The financial strain of creating and presenting new dance works can be prohibitive. Festival formats often serve to offset production costs with a shared program that allows choreographers and dancers to showcase shorter works and connect with others in the dancemaking community. Yet, after footing the bill for rehearsal space and time and video documentation, choreographers typically have little budget left towards festival application fees. Running anywhere between $25-$75 per submission and demanding edited video footage and other time-consuming or costly materials, even festival participation may fall out of reach for many independent or emerging artists.
Enter Esther Pauline Farley, artistic director of Bodies of Water dance company. She returned home to Chicago during the early days of the pandemic and, operating as an independent artist, Farley sought opportunities to showcase and build a body of choreographic work. After a few years of rejections and a fair amount of money spent, Farley felt frustrated with the festival model and decided to create her own. “I had produced a show in college, and I had some dancer friends,” she says, “so I thought I’d produce an evening-length show to flex those muscles.” Farley wanted to improve on what she felt was one of the biggest disadvantages of other Midwest festivals, so she eliminated the application fee for all artists. “I was able to do it because I had a little savings and some technical help,” she says. The result became the first “Fluid Expressions Artist Festival.”
“I thought it would be one and done,” Farley says. “Afterward, everybody was like, ‘okay, what are we going to do next?’” And that fueled her to keep going. Now, the third-annual festival takes place August 8th and 9th at The Den Theatre, showcasing the work of twenty artists.
This year drew a range of emerging and established choreographers in the form of fifty applicants, from which seventeen live performance pieces were chosen. One dance video will be screened in the lobby, and the work of two visual artists will also be presented in the style of a gallery. Meant to be interdisciplinary, “in the future we’d like to grow the visual artist part of the festival and expand to show a one act play, or physical theater,” Farley says. “But for the moment we have primarily movement artists.”
No resumes or videos are required for the application process. Rather, the Bodies of Water selection committee looks at what the artist has achieved and their goals for the proposed piece. “We really tried to accept as many people as possible,” says Farley of the choreographic works selected this year. “It’s hard to sift through and think about what would make a good cohesive show. We are trying to uplift people with a clear vision, and we are also thinking about what is the longest we can ask people to sit and watch contemporary dance.” The performance should clock in at about an hour and forty-five minutes, with each artist given a five-minute limit.
“A big part of Bodies of Water is that we are trying to make contemporary dance ‘fun’ again—thinking about how we can make it engaging,” says Farley. “The more fun theatrical work sometimes isn’t highlighted in spaces like this, and I’m excited to give those works a platform and to be presented at the same level as some of the more heady, think-heavy work.”
In order to stick with the time constraint, several participating artists have chosen to extract from larger works. Ryan Dick excerpts a contemporary trio in “vultus trifrons,” exploring personal and societal perspectives on the religious concept of trinity. Augustine Hardison and Ally Bradley will show a slice from their co-created duet, “Equilibria,” tackling different manifestations of homeostasis and the curiosity that accompanies it. Farley will present a snapshot from her evening-length “Maison,” a fun, kitschy sextet inspired by early-twentieth-century beachwear fashion.
Additional Chicago artists, including two other Bodies of Water company members, have works on the performance slate, and two out-of-towners (New York-based KTCO and Arizonan, Shane Gould) join this year’s festival.
For Miranda McGovern, participating in all three “Fluid Expressions” festivals to date has forged many new dance connections. “This festival has given me the confidence to showcase my choreography while slowly building a repertoire,” she says. “I love how Esther has created this community of artists in different stages of their careers.”
Echoes of artist appreciation abound. Hardison feels that the reason any sense of camaraderie among the Chicago dance community exists is due to festivals like this one. And for Dick, a second-time participant, the opportunity that this festival creates is crucial for independent dancers and those unaffiliated with the well-known Chicago dance companies to be seen. “There’s so much talent among the dancers and the makers in the city,” says Dick, “and community, both in and out of dance, is needed now more than ever.”
A newly minted non-profit status for the Bodies of Water company has opened the door to additional fundraising possibilities for future festivals and puts the company in position to become an umbrella for participating artists to raise funds for their own projects appearing in the festival. Growing to a larger venue, adding more days, presenting more artists and integrating with other Chicago arts communities also fall near the top of the future to-do list.
What started as an opportunity to present her own work has brought Farley deep satisfaction with knowing she’s also creating an opportunity for other people. Keeping standards high and ensuring accessibility is at the forefront of the “Fluid Expressions Artist Festival,” as is the consideration of how to engage an audience. “We are trying to make contemporary dance fun,” says Farley. “And we just want to make art and show other people’s art in the way that they want it to be shown.”
Bodies of Water presents “Fluid Expressions Artist Festival,” Aug. 8 at 7:30pm and Aug. 9 at 3pm, at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave. For more information, check out the event page by clicking HERE.
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