PODCAST 181: Chicago
Release Date: 12.23.24
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Five Voices, One City: Unpacking Chicago’s Dance Community, with Kristina Fluty, Alyssa Gregory, Rahila Coats, Michael McStraw, and Helen Lee
Episode 181: Show Notes
In this episode of Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast, we dive deeply into the vibrant and diverse world of Chicago’s dance scene. Joining Erin are five incredible voices, each bringing a unique perspective on what makes this city’s dance community so dynamic, expansive, and full of life. Featured in this episode are Kristina Fluty, Alyssa Gregory, Rahila Coats, Michael McStraw, and Helen Lee — five Chicago-based dance artists who capture the spirit and energy of this thriving artistic hub. Together, they share how living in Chicago has shaped their careers and creative journeys, and explore how the city’s geography influences its dance community. We explore the work being created there, the support systems and resources that have been most valuable in their growth, and delve into an overview of opportunities for residencies and funding. Plus, each artist reflects on what keeps them curious, inspired, and energized within the Chicago dance world. Tune in for a lively and insightful conversation that captures the essence of this incredible dance community. Enjoy!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Setting the scene for the Chicago-focused episode.
- We are introduced to our five guests: Alyssa Gregory, Kristina Fluty, Rahila Coats, Michael McStraw, and Helen Lee.
- How living in Chicago has influenced their careers and artistic journeys.
- Our guests help situate Chicago for listeners unfamiliar with the city and how it shapes the dance community.
- We dive in and discuss the Chicago dance scene and the work being made.
- Resources and support systems that have been the most valuable to our guests throughout their careers.
- An overview of the opportunities available for dance residencies and funding within the Chicago dance scene.
- Dance education hubs and the overall dance class vibe in Chicago.
- Each guest talks about what keeps them curious, interested, and excited about their dance lives in Chicago.
ABOUT Kristina Fluty
Connect: Molly Shanahan Spiral Body
Kristina Fluty has called Chicago dance company Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak her artistic home since 2003. She is one of the inaugural certified teachers of Shanahan’s Spiral Body Techniques® and works with Shanahan to develop the framework and disseminate the teachings. The Feldenkrais Method® and Contact Improvisation (more than 25 years of personal practice) are also largely influential in her creative work and pedagogy. Early training includes a BA from Point Park University, time on scholarship at the Trisha Brown studios, and the early ‘aughts downtown NYC dance scene with instructors/choreographers such as K.J. Holmes, Miguel Gutierrez, and David Dorfman.
Kristina has taught and/or coached movement at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, Columbia College Chicago, the Lou Conte Dance Studio/Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Dovetail Studios, Chicago Movement Collective, the University of Chicago, Lyric Opera, Mordine and Company, Thodos Dance Chicago, BoneDanse, and Synapse Arts. She has choreographed theatrical intimacy at Steppenwolf, Porchlight, TimeLine, Marriott, and Remy Bumppo in Chicago, as well as one gig at Center Theater Group in Los Angeles. She has danced with many choreographers and companies in venues such as Joyce Soho, Tangente Montreal, the Athenaeum, Links Hall, Millennium Park, and Ruth Page, and continues to perform as much as possible.
Her MA and certifications in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis and Movement Pattern Analysis are from Columbia College Chicago. Currently, Kristina is an Associate Professor at The Theatre School at DePaul University, where she teaches movement to actors in the BFA and MFA conservatory programs.
