Tell us about some of your upcoming projects in 2012.

The next year is looking mellow and I’m just fine with that. I’m looking forward to continued collaboration with Input/Output Productions in 2012. Additionally, I’m working on the beginnings of a dance company and finding a space we could call home. My dear friends and collaborators Ginny Cook and Jack Hill are working with me throughout the process. When this project concludes, I’ll begin rehearsals with Liz Burritt, an original member of Joe Goode Performance Group, on a new project premiering at Links Hall in September. Burritt is on the bill with Colleen Halloran and Paige Cunningham-Caldarella and I’m honored to be part of their show. This past December I produced my first evening length performance incorporating dance, music and film. I’m already working on ideas for the next one.

 If we were going to spend the day with you hanging out in Chicago, what would we do?

Chicago is an easy-going, fantastic city and it gets even better in the summertime. Let’s jump ahead to August. We would get up early and take my crazy dog Carlos for a walk and bike ride. If it’s the weekend, we would venture over to one of the many fabulous brunch spots in Logan Square, particularly Lula Cafe or Longman and Eagle. They have delicious cocktails and simple, locally sourced food. After stuffing our bellies and filling up on drinks it would be off on our bikes to the beach. I go to the beach a lot in the summer, ideally three times a week. I would live in the water if I could. Lake Michigan might be dirty, but when the weather is hot and humid, there is no better place. One of my favorite things to do no matter what time of year is go to a movie at Landmark Theater in Lakeview. I enjoy going to movies alone, it’s a nice time to find solitude. I like to not have a plan for the day and just go with the flow. Days are simple for me when I’m not working. I’m a person who believes rest is good for your soul, you can’t always stay in go mode, you have to shut down sometimes to keep your endurance.

 What is your favorite drink and where do you get it?

My favorite cocktail is a margarita. Naming the best place in Chicago is difficult because of the constantly shifting restaurant scene, although I’ll say Big Star is up there. Their drinks are fresh, simple, and strong. The next place May St. Café, it’s off the beaten path. It’s small and casual, but their margaritas are on point. That said, Danny Shapiro, the mixologist at Scofflaw, a gin based bar in Logan Square, makes some of the best cocktails in Chicago. Go there and get the Rocket Frost, it’s my favorite.

Tell us something surprising about yourself.

I bet a lot of people don’t know that I love horses. There is something about them that is so regal and beautiful. I’ve only done a bit of riding, so I’m not sure why I’m so drawn to them. You can go almost anywhere in the wild on horseback and I think that’s really exciting. I always cry when I see them hurt or injured in movies.

Tell us about some of your upcoming projects in 2012.

I’ll be shooting a new dance film mid July called “Willful Acts” set in an abandoned factory in Gary, Indiana. I’ll also be working on another dance film called “The Fall” in August. “The Fall” is a solo dance autobiographical piece I created/performed back in 1998 and will be adapted for the camera and set on dancer/actor Robbie Cook. For live performance stuff I’m premiering a multimedia solo dance concert called “Toe Trauma and My Life with Bill Murray” in October for a two week run at Theater Wit Chicago. After this who knows?

If we were going to spend the day with you hanging out in Chicago, what would we do?

First, you would get to bike with me along our stunning Lake Shore Drive bike path for about 45 minutes en route to downtown Chicago where I work at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. Columbia is located downtown where all the good stuff is. You’d get an all access backstage pass to see the innards of the theater and meet the best technical production team in the dance community. Or, while I work, you could adventure by yourself to see the Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum, The Art Institute or take an Architectural Boat Tour – all within walking distance from my workplace. Then after work, we’d meet up and go to Chicago Pizza & Ovengrinders for dinner. This isn’t ordinary pizza – it’s pizza served in bowls and upside down and has the most amazing marinara sauce I’ve ever had (and I’ve been to Italy ya’ll). We could even hit a late night show around many of the amazing small storefront theaters and alternative performance venues in Chicago – there’s always something going on… be it performance art, music, dance theater, burlesque, etc.

What is your favorite drink and where do you get it?

Intelligentsia cafe latte, hot or iced. But if you’re talking alcoholic…I don’t generally drink, but when I do it’s one Crispin Organic Cider (I’m a lightweight) that I get from the neighborhood store about 5 blocks away. Great on a hot summer night.

Tell us something surprising about yourself.

