Saturday, October 12, 2019 · 12:00 PM CDT
4545 N Lincoln Ave · The Myron R. Szold Music & Dance Hall · 773.728.6000
Chicago Dancemakers Forum is the only organization in the city dedicated solely to nurturing the artistic advancement of dancemakers. The Greenhouse program stimulates artistic growth and relationship-building for emerging dancemakers by providing $4,000 cash grants along with paid mentorship, rehearsal space, marketing, and group dialogue—to support their creative process as they develop new work over the course of three months. Marceia and Connie will each present an excerpt of their Greenhouse project, followed by a discussion with the audience.
Marceia L. Scruggs is a mover and creator, driven by research in Women's/Gender studies where her dancemaking practice allows for experiential storytelling: raw, energetic, transformative experiences. Her work aims to challenge and interrogate notions of internalized self-hatred, anti-blackness and self-worth and to fully embody and normalize these experiences that constantly shape her and people like her. Marceia's practice focuses on effort in physicality, risk, and musicality. Rebuke It is an ongoing work that investigates language in relation to Black bodies, when it is accepted and when it becomes a barrier to accessing resources in other spaces. Code-switching, repressed trauma and its translation to self-urgency, and exoticism of the black body are examined through a series of connective interludes.
Connie Shiau was born in Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A., and raised in Tainan, Taiwan. She moved to the U.S. to further her dance education and pursue a professional dance career at the age of 18. Shiau has worked as a collaborator with an array of choreographers including Kyle Abraham, Helen Simoneau, Rena Butler, Sameena Mitta, Adam Barruch, and Kevin Wynn. She is currently a dancer with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Shiau is a choreographer drawn to the power that movement can bring. To her, it bridges experiences and perspectives, and serves as a connection with her people and her world. Shiau's work sparks curiosity, conversation, questions, and stories. In this solo project, she explores the fluidity, freedom, struggle, and societal expectations of a female in this current political climate.
