The Seldoms

THE SELDOMS is in its seventeenth year. The Seldoms is committed to offering audiences an expanded experience of dance beyond entertainment, with the conviction that dance theater is a messenger capable of carrying complex social and cultural messages. With full-length works on topics such as the 2008 economic crisis, the climate change debate, and most recently, a trilogy on power and powerlessness in America, they have built a reputation for “well-crafted and researched works that don’t hold forth a political agenda, but look instead at how these towering issues reflect back on our own humanity” (New City, which named The Seldoms Best Local Dance Company in 2012).

Under the direction of choreographer Carrie Hanson, who was named the Chicago Tribune’s “Chicagoan of the Year in Dance” in 2015, The Seldoms has emerged as a leader in contemporary dance in Chicago. Power Goes, a commission by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, was awarded a National Dance Project Production Grant. From 2015-2017, Power Goes was performed in nine U.S. cities. On tour with each restaging, Hanson conducts a workshop entitled "Bodies on the Gears", inviting students and/or community members to explore issues raised by the piece—power, politics, justice, civil rights, and social change.

The Seldoms were honored to be the first resident artist at the new National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron in 2015. In 2012, the company's 10th Anniversary opened with a site-specific promenade performance by 24 dancers and musicians through the Harris Theater of Music and Dance. The Seldoms’ work, Stupormarket, which examined the 2008 economic crisis, was named “Best of 2011” by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and TimeOut Chicago. Nationally recognized collaborators include composer/sound designers Richard Woodbury and Mikhail Fiksel, playwright Stuart Flack and Seth Bockley, visual artists Bob Faust, Fraser Taylor, Faheem Majeed, Jackie Kazarian, and Anna Kunz, musicians Timothy Daisy and Chihsuan Yang, and fashion designers Anke Loh and Maria Pinto.

The Seldoms has developed international connections, touring in Russia, Canada, and Taiwan. In 2017, the ensemble traveled to Scotland to exchange with Glaswegian visual artists in a project called “Cross-Disciplinary Toolbox”, funded by the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. The Seldoms are known for large-scale, multi-disciplinary works in unconventional sites, such as an architectural salvage warehouse, a truck garage, and an outdoor pool. The Seldoms has received commissions from Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas, the Morton Arboretum, and the Ragdale Foundation. The company has partnered with entities including the Chicago Humanities Festival, Loyola University Museum of Art, Newberry Library, and is an Arts Partner in Residency at Pulaski Park