachers, nurses, veterans, and etc. We are who we are because of what she was….. elegant, proud, confident, loud, opinionated, and passionate.
Kaleigh Dent is a first year Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2020, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. She has danced for companies such as Joel Hall Dancers, Still Inspired, and LOUD BODIES; and was a Company Member and Rehearsal Director for Identity Performing Arts. Her choreography has been in various Chicago-based dance shows through her company Rivet Dance Company (2020).
Johannah Wininsky, Christine Betsill, and Alyssa Motter are dedicated dance artists and educators with a shared passion for interdisciplinary dance practices. Johannah Wininsky, a nationally recognized educator and 2018 SHAPE America National Dance Teacher of the Year, is a faculty member at New Trier High School, where she teaches choreography, dance techniques and facilitates collaborative performance opportunities for her students. She co-founded the modern dance company Thread Meddle Outfit with Christine Betsill, a dancer, singer, Alexander Technique teacher and licensed counselor who blends her artistic practice with therapeutic and somatic approaches. Christine taught in the dance department of Columbia College Chicago and has presented her work domestically and abroad. Alyssa Motter is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Theater at Northwestern University. Her research spans studying identity through embodied methods and integrating movement into science learning. Together, they are committed to fostering creativity, collaboration, and cultural humility through their multifaceted work in the dance community and beyond. Ms. Betsill, Ms. Motter, and Ms. Wininsky have collaborated on creative projects together since 2001
Skylar Males was born and raised in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she received her BFA in Dance. Skylar dedicated herself to community engagement, working as a Teaching Artist for The Joffrey Ballet for five years. Later, Skylar joined Red Clay Dance Company, serving as a Teaching Artist while immersed in DEI training. Skylar’s passion for choreography has spanned more than a decade, As CEO of Nexus, Skylar continues choreographing original works while advocating for the inclusion of diverse representation in the performing arts. Skylar champions Nexus’ mission through promoting social change and bridging the gap between strategically undervalued artists and the performing arts industry.
Anna Sapozhnikov is a teacher, choreographer, and performer with roots based in Chicagoland. As an educator, Anna is proud to have started the dance program at York High School in Elmhurst, Illinois. She is currently Senior Assistant Head of Program Administration & Engagement in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Anna is the founder and artistic director of MOYAMO DANCE as well as co-director of the duet collective she shares with Erika Randall, Sweetie Pie Productions. Her choreography has been produced in various venues throughout the midwest and New York. She is the recipient of numerous grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, was a Chicago Dancemakers Forum DanceChance awardee, and most recently worked with Hedwig Dances. Anna enjoys being a frequent collaborator and performer with Sara Hook Dances, David Parker and the Bang Group, and Rebecca Nettl-Fiol.
Bevara Anderson is a professional dance artist from the Maryland coast. Ms. Anderson is an Assistant Professor at Columbia College Chicago and focuses on the embodied research that lives within Umfundalai, house footwork, Horton, contemporary ballet, improvisation, and many other contemporary movement styles. Anderson is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Performing Arts. She received her BFA from Temple University. While studying at Temple, she presented her first work at the Piazza Del Popolo in Rome, Italy. A founding member of the Katherine Smith Dance Ensemble, Anderson performed with Kariamu & Company: Traditions from 2014 to 2019. Bevara is one of the final generation of dancers to study under the direct tutelage of the late Dr. Kariamu Welsh, and holds this feat with pride as she continues to share Dr. Welsh’s technique, Umfundalai, as a certified professional teacher. Anderson holds an MFA in dance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She now presents work with her project based company BĀLA Dance Project. The company’s premiere was in March 2022 at the Tyron Festival Theater. Since then, the company has presented a feature length dance film entitled A Balm of Joy: The Film.
Program Note: This work is in search of understanding the power of covering. What it means to exist in this world and be covered, prayed for, talked into rooms one has yet to enter. What it feels like to understand how spirit, God, your praying grandmother is fighting battles for you that you may never know…