I never thought I’d make it this far. At age 42 I’ve found love 3 times, have been with the love of my life for 9 years, and have found true peace. Doesn’t mean I’m not still punk and angry though – because that’s just who I am! Dance is that outlet for the emotional charge that reminds me that I’m alive – and hopefully that connects to others somehow.

Tell us about some of your upcoming projects in 2012.

This year is all about collaboration. I will be working on a video installation for dropshift dance premiering at The Arts Center at the Hairpin Loft in November in Logan Square called “catch and release”. This will be my first time working with video installation, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years.  Also, Daniel Kullman- my director of photography-and I are hoping to collaborate again with performance artist Erica Mott on restaging a part of her live work, “Victory Project” for screen dance. I”m also working on a couple of documentaries: In 2010, I documented Ellen Bromberg leading a dance for camera workshop in Victoria BC. I’m in the process of editing a short 10-20 minute film about dancers and filmmakers coming together and being mentored by Ellen.  On a completely different note, I’m co-directing (along with C. Byrne) a documentary titled “Leather Queen”, which follows queer burlesque performer and comedian, Tamale, through her journey towards running for the title of International Ms. Leather in San Francisco. (Kingsley, you can leave this out if you feel like it’s innappropriate and not dance-related)

If we were going to spend the day with you hanging out in Chicago, what would we do?

For me, no 2 days are ever the same. In addition to working in video/photography, I also am a teaching artist with Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE). Often times I’m either editing in my messy office, traveling to a job, or having a collab meeting at Kopi cafe or Metropolis. If I have the day off, I’d take you on a bike ride along the lakefront trail, watch a fun action movie in 3D at Navy Pier’s IMAX, stop by Parlour, or perhaps Green Mill for their swing orchestra (hopefully it’s a thursday), and then end the evening roasting marshmallows by a bonfire.

What is your favorite drink and where do you get it?

I just visited an old college friend who lives in the small touristy town of Healdsburg, CA- right in the middle of wine country. There, I had the best drink at a hotel bar- It was gin, elderberry juice, fresh squeezed lemon, and champagne, served up in a martini glass.

Tell us something surprising about yourself.

I have 2 pet rats that make me laugh and also inspire me- they are inquisitive, determined, and daring.

Onye Ozuzu is a dance administrator, performing artist, choreographer, educator and researcher. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature with a minor in Economics as well as a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Dance Performance and Choreography at Florida State University. She has most recently been serving as Associate Chair, Director of Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Colorado, Boulder. While there, her work has been notable for its balance of visionary and practical progress in the arenas of curricular, artistic, and community development of diversity, collaboration and interdisciplinary performance arts. She teaches African-based contemporary dance technique, Composition, World Dance and Culture, Improvisation, Creative Dance for Children, and a graduate Seminar, The African in American, Perspectives and Implications: A Dancer’s View.

Onye has been actively making and performing work since 1997. Her work has been seen nationally and internationally at The Joyce Soho (Manhattan, NY), Kaay Fecc Festival De Toutes les Danses (Dakar, Senegal), La Festival del Caribe (Santiago, Cuba), Lisner Auditorium (Washington DC), McKenna Museum of African American Art (New Orleans, LA), as well as many anonymous site-specific locations around the world. She was a 2010 recipient of the Innovative Seed Grant, University of Colorado’s most prestigious research grant, for her ethnographic research project ADADIA African Drum and Dance in America: the Oral History Archive. This summer she is returning to EarthDance Workshop and Retreat Center and teaching at Bates Dance Festival where she continues to expand work as an AfroModern contemporary technique teacher and on Technology of the Circle, a group improvisation and interdisciplinary performance process. Her most recent choreographic endeavor, And They Lynched him on a Tree, is a multidisciplinary collaborative effort that premiered in February at the ATLAS Black Box Theatre, in Boulder, CO a center for the intersection of art, science and technology.

What is exciting about the Chicago dance scene right now?

