POLYCULTURAL POLYRHYTHMS

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.

Session 3 features:

Lecture/Demonstration and Workshop: "#NeuroArt - This Is Your Brain on Rhythm" by Kiran James braided with Camila Rivero Pooley's "SUÉLTATE, Volume 1" (an introduction to "la olla,” vibrant circle or cypher found in Latin American social gatherings) and live musical collaboration by Joyce Lindsey.

Kiran James is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, educator, arts administrator, and podcaster based in Chicago. Trained extensively in Bharata-natyam, Kiran has given many acclaimed performances worldwide. He has also studied Bhagavata Mela, Kandyan, and Afro-Orisha, and he has incorporated these other dance styles into several original productions. In 2017, he co-founded Daya Arts, a non-profit aiming to bridge diasporic communities of color through artistic productions rooted in West African and South Asian art. In 2021, he co-founded Off the Beat – a podcast and production company which develops and produces educative programming on South Asian dance. In addition, Kiran regularly gives “NeuroArt” lectures on aesthetics, performance, and neuroscience. Currently, Kiran is the Executive Director of Kalapriya, and he graduated with a B.A. (magna cum laude) in Behavioral Neuroscience and Spanish from Boston University in 2008, an M.A. (honors) in Bharatanatyam from University of Madras in 2010, and an M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University in 2015.

Camila Rivero Pooley [she/they] is a Venezuelan/Peruvian movement artist based in Chicago, IL. She illustrates and pushes forward new visions of Latin American people through the exploration of Latin American aesthetics, music, artifacts and idiosyncrasies. They create to uplift the Latin American self-esteem, resist patriarchies, and encourage sexual liberation by introducing unapologetic feminist images of power, reinvention and pleasure. Her work is intimate, grungy, sweaty, dramatic, dynamic and immersive. Within her artistic trajectory she has performed for U.S. based artists Erin Kilmurray [“SEARCH PARTY”, “Fly Honey Show X” and “Nightshade”], Alex Grelle [“Lady Di” and “The Grelley Duvall Show 4”], Body Watani [“TERRANEA”], Peruvian dance artist Verónica Garrido Lecca [“Ser o Hacer” and “Donde se esconden las flores”] and worked as a director for Peruvian theater Teatro La Plaza [“FRONDOSO”] and ZINFORMA [“iORGAN”]. She is a recipient of the Albert P. Weisman Award [2018], received an Honorable Mention at the Experimental Forum in NYC 2020 [“iORGAN”], was listed as an Official Selection of the Blow Up Film Festival in Chicago 2020 [“iORGAN”], selected as a competitor for Best Scenic Video Selection for FAE 2021 in Lima, Peru [“Sábanas”] and exhibited at the SPACES gallery in Cleveland, OH 2021 [“Sábanas”].

Joyce Lindsey is a Chicago native. She received her BA from Denison University in 2014 and her MM in Music Production, Technology and Innovation at Berklee Valencia in 2019. She has dedicated twelve years of her life studying and practicing live performance, music production, sound design, and multiple world percussion instruments such as djembe, dunduns, congas, and doumbek. Joyce started her training as a dance accompanist as a student musician at the Doane Dance Department at Denison University. She also attended the American Dance Festival as a music intern for four consecutive summers between 2011 - 2014. Since 2015, Joyce has simultaneously built her career as an educator, dance accompanist, live performer, and music producer/sound designer. She has been a resident teaching artist at Discover Music Discover Life for seven years. Joyce has worked as a professional dance accompanist providing live percussion for multiple dance studios, universities, and art schools in Chicago such as the Lou Conte Dance Studio, Columbia College, Northwestern University, ChiArts, Chicago Academy for the Art and DanceWork. Joyce continues to provide live percussion for modern and ballet dance classes at Columbia College, Hyde Park School of Dance, and the Chicago Movement Collective. Finally, Joyce is also an active member of Ayodele Drum and Dance, which is a Chicago based, all-female dance and drum company that studies and performs dances and music from the African diaspora.

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