Emerging Artists Mentoring Program
Mordine & Company is thrilled to announce that Ayako Kato and Archana Kumar are the recipients of the 2010 Emerging Artists Mentoring Program.
"Shirley's insight based on her nearly half century career as a choreographer and company director didn't allow me to be somewhere in the middle with hesitancy. She kept her policy of mentoring, "clarifying a choreographer's own voice rather than modifying it," throughout the program and it truly let me work harder during my creating process. I truly received the opportunity to face my own choreographic voice and the program gave me so much room just to concentrate on what I have been wanting to do: looking at the piece from outside and experimenting as deep as I want to without worrying about financial aspects of the production. Thank you, Shirley, for the opportunity and sharing your sincere exploring history to create dance." --Ayako Kato
"......(Shirley was) ever so open to really hear me; willingly offering honest feedback and challenging me to question, to dig deeper, to find more meaning in my work." Shirley told me " be bold to state what your heart is saying in your work. Go for it!" Till then I was struggling trying to be "polite" in my work afraid I might offend yet again due to cultural differences. I wish there were more such mentorship programs, more importantly with experienced, thoughtful and perceptive mentors such as Shirley Mordine." --Archana Kumar
Ayako Kato
Ayako Kato is a dancer and choreographer who hails from Yokohama, Japan. She established Art Union Humanscape (AUH) with a double bassist Jason Roebke in 1998. Kato performs extensively in the U.S., Japan and Europe. Her works has been presented at Dance Theater Workshop, Joyce Soho, Die Pratze Dance Festival (Tokyo), Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain (Strasbourg, France) and other festivals and venues. Kato has received the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award 2007 and AUH received Crosscut sound and movement grant by Experimental Sound Studio and Links Hall in 2008 with Josh Berman (cornet). Her works also have supported by Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and Japan Foundation. Kato's experimental dance aims at unfolding space of furyu (wind flow), being as it is. www.artunionhumanscape.net
Archana Kumar
Archana Kumar began her love affair with dance more than 2 decades ago. She is extensively trained in Baratanatyam, Kathak and Modern dance. Her primary focus is Kathak and to teach this north Indian classical form to people of all ages and backgrounds.She has taught several 101 classes in Kathak at universities and schools. She is currently the adjunct faculty for Spring quarter 2010 at the Northwestern University. As an independent solo artist, her works are experimental and rich in cultural pluralism that often bridge the gap between dance and theatre. Greatly influenced by philosophies of Butoh and improvisation, her movement vocabulary combines these aesthetics together with the narrative quality of Indian classical dance together with the physicality of what she sees in modern dance techniques. She holds to Bachelors degrees in Biology and Psychology. Free spirited, she is passionate about traveling and seeking answers for the mysteries of this beautiful life.
Throughout her career Shirley Mordine has seen the mentoring of young talent as central both to the continued growth of dance as an art form and her mission as an artist and teacher. In 2002 this philosophy gave birth to the Mentoring Program. Mordine selects promising young choreographers and mentors them through the creation of a piece. The chosen young choreographers work intensively with Mordine over a 6-month period of rehearsing, learning, and creating. The mentees receive not only the benefit of Mordine's guidance but also rehearsal space and trained dancers with whom to create the work. At the end of the mentoring process the work is presented in a staged concert for the public. The 2010 Awardees will be announced in January 2010, and their works will be presented as part of the NEXT Festival at Epiphany Episcopal Church May 7, 8, 9, 2010.
Past recipients of the mentoring program include Julia Rae Antonick, Margaret Morris, Michael Rioux, James Morrow, Julia Rhoads, Jonathan Meyer and Zachary Whittenburg.
InReach Program
Making Connections with Chicago's Youth
"InReach" is a pilot program that provides a combination of arts instruction, performance and interaction with professional artists. "InReach" will engage and nurture inner city high school-age choreographers in a peer-to-peer, mentorship process with Mordine & Company members to create a new contemporary dance work. Beginning with summer workshops the project will culminate in performances at Chicago Park District locations throughout the city.
By initiating an "InReach" program, Mordine hopes to "engage budding young choreographers and serve as an entree for them into the field of contemporary dance. In addition to the valuable experience of learning alongside experienced dance artists, 'InReach' will provide a broader understanding for the students' choices, even career options, within the arts." The program's goal is to give young artists of diverse backgrounds the chance to explore their own creative ideas in mentorship with older artists as role models.