Ellas Y Yo Mexicanas: Juana Inés [2023]
The second section of Silvita Diaz Brown’s triptych dance work “Ellas y Yo Mexicanas,” this dance portrays the life and character of Baroque Mexican writer and artist Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a protegee woman who became a nun in order to continue deep intellectual studies and create her own body of work in 17th century New Spain.
Silvita Diaz Brown, with her company Sildance/Acro Danza, creates danztheatre pieces about her culture and incorporates her experience with acro yoga into her work. This process took place in Silvita’s residency at the Chicago Cultural Center through Chicago’s DCASE, and premiered through the residency’s work-in-progress June 23rd, 2023.
directed and choreographed by Silvita Diaz Brown
danced by Silvita Diaz Brown, Ileana Nadine Mauricio, Juan Enrique Irizarry, Lydia Jekot, Derek Anthony Quesada
original music by Chromabeats
rehearsal assistance by Roell Schmidt
costumes by Elizabeth Collins and Ariel Arvis
videography by Antonin Lelievre
We Are Collective / the Wolfpack
“CRUDE” [2023]
We Are Collective directors Reign Drop and Nik LaMaack co-choreographed this work addressing oil spills and climate disasters for EXPO Chicago 2023. The work was performed in front of and inspired by Jennifer Wen Ma’s site-specific sculpture “Turn of the Tide” at Navy Pier.
photography by Phylinese Brooks
GROUND UP! performance with the Wolfpack [2023]:
The Wolfpack is an improvisational project directed by Reign Drop in 2022/2023, which performs improvised scores on themes relating to human interconnectedness with natural elements. Many musical scores from the performance feature poetry from the We Are Collective community; our poem “Undone Vessel” written for the show can be read here .
LUCA/Res Communis: ETHOS Episode III [2022]
Led, created, and choreographed by Ayako Kato, ETHOS is a collection of site-specific works that explore the human experience in communion with our natural world.
ETHOS Episode III, which was performed in Palmisano Park in Bridgeport, Chicago for Elevate Chicago Dance 2022, told the history of the park’s land, acknowledged the stewardship of native peoples in the history of our collective existence on the land, acknowledged the role of water in our ecosystem, and reminded us of our collective relationship to all people and life through our common ancestor, LUCA, the cell organism containing the DNA that would develop all life on earth.
photography by Ricardo Adame
choreographed and directed by Ayako Kato
danced by Tuli Bera, Darling Squire, Sophie Allen, Silvita Diaz Brown, Angela Gonroos, Carl Gruby, Lydia Jekot, and Ayako Kato
music, storytelling, and Aztec dance led by Susana Ollin Kuikatl Tekpatzia Bañuelos and Ambrosio Martinez
water acknowledgement and performance by Danielle Gallet
creative process collaboration by Joseph Lefthand
film by Wills Glasspiegel in progress. view preview here
An ongoing improvisational series devised by Cristal Sabbagh, Freedom From & Freedom To brings together musicians and movers from the Chicago and Baltimore areas, who create 10-15 minute sets together by a chance drawing of names
For more information on the series and to view footage of past sets, visit ffftchicago.com
Freedom From & Freedom To
Round 6, December 2021, Elastic Arts
Set 1 with Wannapa P-Eubanks and musicians Michele Blu, Lia Kohl, and Ben Zucker
photography by Ricardo Adame
Round 7, April 2022, Elastic Arts
Set 2 with Harlan Rosan and musicians Ivan Pyzow, Michele Blu, Scott Rubin, and Allen Moore
This independent work is a danztheatre piece choreographed by Federica Cocom. “Trauma” spelled backwards, and also translating “I have art” from her native Italian, “Amu-art” is Federica’s tribute to healing through art from a traumatic childhood. What we worked on for the footage that was filmed and streamed in December 2021 was a series of excerpts of an envisioned full length danztheatre work.
choreographed and directed by Federica Cocom
danced by Tatiana Castañeda, Federica Cocom, Bridget Donovan, Lydia Jekot, and Isabelle Taylor
video by Alejandro Ruiz
lighting by Rene Cocom