As a newcomer to the scene, I won’t pretend to have a gasp on the rich and diverse scene(s). But, I CAN say that I have experienced some incredibly dynamic, smart, delicious, visually stunning, thoughtful, challenging, difficult and adventurous work in the short time I have been here. Some of my most memorable moments thus far, off the top of my head….I’ve seen haunting experimental dance films in Phil Reynold’s living room salon, an explosion of highly skilled and virtuosic performance at its most joyful at “Dance for Life” where the dance community shows up and dances for its own, raising money for healthcare and support services for artists, amazing interdisciplinary cutting edge performance at the MCA most notably Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako in “more more more…future” and the work of Marc Bamuthi Joseph with Theaster Gates in “red,black, and GREEN: a blues”, the final tour of Merce Cunningham’s company at the Harris, a tribute to Katherine Dunham at the Public Library, Bebe Miller in a solo with a long piece of yarn at Links hall, incredible talent from bright young people demonstrating a rich diversity of forms from tap to Jazz to traditional West African dance at Najwa Dance Corps, House heads bringin’ it back at The Shrine on First Fridays, Bill T. Jones in an inspiring and mesmerizing conversation with students here at the Dance Center, Peter Carpenter’s (of the Dance Center) most recent work, “Rituals of Abundance for Lean Times #5: Lavish Possession”, those amazing women rocking the stage at the House of Blues with Seun Kuti’s Band…. What’s most exciting about the Chicago Dance scene?, well for a still being initiated resident like myself ….its the Chicago Dance Scene. I’ve missed more than I’ve seen, I wish that I had made it to see Rennie Harris’ new work on Ailey, Chicago Human Rhythm Project and Fela at Broadway in Chicago, to dance with Mustapha Bangoura at Hamlin Park and I am still waiting for my Salsero to arrive. I look forward to seeing the dancing in the park this summer…and the ongoing collaborative process that is developing a new Cultural Plan for the City. Our Mayor has made the “call”, he wants to see Chicago become a national and international destination for dance. Columbia College Chicago has been doing this for some time, I am excited about getting a chance to participate in the next chapter of that.

 Tell us about some of your upcoming projects in 2012.

2012 going to be continued to be filled with learning. New job, new city, an amazing and large new community of artists to call my colleagues, I plan to continue to become a part of this place, to learn my place in it and figure out what I have to bring to the table that can help dance at Columbia College Chicago continue to contribute richly to the field. As an independent artist in my own process I am likewise in a transitional phase, observing how my body is reacting to its new habitat, taking note of that, and thinking about where and when I will next be inspired to make work.

 If we were going to spend the day with you hanging out in Chicago, what would we do?

I love the LAKE! Its quite a gift to have this beautiful blue body lapping up against the shores of such and urban environment. So come this summer, let’s go by the Lake, watch my 3 year-old chase sea gulls with ferocity, have a chicago style turkey or tofu-dog with the onions and tomatoes, check out the international conversation among the who’s who of the worlds architects in the dives and dips of Chicago’s dynamic skyline, and then head to the south side to a Senegalese restaurant, Yassa, that I have been waiting to check out.

Onye Ozuzu was interviewed in Time Out Chicago. Read the article here

Richard Woodbury is an educator, composer and sound designer serving as Associate Professor and “Distinguished Faculty Artist” in the Dance Department at Columbia College Chicago. A faculty member since 1977 and Associate Chair of the Dance Department from 1986 to 2006, Richard has been a key contributor to the growth and development of the Dance Department and its programs. He has composed numerous scores for dance including Stupormarket, Monument and Overflow for The Seldoms, Short Stories for Hedwig Dances, Pentimento for The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and has performed live with The Merce Cunningham Dance Company and The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Richard’s credits in theater include music and/or sound design for Tony Award winning Broadway 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, numerous productions at Chicago’s renowned Goodman and Steppenwolf Theaters, and productions at the Stratford Festival in Canada, London’s Lyric and National Theatres, Theatre Marigny, Paris, France, and regional theaters across the United States. Richard has received Joseph Jefferson and Helen Hayes Awards for outstanding sound design, and the Ruth Page award for Outstanding Collaborative Artist, as well as nominations for Drama Desk and Ovation awards. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with concentrations in music and dance from the Experimental College of the University of Minnesota (1976).

What is exciting about the Chicago dance scene right now?

So much. Quantity, quality and diversity of artists, activities and venues.

Tell us about some of your upcoming projects in 2012.

I will be teaching a dance making class in the fall that will focus on music and dance collaborations. My own work as a composer will be larger devoted to theatre works in 2012. I do plan to finally develop a website.

If we were going to spend the day with you hanging out in Chicago, what would we do?

