BACKSTORIES

The 2-day Symposium welcomes dance educators, enthusiasts, practitioners, scholars, and students to explore together what multiple vantage points reveal about rhythm, a phenomenon that saturates everything and everyone.

BACKSTORIES welcomes participants to immerse in the embodied research of three artist/scholars:

"Finding Your Rhythm: Navigating Life's Transitions Through Dance" workshop by Courtney "Deadshot" King

"A Break in the Pulse: Lindy Hop Revival and Lindy Hop Community" by Mallory Peterson

"Ethnographic Study of Krump in South Africa" by Kiana Cook

Come dressed to move and bring a water bottle and something to write with/on.

Kiana “KC” Cook is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural producer. She has been practicing social, street, and club dance forms in the African diaspora including Breaking, Krump, Hip Hop, Footwork, and House for the past 18 years. A current Masters in Dance candidate at the University of Michigan, she is working with professors such as Robin Wilson and Biza Sompa to embody Africanist aesthetics and study movement lineages. Her work engulfs curating events, emceeing, battling, performing and teaching which she has done in countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Malaysia, Jamaica, and South Africa. From 2021, she produced Krump-specific events "Friends of Chi Buck I (2021)," "WECAMEFROMHERE (2022)," and "Friends of Chi Buck II (2022)" in her chosen home of Chicago. She has helped cultivate the Krump community in Chicago since 2017 and is a part of the Kautionz Krump family out of the Midwest.

Courtney “Deadshot” King is a Chicago-based multi-talented creative. She has studied Dance at Columbia College Chicago mastering multiple styles. Courtney is a storyteller that is never shy to speak their mind and she has had many opportunities to show off her creative mind. Along her journey, Courtney has been grateful to perform and choreograph for Lollapalooza, Pride In the Park, Nascar, Chicago Fashion Week, WE DAY, House of Blues and at A Visionary Expose by Dome Productions. Courtney has continued to push her creative boundaries by directing and producing dance visuals that speak to her life experiences, she has taken Chicago by storm and has so much more in store.

Mallory Peterson is a PhD Candidate in Critical Dance Studies at University of California, Riverside. Her research interests include Lindy Hop and jazz dance, production of dancing communities, and the intersection of social dance and race. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago (BA – Dance, 2008), and from New York University (MA – Performance Studies, 2015).

Presented by the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago the Experiencing Time/Embodying Rhythm Symposium is made possible in part by Alphawood Foundation, Chicago Arts Recovery Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, Illinois Arts Council, and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

The Symposium is organized by Lisa Gonzales, Darrell Jones, Roell Schmidt, and Meredith Sutton.

Host or Publisher The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago