Tramp: Dances from Minneapolis

Curated by the Minneapolis-based, Chicago-bred, choreographic duo HIJACK

Brown Bag Lunch
Tramp Aesthetics: Lumping and Splitting a Collection of Minneapolis Choreographers
Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Room 210
1306 S. Michigan Ave.
Monday, February 26, 12noon-1:30pm
Free, bring your lunch

Tramp offers Chicago audiences a diverse collection of independent choreographers from Minneapolis. Sometimes the press, audiences, and funders lump them together. They’ve been called “the edge,” “the weird stuff,” “not ballet,” and “the cool kids.” For this discussion, Tramp dancers will emphasize the differences in their approaches to dance making. Choreographers Karen Sherman, Laurie Van Wieren, HIJACK (Kristin Van Loon & Arwen Wilder), and Morgan Thorson contextualize, in their own words, the work you will see in performance all month.

Brown Bag Lunch
Sleeping on Couches: Grassroots Touring as we have tried it
At Links Hall
Monday March 19, 12noon-1:30pm
FREE - bring your lunch

Emily Johnson and HIJACK (Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder) discuss how to initiate the touring of new performance. How do you start? How does the money work? What are some creative alternatives to paying an agent and hoping? How do you get an audience? Between them, they have performed in Seattle, San Francisco, Nebraska, New York City, Maine, Wisconsin, Chicago, New Orleans, Colorado, Texas, Canada, Japan, Russia, Poland, and all over rural Minnesota. They are interested in furthering Midwest artistic exchange by helping Chicago choreographers tour to Minneapolis.

Photo by Chris McKinley


Public Symposium
Through Different Lenses: Community Analysis, Interpretation, and Action towards Environmental Policy
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.
First Floor Garland Room,
Sunday, March 25, 1-4pm
Free

This symposium complements the multimedia, movement-based performance Heat and Life by Catalyst, which addresses global climate change and its implications. A diversity of voices from forward thinking academics, activists and artists in Chicago discuss the themes, concepts and strategies explored in Catalyst’s performance process. Co-presented by Links Hall and the Department of Cultural Affairs.

Symposium Panel facilitator: Diane Grams, Ph.D.
Diane Grams, Ph.D., is Associate Director of the Cultural Policy Center, University of Chicago. Grams is also a professor in cultural policy and research methods at the Harris Graduate School. She is currently working on a book entitled “Producing Local Color: Ethnic Art Networks in Chicago.” She is a former faculty member of DePaul University and Loyola University, where she won a Schmitt Dissertation Fellowship.

Symposium Panelist Bios:

Knowledgeable on a broad array of sustainability-related topics, Foresight Design Co-founder and Executive Director Peter Nicholson consults on and undertakes forward-thinking design projects for government agencies, institutional nonprofits, and diverse businesses. He also teaches Foresight's Urban Sustainable Design Studio program and moderates panels at the organization's monthly Green Drinks events. www.foresightdesign.org

Since taking the helm of I-Go Car Sharing two years ago, Sharon Feigon has tripled the size of the company and brought in many new partnerships and resources. Previously, Sharon was Center for Neighborhood Technology's Manager of Research and Development where she specialized in innovative solutions to the problems of urban sprawl. www.cnt.org; www.igocars.org

Nance Klehm is a plant ally, seed banker, and animal pal who has been growing and foraging food and medicine on diverse sites in Chicago for 18 years. She founded SalvationJane, an evolving network of earnest, experimental people in the practice of re-connecting self to self, mapping private ways through the public realm, and discovering and nurturing the wild and ourselves within the built environment. www.spontaneousvegetation.net; www.salvationjane.net

Dorian Beuer moved to the Pilsen neighborhood in 2000 and started the Pilsen Green Party, which has worked on various campaigns including workers’ rights, justice for immigrants, and fighting corporate polluters. In November 2004 the Pilsen Greens and many community residents formed the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO) in order to stop sources of pollution from continuing to affect Pilsen and surrounding communities.

Jesse Kharbanda is a Policy Advocate at Environmental Law and Policy Center helping to lead a bi-partisan coalition of farmers, businesses, clean energy groups, and elected officials to pass clean energy legislation in Indiana. Mr. Kharbanda is also involved in crafting and winning support for new clean energy programs in the Farm Bill. www.earthshare-illinois.org/files/illinois/elpcext

Along with her performances this weekend, artist Emily Johnson will participate in the symposium and will discuss the implications of her piece Heat and Life.

Image by Emily Johnson