{"id":699800,"date":"2026-04-02T14:36:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/699800\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:36:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:36:36","slug":"after-a-prominent-dance-venue-closed-a-new-effort-aims-to-lift-up-independent-chicago-dancemakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/699800\/","title":{"rendered":"After a prominent dance venue closed, a new effort aims to lift up independent Chicago dancemakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year after the storied Chicago dance venue Links Hall announced it would close<\/a> its doors for good, prompting an outcry from the experimental dance<\/a> community that staged works there, a new effort seeks to help fill the gap.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit Chicago Dancemakers Forum announced Thursday the inaugural class of its Dance Project Grants Program, which will help power 10 live dance events in the next year from independent artists. Events range from a weeklong footwork series to a dance theater performance featuring puppets and projections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to let the void just be the void,\u201d said Joanna Furnans, the forum\u2019s executive director. \u201cI feel very firmly that we need to do something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each of the 10 recipients, selected from a pool of more than 100 applicants, will receive $10,000 in funding, which comes from foundations, the state arts council and individuals. On the list of grantees are dancemaker and poet J\u2019Sun Howard and the Afro-feminist-focused group, Honey Pot Performance.<\/p>\n

The program arrives amid a precarious moment for the arts. Last year, President Donald Trump clawed back grant dollars<\/a> awarded through the National Endowment for the Arts and shifted the program\u2019s focus, in part, to projects that celebrate the nation\u2019s 250th birthday. (The Dancemakers Forum was among the arts organizations that lost federal grant dollars.) Locally, funding for the arts has dipped at the city level<\/a> and remained stagnant in the proposed state budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"SWIS)HER<\/p>\n

\u201cSWIS)HER\u201d by dancemaker and poet J\u2019Sun Howard is among the grantees. The work is a celebration of Black queer dance lineages. <\/p>\n

The shaky funding landscape has led some arts organizations<\/a> to shy away from works that<\/a> embrace diversity or subject matters that may attract scrutiny. Furnans hopes the forum\u2019s grant program can be an antidote to that.<\/p>\n

Chicago is home to a few major dance companies that tour internationally, plus a handful of midsize professional groups. But the scene has also produced countless independent dancemakers who need rehearsal and performance space to stage their works; that scene has been hit hardest by the Links\u2019 closure. \u201cI think historically, Chicago has a conservative dance mind, or dance aesthetic. By Chicago, I mean the major stages are showing work that feels kind of like safe and, you know, tried and true,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are so many other kinds of work being made in the city that we are in a position to uplift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furnans acknowledged that while \u201c$10,000 is great,\u201d it also is \u201cnot enough for any of these projects.\u201d But, she\u2019s hoping the investment will generate momentum and help rebuild a pathway for individual dance artists to establish careers in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to lose the kind of stepping stone opportunities for professional dancemakers to build their careers and have continuous opportunities to make a name for themselves in the city and beyond,\u201d Furnans said.<\/p>\n

For years, the dance nonprofit gave four larger grants to mid-career artists through its Lab Artists Program, but after surveying the local landscape, Furnans opted to pivot and put that initiative on pause in favor of smaller grants for dancemakers still establishing themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was seeing that the scaffold has left, and so we need to come in with the resources that we have and actually do something different to help stimulate the ecosystem at this time,\u201d Furnans said.<\/p>\n

While each of the grantees\u2019 projects will result in a live performance or event, the grant does not provide a set venue or rehearsal space. The hope is to infuse dance into new and unexpected spaces, Furnans said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"La<\/p>\n

Amanda Ramirez\u2019s work, \u201cLa Cookout,\u201d was inspired by her upbringing in El Paso, Texas. She first began developing the site-specific immersive dance performance during a residency at the Chicago Cultural Center. Now, she says this new grant funding will allow her to finish the work. <\/p>\n

Taking art beyond the confines of theaters is something larger organizations<\/a> are also experimenting with as they vie to attract new audiences, but dance artists like Amanda Ramirez say permanence also matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cLinks Hall was very important to me as an artist and its loss is massive,\u201d said Ramirez, who also pointed to Hamlin Park Theater and Chicago Moving Company\u2019s closure in 2024. \u201cI personally have felt a massive decrease in performances happening. There\u2019s definitely still performances, and people are resilient, but to me, there is a ginormous hole in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramirez, a 35-year-old dancemaker who lives in Chicago\u2019s Logan Square, is among the grantees. Her project, \u201cLa Cookout,\u201d is a site-specific immersive dance performance, inspired by family cookouts during her upbringing in El Paso, Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brings together dance, music and food to create a sort of Latin-style cookout, or, how we call it, a carne asada, and it becomes a living and participatory performance experience,\u201d said Ramirez, who first began the project through a residency at the Chicago Cultural Center. \u201cThis grant gives me the opportunity to finish the project so that it can be performed in a non-traditional environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the grant program, which Furnans said will also be offered next year, the Dancemakers Forum has partnered with High Concept Labs to take the pulse of the city\u2019s experimental performance sector. Following a survey last fall<\/a>, they\u2019ll co-host a community gathering<\/a> on April 18 to take the temperature of the local scene and discuss what comes next.<\/p>\n

2026 Dance Project Grants Recipients: <\/b><\/p>\n