Winifred Haun has been making dances in Chicago for twenty years. She started while a member of the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater, and has had her own company, Winifred Haun & Dancers, since 1991. Several Chicago companies have presented her choreography over the years, including the Chicago Ballet. From 1994 to 2001, she was the force behind Chicago NEXT Dance Festival, recognized as a top producer of new and emerging choreographers in the Chicago area. She is currently a modern dance teacher with the Hubbard Street dance studio.

In 2005, in collaboration with Dawn Marie Galtieri and Christopher E. Ellis of the arts organization, Voice of the City, she co-founded Circle in the Square: New Works in Dance Theatre. Circle in the Square became the laboratory for building her first full-length work, Promise, which premieres this weekend at the Ruth Page Theater in Chicago. We talked with Haun about how John Steinbeck’s East of Eden influenced the making of this dance — and why you won’t see any direct references in the final piece.

Read More »

Photo credit: Jon Nalon

Huntsville is a small college town in east Texas, arguably better known for the state penitentiary (and the executions that are carried out there) than for Sam Houston State University. It’s certainly not known as a center for dance. Enter Andy and Dionne Sparkman Noble, both new faculty members at SHSU in their Dance Department. The couple met while dancing in college and have followed both individual and tandem careers. Both have danced and choreographed for Utah’s Repertory Dance Theatre, the University of Utah, and Florida State University (among others), and their individual resumes include such names as Paradigm Dance Company, Bellingham Repertory Dance Company, Tallahassee Ballet, American College Dance Festival, Joe Goode, and Stephen Koester. Read More »