Today on 10 Questions With… we feature a Chicago-area dance professional, Michelle Kranicke…

My mother was an enormous ballet fan, and as a child she took me to see many performances.  Although it wasn’t love at first sight, it took me awhile to develop a love for dance.  I actually did not begin taking ballet class until I was 13.  But once I fell, I fell hard. I grew up in Chicago and there were always ballet companies touring and performing in the city, so I was fortunate to see many of the classics.

2.      What has your dance career been like?

It has definitely a lot of work, but it has also been extremely rewarding.  It’s a gift to be able to grapple with aesthetic ideas all day.  I have had the privilege of working with so many talented dancers.  For some dancemakers the performance is the best part, but for me I love the rehearsal process.  I love watching ideas unfold and then really honing and developing those ideas.

3.      What are you doing currently in the field?

I am actually stepping back and taking a good hard look at my dancemaking process.  I am going back to the fundamentals of my own creative process and trying to take those fundamentals apart.  I am really looking to extend the art form, to push against the boundaries of dance and extend ideas about movement as far as possible.  I am using proximity and stillness, and trying to move dance from a predominantly visual experience for the viewer into  an aural or kinesthetic experience as well.

4.      If you had to describe Zephyr Dance to someone, what would you say? [Read more…]