Carrie Hanson
Founding Artistic Director
Carrie Hanson is a dance artist and educator who has resided in Chicago since 1991. Ms. Hanson has been named one of “25 to Watch” in 2012 by Dance Magazine. Since founding The Seldoms in 2001, she has created over twenty new works for the company. She has been commissioned by the National Theater of Mannheim, Germany, the Elena Slobodchikova Dance Company in Russia, the Morton Arboretum, and Chicago dance companies Same Planet Different World and LIVE ANIMALS. Time Out Chicago calls her “a virtuoso of meticulous composition” who makes “clear-edged, challenging dances”. Called “one of the most ambitious, exacting artists in the local scene” by TimeOut, she has designed major multidisciplinary projects with many acclaimed local and national artists working in visual arts, music/sound design, fashion design and architecture. Under the direction of Ms. Hanson, The Seldoms has gained a reputation for bold, innovative performance in unusual spaces such as cargo containers and truck depots. Hanson was a Chicago Dancemaker’s Forum Lab Artist, has twice been awarded an Illinois Arts Council Choreographic Fellowship, and received a Ruth Page Award for Performance. She has twice been named by New City magazine as one of “The Players: 50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago”. Ms. Hanson is Adjunct Faculty at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, teaching dancemaking, contemporary technique and experiential anatomy, and has been a guest teacher for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, River North Dance Chicago, Thodos Dance Chicago and Mordine & Company. Ms. Hanson conducts residencies at university dance programs, most recently the University of Wisconsin/Madison, and has spoke at dance forums such as “Ars Scientia”, a program of the Department of Cultural Affairs creating connections between art and science. She is certified in Laban Movement Analysis and earned a BFA from Texas Christian University and an MA in Dance Studies from Laban London.
Collaborators
Christina Gonzalez-Gillett
Assistant Director / Performance
Christina grew up in the Chicago area and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she received a BFA in Dance. She later moved to London to pursue her Master’s Degree in Dance Studies at the Laban Centre under the tutelage of Rosemary Butcher and Dr. Valerie Rimmer. During that time she worked professionally with independent choreographers and danced for several companies including BlueWhite under the direction of Melanie Clarke. Christina remained in London to teach at Kingston University and continued to dance professionally until moving back to Chicago. Currently, in addition to working for The Seldoms, Christina is adjunct faculty at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, is certified in Laban Movement Analysis, and teaches Pilates in the city.
Doug Stapleton
Founding Member / Dramaturgy / Visual Design / Performance
Mr. Stapleton is a visual artist, curator, and educator. Currently he is an Assistant Curator of Art for the Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery and teaches as adjunct faculty with Columbia College’s Interdisciplinary Art Department. He has presented collaborative and solo performance in Chicago and elsewhere from 1989 to the present – most recently seen as the opera loving lip synching narrator in Jeff Abell’s Confusion. Mr. Stapleton is a member of the performance and teaching company Moving Stories. His collage work can be seen at www.dougstapleton.com
Julie Ballard
Lighting Design / Technical Direction
Julie Ballard has served as Technical Director and Lighting Designer for The Seldoms since 2008; collaborations include Stupormarket (2011), Marchland (2010), Convergence (2009), and Monument (2008). She has worked with many Chicago dance companies including Hedwig Dance, Mordine & Co., Dance COLEctive, Breakbone Dance, Deeply Rooted and Same Planet Different World. Ms. Ballard has been a part of numerous festivals as well as American Dance Festival, and has toured nationally and internationally with David Dorfman Dance. Ms. Ballard is Lighting Director and adjunct faculty at The Dance Center of Columbia College. Ms. Ballard earned her MFA from the University of Florida. www.overlaplighting.com
Liz Burritt
Dramaturgy
Liz Burritt is an original member of the Joe Goode Performance Group established in 1986. She has been an instrumental collaborator in the making of over 30 original works, and has been featured in many pieces. In 2000 she was awarded an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Individual Performance. In addition to creating and performing with the Company, Ms. Burritt teaches technique, voice, partnering and performance workshops for dancers and actors around the country. She has taught in many university dance programs, and is currently teaching at Columbia College in Chicago. She is expanding her work to include classes for actors and theatre companies. Ms. Burritt has also worked assisting Joe Goode in developing and setting new work on other companies and most recently assisted in the direction of the opera “Transformations” (libretto by Anne Sexton and score by Conrad Susa) for the Merola Program at the San Francisco Opera.
