Chicago Cultural Center Dance Studio Residency
March—June 2025, Second Tuesday of each month
Chicago Cultural Center, Dance Studio, 1st Floor North • FREE Admission
DCASE Homepage > Chicago Cultural Center > Artist-in-Residence > Dance Studio Residency
A program of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) to invest in movement-based artists by providing space, time and funding for the development of new work.
The Chicago Cultural Center Dance Studio Residency opportunity was developed in the Year of Chicago Dance (2022) to provide a resource and support the development of new dance works in response to clear and consistent need within the community. The program offers time, space and funding: awarded projects receive up to $25,000 and 80 hours of rehearsal in the Chicago Cultural Center’s first floor Dance Studio. With a focus on paying ensemble and creative team members, the program helps to make more visible the often invisible labor of developing performance. It is also structured to trust artists: dancemakers apply with a vision, and the Dance Studio becomes the place to test and explore their ideas without the expectation of a finished product.
Through the first three Cohorts (2022-2025), nearly $400,000 has been allocated to 19 distinct projects. The Chicago Cultural Center Dance Studio Residency program is supported in part by grants from the Walder Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Chicago-based artists are invited to apply during the next open call (details TBA). Sign up online for DCASE “arts opportunities” newsletters to stay informed.
The Open Studio series is a wide variety of public engagements during each residency cohort. Open Studio events are free, informal, and open to the public. They allow for milestones moments and processes to be shared, and can take the form of artist talks, works-in-progress, story circles, workshops, topical panels and other activities.
Public programs occur regularly through June 2025 (every second Tuesday March - June, with additional programs on select dates). We aim to provide American Sign Language interpretation at a range of Open Studio programs. Please refer to the detailed listing below. To request ASL or other access services, please email dcase@cityofchicago.org a minimum of 72 hours before the event.
Open Studio schedule is subject to change. Please check this website for updates.
Tuesday, March 11, 6 p.m.
Mike D Chicago
Join Mike D Chicago and his project ensemble in an Open Studio that celebrates and introduces audiences to footwork culture as well as give a taste of what safe space for creators and dance artists feels like. The informal “class” will include short demos of footwork moves, a presentation of excerpts from the story-driven work being developed at the Chicago Cultural Center, and a Q&A that invites audiences to share their curiosity and experiences from the night.
ASL is provided for this event.
Tuesday, March 25, 6 p.m.
Ginger Krebs
Ginger Krebs and collaborators offer insight into the research fueling their new performance, Protected By Invisible Fence, through a hybrid event that is part artist talk and mostly hands-on interaction with several of the technologies and choreographies they’re developing.
ASL is provided for this event.
Tuesday, April 8, 6 p.m.
Erin Kilmurray
Erin Kilmurray and collaborators fully open their practice space to audiences. Artists and guests meet and freeform move against a soundtrack driven by DJ and project sound designer Ariel Zetina, with an invitation to open level movement facilitation by ensemble members. There will be space to dance, space to rest and space to connect in an environment that mirrors the work in development.
Tuesday, May 13, 6 p.m.
Ishti Collective
Ishti Collective opens their creative process to attendees, first by observing their rehearsal process, and then by engaging in a movement session guided by the artists. This program aims to demystify Bharatanatyam and illustrate its contemporary relevance, with the movement session allowing participants to experience the dance's physicality and expressiveness firsthand. A Q&A dialogue with the artists will end the program, which will serve to inform the collective’s work and foster a communal exchange of ideas and perspectives.
ASL is provided for this event.
Saturday, May 31, 2 p.m.
Mike D Chicago
Final work-in-progress event – description forthcoming
Friday, June 6, 6 p.m.
Ginger Krebs
Final work-in-progress event – description forthcoming
Sunday, June 8, 2:30 p.m.
Ishti Collective
Final work-in-progress event – description forthcoming
Monday, June 9, 6 p.m.
Erin Kilmurray
Final work-in-progress event – description forthcoming
Tuesday, June 10
TBA
Erin Kilmurray (she/they) is a dance artist creating genre-straddling, femme-forward performance work that demands aliveness and collectivity on stage, in studio, and with audiences. They facilitate a dance and community practice that relentlessly explores the celebrations and liberations of women, queer folks, the underground, and the underdog. Her work embraces mess, play, pleasure, spectacle, DIY sensibilities, and lessons in how arbitrary the line between artist and audience can be. Erin is recognized with a 2024 US Artist Fellowship, 2023 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, 2023 Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellowship, 2020 Chicago Dancemakers Lab Artist, and one of 50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago (2023; Newcity). She is the creator / director of legendary queer punk dance and variety performance project The Fly Honey Show, (est.2010) -- which has grown to be featured at Lollapalooza, sell out iconic music venue Thalia Hall, and be named a “Chicago institution” (Chicago Reader).
Ginger Krebs (she/her) began as an artist by making sculptures but an interest in networks and relationship dynamics led her to want to enact systems through movement – and so she’s been making dances since 2005. Her dance draws from vernacular movement that non-dancers can relate to. Its physicality and self-effacing humor celebrate Midwestern working-class virtues. Often the movement is inherently funny without having an obvious joke to “get.” Ginger’s performances are preoccupied with power, and haunted by the ways power hides behind the mirages of capitalist ideology while enforcing visibility on other bodies. The dancers respond to spatial constraints, behavioral rules, and to the fundamentally exposed condition of live performance. The humble material that results becomes complex, layered choreography that updates 1970’s formalism by complicating it with power and desire while celebrating the ingenious ways that people survive and defy violence and exploitation.
With collaboration at its core, Ishti Collective is dedicated to creating inclusive spaces for cultural expression through dance, storytelling, and artistic collaboration. The collective builds community, fosters cross-cultural connections, and celebrates the richness of diverse traditions. Founded in 2016 by Preeti Veerlapati (she/her) and Kinnari Vora (she/her), Ishti has produced works like Sparsh, Prakriti I & II, Indo-Ruska Romani Dance Journey, Sparsh and Antarabhava. Their performances have been showcased at the Going Dutch Festival, Pivot Arts Festival, Elevate Chicago, Chicago Park District, and more. Ishti's works have been supported by DCASE and the Illinois Arts Council, creating a lasting impact through socially relevant, artistic exploration.
Mike D Chicago (he/him), raised on the South Side, is a man of many gifts and has been blessed to apply them all through his work. From singing, dancing, rapping, instructing, mentoring, producing, and choreographing Mike creates for impact. As a dance performer, educator, and choreographer, Mike D has worked with many platforms such as Apple, Nike, Red Bull, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls, Chicago Sky, Chance the Rapper, Lollapalooza, Rolling Loud, the NBA All-Star Game, Good Morning America, and Yale University. As a musician, his music has inspired across the globe, with his single, Claim It, becoming a favorite for many. Mike D is also the Chicago program manager for the nonprofit Creative Netwerk, an organization with the mission to inspire, educate and build community through dance culture.
hakespeare Festival, Maria in Twelfth Night and Freida in Franz Kafka's The Castle.
