Chicago Dancemakers Forum announces 2010 recipients

Receiving one of CDF’s quartet of $15,000 grants is just about the biggest thing that can happen to a Chicago choreographer. Awarded once a year since 2003, the gifts are designed to fund projects that collect and present each artist’s current areas of interest. The list of Lab Artist alumni includes many of the scene’s brightest lights, and neatly summarizes Chicago’s unique standing as the city for female dance makers: 23 of the consortium’s 32 awards have gone to women, and 2010 marks the second time that none of the four recipients are men.

Those celebrating (right now, probably) are: Rachel Bunting, the driving force behind The Humans, a group that frequently consists of Bunting alone or with one other dancer. who i am (who i am not), a duet for her and Precious Jennings, is thus far probably the best example of what she does, having reached a beautiful place at the end of a long creative process last August. Rachel Damon is affiliated with numerous companies in addition to her own Synapse Arts Collective; she’s planning a work on the body’s expression of gender that continues the voice-and-dance research that kicked into high gear with Synapse’s 2009 evening-length, Stridulate. The Sweetgoddess Project will reap the benefits of Meida Teresa McNeal’s grant, her look at Chicago house music and dance culture from a female perspective, and Erica Mott plans to collaborate with Sara Shelton Mann, Clare Dolan and Royal De Luxe to extend her investigations of choreography integrated with puppetry and object manipulation.

The Chicago Dancemakers Forum is cooperatively run by representatives of the MCA, Dance Center, Links Hall and two independent artists, Ginger Farley and Darrell Jones; its project director is Heather Hartley. Bunting, Damon, McNeal and Mott’s big year begins in May. With the question of funding greatly alleviated if not totally out of the way, each now has an opportunity to take her already-strong work to the next level.