Tim Daisy
Percussion / Composition
Tim has been an active member of Chicago’s creative music scene since moving there in 1997. He has performed, composed, recorded, and toured with many of the city’s celebrated musicians and ensembles. Along with performing percussion duties in internationally acclaimed bands including the Vandermark 5, The Rempis Percussion Quartet, and The Engines, Tim maintains an active composing schedule, writing for his own groups as well as contributing to a number of collaborative ensembles including chamber groups, jazz ensembles, dance, and film. Tim has been fortunate to perform and record with many of the giants of improvised music. Some of these musicians include: 1999 MacArthur Award winner Ken Vandermark, German saxophonist Peter Brotzman, percussionist Michael Zerang, New York cellist Erik Friedlander, and legendary saxophonist Fred Anderson. timdaisy.wordpress.com
DAMON GREEN
Performer
Damon Demarcus Green started his dance training at the age of 15, in his hometown of Champaign-Urbana. He came to Chicago to study at The Dance Center of Columbia College and has been formally trained in ballet, jazz, modern, hip hop and African. Damon has immersed himself in Chicago’s voguing community, performing and touring often with choreographer Darrell Jones. Damon has been with The Seldoms since 2007.
Abigail Glaum-Lathbury
Costume Design
Abigail Glaum-Lathbury’s design is an investigation of beauty, coaxed from the unlikely. Her work invokes the other worldly through an ongoing exploration of surface and texture. Both performance costume and clothing design provide Abigail a means to express these interests through the body in movement and the living form. Ms. Glaum-Lathbury graduated from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In addition to creating costumes for The Seldoms, she designs an eponymous ready to wear collection featuring silhouettes ranging from the bizarre to the beautiful. Her work has been recognized by Lucky, Venus, and Mule Magazines, as well as by Time Out Chicago and the Chicago Reader, and is carried in stores nationwide. www.abigail-glaum-lathbury.com
Joel Huffman / Vertu
Installation / Set Sesign
Founded in 1993, Joel Huffman leads Vertu | Architecture + Design, a full service firm that develops contemporary solutions for unique projects. He has participated on design juries and symposia at several universities as well as at the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture & Design. Award winning work, including urban design, architecture, interior design and furniture, has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including the Sao Paulo Bienal in 1998. In 2009, he was named by i4 Design magazine in their Suite Sixteen recognition of Chicago architects and designers. Mr. Huffman was on the board of directors of the not-for-profit M5 Artist Collective, a group that comments on contemporary issues through multi-disciplinary installation based events. Prior to founding Vertu in 1993, Mr. Huffman gained a valuable range of architectural experience in New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Chicago. www.vertuinc.com
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Music
The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a uniquely structured chamber music ensemble comprised of 30 dynamic and versatile young performers who are dedicated to advancing the music of our time. Through innovative programming, inter-disciplinary collaborations, commissions by young composers, and performances in nontraditional venues, ICE brings together new music and new audiences. ICE was founded in 2001 in Chicago, and has rapidly established itself as one of the leading new-music ensembles of its generation, winning first prize in the 2005 CMA/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, and performing over sixty concerts a year in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. ICE has performed more than 300 world premieres to date, and has performed the work of young composers from 17 different countries. The ensemble has released albums on the Naxos, Bridge and Focus Records labels. www.iceorg.org
Anke Loh
Costume Design
Anke Loh is a designer and assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute. She studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, earning a BFA in 1998 and an MFA in 1999. Her fashion design and art have been shown worldwide, including the Dressing Light project at UBS Tower and the Chicago Cultural Center; an installation in Liebfrauen Church, Munster, Germany; at Gallery Simone Gaubatz in Paris; Museu Textill de la Indumentaria in Barcelona; and the Musee d’Art & Industrie in Saint-Etienne, France. The Anke Loh collection has been presented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris; the Osaka Collection Show in Japan; and Mode 2001 Landed in Antwerp. Loh designs costumes for theatre and dance companies, including Rosas / Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Brussels. In addition, Loh was honored as a Laureate at the Festival International des Arts et de la Mode in Hyeres, France. www.ankeloh.net
Jackie Kazarian
Painting / Animation
Jackie Kazarian is a Chicago painter, video and installation artist whose intense colors and complex surfaces explore utopian impulses in the face of emotional and physical upheaval. Her visually challenging and kinetic landscapes integrate different languages of painting and drawing with screen-printing, stamping, flocking and collage. Ms. Kazarian’s work has been exhibited in Chicago, New York, Miami, California, Armenia, Syria and Japan. Ms. Kazarian has been a frequent instructor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and created public works for The U.S. Embassy and the City of Chicago. She received her graduate degree in painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989 and bachelor’s of science degree from Duke University in 1981. www.jackiekazarian.net
AMANDA MCALISTER
Performer
Amanda is originally from Nashville where she danced extensively with the Nashville Ballet and Epiphany Dance Company. In 2006 she received a BA in Dance from Columbia College, where she discovered her love for modern dance. She has had the opportunity to work with Lar Lubovich, Banu Ogan, Michael Cole, and Angie Hauser. Upon graduating, Amanda moved to NYC where she studied and performed works by David Parsons, Labor Force Dances, and worked with the Dance Films Association. She currently teaches Pilates, while choreographing and exploring her love for dance films. She has been with The Seldoms since 2007 and enjoys every moment of the process.
