2022 Residency Participants
Leana Allen is a dance and film artist with interests in styling. Leana comes from a large family residing in Southwest Michigan (Cassopolis/Dowagiac). A few things that are central to her work are her personal meditation and spiritual practices, authentic movement, and continued studies of the philosophy of yoga. Leana continues to practice art making to stay sensitive, investigative, and to stand in the right relationship with herself and other beings in the world. She is interested in telling the story of parenting children under 3 during the pandemic. Leana’s hope is to capture a dance film that is relatable to viewers and investigates dance as a healing practice.
Emma L Barnhart is a dancer/choreographer/performer from and based in Chicago, IL. She currently dances with Noumenon Dance Ensemble and Dollop Dance Theater, where she is also Managing Director. Emma graduated Hope College Summa Cum Laude in 2021 with a BA in double majors Dance Performance and Choreography and Sociology. At Hope, Emma was a member of the H2 Dance Company, a member of Strike Time Dance Theater. Emma also performed and choreographed for Student Dance Showcase each semester, and was co-director of Hope’s Ballet Club, which produces a ballet each spring. Before college, she danced with Joffrey CE’s Exelon Strobel Step-Up Program and at the Chicago Ballet Center, and she sang with various choirs and played and performed guitar. Emma is planning on creating a project that explores the space, light, and weight of a particular set of stairs she has spent years and years and years with. She is excited to learn more about technical equipment and photography/videography, and to connect with and learn from others in such a way that inspires and uplifts us all.
Brandon K. Calhoun (director, writer, editor, animator) is a Chicago footwork dancer, dance educator and filmmaker. As a filmmaker, Brandon’s direction and hand-drawn animations accentuate footwork’s rhythms and phrases, revealing dance as a visual language. His animations drive the recent projection, Footnotes, a video made for large scale display on the facade of the Merchandise Mart (theMart) in Chicago. As a dance filmmaker, Brandon has produced and edited dozens of short videos for Chicago Dancemakers Forum, beginning in 2017. His dance films and videos have screened at the Chicago Cultural Center, University of Chicago, Theaster Gates’ Stony Island Arts Bank and other respected venues. A cultural organizer and multidisciplinary artist, Brandon also performs poetry and footwork in an award-winning new multimedia footwork performance by The Era, In the Wurkz, touring to Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the Walker Art Center Minneapolis in 2021. Brandon is interested in crafting a Toe to Toe dance sequence within a short film that is about a group of Chicago Footworkers trying to stay connected through music and dance in a time where they become disconnected. It explores confusion for dancers and ways to problem solve.
Corinne Imberski is a Chicago based dance performer, choreographer, and improviser. As an independent dance artist, she has presented solo and ensemble works for over thirty years, at venues grand, small, digital, and impromptu. Recent works include the shadow comforts the body, a duet created as a Links Hall Co-MISSION Summer Residency recipient, and later re-created as a dance for camera project in June 2021 as part of Chicago Takes Ten. In April 2020, she began the dance for camera project Roof Series 2020-2021 in response to life in quarantine and crisis. She is a recipient of the 2020 Meier Achievement Award, and was nominated as “Best Dancer” and “Best Choreographer” in the 2021 Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago poll. In addition to presenting her own work, she is also a member of RE|dance group, and performs and collaborates with Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape. Corinne will create a dance for camera project that draws its inspiration from Olga Tokarczuk’s short story The Lost Soul, a modern parable about the possible consequences of living in a fast-paced world—including the loss of one’s soul/essence. This will be a project for a solo dancer, moving to an original musical score, and will detail the reconciling of opposing forces in an effort to find balance, resiliency, and stillness.
Shalaka Kulkarni started in dance as a child in her native India, where she studied and continues studying Bharatnatyam and Kathak. Her practice intersects Indian Classical dance with other forms, text and technology. Her interest is in creating a hybrid form of Indian Classical dance that fuses Bharatnatyam & Kathak. Shalaka is exploring female identity and erased narratives, both in Western and Indian cultures. She holds an MFA in Arts and Media from Columbia College Chicago. In 2022, Shalaka is commissioned by MOMENTA Dance Company to set an original work, is resident artist with Mandala South Asian Performing Arts with support from Illinois Arts Council and is a 2022 artist in residence with High Concept Labs. In her current project, she aims to illuminate the undocumented history of Indian Classical dance forms she discerns in the broader Indian culture, and share a personal experience of life in the Indian diaspora. Structured around the word ‘wearing ethnicity’ the project for dance for camera residency will focus on creating a representation of a mythical goddess derived from Indian culture and her meeting with a fictionalized depiction of a dancer trapped in the legally abolished but still active devadasi system. She is also interested in using camera to learn other ways to further her exploration of a hybrid form of Indian Classical Dance forms.
Cat Mahari’s practice is built from a richly layered body history, stemming from an archive of research, physical training and intent to manifest an intellectual, material and informal legacy of liberation through documentation. By examining personal marks and socio-genealogical maps, she explores inner and outer environments. Her upcoming film Sugar in the Raw is an exploration of Black intimacy, trust, and touch. In 2021 she was named the City of Chicago Esteemed Artist Awardee in Dance and a 2021 3Arts award in dance. Her post-disciplinary work, the mixtape series violent/break vol i and vol ii, has received national and international development support at Brink Festival (London), High Concept Labs (Chicago), and Imir Scene Kunst in Norway. Mahari is a culture bearer of Hip Hop and House; former member of the Krump family Gool, with a BFA in dance performance from UMKC and MA in performance, practice, and research from RCCSD. Mahari says; Sadness, joy doesn’t end, like energy, emotions move through us, and so in what ways can Black male caretakers get on in the absurdity of this world? Inspired by Jared Sexton’s Black Masculinity and the Cinema of Policing, the poesis in the lens of Ming Smith, the strengths of Franz Fanon and Dr. Bill Johnson... This untitled project is an investigative character study for a future full-length work.
Brian Martinez received his BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from The University of Southern Mississippi, where he also performed as a guest artist with Hub Dance Collective. After graduating in 2019, Brian moved to Chicago to further his training with Hubbard Street's Professional Program. Brian has been a company dancer with PARA.MAR Dance Theatre since 2020, and he has had the opportunity to create films for Chicago’s New Dances and New York’s Future Dance Festival; and stage works for performing arts schools and university programs as well. Brian’s artistry utilizes the creation of choreography and cinematography using contemporary and modern movement vernacular to explore facets of the human mind and the way it functions, especially in regard to dreaming, waking, and the space and time between dreams. He is inspired to present a new dance film with the core of his work grounded in the shared human experience.
Amanda Ramirez is a dancer, movement director and choreographer from El Paso, TX and has lived in Chicago for 7 years. Ramirez is a graduate of Texas Tech University, and is currently a company member with modern and contemporary dance companies, VADCO and Synapse Arts. Amanda has performed professionally throughout the country spanning from theatre, modern-contemporary dance and improvisation. Since 2016.She is a choreographic grant recipient of Cliff Dwellers and a recipient of several choreographic residencies including Links Hall CO-Missions, Chicago Cultural Center Artist in Residency, Keshet Makers Experience, and more. In 2021, she began her certification in Intimacy Direction & Coordination for theatre & film with IDC Professionals. "Tierra" is a dance film that follows a Mexican American woman experiencing a surreal, ancestral journey in the desert. The film will incorporate modern and traditional Mexican dance styles alongside varied lighting sources to visually represent the following theme: When we face sorrow and uncertainty or lose our sense of self, we always have our land, culture, ancestors & roots to return to. My goal is to collaborate with like-minded artists to create a powerful, evocative dance film that can connect to the Mexican American experience.
Michelle Reid graduated from The Ohio State University in the Spring of 2013 receiving her BFA in Dance. In addition to her dance studies, she spent two semesters learning dance for camera which served as the catalyst for her journey in photography. After graduating, Michelle moved to Chicago to pursue a career in dance. Since then she has performed with Joel Hall Dancers, Aerial Dance Chicago, Lyric Opera, Banks Performance Project, Winifred Haun and Dancers, and Brendan Fernandes. In 2016, Michelle began her journey as a photographer with a focus on dance portraiture and events. She has photographed for various companies in Chicago and nationwide such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Visceral Dance Chicago, Satellite Dance (Nashville), and Ruth Page. Michelle has recently begun to explore dance for camera again after a commission from Banks Performance Project for their “Fall Film Series,” as well as a film collaboration with Symbiosis Arts. Michelle is planning to create a film that will utilize techniques involving color, texture, and sound to explore the viewpoint of an individual who suffers with psychological disorders. During her time in this residency she is looking forward to gaining new skills and knowledge that will enhance her video production skills.
Alexandra Webb is a freelance dancer, teacher, and filmmaker based in Chicago. She is originally from Fayetteville, AR where she began her dance training in an afternoon school program. She went on to attend UNCSA, studying ballet in high school, under the direction of Susan Jaffe. Alex also attended the University of Oklahoma before spending time at the Tulsa Ballet studying with Wang Yi. She then made her move to Chicago, participating in HSPro under Alexandra Wells. During her time at HSPro, Alex learned from teachers and artists such as Peter Chu, Jenna Pollack, and Meredith Dincolo, as well as many others. After graduating, Alex has performed in New Dances 2020 and has presented video works at Dance Chance. She has performed as a founding member of house of dov and as a guest artist with TGDC. Alexandra’s goals for this residency are to expand her knowledge base around filmmaking in order to grow her abilities as a dance filmmaker. She is excited to explore the possibilities the camera has for dance and to push the boundaries of storytelling through movement and sound.
