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Chicago Tribune
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Modern dance pioneer and Dance Center founder Shirley Mordine dies at 89
Dancer, choreographer and dance educator Shirley Mordine has died. Her five-decade career in Chicago included founding the dance department at Columbia College Chicago and originating the college's revered Dance Presenting Series. A prolific performer and choreographer, Mordine also served as artistic director of Mordine and Company Dance Theater from 1969 to 2019. Mordine died early Friday from complications of Alzheimer's disease, according to her daughter Ann Mordine. She was 89. Born Shirley Ann Macaulay on Jan. 8, 1936, Mordine grew up in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, California. She attended Fremont High School there and received dance training from the San Francisco Ballet School. Mordine also studied with noted choreographers Anna Halprin and Welland Lathrop, who were key influences in forming Mordine's idiosyncratic, theatrical style of modern dance. Mordine graduated from Mills College in 1958, where drama professor Arch Lauterer deepened her interest in theater. It was a boom time for modern dance on the West Coast. Several of Mordine's contemporaries moved to New York to pioneer a burgeoning postmodern movement (Simone Forti, Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer among them), but Mordine initially stayed in the Bay Area, piecing together freelance performance and teaching work. She met Glenn Mordine in an Oakland bar while listening to Dave Brubeck. The couple married and quickly had three children, Alex, Ann and Michael, settling in Chicago's northern suburbs in 1967. Mordine lived in Evanston for decades and was a longtime member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. She often tapped into Chicago's architecture and culture as sources of inspiration. 'She loved Chicago,' said Ann Mordine. 'She loved the grittiness and tapped into that as a resource.' Mordine picked up teaching gigs at Hull-House and Urban Gateways. She was an artist-in-residence at Evanston Township High School and took a part-time job teaching dance in the theater department at Columbia College Chicago. In 1969, Mordine simultaneously launched The Dance Troupe (later called Mordine & Company Dance Theater) and a new dance department at Columbia College. She would chair that department for 30 years. 'It is impossible to fully measure the profound and lasting impact Shirley has had on the Chicago dance community,' said Chicago Dance History Project executive director Michael McStraw, a dancer and managing director for Mordine & Company Dance Theater. 'What can be measured, however, is the transformation she elicited in me as a dancer, arts administrator and admirer of her incomparable artistry and body of work.' In 1972, Mordine spearheaded the formation of the Dance Center Columbia College to house the school's dance department. By the late 1990s, the Dance Center had outgrown its landmark building on Sheridan Road in Uptown, moving to the heart of Columbia's South Loop campus in 2000. In 1974, Mordine originated the Dance Presenting Series, which brought prestigious contemporary dance companies and artists to Chicago, often for the first time. In 1991, Mordine produced the first Dance Africa Chicago, which ran for well over a decade and has periodically been revived by other organizations. To date, Dance Center Columbia College remains the city's only arts presenter dedicated exclusively to dance. During and after her time at Columbia College, Mordine's insatiable curiosity kept her creating dances for Mordine & Company, which made regular appearances on the Dance Presenting Series. 'I always think of making dances in terms of what I observe in the world,' she said in 2017. ''Every dance should be new, strange and beautiful.' I don't remember who told me that, but I like it.' Mordine & Company Dance Theater operated as a repertory company for 50 years — earning credit as the Midwest's longest-running modern dance company. Mordine relocated to California in 2021. Former dancer and longtime board president Philip Martini dissolved the company in 2023, handing Mordine's extensive archive to the Newberry Library. A network of former dancers, led by longtime company member Danielle Gilmore, remounts select works for various companies and festivals. 'There are so many of us that can say with conviction that we genuinely owe Shirley for what we became,' said Martini. 'From the few companies that used gymnasiums and storefronts to stage their work, we now have a vital community that extends far beyond the borders of this state and the Midwest that can trace its beginnings back to Shirley.' Indeed, generations of 'Mo & Co' alums form the fabric of Chicago's contemporary dance scene. Several still teach at the Dance Center. Among the qualities they hope to impart to students today are Mordine's uncompromising standards and tenacity. 'Shirley surrounded herself with visionary artists, collaborators and dancers who shared her passion for dance and theater,' said Pamela McNeil, who joined Mordine & Company in 1992 and recently retired from the Dance Center. 'She was uncompromising when it came to the work, never settling — always pushing for more.' 1 of Shirley Mordine watches her dancers rehearse for an upcoming 50th season celebration at Links Hall on April 24, 2019, at Indian Boundary Cultural Center in Chicago. Mordine & Company Dance Theater was founded in 1969. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune) As an observer of her choreography for more than three decades, former Tribune dance critic Laura Molzahn said her eager, restless mind stood out. 'She often seemed to rethink and revise her works,' said Molzahn. 'And she was always looking for the source of the next dance, whether it was a novel or a new aspect of current culture or an abstraction or the way that modern dance might intersect with classical Indian forms. Shirley was tough, in a way most women choreographers had to be to get by.' 'She wasn't just a dancer,' said Ann Mordine. 'She did something big and lasting, contributing to dance, to Chicago and to other people's lives. I'd like her to be remembered in that way. She worked hard and left something meaningful behind.' Mordine is survived by her former husband, Glenn Mordine, and their three children, Alex, Ann and Michael.