Lara Miller
Costume Design
Born and raised in Chicago, Lara Miller’s work is strongly influenced by the city’s architectural and cultural landscape. Ecological sensitivity and fascination with both the built and moving form flow through each piece. While still an undergraduate at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lara’s garments electrified local audiences and her costume work for a number of the city’s dance companies was widely acclaimed. Lara has made repeat appearances in GenArt’s Fresh Faces as well as the Macy’s on State Chicago Designer Shop. She has been named “Top 40 Under 40″ by Crain’s Chicago Business as well as “Indie Designer of the Year” by Chicago Magazine. In addition to designing her label, Lara serves as the Executive Director of the Chicago Fashion Incubator (CFI) at Macy’s on State Street.
Her line is carried in over 50 stores throughout the world including the UK, Australia, and Japan. Lara Miller is represented by The Four Hundred, New York’s first sales and press showroom exclusively dedicated to contemporary sustainable design. www.laramiller.net
BRUCE ORTIZ
Performer
Maria Pinto
Costume Design
Maria Pinto is a graduate of Chicago’s School of the Art Institute and attended New York’s Parson’s School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Soon after graduation, Pinto landed a coveted position working for legendary designer Geoffrey Beene. It was while working with Beene that Pinto learned the importance of ‘paying attention to detail’, the techniques of draping, and the art of editing. Pinto’s collections have been featured in major fashion publications, including Vogue, WWD, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and InStyle. She has received many prestigious design and fashion accolades throughout her career, including the opportunity to design costumes for the Joffrey Ballet, the Best of Fashion Award, Chicago Magazine (2000), and the Gold Coast Fashion Award, previously awarded to Anne Klein, Donna Karan and Bill Blass (1998). In 2009, Pinto was honored by the Anti-Defamation League as the recipient of their Women of Achievement Award, and the School of The Art Institute’s Legend of Fashion Award. www.mariapinto.com
JAVIER MARCHAN RAMOS
Performer
Javier’s curiosity for dancing began when he snuck out of the house to find all night dance events otherwise known as raves. He has traveled as far as the Victoria College of Art and Melbourne University to study dance, and earned his BFA at UW Milwaukee. Javier has participated in dances by contemporary artists Eric Jackson Bradley, Amii LeGendre, Danny Gwirtzman, Suniti Dernovsek, and Joel Valentin- Martinez. In Milwaukee, he has performed with Danceworks and Wild Space Dance. This is Javier’s second season with The Seldoms.
CARA SABIN
Performer
Cara received a BFA from The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. An athlete all her life, she discovered dance while in her senior year of high school. She has had the opportunity to perform works at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., at Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Festival and at Solar1’s Solar-Powered Dance Festival in New York as well as locally as a guest with Lucky Plush and Margaret Morris. She continues to work with Chicago political organizations and in arts administration in the city. She is honored to work with The Seldoms for her fifth season.
Fraser Taylor
Video and Installation
Born in the UK, Fraser Taylor is an interdisciplinary artist who works with a range of media. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in printed textiles from Glasgow School of Art, Taylor went on to complete his Masters in Fine Art at the Royal Collage of Art, London. In 1983 he co-founded ‘The Cloth’, a studio established to enable artists to move freely between fine art and design projects. The Cloth designed numerous textile collections, which were manufactured in Tokyo, Milan, Paris, London, New York and Los Angeles. Taylor has exhibited internationally; venues include Jill George Gallery and StART Space, London; Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow; Gallery Boards, Paris; Galeria Jorge Alcolea, Madrid; Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney. Since 1983 he has lectured at fine art and design schools across the UK. In 2001 Taylor was appointed as Visiting Artist in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute Chicago. www.frasertaylor.com
Richard Woodbury
Music / Sound Design
Richard Woodbury is a composer and sound designer with extensive credits in dance, theater, and media arts. His work for theater includes music and/or sound design for tony award winning productions of August: Osage County, A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, a Moon For The Misbegotten, Death of a Salesman, and the Young Man From Atlanta as well as numerous productions for Chicago’s renowned Goodman and Steppenwolf Theaters. His media work includes music and sound design for experimental films, Planetarium programs and commercial music for clients such as Goldshall Design and Film, Playboy, Anchor Bank, First Alert, Pace Bus Systems and others. He is the recipient of the ruth page award as “outstanding collaborative artist” and Joseph Jefferson, Helen Hayes, and Ovation Awards for “Outstanding Sound Design”. Richard is an associate professor and “Distinguished Faculty Artist” at Columbia College Chicago in the Dance Department.