A New Decade of Dance Films: Screenings by Kierah [KIKI] King & Patricia Nguyen

THE DANCE CENTER AND THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY PRESENT

A NEW DECADE OF DANCE FILMS: SCREENINGS BY KIERAH [KIKI] KING & PATRICIA NGUYEN KIERAH [KIKI] KING

PATRICIA NGUYEN

MODERATED BY JENN PO’CHOP FREEMAN

OCTOBER 19, 2023

1306 S. MICHIGAN AVE., CHICAGO, IL 6–7:30 p.m. dance.colum.edu

A NEW DECADE OF DANCE FILMS is part of the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)’s current exhibition: LOVE: Still Not the Lesser led by MoCP Associate Curator Asha Iman Veal. Twelve international artists, uniting across communities to share the ways they encounter and understand love, explore dynamics within romantic partnership, sensual eroticism, family structures, social utopia, and life and death. They observe and declare circumstances of love that serve various intentions.

The projects on view in LOVE range from an expressive courtship dance enacted by two people learning how to meaningfully connect despite barriers of distance, to an embodied portrayal of feeling one’s own sensuality and pleasure and from an adult son’s photo collaboration with his nonagenarian father during his artist mother’s last weeks of life, to the love and pride held within queer parenting.

CREDITS CREATING WORLDS WITH MY MOTHER (2023) LEAD CAST: Thuy Ta & Patricia Nguyen COMPOSER: Fiona Ngô WRITERS: Patricia Nguyen & Thuy Ta DIRECTOR: Patricia Nguyen

BLACK WOMEN WHY (2021) MOVEMENT/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Kierah [KIKI] King CO-DIRECTOR & POST PRODUCTION: Gabriela Chavez DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Steven Piper BTS PHOTOGRAPHY: Shekhinah Gaddis SOUND DESIGN: Kevin Klein POETRY: Ali Abdul (Ali) STYLING: Gabriela Chavez VOICES: Mariah Coneway, Caitlin Dobbins, Selena Lasley, Nia Odum, and Kierah [KIKI] King DANCERS: Taraja Echols, Deja Hood, Desire Jones, Kayla Kurns, Kierah [KIKI] King, and Amaya Marie

ACT II SCENE II (2021) MOVEMENT DIRECTION: Kierah [KIKI] King VIDEOGRAPHY & EDITING: Gabriela Chavez MOVEMENT ARTIST: Desiré Jones

FRUITFUL DEVOTION (2023) DIRECTOR AND WRITER: Kierah [KIKI] King DANCERS: Amaya Arroyo, Rahila Coats, Mya McClellan DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND EDITOR: Kachi Mozie COSTUMES: Kayla Urraca MAKE UP: Sara Perez SOUND: Tekwona Lakia

Special thanks to Asha Iman Veal, Alyssa Gregory, Mia Vivens, and Links Hall.

Funded by Museum of Contemporary Photography

ARTIST CONVERSATION AND MODERATED Q&A with Jenn PoChop Freeman EMBODIED EXPLORATION OF FRUITFUL DEVOTION with Kierah [KIKI] King and Amaya Arroyo

THE DANCE CENTER PRODUCTION CREW TECHNICAL DIRECTOR AND PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kevin Rechner MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY COORDINATOR: Jane Jerardi LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR: Anna Schultz-Breef SOUND ENGINEER: Dante Giramma

BIOS

Kierah [KIKI] King received their BFA in Dance with a minor in Black World Studies from Columbia College Chicago with the class of 2020. A native of Hartford, Connecticut, KIKI was homeschooled in their family’s café where they learned the power of service, education and creativity as central to life. KIKI’s work in Chicago comes from their passion and commitment for social justice, activism, and community building that present themselves through forms of media, performance, choreographic work and different forms of workshops and events throughout the city of Chicago.

Patricia Nguyen is an artist, scholar, and educator based in Chicago and Charlottesville. She earned her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at Northwestern University. She has performed and exhibited at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile, Prague Quadrennial, Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Network, and Nha San Collective in Vietnam. She is an awardwinning memorial designer for the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial Project, the first monument in the United States to honor survivors of police violence.

Chicago-based burlesque artist Jenn Freeman also known as Po’Chop uses elements of dance, storytelling, and striptease to create performances and inspire students and collaborators across the country. Po’Chop is the creator and author of the blogzine, The Brown Pages and has performed at the Brooklyn Museum in Brown Girls Burlesque’s Bodyspeak, and headlined shows in New Orleans, Minneapolis, St. Louis and New York. Po’Chop is a Board Member and Cast Member, for Jeezy’s Juke Joint, an all-black burlesque revue. Po’Chop performs on Netflix’s Easy (Season 2), appears in music videos for songs by Jamila Woods and Mykele Deville, and creates and performs experimental dance films such as LITANY.

ABOUT THE DANCE CENTER Home to the academic Dance Department and the Dance Presenting Series, the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago values embodied human expression and nurtures an expansive understanding of dance from the established to the experimental.

Centering pluralism, the Dance Center aims to be a nucleus for innovation and creativity—on stage, in the classroom, and beyond.

By partnering with local, national, and international dance artists dedicated to transforming the field, the Dance Presenting Series offers live performances and other shared opportunities for students, faculty, artists, and audiences to connect, witness, research, experiment, practice, imagine, and grow.

We cultivate an environment and culture that prioritizes respect for self and others, and advances an anti-racist, equitable, and just society.

