CARRIE HANSON & THE SELDOMS

Carrie Hanson is a dance artist and educator. Since founding The Seldoms in 2001, she has created over twenty-five new works for the company. She was named the Chicago Tribune’s “Chicagoan of the Year in Dance” in 2015. Her dance theater work, Power Goes, was awarded a New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project award and a National Performance Network Creation Fund. Ms. Hanson has been commissioned by the National Theater of Mannheim, Germany, the Elena Slobodchikova Dance Company in Russia, WCdance of Taiwan, and the Morton Arboretum. Time Out Chicago calls her “a virtuoso of meticulous composition” who makes “clear-edged, challenging dances”.
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Carrie and her dancers and collaborators were at The University of Akron July 19-28, 2015 for a mid-stage development and production residency for RockCitizen, a companion piece to the her 2014 National Dance Project supported work Power Goes. Hanson was in residence at The University of Akron with her Chicago-based performers Philip Elson, Mathew McMunn, Damon Green, Christina Gonzalez-Gillett, Cara Sabin and Lighting Designers Julie Ballard and Bob Faust. She utilized her time in residence to develop the choreographic structure of the new work in relationship to core thematic content (the impact and legacy of the 1960s counterculture), and – with her collaborators – conducted site-based research at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland and Kent State University’s May 4 Memorial. Hanson worked with a local production crew to develop and refine a large-scale backdrop and explore how the performers and set could best intersect with one another.