The Artists

 Unfolding Disability Futures is a collective of artists. This structure is intended to allow artists to move into and away from our work as their schedule and bodyminds allow, creating a flexible and disability-centered way of working for all. 

Below you will find a current list of UDF's core leadership. We are working toward including a wider list of all artists involved in UDF. If you are interested in becoming involved in UDF, please reach out at unfoldingdisabilityfutures@gmail.com.

UDF Leadership

 

 

 Maggie Bridger, Dance & Fiber Artist

Picture of Maggie, a fat white woman with short brown hair wearing a light blue nightgown. She wears a light blue heating pad strapped around her stomach and holds the cord of the heating pad, which blurs and it stretches toward and ultimately past the frame. A brown radiator is just visible behind Maggie.

Maggie Bridger (she/her) is a sick and disabled dance artist, crafter, and scholar. Her work focuses on reimagining pain through the creative process, often using craft to infuse care, access, and interdependence into the making and production of performance. She is a Fellow Artist in Residence at High Concept Labs where she premiered a new work, Scale, in May 2023 and curates LabE, a new program designed to platform and support Chicago’s disabled dancemakers. Maggie was most recently selected as a 2023 artist-in-residence with Chicago Dancemakers Forum’s Production Residency Project. Learn more at www.maggiebridger.com.

 

Mia Coulter, Dance Artist

Mia, a Black disabled woman, sits in her wheelchair looking slightly over her shoulder toward the camera. Her full body is in view in a large industrial space. She wears a long black dress and her dark curly hair is gathered in a ponytail on top of her head.

Mia Coulter (she/her) 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.

 

 Sydney Erlikh, Dance Artist

A headshot of Sydney, a white woman with long blonde hair. She smiles into the camera and wears a blue, sparkly sweater over a white shirt.

Sydney Erlikh (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. She was recently selected by the American Scandinavian Foundation Fellow 22-23 for her research on dance and disability to create a multi-sited ethnography on inclusive dance groups that have dancers with intellectual disabilities. Sydney taught  in New York City and California, where she began her journey into inclusive dance education training in DanceAbility and with AXIS dance teacher training. She choreographed and performed in the films Shared-Time 20, the Full Radius Dance project Response Film 21, and Moods in Three Movements 21. She was selected as a SeeChicagoDance Critical Writing Fellow in 2020 and recently published in the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. In 2021 she participated in the Harvard Mellon School of Theater and Performance Studies Research. Sydney currently serves on the CounterBalance planning committee and NDEO’s dance and disability task force.

 

 

Shireen Hamza, Dance & Sound Artist

A headshot of Shireen, who smiles slightly at the camera wearing large wire-rimmed glasses, a maroon headwrap, overalls and a black mock turtleneck.

Shireen Hamza is a PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University with a secondary field in Critical Media Practice (CMP), and a managing editor of the Ottoman History Podcast. She is completing a dissertation on Islam and medicine in the medieval Indian Ocean world, and has also published on the history of sexuality. Drawing on her research, Shireen is composing a series of text-scores for movement practitioners, each one based on a different illness or therapeutic modality. Having come to dance through her experiences with chronic pain, she is deeply interested in dance and disability -- and grateful to be a part of this project. shireenhamza.com 

 

 

Tsehaye Geralyn Hebert, Theatre Artist

Tsehaye Geralyn Hébert (she/her) is a self-described "bona fide gumbo girl." The nationally acclaimed playwright triaged between her grandparents’ rural Louisiana family seat, her Baton Rouge birthplace, and her mother’s beloved New Orleans. Steeped in her African-Creole culture, she relishes quiet world-changing moments that live on stage alongside the hyperbole and spectacle of Mardi Gras. With a rich polyglot larger-than-life-world full of music, dance, activism, and storytelling, there’s no wonder Hébert found her way to the theater.

The Northwestern University and School of the Art Institute of Chicago alum penned The Chicago Quartet, a series of works set across 19th and 20th century Chicago. Fearless in scope, Hébert's work is highly imaginative and might include Lucy Parsons, Ida B. Wells, Jane Addams, Chicago's Black avant-garde arts communities, or the lady sitting next to her at the salon.

