Celebrate Chicago Dance Month TODAY!

Celebrate Chicago Dance Month with DanceWorks Chicago at the Palmer House (Mezzanine) today at 4pm! Enjoy repertoire excerpts and bid the dancers "bon voyage" for their upcoming tour to Germany.

Celebrate Chicago Dance Month!

Join DanceWorks Chicago as we celebrate Chicago Dance Month!

• See and support local dancemakers at Dance Chance: Redux 6.0 Dance Chance: Redux provides another layer of opportunity for Chicago-based choreographers, building on their investment in new work via Dance Chance. DanceWorks Chicago is excited to continue to develop ways for local choreographers to shine, and we are proud to contribute to the city's cultural landscape by encouraging creativity and promoting excellence. ONE NIGHT ONLY: Saturday, April 18 at 7pm! In partnership with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago/Lou Conte Dance Studio and Joffrey Ballet and generously supported by The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. More info HERE.
• On Tuesday, April 21, DWC will offer a FREE performance featuring repertoire selections on the Mezzanine of the beautiful Palmer House! Join us from 4pm-4:30pm and wish the dancers bon voyage before they depart for a three-week tour and residency in Germany!  More info HERE.

Happy Spring from DanceWorks Chicago

Excited to finish out the month with new works:

• DanceWorks Chicago welcomes guest choreographer Thom Dancy to the studio to create a new work commissioned by Dance St. Louis. Join us for Dance Bytes, an informal showing at 3pm on Friday, March 27 in our home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. FREE
• DWC's monthly Dance Chance event showcases the work of three local dancemakers with this month's 'Chance led by guest moderator Brian Enos. Sail into the weekend by supporting Chicago creatives at 7pm on Friday, March 27, hosted by our venue partner Lou Conte Dance Studio. $3

Happy Spring!?

Take a chance...

...with Dance Chance! Dance Chance celebrates its first anniversary at Lou Conte Dance Studio with lots of dance and lots of giveaways to take classes and see performances around Chicago. Join us from 7pm-8pm this Friday, January 30 for DanceWorks Chicago's version of open-mic night and support work by three local choreographers. Only $3!

Special offer from DanceWorks Chicago/Harris Theater

Hey, Chicago! Warm someone's heart. Bring someone young or young-at-heart to DanceWorks Chicago's Family Matinee at 2pm next Saturday, January 17. Check out the special offer from our friends at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance: use code PARENT at checkout for the best seats at only $5! 

Get behind-the-scenes at DanceWorks Chicago's Open Company Audition!

Audience is welcome to check out DanceWorks Chicago's upcoming Open Company Audition on stage of the Dance Center of Columbia College from 10am - 2pm this Saturday, December 13! 

Join us for a unique experience to see what a dance audition is all about. 
Get UP CLOSE to see current and future DWC dancers in action!

FREE/PRICELESS!

There's no business like Small Business!

Sending good energy to our fellow organizations on Small Business Saturday!
Merde for #ILGiveBig on Tuesday  :-)

DanceMoves Showcase: Sunday, November 16

DanceWorks Chicago is excited to continue our commitment to local artists through the DanceMoves Choreography Competition. Four Chicago-based choreographers have been selected, each given a one-week residency, to create new work with DanceWorks Chicago this autumn. The "assignment" given to DanceMoves choreographers was simply to take inspiration from the city of Chicago. These new creations will be unveiled in a one-night-only DanceMoves Showcase from 6:30pm-7:30pm on Sunday, November 16 in the Gerald Arpino Black Box Theatre of The Joffrey Ballet.

Excited to celebrate the next generation of movers and makers.  
Think global! Dance local!

Training: Funding, Fundraising, & Development

Saturday, November 15, 9am-2pm
Location TBD

Join A&BC for our upcoming On BOARD training session on funding, fundraising, and development.

We'll discuss:

• Complex landscape of funding for nonprofit arts organizations and sector-wide trends
• Defining the sources of philanthropic support
• Role board members must play in securing funds
• Identifying prospects and creating an “ask”

Breakfast and lunch are provided. RSVP to ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org by Nov 13.

Workshop: Online Fundraising: Crafting the Donor Experience

Tuesday, October 21, 9:00am-11:30am
TechNexus
Lyric Opera Building
20 North Wacker Drive, 12th Floor

Presenter:
Tim Frick, Principal, Mightybytes

Case Studies Featuring:
Amanda Delheimer, Executive Artistic Director, 2nd Story

You want to raise money online but don’t want to blow your budget doing it. This seems a fair assumption, right? This workshop will cover how to apply basic user experience (UX) design principles and lean/agile practices to online fundraising campaigns with measurable success. This may sound like something reserved for the realm of web designers and developers, but it’s not.

By executing some basic tactics and measuring performance you can create fundraising campaigns that perform well and engage donors, but don’t break the bank in the process. We’ll discuss what it takes to create successful user-driven campaigns, then hone in on how to do so quickly and efficiently by creating and validating hypotheses and learning when to pivot away from campaigns that aren’t working while iterating on those that are.

Learning Objectives:

• Online Fundraising User Experience Basics: Website & Social Media
• What you need to understand about your community of donors before deciding on a fundraising approach
• How to effectively use fundraising tools such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and others

Who Should Attend:

• Development, Marketing, and IT staff who are tasked with fundraising
• Board Members who participate on Marketing Committees or Fundraising Committees
• Fundraising consultants who want to integrate online best-practices into their client engagements

REGISTER HERE.

MacArthur Foundation International Connections Fund announcement

Honored and über-excited to be part of an eclectic group of Chicago arts organizations (including another SMART Growth grantee!) to receive support from the MacArthur Foundation for cultural exchange!

Read on: http://www.macfound.org/press/press-releases/12-chicago-arts-groups-receive-macarthur-grants-international-collaborations/

DanceWorks Chicago's DanceMoves!

DanceWorks Chicago piloted the DanceMoves Choreography Competition in our 2012-2013 season to great enthusiasm. DWC is perfectly positioned to build on this successful debut and provide a layer of opportunity for Chicago-based choreographers as we continue our on-going commitment to encourage new work via Dance Chance, our monthly version of open mic night. We are excited to develop ways for local choreographers to shine and are proud to contribute to the city's cultural landscape by encouraging creativity and promoting excellence.

We are grateful to all of the dancemakers who shared work with us through the application process. It is with excitement that we announce the DanceMoves 2014 choreographers:

Connor Cornelius, from Oak Park, IL, graduated cum laude from Western Michigan University with a BFA in Dance. Connor is currently a performance apprentice with Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre.

Ayako Kato is a Chicago-based dancer/choreographer who hails from Yokohama, Japan. Since 1998, she has been the Artistic Director of Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape and presented and performed her works extensively in the United States, Japan, and Europe.

Taylor Mitchell graduated with his BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona, where he received the "Creative Achievement Award" for various works of choreography set on the U of A ensemble and musical theater department. Taylor is a company member with Thodos Dance Chicago.

Liv Schaffer, from Algonquin, IL, graduated summa cum laude from Alonzo King's LINES BFA Program at Dominican University. Liv has danced and choreographed with the JUNTOS Collective, and her work has been presented at American College Dance Festival Association's Baja Conference. Liv is a member of DanceWorks Chicago.
Each of these choreographers will create a new work inspired by the city of Chicago to be unveiled in studio showings this autumn. First up: Connor Cornelius! Please join us for Dance Bytes in our home at the Ruth Page Center on Friday, October 3 to see Connor unveil her new creation!

Stay tuned for more DanceMoves news and join us to support fresh voices and next steps in the Chicago dance community.