Dance Union

By paralleling “video in dance” and “dance in video,” the evening will focus on how both forms can expand their artistic potential of one another. In the post-show dialogue, the members of the audience will be able to hear the inner story of video artist Petra Bachmaier, Luftwerk working with Hedwig Dances and Carl Wiedemann working with BONEdanse about the collaboration process and decision making: namely artistic chemical aspects of working together with dance. Lighting by Francesca Bourgault.

8 pm (door opens at 7:45 pm)
Fasseas White Box Theater @ The Drucker Center, 
Menomonee Club for Boys and Girls map
1535 N. Dayton St. Chicago, IL 60642 
(2 min. walk from CTA Red Line North/Clybourn Sta.)

Tickets: $12 General, $10 Students/Seniors, $20 Tickets for Two (through FanFueled & 7 pairs only!)

Tickets available at the door or  

*Parking is available. Ask Menomonee front desk in case it’s full. Other location will be assigned.

Featured Works:

Space Within (work in progress) by Hedwig Dances

The creative team of sculptor Barbara Cooper, choreographer Jan Bartoszek and  video artist Petra Bachmaier give their second public showing of a work-in-progress entitled Space Within.  Based on the concept of sanctuary, Space Within builds on a primal need in human beings for transcendent space.  Developing upon this idea of inner space, the work explores the dichotomies between folding/unfolding and concealing/revealing. 

Danse Skitz by BONEdanse + A Poetic Improvisation live solo by Atalee Judy

Practicing random acts of dance, BONEdanse created their weekly Summer series of short online videos called Danse Skitz all filmed at site specific locations around Chicago. Committing to a regimen of weekly site specific shoots, the 12 Danse Skitz range from dirty gravel full of bird droppings, to sandy beaches. BONEdanse scoured the city of Chicago for inspiring locations to perform, improvise, and make a tiny little mark that “art was here”. BONEdanse Artistic Director, Atalee Judy reflects, ” I really scaled down the preparation & set-up for each Skitz to give into the fact that when you’re shooting guerrilla style, you just have to make it happen on the fly. I intentionally set myself time limits and kept my expectations low to let those happy accidents, and the stuff out of my control, abound.”

BONEdanse features Danse Skitz performances by Janna Barta, Anita Fillmore, Atalee Judy & Mindy Meyers. 

To view all the 12 Danse Skitz go to www.bonedanse.com or our YouTube Video Channel at: youtube.com/ataleebreakbone

Company/Artist Bios:

HEDWIG DANCES is a contemporary dance theater ensemble celebrating its 27th year under the artistic direction of its founder, award-winning choreographer Jan Bartoszek. Named after Ms. Bartoszek’s paternal grandmother, Hedwig Dances’ bold, interdisciplinary collaborations combine poetic choreography with sculptural artifacts, projected images and haunting original music. The resulting dances resonate with complexity and depth and provoke emotion, connection and wonder.  As the dance company-in-residence at the Chicago Cultural Center, Hedwig Dances reaches out into the community through public performances, collaborations and dance education.  www.HedwigDances.Org  

Jan Bartoszek is the founder and artistic director of Hedwig Dances.  Her artistic credentials include eight choreography fellowships from the Illinis Arts Council and one from the NEA, decades of creating high quality dance, mentoring of numerous artists and a leadership role in making dance a vital force at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Barbara Cooper works fluidly between sculpture and drawing.  She received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.  Cooper recently completed public art commissions for the Avalon Library in Chicago and the Chicago Transit Administration, and the Rhode Island Airport in Providence. A Chicago resident, Cooper has received three Illinois Arts Council Fellowships.

Petra Poul Bachmaier and her husband Sean Gallero formed their company luftwerk to envision and create multi-sensory video and projection experiences.  They engage in designing environments that allow for video imagery to become sculptural, and in transforming a space into a moving canvas of fleeting images, where internal realities and external fields playfully overlap.  Ms. Bachmaier graduated with a BFA in performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received her MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany.

 BONEdanse is an experimental dance company based in Chicago who creates challenging and stimulating dance theater that excavates the tropes found within the human experience. Founded in 1997, BONEdanse (AKA Breakbone DanceCo) is celebrating 14 years of their highly theatrical multimedia works that make strong statements which challenge those who perceive dance as an aesthetic reprieve to one of a powerful reactionary movement rebellion. With a BA in Dance Performance & Choreography with Honors in Outstanding Achievement from Columbia College Chicago, founder/artistic director Atalee Judy  is recognized for bold, unconventional works charged with a punk rock intensity and an honest use of gravity. She is the recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Grant, the Chicago Dance Music Alliance’s Elizabeth F. Cheney Dance Achievement Award, and since 2003, she has served as an Artist-in-Residence with The Chicago Moving Company at Hamlin Park. She has toured extensively in the US as well as internationally to Europe, Russia, Canada & Mexico. 

Dance Union is supported in part by Menomonee Club for Boys and Girls and Puffin Foundation.

Photo: Hedwig Dances by Jan Bartoszek, BONEdanse by Chrystyne