2022 Mentors
David “Enki” Andrews creates art inspired by complex systems. Based in Chicago, he is a multimedia interactive artist experimenting with physical phenomena to discover how humanity views itself in light of our finite human perceptions and how expanding those reflections enhances our self awareness. He studied Physics and Philosophy at Boston University. Initially inspired by “technology” artists like Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Stieglitz, Chuck Close, and United Visual Artists; Enki began working as a photographer in 2000. In 2010, he started exploring video, time-based photographic progressions, and interactive media arts. His work has been seen at New York Figment, Nuit Blanche New York, Mexico’s Monitor Digital Festival, and the Flint Public Art Project (collaborative works with Chris Jordan). His current year-long art project in collaboration with choreographer and dance artist Nejla Yatkin is titled Dancing Around the World.
Millicent Marie Johnnie is a two-time United States Artists nominee in dance. Former Assoc. Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women, she has worked to bring together her diverse experiences in theater and dance into the music industry. After choreographing “Thoughts of a Colored Man” (Syracuse Stage, Baltimore Center Stage), Johnnie received her MFA in film with a specialization in producing and story development. Johnnie’s NEFA National Dance Project “Bamboula: Musicians’ Brew” inspired her short film “Bamboula is Not Bamboozled.” With significant contribution from the National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago, she developed/produced “La DiaBlesse Curse.” Both toured the film festival circuit, receiving screenings in South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago. Johnnie's hybrid concert film “Pulling Back the Curtain” was released in 2020, reckoning with the intersection of COVID-19 and systemic oppression.
Jenny Stulberg is an LA-based dance artist, filmmaker, and educator inspired by the symbiotic relationship between dance and film. Drawn to the intimacy of movement within both mediums, her work aims to highlight the idiosyncratic beauty of what it means to be human. In 2014, Jenny co-founded the performance company Simpson/Stulberg Collaborations with Lauren Simpson. Their work was nominated for two Izzie Awards in 2016, and they were artists-in-residence at CounterPulse Theater, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company's CHIME Program. Jenny’s films have earned screenings at several international festivals including San Francisco Dance Film Festival, ADF International Screendance Festival, and Dance Camera West. She is an adjunct professor in the LEAP Program at St. Mary’s College and teaches screendance workshops across the country. Jenny holds an MFA from NYU and a BFA from Western Michigan University.
Nejla Yatkin is a 2018 Drama Desk Award nominee, a 3Arts Award fellow, and a Princess Grace choreography award recipient. Her focus is the role that memory and history play in constructing identity, causing and resolving conflict and transforming cultural tensions into moments of human connection. Nejla danced as a principal with numerous companies in Germany and the U.S. (Cleo Parker Robinson, Dayton Contemporary Dance). In the 1990’s, she worked with leading choreographers Donald McKayle, Eleo Pomare, Anzu Furukawa, Katherine Dunham, Diane McIntyre, and Ron Brown among others. Since 2000, she has choreographed solo dances inspired by great female choreographers. The works have toured nationally and internationally to critical acclaim (Europe, South America, Russia, Taiwan). Since 2001, she has received awards from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the University of Maryland, and the Kennedy Center.
2022 Project Managers
Frank Konrath holds a BA/BS in Communications / Business Administration from Northeastern Illinois University. Frank is a transmedia producer; developing story worlds for multi-platform and multi-medium storytelling. He is also an indie film & podcast producer, cinematographer, and editor (video, photo, and sound). Frank has spent the past six years researching and developing new methods of storytelling, such as applying new media styles, like NFT’s, to benefit creators of all backgrounds. Frank is a forward thinker, and he brings this to his duties with See Chicago Dance to activate and bring the Chicago dance community to the next stage of entertainment.
Surinder Martignetti is See Chicago Dance’s Community Engagement Consultant. She holds a BA in Dance and Theater and a Graduate Diploma in Education from Western Sydney University in Australia. She also holds a Masters Degree in Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management from Columbia College Chicago. Career highlights include the Chicago Dancing Festival, where Surinder served as Interim Executive Director; and Manager of Performance Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Prior to her life as an arts administrator, she enjoyed a career as a dancer, choreographer, and artistic director. Surinder has deep knowledge of the Chicago dance field and has served as part of the See Chicago Dance in various program management capacities since 2013.