CBS News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Chicago area high school, college students staging walkout in support of immigrant rights
Chicago high school, college students to walk out in support of migrant workers Chicago high school, college students to walk out in support of migrant workers Chicago high school, college students to walk out in support of migrant workers High school and college students across the Chicago area are holding walkouts on Friday to protest President Donald Trump. The Chicago Coalition Against the Trump Agenda says students will be walking out of schools, including the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, Evanston Township High School, Northwestern University, and others. The students will hold a rally in support of immigrants' rights at the Federal Plaza at 5 p.m. This follows Thursday's nationwide May Day protest, which typically focused on honoring organized labor and workers' rights. In Chicago, thousands gathered to rally and march from Union Park to Grant Park in support of migrant workers and against the Trump administration's immigration actions.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Oscars have historically snubbed horror. Demi Moore's performance in 'The Substance' could change that.
Since the first Oscars in 1929, only eight horror movies have received a coveted Best Picture nomination. That includes this year's nod for The Substance. According to the Yahoo Best Picture Leaderboard, it's not likely that The Substance has the juice to take home the top prize. Only one horror movie has ever done so — The Silence of the Lambs — and that was over three decades ago. But the body horror film starring Demi Moore might still have an impact on the academy. In The Substance, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an actress who's fired from her job hosting a fitness TV show on her 50th birthday. She injects herself with a mysterious substance that offers a better version of herself, going to extreme lengths to regain the adoration her younger self experienced from Hollywood elites. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Zoran Samardzija, a professor of film and television at Columbia College Chicago, told Yahoo Entertainment that the satirical nature of The Substance might have been what appealed to academy voters in the 'tradition of other non-horror' Oscar-nominated movies that criticize show business, like Sunset Boulevard and Mulholland Drive. 'It takes on the mistreatment of women,' Samardzija said. 'The Substance is very grotesque, but it has that satirical element that makes it more highbrow.' Horror movies aren't frequently acknowledged by the Oscars — a surprise to some, as it requires acting prowess, clever plot construction and unique visuals to make something convincingly terrifying. That's not a sign that there's something intrinsically wrong with the genre, though. Samardzija said that the Oscars now tend to favor dramas over all other genres. That includes comedies, though they frequently won during the early years of the awards ceremony. When the number of Best Picture nominees announced each year increased from five to 10 in 2009, that also opened the door for more genres to receive accolades. Still, there have only been three horror Best Picture nominees since then: Black Swan, Get Out and The Substance. There's a long history of horror performance snubs at the Oscars, and only four women have ever won Best Actress for a horror role: Ruth Gordon for Rosemary's Baby in 1969, Kathy Bates for Misery in 1990, Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 and Natalie Portman for Black Swan in 2010. That's part of what makes Demi Moore's frontrunner status in this year's race so compelling, as she racks up awards at the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards and the SAG Awards. What sets Moore apart from other horror actresses to win those accolades is just how bizarre and over the top The Substance is. Toward the film's end, viewers are engulfed in body horror replete with gore and chaos, diverging from the four Best Actress-winning performances that came before. 'I think The Substance is probably the most viscerally graphic horror film that's ever been nominated,' Samardzija said, adding that its strength in the eyes of the academy might come from 'the strength of Demi Moore's performance.' It helps that Moore, who has been a household name for decades, is beloved by Hollywood and is receiving what many see as long-overdue praise. Samardzija said some of the top awards at the Oscars have a 'lifetime achievement aspect' that considers a nominee's body of work rather than the one singular performance for which they're specifically being recognized. In her Golden Globe acceptance speech, Moore said that 30 years ago, a producer told her she was a 'popcorn actress,' which made her feel like an award win 'wasn't something I was allowed to have.' 'I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me and for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I do belong,' she said. Her speech went viral, building momentum for her wins throughout the award season. Even if Moore doesn't win the Oscar and The Substance goes home empty-handed, it still made an unexpected $77 million at the box office. Horror is currently the fastest-growing film genre, having doubled its market share from 4.87% in 2013 to 10.08% in 2023, according to industry data service the Numbers. It also had a great year in 2024, with critical and theatrical successes like Nosferatu, Longlegs and Smile 2. Horror-centric streaming service Shudder is opening the door for independent and small studio genre flicks to find a bigger audience, Samardzija said. The niche genre of body horror could also become more popular as people try to replicate the success of The Substance — or distributors begin to see that audiences can tolerate and delight in that level of gore. Body horror flick Together was one of the highest-selling acquisitions at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. 'There's enough profitability to the genre that it never dies,' Samardzija said, giving horror the same indestructible attribute often bestowed upon its most sinister villains. Moore and The Substance have infused the genre with new life.