I love to show off the city itself. We’d take an Architectural Tour via a boat on the Chicago River and then stroll through Millennium Park on our way to the Art Institute.

What is your favorite drink and where do you get it?

A glass of serious red wine (Brunello) at home with my wife and a meal we’ve prepared for ourselves.

 Tell us something surprising about yourself.

I was a minor rock star in Pakistan in 1969

Colleen Halloran is a Chicago-born choreographer, filmmaker and educator who has taught at Columbia College Chicago since 1997. She is intrigued by the intersection and manipulation of movement, image, and story to arrive at a collective “whole”. Such companies as Mordine & Company Dance Theatre, The Dance COLEctive, and Same Planet, Different World Dance Theatre have commissioned Colleen’s dance works for the stage. Her short films have screened in Japan, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Chicago. Her feature screenplays have been finalists for The Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2009 and 2010. www.colleenhalloran.com

What is exciting about the Chicago dance scene right now?

There is a current trend with young, talented choreographers who are finding their creative outlet in site- specific work outside of the “norm”. They are going into bars and non-traditional spaces to find new audiences.

Tell us about some of your upcoming projects in 2012.

Three projects in the works: a new Dance for Camera shooting in May, a new dance for stage that will premiere in September, and currently in pre-production on a short film that I wrote and will direct.

If we were going to spend the day with you hanging out in Chicago, what would we do?

If it’s summer, we will go to a Cubs game because I am a glutton for punishment. If it’s winter, you can watch me shovel a foot of snow from in front of the house. Good times.

What is your favorite drink and where do you get it?

Thai Iced Coffee from Siam Café in Uptown

Tell us something surprising about yourself.

I am often mistaken for an uncover detective because I drive a gigantic old man car and I am not an old man…by process of elimination- that makes me a Chicago undercover cop.

Markings. A film by Kingsley Irons and Bryan Koch. Starring Tida Sripanich with music by Derrick Spiva Jr. Created for our Dances For Everyday Life series – free, one-minute films inspired by everyday life. Enjoy!

Tell us about some of your upcoming projects in 2012.

In addition to working with Dances Made To Order, I am working on a disco performance for a fundraiser called “Wigout.” It is in support of this local queer arts festival held in Atlanta annually called “Mondo Homo.” My dancing partner, Alex Abarca, and I are gearing up to attend “Big Range Dance Festival,” in Houston Texas where we will be presenting a new work about getting older and growing up. We presented our first even length show back in December and received some great support, so we are keeping the momentum moving forward.

If we were going to spend the day with you hanging out in Atlanta, what would we do?

Well let’s see. It depends on if I have the day off. I usually have multiple rehearsals a day. I like staying busy, but we will say that today I have nothing else to do but show you my favorite places in Atlanta. We would have to start by going to brunch. It is like attending church here in Atlanta. We have some really great restaurants that serve amazing food. One of my favorites is Homegrown. From the title you can tell it is all organic and delicious food. Next, a walk in the park is due. Atlanta is known for its parks. Every neighborhood has one. People are always outside exercising and soaking up the sun. We are lucky to have Piedmont park in the center of the city. It has over a hundred acres of walking pathways, ponds, dog parks, playgrounds and botanical gardens. We would then go to the High Museum. It holds a large amount of classic and contemporary art. It is also held in the Woodruff Arts Center, where we could go and see a play afterwards or even go the the symphony. We would have dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant, East Atlanta Thai. This place is tucked away in my favorite neighborhood. East Atlanta is where I live and love to hang out. Last we would go to Mary’s. Voted best gay bar in Atlanta, Mary’s is where I also deejay. We would definitely throw down on the dance floor and have a good time.

 What is your favorite drink and where do you get it?

Mary’s is also where I have my favorite drink. I am usually a beer drinker, but every now and then I enjoy a cocktail. When I want a vodka soda at Mary’s I do not even have to ask. They know me and what I like.

 Tell us something surprising about yourself.

In 2012 one of my resolutions was to start knitting, and so I have. People don’t really think of me as crafty, but I am. I do not really like getting my hands dirty, but I love DIY projects. I may not be the most talented at these projects, but I will try. The first scarf I made was hideous. No one has laid eyes upon that monstrosity. I am pretty ok at it now. It is like meditation for me.   I can always use something to help me relax.