Hedwig Dances choreographer and artistic director Jan Bartoszek has taken the company's reputation as an interdisciplinary creative force to new heights in her latest collaborative work. Futura applies principles of the Bauhaus modernist art movement to dance. In this new work, Ms. Bartoszek explores how dance shapes, and is shaped by, society, art, architecture, and design in the 21st century. Futura focuses on space, particularly the ideas of confinement and freedom.
Futura premieres Thursday — Saturday, November 1-3, 2018 at 7:30 PM at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, 1306 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois as part of The Dance Center's 2018-19 dance series. The work has already been tapped to be performed in Dessau Germany in September 2019 on the occasion of the Bauhaus Centennial in that city. Tickets are $24 - $30 and are available online at the Dance Center box office, by phone at 312-369-8330 and online at the Dance Center's revamped website, dance.colum.edu .
Additional events include a Post Performance Conversation on Thursday, November 1, immediately following the performance in the theater and a Pre Performance Talk: Friday, November 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Sherwood Community Music School Recital Hall, 1312 Michigan Avenue. Hedwig Dances will host the BAUHAUS BASH, a closing night fundraiser at PianoForte, 1335 S. Michigan, on Saturday November 3rd, following the final performance. Proceeds from the event will help finance the company's international tour of this work next fall. BAUHAUS BASH ticket prices begin at $175 and include a ticket to that evening's dance performance. Advance ticket purchase is required for this special event at EVENTBRITE
In Futura, Bartoszek applies core Bauhaus principles such as abstraction, playful thinking, and experimentation to the development of choreography and production elements, the use of 21st century media, and the ways in which performers interact with the audience. Through playful experimentation with her dancers and collaborators, Ms. Bartoszek builds a novel and richly theatrical movement playground threaded with an evocative musical score and a vibrant, colorful visual design.
The dance draws upon Ms. Bartoszek's recent research trip to Germany where she visited the three original sites of the Bauhaus School in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. During her travels, she met with historians, researchers, educators, and presenters related to the living Bauhaus movement. Notably, her ongoing discussion with Torsten Blume of Bauhaus Dessau led to an invitation to Hedwig Dances to perform Futura in Germany at the September 2019 celebration of the Bauhaus Centenary in Dessau. Further, they invited Dean Denis Weil of IIT Institute of Design ( ID ) to engage a group of students and faculty to create a prologue for the dance. ID was founded 80 years ago in Chicago as the New Bauhaus by LászlÃ" Moholy-Nagy, one of the original Bauhaus masters. This collaboration represents the first such collaborative effort between the two institutions.
In the creation of this prologue, Bartoszek and Torsten Blume of Bauhaus Dessau worked alongside ID faculty member Jeffrey Mau who led strategy and acted as prologue project lead/producer, Jason White of Leviathan who serves as creative director, and several ID students . Weil, Blume and Bartoszek all see this as an exciting way to deepen connections among these Bauhaus centers and explore the varied directions they have taken since their inceptions. They see the joint anniversary celebrations of 80 years for ID and 100 years for Bauhaus in Germany as the perfect vehicle for celebrating their roots and the international impact of Bauhaus design principles in the world.
FUTURA PROFILES
HEDWIG DANCES
MISSION: Hedwig Dances creates, performs, and cultivates contemporary dance theater within communities of audiences, dancers, and artists with the goal of provoking human connection and wonder. To achieve this, Hedwig works in collaboration with prominent artists from a variety of mediums and cultural backgrounds, trains and mentors dance artists, and creates corporeal works of emotional insight and beauty — engaging its communities in a process of artistic creation and reflection.
