Winifred Haun & Dancers was founded in Chicago in the 1990’s by award winning choreographer and dancer, Winifred Haun. In 2001, the Company went on hiatus for several years while Ms. Haun raised her young children. The Company re-located to Oak Park in 2006. In the two decades since its founding, the Company has garnered numerous awards and accolades, including features in the Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, WTTW-TV (PBS), and WBEZ (NPR) Radio. The Company has also received Critic’s Choice awards from the Chicago Reader, and TimeOut Chicago, and reviews and articles at NewCity.com, Madison.com, 4dancers.org, RogueBallerina.com, and others.
In 2000, the Company received the Ruth Page Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Dance in Chicago” for initiating and producing Chicago’s NEXT Dance Festival, which grew to be the midwest’s largest dance festival for the new work of Chicago area artists. In 2009, the Company was selected to receive the Oak Park Area Arts Council’s prestigious “Best in Class” Award and in 2014, the Company was chosen to present Vision, Faith & Desire: Dancemakers Inspired by Martha Graham at the Pritzker Pavilion and at Pleasant Home. In 2015, the Company received an award from the MacArthur Foundation for an international artistic collaboration, “Trashed.”
The mission of Winifred Haun & Dancers is to create and present original, contemporary, innovative works that illuminate and elevate diverse artists, audiences, and global themes. Part of the Company’s artistic vision is to have dance viewed not only in the context of professional presentation, but also at the community level and in non-traditional performance venues. The Company has a deep, long time commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, as evidenced by its artists, collaborators, projects, staff, and Board.
Winifred Haun is a veteran choreographer and dancer. She was a soloist with the critically acclaimed Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre from 1985 to 1991. Ms. Haun won three Ruth Page Award nominations for Choreography and Performance and in 2000, she won the Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Dance Community. Ms. Haun’s choreography has been commissioned by Chicago Ballet, AMEBA Dance, Irreverence Dance + Theatre, Zephyr Dance, Lonny Joseph Gordon and many other Midwest and national groups. She has taught dance and dance composition at the Joffrey Ballet’s Academy of Dance, Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago Academy for the Arts, Beijing National Dance Academy and at numerous festivals and workshops worldwide. Currently, Ms. teaches modern dance and ballet at Hubbard St. Dance Chicago, Deeply Rooted Productions and Legere Dance Center in River Forest. In 2008, Ms. Haun was appointed Associate Artist at Voice of the City, a Chicago based multi-arts educational organization, and in 2014, she was selected by the Martha Graham Dance Company to participate in their Lamentation Variation project.
