Ayako Kato
Ayako Kato (performer) is a Japanese-native and Chicago-based dancer, choreographer and improviser. She has been an artistic director of Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape since 1998. In 2017, she received Links Hall’s inaugural Co-MISSION Fellowship. In 2016, she received a 3Arts Award in Dance, Meier Achievement Award, and was named Top 5 Choreographers of Chicago by Newcity Stage. Influenced by a Japanese view of nature and the philosophy … Read more
Picolina Z
Picolina Z (aka Pickles) (singer) sings and studies jazz, performs with Eve’s Undoing, sings in various sound art, experimental and musical projects in Chicago, the Bay Area and Paris and composes some of her own work. She has a background in performance and experimental art as well as static forms of art and previously studied North Indian Raga vocal music.
Chih-Hsien Lin
Chih-Hsien (Joan) Lin (performer) is a native of Taiwan, a mover, choreographer, improviser, registered dance/movement therapist, and Licensed Professional Counselor. She is a Movement Pattern Analyst, looking systematically at people’s decision-making process and interaction styles through their established integrated movement patterns. Chih-Hsien’s movement language reflects a rich cultural bearing from traditional Asian ethnic dances and martial arts to a vast array of somatic modern integrations; contact improvisation, Alexander Technique, Bartenieff … Read more
Carlos Lopez
Carlos Lopez (performer) is an acrobat, dancer, aerialist, and student from Chicago. Carlos has been performing partner acrobatics since 2013. In 2016 he began performing in dance/acro projects and has been dancing ever since. Carlos performs with Sildance/Acrodanza, Lani Montreal, Aura Curiatlas, and Erica Mott Productions. When he’s not dancing and lifting people Carlos does trapeze, acting, advises students in college, studies urban planning, and makes maps for non-profit organizations.… Read more
JulieAnn Graham
JulieAnn Graham (performer) is an improviser, singer, teacher and bodyworker. She is passionate about the art of improvisation and has been studying with her mentors Nancy Stark Smith, The Architects, Chris Aiken, and Angie Hauser for many years. Her most recent performances have been a collaboration with Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser at Hamlin park, Spontaneous Combustion. The second round of the same performance with different players is happening this … Read more
Audre Budrys Nakas
Audre Budrys Nakas (singer) is a teacher, actor, and director. She teaches drama at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, and has taught at the Piven Theatre Workshop as well as the Chicago College of Performing Arts/Roosevelt University. She has directed university productions at Roosevelt as well as youth productions at Lab. In Chicago Audre has acted in shows with TUTA, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Piven, and the Bridge, and has … Read more
Michael LaHood
Michael LaHood (singer), aka Hoodie, is an interdisciplinary artist who uses a variety of materials to focus attention and practice on the relational spaces between people. His works incorporate heartbeat, breath, tokens of exchange, handmade balloons, light, sound, immersive video, fire, and song in celebration and growth.
Hoodie sang for four years in college with the Stanford Mendicants a cappella group, and has performed in a variety of stage productions … Read more
Lucía Mier y Terán Romero
Born and raised in Mexico City, Lucía Mier y Terán Romero (singer) began taking singing lessons at the age of 12 and later continued her studies at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). In 2011 she obtained a scholarship for UNAM’s student exchange program to study one semester at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain and in 2012 she obtained her undergraduate degree as a singer. She has been part … Read more
Michael Zerang
Michael Zerang (musical composer) was born in Chicago, Illinois, and is a first-generation American of Assyrian decent. He has been a professional musician, composer, and producer since 1976, focusing extensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms.
As a percussionist, composer and collaborator, Zerang has over one hundred titles in his discography and has toured nationally and internationally to 35 countries since … Read more
Emmy Bean
Emmy Bean (vocal composer) is a singer, performer and teaching artist living in Chicago. She writes songs and performs with Chris Schoen and T-Roy Martin in 80 Foots, Chicago’s only End Times Vocal Trio. She performs frequently with Opera-Matic in the parks on Chicago’s northwest side, and with John Szymanski in the Monthly Music Club. Emmy teaches in Chicago Public Schools with Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education and in children’s … Read more