Hedwig Dances is a contemporary dance theater ensemble celebrating 33 years under the artistic direction of its Founder, Jan Bartoszek. In-Residence at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Hedwig Dances' bold, interdisciplinary collaborations combine poetic choreography with sculptural artifacts, projected images and haunting original music. The Company is named in honor of Ms. Bartoszek's grandmother. The critically acclaimed and award-winning dance ensemble has presented over 1,500 performances at prestigious national and international venues. The Company has twice performed in exclusive performances at Joyce SoHo ( New York City ). Additional engagements include Teatro Nacional De Cuba Sala Avellaneda ( Havana, Cuba ), Teatro Diana ( Guadalajara, Mexico ), Grace Street Theater ( Richmond, Virginia ), Margaret H'Doubler Performance Space ( Madison, Wisconsin ), Lee Theater ( Spring to Dance Festival, St. Louis, Missouri ), among myriad other performance residencies and outreach programs over the past three decades. Hedwig Dances and its associated artists have been honored with two Ruth Page Awards and a Chicago Dance Award. For 20 years ( 1992 — 2011 ), Hedwig Dances served as the Dance Company-In-Residence at the Chicago Cultural Center under the visionary leadership and invitation of the late Lois Weisberg ( Commissioner, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, 1989-2011 ).
IIT Institute of Design ( ID )
Founded 80 years ago in Chicago as the New Bauhaus by LászlÃ" Moholy-Nagy, in order to "ensur[e] … society has access to the maximum use of constructive abilities for its benefit," IIT Institute of Design ( ID ) is the sole graduate-only professional design school in North America. Grounded in human-centered design and systems thinking, ID offers leading Master's and PhD programs in design and design-driven innovation. ID develops pioneering thinkers and interdisciplinary problem solvers who navigate and facilitate change across complex systems.
JAN BARTOSZEK ( Choreographer ) fosters a spirit of collaboration with other artists, merging choreography, objects, media, text, and music to create dances that resonate with complexity and depth. Her central pursuit as a dance artist is how the body expresses truths about the human experience beyond words. These concerns led her to research dance from a cultural and world dance perspective.
Ms. Bartoszek has created more than 65 dances. These dances have been presented in national performance venues and internationally in Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, and Canada. Her choreography credits include work for theater ( Steppenwolf, Northlight, Live Bait and Court theaters as well as choreographing and assisting in work by director Ping Chong ), film ( Arch of Repose, the dance film she created with her CDF Lab Artist Award, received a 2016 Emmy nomination ); and, opera ( Dead Birds: A War Ritual with composer William Harper and director D.W. Moffet ). She has garnered numerous choreography fellowships, including one from the National Endowment for the Arts and eight from the Illinois Arts Council. She was one of 12 Chicago dance artists selected by a national panel to participate in the 2016-2017 Regional Dance Development Initiative sponsored by the New England Foundation for the Arts, the National Dance Project, and the Chicago Dancemakers Forum ( CDF ). In 2014, she received a National Performance Network Creation Fund Grant to develop and tour Trade Winds, a dance collaboration between Hedwig Dances and the Havana-based dance company, DanzAbierta. She has led four dance tours to Cuba and one to Germany.
TORSTEN BLUME ( Prologue Design ) studied art sciences and art at the University of Leipzig. Since 1994, he is an academic and artistic staff member and curator at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. He has curated several Bauhaus exhibitions, like "Bauhaus experience Dessau" ( Tokyo, 2008-2009 ), "Bauhaus Taste. Bauhaus Kitchen" ( Tokyo, 2010, "Human Space Machine. Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus" ( Dessau, Oslo, Seoul 2013-2015 ), and "Big plans! Modern Types, Fantasts and Inventors in Saxony-Anhalat 1919-1933" ( Dessau, Magdeburg, Halle ). Since 2007, he has been especially working on the project "Play Bauhaus," with dance and movement installations, design and performance workshops, and exhibitions ( Prague Quadrennial 2011, Barbican Centre London, Taipei Arts Festival 2012 ). The interconnecting theme is to regard, reflect and readdress the stage as a specific media of design and playful design education based on performing arts. The goal is to bring in playful applied research of the Bauhaus stage perspective of performative architectonics up to date as a format of experimentation and unique performative education in architecture, design and visual arts. Therefore he is establishing an international network of universities and schools regarding updating the Bauhaus stage pedagogy in today's perspective.
