Guest Lecturers

KRISTINA FLUTY

Kristina Fluty is a member of Mad Shak Dance Company in Chicago. She attained her BA in Dance from Point Park College in Pittsburgh, then began her career in Nashville with Tennessee Dance Theater. She then moved to New York City, where she studied intensively at Trisha Brown Dance Company. She performed at such venues as Joyce Soho, BAX, the 92nd Street Y, and the FFIDA Festival in Toronto. Her work is informed by her continued studies in the Feldenkrais Method and Skinner Releasing Technique. In addition to The University of Chicago, she has also had the pleasure of teaching at Lou Conte Dance Studio (Hubbard Street Dance Chicago), Giordano Dance Center, and the Chicago Park District.

Past Lecturers

MOLLY SHANAHAN

Molly Shanahan is the founder and choreographer of Mad Shak Dance Company. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and English from Denison University and a Master of Arts in Dance from The Ohio State University. In addition to her work with Mad Shak she teaches modern technique and improvisation in Chicago at the Lou Conte Dance Studio, Northwestern University, and The University of Chicago, among others. She has been a guest artist at SUNY Potsdam, Illinois Wesleyan, and Denison University and has created work for The Repertory Project.

TERRY CREWS

Terry Crews has performed with numerous companies across the country including the Texas Shakespeare Festival, Ausdruckstanz Dance Theatre, Virginia Ballet Theater and Synthesis Motion Theater, which she co-founded and served as artistic director. She has choreographed for theater as well as dance groups and earned awards for her choreography of Jean-Claude Van Italie's A FABLE and the musical Chicago, both produced in Virginia. Her independent compositions have been performed in Philadelphia, Texas, Virginia and in Chicago, where she is currently creating a new company. Terry received her BA in English Literature from the University of Houston and her MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Temple University.

SELENE CARTER

Selene Carter is deeply involved in improvisational dance and has studied Contact Improvisation and improvisation with Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Paxton, Karen Nelson, Simone Forti and others. At Links Hall she produced workshops in alternative dance and improvisation in order to create a forum for post-modern and experimental dance in Chicago. She is the founder and host of *Poonie's Cabaret* a monthly venue for improvisational dance also at Links Hall and teaches improvisation and dance studies at the Dance Center of Columbia College. She received a Ruth Page award in 2000 for her work in dance improvisation as well grants from the City of Chicago, the Illinois Arts Council and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. She is a member of FUSE, a dance improvisation collective practicing and performing myriad approaches to dance improvisation.

RACHEL THORNE GERMOND

Heralded by the Globe and Mail as a choreographer who creates "highly ironic works that address issues of freedom, control, sexuality, and identity" and whose "maverick feminist critiques...have a madness about them that is probably just right for our times," Rachel Thorne Germond has presented her work in New York City at such venues as the Joyce Soho, Movement Research at Judson Church, Chashama, The Merce Cunningham Studio, Here's Queer @Here Festival, St. Mark's Danspace's Food for Thought, the Gowanus Arts Exchange, The New York Fringe Festival, Dixon Place, the 92nd Street Y Fridays at Noon, University Settlement House, amongst others. She has participated in festivals throughout the country and in Canada including Philadelphia's Womenspeak Festival (1996), Toronto's annual FIDA festival ('97,'98 and 2001), and at the University of Illinois' Krannert Center for Performing Arts. From 1998-2000 Ms. Germond achieved an MFA in dance and choreography at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana where she was a Fellow and taught modern, jazz, and contact improvisation. Her training includes intensive study of Klein technique with Barbara Mahler (since 1994) and with such notable teachers as Mary Anthony, Anna Sokolow, Merce Cunningham, and Nancy Topf.
She currently lives and works in both New York and Chicago and has been produced in Chicago by such venues as Link's Hall, the Around the Coyote Festival, Dance Chicago at the Athenaeum Theater, the Bailiwick Theater, with Motivity, the Field, Chance Dance 2002, the Feast of Fools Cabaret, Bedtime Stories Cabaret and at the Spareroom. She is an administrative member of the Spareroom and also performs regularly with the Chicago Kings, usually as Elvis.

MALIK CAMARA

A native of St. Louis, is a premier dancer for Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago and Assistant Artistic Director for Alyo Children's Dance Theatre. For the past several years he has worked as a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and program coordinator in the Chicago area. Malik's early training in dance began with the Dunham Technique in East St. Louis, Illinois with Arthur Savage, Vivian Watt, and Theodore Jamison. Malik performed in the African Dance Ensemble under the direction of Sunshine and Terry Brown and Chamahaw, then Abdoulaye Camara, Deborah Ahmed and The St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre. After arriving in Chicago in the late 80s, Malik studied with Muntu, Imani Foster, Nahgeree Sutton, Denise Williams, S'hore Nuff Dance Studio, Woto Seta, Papa Camara Men of Muntu, Silembo Ballet, Vaune Blalock and Amaniyea Payne. Malik gives thanks and praise to the Creative Forces of the Ancestors and his teachers. Currently, Malik is teaching for Columbia College, Proviso East High School, Alyo Children's Dance Theatre and DCFS. He is also a member of the Dance Ministry at Trinity United Church of Christ.

JOSEPH MILLS

Joseph Mills discovered dance through the visual arts and a passionate curiosity for gymnastics. In 1982, he earned a BFA degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in sculpture and drawing from Southern Illinois University, where he also began studying dance with Alcine Wiltz. From 1981-87, he performed and choreographed with the Mid America Dance Company in St. Louis, touring regionally. He began teaching for MADCO in 1984. In 1987, Mills joined MOMIX Dance Theater. From 1989 to 1991, Joseph toured and performed his own choreography throughout Italy in addition to professional engagements with other companies. He worked with Erick Hawkins Dance Company from 1990-94. Since the fall of 1995 Mills has been a full-time faculty member of the Department of Theatre & Dance at George Washington University, in Washington D.C. He received his doctoral degree from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1998, he is currently a Northwestern University faculty member.

LINCOLN SCHATZ

Lincoln Schatz is a visual artist working on combining elements of classical sculpture with digital technology. Some of his performance credits include:
Lincoln Schatz, Galeria Ferran Cano, Barcelona, Spain, September 2002. Lincoln Schatz, Galeria Ferran Cano, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, October 2002. Fluid Forms, bitforms, New York, New YOrk, May-June 2002. Lincoln Schatz, Recent Work, Monika Burian Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic, October 2001.

MELISSA THODOS

Melissa Thodos received early dance training at the Evanston School of Ballet, in Evanston, Illinois. She continued her study of both classical and contemporary technique at Skidmore College in Saratoga, New York, and then the Ruth Page Dance School, the Dance Center of Columbia College and the Lou Conte Dance Studio, all in Chicago. Melissa spent eight years touring with the Chicago Reparatory Dance Ensemble, where she became a principal dancer and choreographer. In 1993 she founded Melissa Thodos & Dancers. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including several Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, and a semi-finalist at the Internationale Dance de Paris. In addition to her responsibilities with Melissa Thodos & Dancers, she is on the dance program faculty at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.