The citizen artist is committed to inclusivity and sustainability. Hébert's writings and performances center race, gender, disability, and the economics and geography of making art. She brings communities and demographics together to grieve, heal, celebrate, and move boldly forward.

 

 

Alison Kopit, Performance Artist

Alison, a white femme with brown hair and glasses smiles at the camera. She has purple lipstick that compliments her top and is sitting on a rock outside.

Alison Kopit (she/her) is a white, queer, and autistic cultural worker, performance artist, and academic based on Lenape Land, colonially known as Philadelphia. She is interested in disability aesthetics, anti-oppressive approaches to cultural work, and time travel, often mapping her ideas onto the body through dance scores. She was a 2021-2022 resident of Dance/NYC’s Disability. Dance. Artistry program and has served as a research coordinator for Simi Linton’s Proclaiming Disability Arts project, scholar-in-residence to Full Radius Dance, art administrator and creative collaborator to Sky Cubacub of Rebirth Garments, and visiting assistant professor of Disability Studies at the University of Toledo. She recently earned her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Disability Studies. She believes that Disability Justice can transform arts communities, social movements, and our relationships to ourselves and each other--and that artists are well-equipped to lead this transformation.

Alison's Website

 

 

Maypril Krukowski, Dance Artist

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.

 

 

Amanda Lautermilch, Curator and Theatre Artist

A headshot of Amanda, a fat, white woman with long brown hair. She wears a purple shirt and smiles, looking directly at the camera in front of a light grey background.

Amanda (she/her) is a disabled curator and multidisciplinary artist. She holds an MA in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University, and previously served as Artistic Director and Co-Managing Director for the Jeff Award Nominated Adapt Theatre Productions, in addition to assisting with productions at Redtwist Theatre, AstonRep Theatre Company, Commission Theatre, and others. She currently writes and performs with Chicago’s movie riffing group, Down in Front, and previously co-wrote, performed in, and directed a year-long run of sketch performances at iO Chicago with her sketch group, Fancy Woman. She works in support of UIC’s Bodies of Work and 3Arts Chicago’s Residency Fellowships for disabled artists, and was recently published in the Journal of Cultural & Literary Disability Studies. 

 

 

Andy Slater, Performance & Sound Artist

Headshot of Andy, a white man with red hair and a beard, who tilts his head as he smiles slightly. He wears a light grey button down. The background is dark grey.

Andy Slater is a Chicago-based media artist, sound designer, teaching artist, and disability advocate. He is the founder of the Society of Visually Impaired Sound Artists and a teaching artist with the Atlantic Center for the Arts’ Young SoundSeekers program. Andy holds a Masters in Sound Arts and Industries from Northwestern University and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a 2022 United States Artists fellow, 2022-2023 Leonardo Crip Tech Incubator fellow and a 2018 3Arts/Bodies of Work fellow. In 2020 Andy was acknowledged for his art by the New York Times in their article, “28 Ways To Learn About Disability Culture.” Andy’s current work focuses on advocacy for accessible art and technology, Alt-Text for sound and image, the phonology of the blindbody, spatial audio for extended reality, and sound design for film, dance, and video games. He has exhibited and performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Mcsweeneys Quarterly Concern, the Contemporary Jewish Museum San Francisco, Transmediale Festival Berlin, Ian Potter Museum of Art Melbourne, Critical Distance Toronto, Gallery 400 Chicago, Experimental Sound Studios Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, Flux Factory New York, and Momenta Dance Company Chicago. Andy has collaborated with artists Molly Joyce, Shannon Finnegan, Kinetic Light, Quintron, Fayen d’Evie, and Eyehategod. 

Www.thisisandyslater.net


 

 

Robby Lee Williams, Dance Artist

A headshot of Robby Lee Williams, a Black and Chicano man with curly, dark hair. Robby smiles widely at the camera, wearing a bright purple shirt.

Robby Lee Williams is a dancer and theater performer who is coming into the third year of his disability. He has trained and performed with Tango 21 Dance Theater and has been overjoyed to join Momenta Dance Company since 2019 to continue his dance journey. He is looking to join his poetry and adaptive dance in a way that is meaningful and moving.