SANJA MANAKOSKI ( Costume Designer ) earned her Bachelor's Degree in Costume and Fashion Design from University of Applied Arts and Design in Belgrade, and her Master of Fine Arts in Stage Design from Northwestern University. Before relocating to Chicago, Sanja worked on several theatre and movie productions in Europe such as November Man, In Secret, Chernobyl Diaries, and Panama. She is one of the creators of the fashion label KLASA, which received numerous awards on the fashion runaway in Belgrade. Sanja's costume design for the musical Hair received the ULUPUDS award for Outstanding Costume Design, and was exhibited in the Prague Quadrennial 2015. Sanja teaches costume and make-up design at Northwestern University. Previous designs include: Quixote on the Conquest of Self ( directed by Claudio Valdes Curi ) at Writers Theatre, White ( directed by Tasia Jones ), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ( directed by Matt Hawkins ), Middletown ( directed by Sonny Das ), The Great Gatsby ( directed by Michael Cotey ), Fuente Ovejuna ( directed by Susan Bowen ), and Danceworks 2017 ( choreography by Onye Ozuzu ) at Northwestern University.
JEFFERY MAU ( Prologue Designer/Project Manager ) blends business strategy and experience design to transform complex systems into easy-to-use solutions to drive business growth and customer engagement. He has advised leading companies around the world in the mobile, public transportation, consumer packaged goods, agriculture and telecommunications industries. Clients include: Digitas, Leo Burnett, SapientRazorfish, Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation, Altria, BlackRock, Dow, Whirlpool, MillerCoors, Emerson, Lexmark, Samsung, Disney, Merrill Lynch, Target, John Deere, AT&T, Vodafone and Sprint. Jeff holds a Master of Design Methods degree from the IIT Institute of Design, widely recognized as a top program in Innovation and Strategy. He holds a BFA in Photography and Design from Kansas City Art Institute. Active in educating the next generation, Jeff teaches courses in innovation at the IIT Institute of Design. Originally founded as the New Bauhaus in Chicago, ID combines strategic design thinking with studies traditionally found in business school. Additionally, he has taught in the Graduate MFA in Design program at the California College of the Arts and the Masters of Business Innovation program at CEDIM in Mexico.
JASON WHITE ( Prologue Designer/Video Designer ) has always been passionate about creating artful experiences through design and technology; that passion is what drove him to invent Leviathan, a band of inspired minds intent upon shaping the future. This group's combined artistry illuminates souls, engages audiences in ingenious, sublimely interactive ways, and sets stylish spaces aglow.
Leviathan's projects have gained international acclaim through some of the world's most prestigious media outlets, including The Creators Project, Communication Arts, Motionographer, Stash, The Verge and Wired. The business is built upon solid leadership, respect, a tightly integrated network of individuals with diverse talents... and always, unbridled passion for technology and design. The company's patent expertise has enabled it to dream up and execute new ideas for Nike, Google, Microsoft, Disney, and The Art Institute of Chicago, among many other world-leading businesses and institutions. Leveraging these experiences, Jason proudly takes on the role of sharing his work and career advice with audiences as a keynote speaker at prominent conferences and colleges, and as an adjunct professor.
RICHARD WOODBURY ( Composer/Sound Designer ) works in theater, dance, and media arts. His career has spanned a wide variety of musical endeavors including, in his teens, a rock band in Pakistan; jazz bands, new music ensembles, and forays into electronic music while in college in Minnesota; over a decade as a dance accompanist; and over 30 years as a Chicago-based composer and sound designer for theatre and dance. From 1985 to 2014, Richard served as Music Director and Associate Chair at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago where he was an Associate Professor and "Distinguished Faculty Artist." Richard has composed numerous scores for dance including live performances with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Additionally, he has collaborated with a number of leading choreographers including Jan Bartoszek of Hedwig Dances, Carrie Hanson of The Seldoms, Lar Lubovitch of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Shirley Mordine of Mordine & Company Dance Theatre. In recognition for his work in dance, Richard has received a Ruth Page Award for "Outstanding Collaborative Artist."
