Dear Links,

I know I am way way way way late on this, but I have to send it anyway. I kept intending to do that cool make-a-page Links Hall remembrance thingy, but I never had time. Anyway, it is now the last second before the festivities begin, and even though I don’t know who will get to see this, here you go.

I was in the first concert produced at Links Hall. It was called “Squares and Dreams,” choreographed by Ellen Krueger and Susan Lane. It premiered April 20, 21, 27 & 28, 1979 and was performed again later that year in the fall. (I know these dates because I found a poster for the show in my attic. I probably have a program up there somewhere too, but did not find it on my first foray into the darkness & dust.) Fred Simon composed and recorded fabulous original music for the piece (I might even have a reel-to-reel tape of it somewhere) and Ken Bowen designed the lights. Kenny used to say it was one of his favorite designs ever. If I remember correctly, that had to do with the artistic limitations dictated by the miserly amounts of electricity carried by extension cord from downstairs somewhere. He would be happy to provide details. (This concert was also the first time someone hung sidelights out in the trees.) The lights were run by Len Amato, who, in later years, produced a mess of Hollywood movies and is now a VP at HBO. Besides Ellen, Susan, and me, Diana Conforti (Len’s girlfriend then, wife now), danced in the piece. I have pictures of us taken at dress rehearsal by Chuck Osgood (Tribune photographer) who was then Carol Bobrow’s hubby and the primo dance photographer around town.

The title “Squares & Dreams” reflected the structure of the evening-length piece. Sections that were more rhythmic, mathematical, structured, and linear (Squares) alternated with more free-form compositions (Dreams). The music also alternated between very lush and lyrical with Fred’s amazing piano compositions, and truly wacky, experimental, and more percussive. The creation of the dance and some of the music was extremely collaborative, improvisational, and fueled by amazing quantities of marijuana, which we were able to smoke freely in the studio at Links for the hours and weeks and months of rehearsals it took for the piece to slowly evolve.

I had just recently moved to Chicago when Ellen and Susan invited me to be in this piece. It was such a gift to be welcomed into the dance community through this work with them at Links Hall. That was my first experience with Links, but in subsequent years I rented rehearsal space, attended workshops, taught, and curated and performed in Poonie’s Cabaret (I had danced with Poonie in Jan Erkert’s company in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s). I also performed in many other works at Links – choreographed by others, choreographed by me, and including plenty of improvisation – both pure-movement based and text-and-movement based. My kids (their dad is Ken Bowen) were even drawn in to some of the performances, particularly one by Iris Dance Improvisation Group where the audience wrote instructions on paper airplanes and sailed them onto the stage.

Time passes and Links Hall is still the dancer’s friend. When I first performed there I was in my twenties, fresh out of the woods, crazy in love with my boyfriend who I’d moved to Chicago to be with. One of my later performances there was an improvised text and movement piece that looked at turning 50, being a mom (still in love with the same dude), and facing big changes.

Congratulations Links Hall. Keep it up.

Deb Siegel

Canadian-born Molly Shanahan founded Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak in 1994 as the home for her artistic projects after completing her Masters of Arts in Dance/Choreography at The Ohio State University.

Shanahan’s creative achievements are increasingly recognized across the field of contemporary dance, evidenced by critical and audience response and by organizations like Links Hall (Chicago) and the National Performance Network, among others, that have endorsed and supported her work. Shanahan’s work has been performed in Chicago at The Dance Center of Columbia College, Links Hall, Storefront Theater, and others. Outside Chicago, Mad Shak has performed at Dance Theater Workshop, Tangente (Montreal), and as a featured artist at the National Performance Annual Meeting in 2005, among others. In 2004 Mad Shak was the recipient of the Chicago Dance and Music Alliance’s Elizabeth F. Cheney Dance Achievement Award, citing Shanahan’s evening-length projects “So-Called Repetition,” “The Poems of Replaceable Kings,” and “Eye Cycle” as exemplary instances of impact on the field and promise for continued innovation. Following a rigorous selection process, Shanahan was named one of four choreographers selected as a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist for 2006/07. She was named by Time Out Chicago as one of the “20 People to Watch in 2007” and most recently received an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award in choreography in 2008.

Shanahan is influenced by Feldenkrais, Skinner Releasing Technique, improvisation, collaboration and body-mind studies, as well as early experience with urban social dance and Afro-Caribbean forms. She is on the dance faculty at Northwestern University and teaches throughout Chicago and in residencies associated with the creation and presentation of her work.

Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak will present Stamina of Curiosity at Milwaukee’s Pitman Theater at Alverno College Saturday, October 24 at 8:00pm; click here for ticketing information and more details.

