Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale
The Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale began in 2016 and is given annually by the Morrison-Shearer Foundation.
LIST OF RECIPIENTS:
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.
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.
“In this residency…I will interrogate three specific poems from Locas Mujeres: La Fervorosa, La Que Camina, and The Abandoned Woman – all of which reference and examine the generational oppressions, sacrifices, and courage necessary to survive in a world where you are conditioned to mute yourself to fit in. In these poems I am reminded of my mother, my grandmother, and all the women who have had to contort themselves to survive a world that wasn't built to accept them. Mistral uses her voice, her honesty, her creative expression as an act of bravery and protest to survive. In this residency I will use my voice for all the women who couldn't use theirs.
As a dancemaker with a career spanning over thirty years, I have learned that dancemaking is more than a process, it is a practice. It is a practice of rigorous physical and emotional exploration, discovery, deep reflection, humility, and the ability to persevere in the face of adversity.
This practice is also part of what gave me the courage to follow my own voice, one that has been traditionally marginalized as a female, Latin and Native American artist, to create a new company, PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, devoted to a vision of empowering and elevating diversity in contemporary ballet, so that all can have an opportunity to practice the telling and hearing of stories that become a catalyst for connection and understanding.”
Congratulations Stephanie! We can’t wait to see the results of your practice in this residency.
NEJLA YATKIN
Sybil Shearer Fellowship 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.”
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.
The work will explore how identity is shaped by place and community; how one’s sense of self evolves over a lifetime; and how we make meaning out of life’s joys, tragedies, and everyday moments by celebrating and bringing awareness to the aging body in motion.
The ability of AR technology to permanently place dance in public spaces, adding dance to the existing array of public art, has yet to be fully exploited; this project makes gains in that area while juxtaposing concepts of aging body/old with technology/new. In addition, while choreographers have explored the aging body in various ways, this project makes a special study of the relationship of a body to a place where it lives, arguing that a body is not separate from its environment. In Western society we like to hide aging—this project invites us to appreciate its creative potential.”
RENA BUTLER
Sybil Shearer Fellowship 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.”
RENA BUTLER
Sybil Shearer Fellowship 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.”
Rena Butler hails from Chicago, IL. She has danced in companies such as Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, Manuel Vignoulle/M-Motions, and The Kevin Wynn Collective. Butler trained at The Chicago Academy for the Arts, studied overseas at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan, and received her BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Butler's choreography has been presented at The The New Orleans Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with Academy Award-winning jazz composer, Terrence Blanchard, CHTV Stories in Switzerland, and more. Butler currently serves on the Consortium for Chicago Dancemakers Forum. In addition to dancing in the company, Rena is HSDC’s Choreographic Fellow, and is a 2019 Princess Grace Award Winner for Choreography.
BRITTANY HARLAN
Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale: 2018
The Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale was awarded to Brittany Harlan, dancer/choreographer and founder of Chicago Urban Dance Collective.
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.
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.
Her teaching artist pedagogy & philosophy are weighted in respecting the integrity of the vernacular movement, by sharing what she’s been taught from respected community members - and stopping exactly there. She relates those concepts to personal natural movement, and the energy of the dancers she’s working with. Her goal is to create solidarity between diverse backgrounds, conducive to the essence and intention of The Hip Hop Socio-Political Movement. Harlin’s passion in dance extends to her community as she has launched her most recent endeavor of teaching professionalism and industry standards to aspiring professional dancers. When Brittany isn’t dancing, she is supplementing her work with her passions for poetry and songwriting. She’s been referred to as a fawn and a hippie on multiple, separate occasions.
J'SUN HOWARD
Sybil Shearer Fellowship 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.
J'SUN HOWARD
Sybil Shearer Fellowship 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.
A Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellow, a Ragdale Foundation Sybil Shearer Fellow, 2017 3Arts Make A Wave Awardee, and 2014 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist, J'Sun has presented his choreography at venues as Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Links Hall, Art Theatre Dance Box Kobe (Kobe, Japan), Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Sonotheque, Lincoln Square Theatre, Insight Arts/Center for New Possibilities, Epiphany Church, Rumble Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Oakton Community College, Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, Patrick's Cabaret (Minneapolis, MN), Danspace Project (New York City), The Arts Club of Chicago, California Institute of the Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Center for Performance Research (NYC), Detroit Dance City Festival (Detroit, MI), New Dance Festival International Festival (Daejeon, South Korea)—where he won Best Dance Choreographer 2019—and World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific’s International Young Choreographers’ Project (Kaohsiung, Taiwan).
J’Sun has performed for several choreographers including Malcolm Jason Low, Asimina Chremos, Sara Wookey, Paige Cunningham-Caldarella, and Selene Carter, but most extensively with ongoing collaborators Darrell Jones, Damon Green, and DJ Justin Mitchell in their research of (e)feminized ritual performance, which received a 2013 Juried Bessie Award for Hoo-Ha (for your eyes only).
J’Sun has been commissioned by Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, World Dance Alliance, and Art Institute of Chicago. Additional awards include Illinois Arts Council Agency’s Individual Artist grants, City of Chicago DCASE Individual Artist Program grants, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtists International. A 2018 Bests New Poets nominee, J’Sun’s poetry is forthcoming in the visual art catalog Eclipsing: death and transformations and I Can’t Breathe: A Poetic Anthology of Fresh Air. His poems have appeared in The Matador Review, WusGood, The Shade Journal, Calamus Journal, Bird’s Thumb, and Propter Nos.
JESSICA CORNISH
Sybil Shearer Fellowship 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.
JESSICA CORNISH
Sybil Shearer Fellowship 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.
Since graduating from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign in 2012, Cornish has been the recipient of awards and residency opportunities such as; Freeman Foundation Theatre Award, Beverly Blossom Talented Student Award, Beverly Blossom Alumni Award, LinkUp Residency, Guest Artist in residence at UIUC, Place Residency in LA, Krannert Center for Performing Arts at the University of Illinois Residency, A Morrison Shearer Fellowship for a residency at Ragdale and was one of 12 dance artists in the Chicago area to participate in New England Foundation of the Art’s Regional Dance Development Initiative.