Founder Shirley Mordine

Mary Klonowski

Chair of Dance Lisa Gonzales

Michael McGinn

Dean, School of Fine and Performing Arts Dr. Rosita M. Sands

Jimmy Payne

Faculty Chair Lisa Gonzales

Thomas Zwergel

Associate Chair Dardi McGinley-Gallivan Bevara Anderson Susan Imus Darrell Jones Kelsa Robinson Dr. Ayo Walker Jessica Young Adjunct Faculty Ayo Alston Keesha Beckford Malik Camara Zineb Chraibi Shaker Cohlmia Allen Desterhaft Emma Draves

Hau Kum Leung Kneip Pamela McNeil

Bravemonk Gina Hoch-Stall Matthew Hollis Jane Jerardi

Roell Schmidt DPS Producing Director

Emily Stein Trae Turner Meghann Wilkinson

Staff Michael Caskey Music Director, Accompanist Coordinator Dan DiLuciano Director of Facilities and Operations Caity Gee Administrative Assistant and Communications Manager Ize Heinzen House Manager Jane Jerardi Media and Technology Coordinator Ambe’r Johnson Box Office Associate

Colleen Halloran Carrie Hansen

Kevin Rechner Technical Director and Production Manager

Angelika Lewis Box Office Associate Pamela McNeil Academic Manager

Meredith Sutton DPS Artistic Director

FRIENDS OF THE DANCE CENTER The Dance Center gratefully acknowledges its donors for their generous support. $1,000 AND ABOVE Bonnie Brooks

$100-249

David Colburn

Bernadette Casey

Pamela Crutchfield

Dr. Kurt Christoffel

William Hunt

Margi Cole

Marcia Lazar and Alan Amos

Andrea Edwards

Elizabeth Liebman

Peter N. and Susan F. Gray

Susan Manning and Douglas Doetsch

Nancy Juda

Kathleen Miles

Arnold and Carol Kanter

Taylor and Carrie Olivia Adams

Maggie Kast

D. Elizabeth Price

Philip Martini

Anonymous

Thomas and Shirley Neiman $500-999

Clyde Whitaker

Ellen Chenoweth

Stephen Roy and Lloyd Kohler

Melynda Lopin

Judith Sagan

Robert Mrtek and Marsha Mrtek Susan J. Stall

$50-99

Shawn Wax

Charlotte and Alan Bath Dr. Bob

$250-499

Cornelio Casaclang

Nancy Church and Charles Jett

Nancy K. DeDakis

Amor Kohli

Lisa Gonzales

Jamey Lundblad and Bill Melamed

Colleen Halloran

K. McGriff Susan F. Rossen

Paul E. Fisher

Dawn Renee Jones Pamela Hoffman McNeil Dardi McGinley-Gallivan Evemarie Moore Bette Rosenstein Dr. Elaine Sachnoff Emily Stein Mary Beth Van Dyke

This list includes gifts received through October 1st, 2023. If you have donated since then, thank you and look for your name in the next program!

To become a Friend of the Dance Center, please visit dance.colum.edu/donate

ABOUT MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY The MoCP is a world premier college art museum dedicated to photography. As an international hub, we generate ideas and provoke dialogue among students, artists and diverse communities through groundbreaking exhibitions and programming. Our mission is to cultivate a deeper understanding of the artistic, cultural and political roles of photography in our world today. Founded in 1976 by Columbia College Chicago as the successor to the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Photography began collecting in the early 1980s and has since grown its collection to include over 16,800 objects by over 1,800 artists. The MoCP is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

MoCP STAFF Natasha Egan Executive Director Karen Irvine Chief Curator and Deputy Director Stephanie Conaway Director of Operations

Heather Owens Manager of Marketing and Community Engagement Ash Huse Curatorial and Education Assistant Giselle Mira Diaz Curatorial and Education Assistant

Kristin Taylor Curator of Academic Programs and Collections

Hillary Johnson Curatorial and Education Assistant

Asha Iman Veal Associate Curator

Danielle Lioce Collections Assistant

Patrick Thornton Administrative Assistant and Shop Manager

SUPPORT The American Dancing Body Symposium is made possible in part by Alphawood Foundation, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Illinois Arts Council Agency, and is partially supported by a Chicago Arts Recovery Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Curation of the American Dancing Bodies Symposium and the 50th Anniversary Season was made possible by the contributions of Bevara Anderson, Celeste Brace, Ellen Chenoweth, Daniel DiLuciano, Emma Draves, Jyl Fehrenkamp, Raynner Garcia, Caity Gee, Lisa Gonzales, Joy Holder, Mary Hopkins, Susan Imus, Jane Jerardi, Ambér Johnson, Darrell Jones, Mary McGinley-Gallivan, Pamela McNeil, Kevin Rechner, Kelsa Rieger-Haywood, Roell Schmidt, Meredith Sutton, SJ Swilley and Gabriella Titolo, and Dr. Ayo Walker.

Special thanks to Dan Diluciano, Caity Gee, Lisa Gonzalez, Matthew Hickey, Jane Jerardi, Angelika Lewis, Heather Owen, Kevin Rechner, Kristin Taylor, Asha Iman Veal for their valuable insights and contributions to this event.

DANCE CENTER SPONSORS

A. Montgomery Ward Foundation

The Dance Center is a member of Dance/USA, See Chicago Dance, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, and the American College Dance Association.

Athletico is the exclusive provider of physical therapy, occupational therapy, sports medicine, athletic training, work rehabilitation, and massage therapy for the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago.