Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale

The Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale supports an individual choreographer and/or dance artist by offering an 18-day residency in the Sybil Shearer Studio at Ragdale along with a cash stipend of $1,000, the creation of a brief video documentary/interview, and the presentation of a public program. The residency may be awarded to a collaborative duo if they share a live/work studio.

Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale began in 2016 and is given annually by the Morrison-Shearer Foundation.
LIST OF RECIPIENTS:

Photo: Ricardo Adame

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS

Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale: 2025

The Morrison-Shearer Foundation is pleased to announce that acclaimed choreographer Christopher Williams has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale, a nonprofit artist residency program and community in Lake Forest, IL. This prestigious opportunity, which we’re proud to fund, continues our commitment to nurturing visionary dance artists.

Described by the New York Times as “one of the most exciting choreographic voices out there,” Christopher Williams (pictured here) is renowned for his unique approach to choreography, blending classical and contemporary dance with a deep exploration of mythology and puppetry. His work transcends traditional boundaries, creating performances that transport audiences to realms of magic and wonder.

Photo: Ricardo Adame

AYAKO KATO

Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale: 2024

During her residency fellowship at Ragdale, Ayako Kato will be working on ETHOS IV: Degrowth/Cycle/Rebirth, an evening-length piece created to shift focus from human-centered, capitalistic ways of being to a more symbiotic, nature-centered way of being. It will be premiered at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago on April 19 and 20, 2024 as part of its Chicago Artist Spotlight Festival commemorating the Dance Center’s 50th Season.

STEPHANIE MARTINEZ

Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale: 2023

Award winning choreographer, Stephanie Martinez, has been selected as the second recipient of the Sybil Shearer Fellowship for an artist’s residency in the new Sybil Shearer Studio at Ragdale. Stephanie is the Founder and Artistic Director of PARA.MAR Dance Theatre in Chicago.

Through this fellowship, Stephanie will explore the work of Chilean poet and scholar Gabriela Mistral as a companion to her most recently completed work, Dos Lados, which she began working on 6 years ago through Ballet Hispanico’s Instituto Coreográfico. Now realized as a full-length contemporary ballet, Dos Lados explores the conflict between the public and private self and the stories we are “allowed” to tell. The piece recently enjoyed its first fully-staged production at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre.

Photo: Enki Andrews

NEJLA YATKIN

Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale: 2022

Chicago-based choreographer, Nejla Yatkin, has been awarded the first Sybil Shearer Fellowship in the new Sybil Shearer Studio at Ragdale to be scheduled during spring 2022. During her residency, Nejla will develop a new piece entitled A Dance For A Time Being; a video and augmented reality dance project for 6 dancers over 60. The project celebrates and brings awareness to aging through an exploration of how our identity is shaped by place and community and how one’s sense of self evolves over a lifetime.

Yatkin writes, “Dancers’ bodies, like trees, accumulate wisdom and knowledge throughout years of training and living—a wealth that is overlooked because dance is popularly seen as an artform of youth. With this project, I intend to make the gains of age visible through the art of movement in public places.”

“A Dance For A Time Being explores the aging body and place; revealing the traces we leave behind in the spaces we move in. I will collaborate with 6 BIPOC dancers over 60 in 6 different neighborhoods in Chicago; including artists with Black, Latin, Asian, Middle Eastern and Indigenous identities who will dance at outdoor sites meaningful to them in their communities.

RENA BUTLER

Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale: 2019

The 2019 fellowship was awarded to Rena Butler, a multi-disciplinary artist based in Chicago and New York City. Having trained at the Chicago Academy of the Arts and studied at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan, she received her BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance in New York. MSF Trustee Shayne Bullen, Chair of the Sybil Shearer Fellowship Committee, reports, “Rena best fit our criteria for representing MSF and the Fellowship at Ragdale. It was our pleasure to review the candidates, as they all exhibited a high level of talent, skill, and artistic expression.”

BRITTANY HARLAN

Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale: 2018

Brittany Harlin is the founding artistic director of Chicago Urban Dance Collective and 2017 recipient of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award . Her influences are Hip Hop and Modern Dance Pioneers. In addition to company work, her dancing and choreography has been featured at Ragdale Foundation, Links Hall, Elastic Arts, Aragon Ballroom, DRAMA Duo Music Productions, Black Ensemble Theatre, and Hip Hop International. Brittany’s focus is Hip Hop, Modern, Funk Styles, Waacking, and House, combined with growing knowledge of somatics and kinesiology, all through the concert dance lens. Her goal is to bring dance education to a place of complete body awareness, spiritual expression, and connection. Brittany hopes to establish her practice in expressive therapy, creating opportunities, and inclusiveness.

J’SUN HOWARD

Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale: 2017

MSF awarded a Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale to J’Sun Howard, a Chattanooga native and Chicago-based dancemaker and poet. At the conclusion of his residency, J’Sun wrote, “I’ve had a productive time doing movement research and creating a solo for a larger project, ‘Working on Better Versions of Prayers,’ which is about radical hope, intimacy between men, and joy. The dedicated time and space provided by the Sybil Shearer Fellowship through Ragdale has been valuable and meaningful, especially as I am discovering ways to balance, challenge, and invent choreographic methods that incorporate poetry into my artistic practice.”

J’Sun Howard is a Chicago-based dancemaker, writer, curator, and administrator who was awarded an inaugural 2020 Esteemed Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and is an Asian Cultural Council Fellow.

JESSICA CORNISH

Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale: 2016

The 2016 fellowship was awarded to dance artist Jessica Cornish. At the conclusion of her residency in September she wrote to MSF in part: “My time at Ragdale is unlike anything I have experienced before and was challenging in all the best ways. It is opportunities like this that make such a wild career sustainable. I was able to work with an incredible musician, and new collaborations with some of the writers and artists here at Ragdale have sprung up…Thank you again and again for everything you do.”

Jessica Cornish is a dance artist based in Chicago Illinois and has shown work in China, Hong Kong, India, Berlin, Italy, Amsterdam, Chile, Louisiana, New York City and Chicago. Along with her solo practice, Cornish works with a wide range of collaborators in different disciplines and uses her ever-changing environments as sustenance to create.