Finding Our Way Into the Unknown

Performance Information

Tickets

And Yet We Are Here Music

Masking is suggested for the audience but is not required. Masks will be available for the audience on arrival. Not all dancers will mask during the performance. Adequate air purifiers will be in each space except the bathroom, provided by the Clean Air Club. Air quality in the theater space will be monitored throughout the event. Please note not all the performers will be masked during the performance.

Moving around, stimming, making noise, etc are welcome and encouraged during all performances. Please feel free to bring any access tools that might help you feel as comfortable as possible during the performances, including, but not limited to, ear defenders/plugs, fidget tools, headphones, etc. Some of the performances will include loud, sometimes overlapping noises. If at any time these become overwhelming, volunteers are available to direct you to a quieter space. All performances are relaxed, and the audience can enter and exit the theater as needed.

ASL interpretation is available at the event on August 21st and August 22nd at 3pm. Audio Description is  pre-recorded by the artists with stationary listening devices provided by CAC. 

If you feel you might need some sort of access tool during this performance, but do not have it or the ability to acquire it, please reach out to us at unfoldingdisabilityfutures@gmail.com.

Ruben Andrés Castillo Gomez is originally from Mexico City but in 2014 came to the United States on scholarship for the Idyllwild Arts Academy high school to major in dance. After graduation, he was accepted on scholarship to attend the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. He has performed in works by Ana Maria Lucaciu, Annie Rigney, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Johannes Weiland, Jose Limón, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, and more. He is currently a company member with Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre.

William Crosley Bennett is a Chicago composer and singer-songwriter. An active member of the city's inclusive dance community, he has scored numerous pieces, including Dancing in Two Languages (2025), Ti(c)k To(c)k (2022), The Rosies (2022), Monitrice Sway (2022), and Shared Time (2020). William's alt-country music can be found on Bandcamp at williamcrosleybennett.bandcamp.com.

Maggie Bridger (she/her) is a sick and disabled dance and fiber artist, access worker, and scholar interested in reimagining pain through the creative process. Maggie is a 2022 & 2025 City of Chicago Individual Artist Program grantee and has held artist residencies through High Concept Labs, the Chicago Cultural Center's Learning Lab, Synapse Arts, and Chicago Dancemakers Forum. Her choreographic work has been shown at Elevate Chicago Dance 2022, The Art Institute of Chicago, Cottey College (MO), The Steppenwolf Theater Company's LookOut Series, and RedEye Theater (MN), among others. Maggie is a PhD Candidate in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago where she is conducting archival and ethnographic research in service of her dissertation project, Dancing With/in Pain. She is Membership & Conference Manager with the Dance Studies Association, a member of Synapse Arts' Programming Committee, an Advisory Council member for the Chicago Dance History Project, and on the organizing committee for the Chicago Dance Studies Working Group. Learn more at www.maggiebridger.com.

Bradford Chin (he/they/Bradford) is a disabled dance artist & methodologist, accessibility cultural strategist, and artistic audio describer based in Chicago and their native San Francisco. They use choreographic process to explore disability as a generative lived experience that teaches us about our practices, aesthetics, and culture. Specializing in disability dance, Disability Justice-informed critically inclusive dance pedagogy, and creative process and aesthetics, Bradford has taught contemporary modern, ballet, and improvisation and/as composition techniques across the United States and internationally.

Bradford earned a BFA in Dance from California State University, Long Beach and an MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine. They have received support from entities including the California Arts Council, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and The Actors Fund. Formerly a company member with AXIS Dance Company, Bradford is a collaborating member of Unfolding Disability Futures, an Advisory Council member of the National Dance Education Organization, and an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Instagram: @BChinChinB

Erin Compton is a student at College of DuPage, working on an Associates in General Studies with an emphasis on dance and advocacy, which have both played a huge role in her life. Dancing before she could walk, Erin has danced with the local park district, Expression Dance, Joffrey Ballet, Unfolding Disability Futures, and Cirque Experience, where she rides the German Wheel, and she has performed in the Netherlands, South Africa, Germany, and Finland. She also loves history and geneology. Erin began serving on the State Rehabilitation Council at age 16 and is currently serving as the chair

Mia Coulter danced with Chicago’s Dance/Detour for 5 years as a company member, touring internationally. She received Access Living’s 2004 Independent Living Achievement Award.

Bennett Cullen (Chicago, IL) began his dance training in the suburbs of Chicago before continuing his classical education at the University of Iowa under Eloy Barragan, George De La Peña, and Kristin Marrs. He has performed with St. Louis Dance Theatre, Visceral Dance Chicago, Trifecta Dance Collective, Bodies of Water, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, and Ballet Harmony. He has performed works by choreographers including Brian Enos, Shannon Alvis, Ohad Naharin, Jiří Kylián, Nacho Duato, Stephanie Martinez, Michelle Manzanales, Monique Haley, Christian Spuck, and Nick Pupillo. In addition to performing, Bennett teaches and coaches ballet throughout the Chicagoland area. He previously served as Executive Assistant and Educational Coordinator for Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre (2022–2024) and now directs CRDT II while serving as Rehearsal Director for Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre and an administrator for Bodies of Water.