ABOUT Alyssa Gregory
Connect: The Process website, The Fly Honeys, Arts + Public Life
Alyssa (Uhh-lee-sa) Gregory is a Chicago based performer, choreographer, teaching artist, and arts administrator. She’s worked with some of Chicago dance’s greatest including Erin Kilmurray, The Moving Architects, Joanna Furnans, The Leopold Group, Jenn Freeman/Po Chop, and The Fly Honey Show. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance & Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Masters of Arts in Performing Arts Administration from Roosevelt University. She has worked in Marketing, Communications and Social Media for the Dance Presenting Series, Honey Pot Performance, The Fly Honey Show, the Arts Club of Chicago and is currently Communications Manager at Arts + Public Life. She is also host of The Process Podcast which highlights the creative process of Chicago dancers, dance makers and all-around booty shakers. (she/her)
ABOUT Rahila Coats
Connect: Instagram @rahilacoats
Rahila is a movement artist based in the Midwest. She has performed new works and repertoire by Abigail Sena Atugah, Kofi Anthonio, Judith Brin Ingber, Karen Charles, Marciano Dos Silva Santos, Drew Lewis (House of DOV), Carl Flink, Kevin Iega Jeff, Ohad Naharin, Andrea Miller, Robert Moses, Leslie Parker, Uri Sands, Chris Schlicting, Erin Kilmurray, Anna Martine Whitehead, and Tali Wertheim- Agranionik and more in and outside the US dance community. Her works have been shown through the support of Danceworks Chicago, Thodos Dance Chicago, Synapse Arts, Co.mpany Projects, Twenty Percent Productions, Jerusalem Jazz Festival, and the University of Ghana- Legon. In 2021 she received Chicago’s 3Art’s Make A Wave Award along with 120 Chicago based artists. She toured nationally with Red Clay Dance Company from 2021-2024, and currently performs in Anna Martine Whitehead’s FORCE! An Opera in 3 Acts. Rahila regularly performs and composes music with the music collective Family Junket.
ABOUT Michael McStraw
Connect: Chicago Dance History
Michael McStraw, Executive Director of Chicago Dance History Project (CDHP), is a member of and an outstanding advocate for the Chicago performing arts community. As a professional dancer, musician, arts administrator, dance educator, board member, and arts patron, Michael has been a positive and constant influence in the community for 40 years. Raised in Western Pennsylvania, his life includes a BS degree in Geology from Allegheny College, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Modern Dance from the University of Michigan, and a stint as an agricultural extension agent in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He danced extensively with the area’s premier contemporary dance companies, including Mordine & Company Dance Theater, an organization he also managed, Jan Erkert & Dancers, and DanszLoop Chicago, of which he was a founding member. Prior to joining CDHP, Michael was honored to serve as Giordano Dance Chicago’s Executive Director for 13 years. He is an experienced marketing, operations, and project management professional with special skill in developing strategic long-term solutions for complex business issues. Michael has twice served three-year terms on the Illinois Arts Council Dance Panel, is past President and Board Member for See Chicago Dance, Chicago’s dance marketing and advocacy organization, and has mentored young artists/administrators within Pentacle’s Help Desk program. After serving six years as an ex-officio member of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance’s Board of Trustees, representing that organization’s Resident Companies, Michael was appointed as a full Trustee in June 2022. Michael was celebrated as the Chicago Tribune’s “2022 Chicagoan of the Year in Dance.”
(Photo by Todd Rosenberg, courtesy of Giordano Dance Chicago)
ABOUT Helen Lee
Connect: Momentum Sensorium
Helen Lee (they/she) is a Queer Asian Chicago-born interdisciplinary artist raised by immigrant parents from South Korea. They received an MFA with a focus in Performance and Film from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Dance with a minor in Theatre from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They have been a company member for The Humans, Tangentz Butoh Performance Group (Lori Othani), Aloha Dancers and Friends of Polynesia, understudied with Iona Contemporary Dance Theatre, been a guest artist for IS/LAND, and studied with Eiko Otake, Tadashi Endo, and Molly Shanahan. They have been teaching yoga, meditation and mindfulness since 2007. That same year, they formed Momentum Sensorium, a project-based company that has created and choreographed for See Chicago Dance, Out of Site, APIDA Arts Festival, and sometimes in unconventional locations such as lighthouses, train stations, and attics. Much of their work focuses on the senses, death, and the entanglement of light/shadow, joy/grief, celebrating Asian voices and Black and Asian allyship. They have presented works in the US, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Iceland, Finland and Canada. Helen was selected for 2022 Newcity Breakout Artist and 2024 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist. They have had residencies at Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago Cultural Center, Links Hall and High Concept Labs at Mana Contemporary. They are a frequent performer and improviser for Cristal Sabbagh’s Freedom From Freedom To series at Elastic Arts and is currently part of Tend for Khecari.
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