TRADITIONS

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 2 features the participatory lecture/demonstration:

"American Rhythmic Traditions: Continuity, Connection and Community" by Shireen Dickson

followed by a discussion led by Lisa Gonzales and Darrell Jones.

Shireen Dickson has worked in dance and arts education for over 20 years – as a performer, teaching artist, lecturer, curriculum developer, and NYC Dept of Education classroom teacher. Her performance experience spans from a teen National Tap Ensemble member to professional cheerleading for the NBA to Equity, Off-Broadway and ‘experimental’ and improvisational theater. She performed with and assisted award-winning choreographer Dianne McIntyre for 10 years, performing and teaching at such venues including the National Black Arts Festival, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, The American Dance Festival, and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, among numerous other theaters, festivals and universities. Shireen was the founding Community Engagement Director for both MacArthur winner Elizabeth Streb’s SLAM and Dance Parade NY, and currently consults on culturally- and community-responsible arts-based projects nationwide. Since 2010 Shireen has directed OKRA Dance, which presents African and American diasporic dance and world rhythmic forms in schools, libraries, museums and festivals throughout the US. Shireen is a founding executive board member of the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance based at Duke University and directed their bi-annual conference for 10 years. She currently manages SLIPPAGE Lab at Northwestern University alongside Thomas F. DeFrantz, mentors classroom teachers in Auditorium Theatre education programs, and is the acting conference director for Illinois Dance Education Organization.

Lisa Gonzales is an improviser, educator, collaborator, and choreographer. She is a tenured faculty member and has served as the Chair of the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago since 2018. She teaches courses in Choreography, improvisation, contemporary technique, creative process, and experiential anatomy. She has been described as a performer of “stunning power and nuance” by the New York Times and remains professionally devoted to the practices of performing, improvising, choreographing and teaching. Domestically her work has been seen in a diverse collection of spaces including in New York City at DTW, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, Joyce Soho, Dixon Place, WAX, Joe’s Pub, John Jay College, and Brick Studio among others, and in Chicago at The Dance Center of Columbia College, Hamlin Park, Links Hall, and MANA Contemporary as part of an Incubational Artist Residency with High Concept Labs. Internationally, Gonzales’ work has been presented at the historic Lu-Ling Theater in Taipei, Taiwan, at the Dostoyevsky Theater in St. Petersburg Russia, in Helsinki, Finland, and in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. She is a recent recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and she presented her dance-puppetry collaboration with designer, Tom Lee in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and will be touring to Singapore this summer. Gonzales received a BA from Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT and an MFA in Dance with a specialization in choreography from the Ohio State University.

Darrell Jones is a performer, educator, researcher, and choreographer. He is a tenured faculty member at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago where he teaches classes in physical practice, performance, and improvisational techniques He has performed extensively across the United States and globally, in all kinds of venues, including Links Hall in Chicago, Danspace Project, Dance Box – Kobe, Japan, and the Venice Biennale. He maintains long-term collaborative relationships with Bebe Miller Company and Ralph Lemon. Additional foundational experiences have included working with Min Tanaka, Ronald K. Brown, Kokuma Dance Theatre (Birmingham, UK), and Urban Bush Women. Jones is a two-time Bessie Award recipient and has received grants and awards including the inaugural 2024 Walder Platform Award, 3Arts Award, Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the MAP Fund. For the 2016-17 academic year he was the Creative Campus Fellow in Dance at Wesleyan University. He also has an ongoing relationship with the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) and was the Florida State Alumnus Fellow for 2020-2021.As a highly collaborative generative artist, Jones has sought out partnerships with other choreographers (Paige Cunningham, Lisa Gonzales, Damon Green, Angie Hauser, J’Sun Howard, Kirstie Simpson, Jeremy Wade), writers (Cheryl Boyce-Taylor), musicians (Jesse Mano, Brian Schuler, Justin Mitchell) and designers (Mahwish Syed) in dance films, documentations, and interactive multimedia installations. He holds an MFA in Dance from Florida State University.

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