Wednesday, June 8 / $10
7 PM | Doors open
7:30 PM | Guided tours begin
8 PM | Movement installation begins
High Concept Labs at Mana Contemporary Chicago
2233 S Throops St, 6th floor, Chicago, IL
Chicago-based Japanese dancer/choreographer and High Concept Labs Sponsored Artist Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape (AUH), presents "What Is Movement?" exhibition/installation on Wednesday, June 8, 2016 at High Concept Labs. As the recipient of “Best of Dance 2014” by the Chicago Tribune, dancer and choreographer Ayako Kato has been producing high-quality experimental works since 1998 in the United States, Japan and Europe.
This time, Ayako conducts a dance-based inquiry into movement and stillness with dance artists Jessica Cornish, Corinne Imberski, Nora Sharp, and “What Is Movement?” workshop participants/casts. The project proposes a perpetual question and exhibits the states of unity and eternity residing in our ephemeral being.
"What Is Movement?" will use the entirety of the open 6th floor of Mana Contemporary Chicago, creating an exhibition/installation space for the audience to stroll around, interact with, and observe the experiments.
The work fosters perception of that which emerges between the body and the environment through the interplay of dynamics. The experiments of "What Is Movement?" rediscover the value of life in motion and capture intangible transformative states of being.
"What is Movement?" is supported in part by Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW) AA Arts Incubator Program.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
AYAKO KATO is an award-winning Japanese native and Chicago based dancer, choreographer, improviser, teacher, and curator. Since 1998, she has been an artistic director of Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape (AUH) and has presented and performed her works extensively in the United States, Japan, and Europe. Recent venues/festivals include 3Klang Tage, Zug, Switzerland; DOEK, Amsterdam, Holland; the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, New Haven, CT; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; SpinOff Festival at the Chicago Cultural Center. In January 2016, the New England Foundation for the Arts, together with the Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF), selected Kato as one of 12 artists for the Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI) of its National Dance Project (NDP). Kato's group work, “The Incidents,” received one of ten Best of Dance 2014 in the Chicago Tribune. Please check her experiential "blue fish festival" in July as a part of Night Out In the Parks (NOIP). www.artunionhumanscape.net
CORINNE IMBERSKI is a Chicago based dance educator, performer, and choreographer. Corinne has been on the dance faculty at Northwestern University, Hillsdale College, the University of Toledo, Paul Taylor Summer Intensive in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Summer Dance Institute at the University of Michigan. Corinne has danced and presented her choreography on many stages around the world—grand, small, and impromptu. Currently, Corinne is a faculty member of Columbia College Chicago, stages and dances in her own works, and performs with RE|Dance Group.
JESSICA CORNISH is a dance artist born and raised in Pakistan who studied at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign to specialize in the art of dance improvisation. Since graduating in 2012, Cornish has shown work in China, Mongolia, India, Berlin, Amsterdam, Italy and Chile. Cornish has been awarded numerous grants and residencies such as; the Freeman Foundation Theatre Award for a cultural performance exchange, Beverly Blossom Award, Guest Artist in residence at UIUC, Beverly Blossom Alumni Award, LinkUp Artist Residency, PLACE residency, Residency at Krannert Center for Performing Arts at the University of Illinois as an emerging artist, and was most recently selected as one of 12 dance artists in the Chicago area to participate in the Regional Dance Development Initiative programmed by Chicago Dancemakers Forum, and was awarded a Ragdale residency in the fall with the first ever Sybil Shearer Fellowship.Jessicacornish.com
NORA SHARP is from Chicago. She grew up studying classical music, discovered movement as a student of capoeira angola and somatics at Oberlin College, and has since trained in diverse contemporary dance forms in Seattle, Chicago, and the Bay Area. Nora organizes & curates Research Project, a quarterly works-in-progress series at OuterSpace Studios, and in summer 2016 will be organizing Technique Together, a dance class series that seeks to find community in the shared experience of technique training. She has been an artist in residence at High Concept Laboratories as part of Vaudeo Motion, and has also worked with Jane Jerardi, Kirsten Leenaars, The Space Movement Project, and Odradek Theatre, among other collaborations. She will be presenting new work at Links Hall in September 2016 on a split bill with Haydée Souffrant.
ABOUT HIGH CONCEPT LABS
High Concept Labs (HCL) supports artists and facilitates dialogue between artists, audiences, and staff. This increases access and transparency to the artistic process and fosters transformational experiences in an environment of experimentation and discovery. highconceptlabs.org
HCL is supported in part by the generosity of MANA Contemporary Chicago, the Chicago Community Trust, the MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Norwottock Charitable Trust, The Samuel J. Baskin Charitable Trust, The Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation, and individual donors.
