Ben Law’05
Ben Law’05
September 28 - October 4, 2015
Modern Dance Residency, Beloit College Alum from Chicago
Ben Law’05, Beloit College Alum, performs and teaches integrated modern dance, a form that combines contemporary modern release technique with the Feldenkrais Method. His focus in making works has been on how to create a form of art that uses what we know about how the body, neurology, empathy, thinking, and learning influence everything we do. He also focuses on awareness of the habitual constraints we impose on ourselves in movement and dance-making to find ways to effortlessly pass through these unnecessary barriers to creating compelling art.
He is currently a collaborator with Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak and Kate Corby & Dancers, a company member of CDI/Concert Dance Inc., and adjunct lecturer at Northeastern Illinois University. He has worked on a duet project with Jessie Marasa called Make Ends Meet, which first premiered at The Leopold Group’s Archipelago. He previously worked with Lucky Plush Productions, Mordine and Company Dance Theater, Julia Rae Antonick, Hedwig Dances, The Dance COLEctive, and James Morrow. He performed Tino Seghal’s Kiss at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2008 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2009. He also works improvisationally and has performed in several of Chicago’s curated improvised dance/music series, including collision_theory, curated by Rachel Damon and Dan Mohr, and Dimensions & Extentions, curated by Mike Reed and Jessie Marasa. He also created a piece for Peep Show: The instant choreography project.
He was recently named one of 5 Chicago Dancers to Observe by Lauren Warnecke in art intercepts. Warnecke said about Ben: Sumptuous mover, gentle spirit, and all around nice guy Ben Law has been delighting us for several years, but has been popping up more frequently in festivals and freelance engagements. Particularly known for his keen improvisation skills, Law’s ongoing collaboration with Jessica Marasa appeared last year in Archipelago, a showcase of solos and duets produced by The Leopold Group, and again last summer in a project close to my heart: season four of PRODUCE. Most recently, Law performed in back-to-back performances at Links Hall with Kate Corby & Dancers and Mad Shak, reminding us just how beautiful it is to witness him move.