Sydney Erlikh is a dance artist, educator, and scholar. Sydney is the co-founder of the Inclusive Dance Workshops, which began at Access Living. In Chicago she has choreographed, curated and performed works at the Art Institute along with Unfolding Disability Futures. Internationally, she has taught, choreographed, and performed in Durban, South Africa, and Helsinki, Finland. 

Deborah Goodman is a dance professional with forty years of experience in the field. She is a Teaching Associate Professor in Dance at Loyola University Chicago and a certified Gyrokinesis instructor. Deborah danced with celebrated choreographers Martha Graham, Yuriko Kikuchi, Pearl Lang, Sandra Kaufmann, Goldhuber/Latsky and Richard Move in NYC, and MOMENTA Dance Company in Chicago.

Tsehaye Geralyn Hébert  is a citizen playwright (Sundance Theatre Festival; the Kendeda; Vermont Studio Center; 3ArtsBodies of Work) and a bona fide Louisiana gumbo girl!   Her works are steeped in place, migration, myth and history. That world was so disability rich, it took Hébert’s participation in organizations like Unfolding Disability Futures, Disability Lead and Cultural Access Collaborative to begin to comprehend its enormity. On the stage or on the page, Intimate moments, the hyperbole of Mardi Gras, an unrelenting urban scape, and rural America all ground and inform her work. Positioning the American Souths through shifting narratives mirrors Hébert’s life.  She triaged between her father’s rural Pointe Coupeé family seat, her Baton Rouge LA birthplace and her mother’s beloved New Orleans.  The second great grand-daughter of Creole storyteller, Dorlis Aguillard, Hébert honors her Afro-Creole culture and its traditions. 

Maypril Krukowski Minor A TikTok Queen who loves dancing, Maypril is a part of the leadership for Unfolding Disability Futures Collective. She has performed in the 2022 and 2023 CounterBalance, as well as two productions with Momenta Dance Company. Her recent performance at the Art Institute of Chicago, in Right to Wander, received positive reviews from the Chicago Reader as well as the Access VSA blog. In 2024, she traveled to South Africa to perform at the ADDN JOMBA! Festival. She is surrounded by a phenomenal group of individuals who are her biggest supporters. They are helping her to break new ground so that she can open the doors for others.

Kris Lenzo  is a disabled dancer/choreographer and a 3ARTs award winner, Kris embraces the motto “Move to Live.” He has been a national champion in wheelchair basketball and wheelchair track several times. He first performed with MOMENTA in 2003 in Larry Ippel’s Sharing the Moment. Kris facilitates MOMENTA’s EveryBody Can Dance! workshops and is a 2015 3Arts awardee.

Anne Marie Leosch (she/they) Founder of Thwack Dance fell, hard and fast for modern dance at age 16. They were privileged to study Humphrey-Weidman's modern dance technique under MaryAnn Mee, dancer and demonstrator for Charles Weidman, for over a decade, in large part due to the local Community College’s free concurrent enrollment program. Since settling in Chicago they performed with Joel Hall Dancers, Momenta, Paul Sanasardo, Zephyr Dance, and various independent artists. Through Momenta they were able to further deepen their understanding of the Humphrey-Weidman repertory under Deborah Carr and Gail Corbin. For Anne Marie joining this inclusive project feels like coming home.

Stefanie Piatkiewicz (M.A. & GL-CMA Columbia College Chicago, M.Ed. Loyola University) choreography has been featured at Hamlin Park Theater, in Links Hall’s THAWALLS, and Dance Chicago’s New Moves. She has choreographed several musicals, including Schoolhouse Rock Live! for Dominican University, My Fair Lady, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Pippin, and Ragtime for Concordia University, and directed Disney’s Frozen KIDS, Aladdin KIDS, and The Lion King Jr for Dawes Elementary. Piatkiewicz is a yoga, dance and movement educator, and is a 2019 Certified DanceAbility International Teacher. She studies, teaches, and performs with Unfolding Disability Futures under the artistic direction of Maggie Bridger and Sydney Erlikh. She is also a Chicago Public Schools Dance Teacher.

Brennen Renteria received his BA in dance at CSU, Fullerton in 2014 under the mentorship of Gladys Kares and Debra Noble, performing works by Louis Kavouras and Colin Connor. In 2014, he joined Thodos Dance Chicago, working with Brian Enos, Lucas Crandall, Garfield Lemonius, Brian McGinnis, Kevin Iega Jeff, Melissa Thodos, and Ann Reinking. In 2017, Brennen began dancing with Elements Contemporary Ballet and Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, where he has since assumed the position of Rehearsal Director.

Lauren Sheely (she/her) is a chronically ill dancemaker, teaching artist, and dramaturg from Chicago, IL. Her works centers on exploring the bodily manifestations of invisible illness and finding joy in all manners of movement. Lauren is a co-facilitator for the weekly Inclusive Dance Workshop series and a regular collaborator with Unfolding Disability Futures. She holds a BA in Theatre and Performance Studies from Grinnell College and an MA in Performance Studies from the University of Chicago.