Right-click image to view and enlarge.

Sara Wookey is a Los Angeles-based artist and creative consultant working collaboratively on interpretive walking tours, educational programs, performances and interactive media projects through her studio located in downtown Los Angeles. Collaborating with artists, architects, geographers and urban planners, her work encourages an experience of the city through participation and play and proposes socio-spatial creative possiblities for current urban issues. Sara’s training as a dancer and choreographer and her ten years spent living and working in Amsterdam, the Netherlands are key influences to her interest in the relationship between human experience and the built environment.

She currently works with the collectives: the Los Angeles Urban Rangers and is a founding member of the Choreographer’s Working Group\LA and teaches at the California Institute of the Arts and has been a guest teacher at the University of Southern California and Woodbury University. Her clients currently include: SC Wildlands, SCV Green, and Patagonia.

Maggie Kast is a dancer, teacher, writer, and community activist. Trained in Graham, Cunningham, and ballet techniques, she has performed for a number of troupes including Robin Lakes/Rough Dance and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. She founded, developed, and directed Chicago Contemporary Dance Theatre (1963-1980), serving as director, principal choreographer, teacher, and performer. She has a strong interest in dance within the context of worship, and has extensive experience in choreographing liturgical dance. Maggie has served on several boards, including St. Basil’s Free Peoples’ Clinic and Esperanza Community services. Maggie received her B.A. from the University of Chicago, and earned a Masters of Theological Studies from the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. She has taught at Valparaiso University and Columbia College. The recipient of several grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Maggie has also been recognized by the Chicago Dance Coalition, which gave her the Ruth Page Award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Dance Community.”

Maggie’s new book, The Crack Between the Worlds: A Dancer’s Memoir of Loss, Faith and Family, will be launched at 7:30pm on September 24 at Women and Children First Bookstore in Andersonville. A reception will follow — for more information please visit www.maggiekast.com

Back cover of Algebra Suicide's album "Real Numbers," recorded live at Links Hall in 1988.

Algebra Suicide was a Chicago poetry-music duo consisting of poet and visual artist Lydia Tomkiw and myself, musician Don Hedeker. We began in 1983 and broke up a decade later in 1993. At our shows, Lydia would recite her poems and project slide images at us (we would dress all in white) and our screen background, while I would play guitar to an accompanied tape that included drums & synthesizers. We called it “avant-garage” and we played several shows at Links Hall in the mid to late 1980s. These performances were always very special to us because we felt it was an honor to play at Links Hall. To us, Links Hall matched very well with our intended spirit of combining poetry, music, visual arts, and fun! Plus, Michael Zerang was such a joy to work with. The atmosphere at Links Hall was always great, and the audiences really listened to what you were doing (even if the El trains that rumbled by sometimes competed for their attention). This was the true friendly confines of Chicago! At one of these shows, we had Ken Rasek record our two sets, and Franz Liebl, our friend from Munich, decided to release this live recording as a CD called “Real Numbers” on his Pursuit of Market Share label (I don’t know if that pursuit was ever fully realized!). We were very excited –- after several releases on vinyl, it was our very first CD release –- a new and exotic medium that was going to make vinyl as dead as 8-tracks! And released in Europe!! A few years later, in 1990 & 1991, we went over to Europe to play some shows, so this Links Hall show in many ways laid the foundation for our overseas adventures. The backside of this CD is above, and one can see the date of this show, April 9, 1988, and the song/poems that we played that night. As I recall, our very first piece that night was “Somewhat Bleecker Street,” but I messed it up and so we did it again at the end of the night as an encore. Luckily, the second time I got it right (or as right as I could get it!).

RIP Lydia Tomkiw (1959-2007).

Jon Sherman is co-founder and Artistic Director of sprung. He completed the two-year program at L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq and studied theatre and dance at Middlebury College and the British American Dramatic Academy. He has performed in New York, Switzerland, and Washington, DC, with theatres from Arena Stage to the Potomac Theatre Project, playing roles such as Roderick Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher, Jules in Jules and Jim, Antonio in Twelfth Night, and Charles Dickens, Carl Jung, and other sexual deviants in Vampire. In Chicago, Jon has performed with Lucky Plush Productions, Mordine and Company, Cie. Felix Ruckert, and Asimina Chremos, as well as directing, performing with, and teaching for 500 Clown. He was assistant director to Mary Zimmerman for Pericles at the Goodman, and was also a member of DOG, with whom he created and performed in WinSer2003:AD and Interference. He directed and performed in Abound, co-directed and performed in Capsize, seep, and And I, directed but probably not, and regularly gives movement workshops through sprung and other companies. Jon is currently in Northwestern’s Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama.