Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak

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.