Julia Rhoads is the founding Artistic Director of Chicago-based Lucky Plush Productions, a dance-theater company that creates original productions with a signature blend of technical choreography, casual dialogue, surprising humor, and socially relevant themes. Her work for Lucky Plush has been presented in over 55 US and international cities, and commissioning partners include Harris Theater (IL), Clarice Smith Center (MD), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (IL), Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (VT), Krannert Center at University of Illinois, The Yard (MA), and Links Hall (IL). Independent choreography credits include Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Walkabout Theater, Redmoon, and River North Chicago Dance Company, among others. Under her leadership, Lucky Plush received the prestigious MacArthur Award in 2016, and creation and touring awards include National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, National Theater Project, and National Performance Network. She is the recipient of an Alpert Award in Dance, fellowships from Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Illinois Arts Council, Chicago Dancemakers Forum and the Jacob K Javits Foundation, and her innovative arts management practices were recognized with a Fractured Atlas Arts Entrepreneurship Award. She is a former member of the San Francisco Ballet and ensemble member of XSIGHT! Performance Group, and received her BA in History from Northwestern University and her MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute Chicago.
Julia Rhoads
Courses
TAPS 26001 Dance Technique Classes
This course spans three quarters of attendance and is open to all students from all areas of the University. Dance technique classes meet weekly for 90 minutes. For each quarter you may choose one of three technique tracks: classical dance (primarily ballet), modern/contemporary, or Afro-diasporic forms (hip-hop, jazz, West African). Classes are taught by some of Chicago’s most recognized dance professionals and are open to all levels of experience.
To earn 100 units for your engagement in dance technique classes, you must earn a grade of ‘P’ in each of three courses. Ordinarily, dance technique courses are taken in consecutive quarters and you must attend eight of the ten class sessions offered during any given quarter to earn the subsequent grade of ‘P.’ Any interruptions to enrolling in consecutive quarters (e.g., summer session and/or travel abroad) would need to be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Dance in Theater and Performance Studies. There is no option to enroll for a quality grade. For more information and for consent to enroll, please contact Julia Rhoads, Director of Dance: jrhoads1@uchicago.edu.
TAPS 29800 BA Colloquium
This two-quarter sequence is open only to fourth-year students who are majoring and/or minoring in theater and performance studies.
TAPS 26110/36110 Choreographic Methods
This studio course introduces students to a wide range of methods for creating choreography while considering the complex relationship between bodies, form, aesthetics, cultural contexts, technology platforms, and performance objectives. Grounded by interdisciplinary inquiry and ethical collaboration practices, the course will provide students with a robust toolkit for experimentation and play within dance and movement-based work, including compositional structures, improvised scoring, and choreographic prompts that are inspired by students’ unique thematic interests. The course also invites students to consider how choreographic methods can be activated as problem-solving tools across disciplines. Supplementary readings and viewings will drive discussion and analysis while giving students a broad understanding of how choreography engages current social and political issues.
TAPS 29800 BA Colloquium
This two-quarter sequence is open only to fourth-year students who are majoring and/or minoring in theater and performance studies.
TAPS 26285/36285 Site-based Practice: Choreographing the Logan Center
Students will be given a unique opportunity to create a collaborative, site-based work that culminates in a final performance at UChicago’s Logan Center for the Arts. Using embodied research methods that respond to site through moving, sensing, and listening, we’ll explore the relationship between the ephemerality of movement and the materiality of bodies and place, and consider how the site-based contexts for dance shift how it is perceived, experienced, and valued. Our quarter-long creation process will begin with a tour of the Logan Center that will provide context to the building’s departments, exhibitions, programming, and its relationship to geography and community. Assigned readings, viewings, and conversations with guest artists will delve into the relationship between embodied performance and the sites where it happens—including multidisciplinary community-oriented spaces such as the Logan Center—and will consider the material relationship between bodies, objects, and architecture as well as the digital flows of choreography projected on buildings and exchanged online.