Lauren Warnecke
(Theatre Chair) Dance Critic, Chicago Tribune
Lauren Warnecke is a freelance dance critic at the Chicago Tribune, and has previously worked at the Windy City Times, Dance Magazine, and Pointe. Based in Chicago, she is founder and editor-in-chief of Art Intercepts, a Midwest-focused critical dance blog created in 2009.
“I mostly write about dance, in which lighting and video/projection are absolutely critical elements. A good, cohesive design provides context, and directs the eye to what the choreographer wants audience members to pay attention to. Particularly in contemporary dance or non-narrative works, it can be challenging to extract meaning from choreography alone.
“Lighting and video have the ability to transform the environment on stage, contextualizing what might otherwise seem just like bodies moving through space.”
Clifton Taylor
Lighting Designer
For more than 29 years Clifton Taylor has created lighting, projection and scenic designs for theatre, dance and opera around the world. Clifton has also been theatre consultant on new large scale theatrical venues in a number of countries. In 2002 he was awarded a grant from the Asian Cultural Council to teach a course in design for the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
“Light has been a vital storytelling device ever since we’ve told ourselves stories. Even before we had the incredible technical control over light that we now enjoy, light and shadow were important metaphors in the plays and stories of the cultures that preceded ours.
As the artistic and industrial partnership that makes up the stage lighting community gains increasing mastery in lighting timing, brightness-contrast and color control, the designers who are working with light today are finding new and vital ways to frame the human experience in the 21st century. These achievements should be recognized and written about and discussed, furthering the age-old role of the theatre to be an incubator for cultural change and human understanding.”
Celia Ipiotis
Dance Critic, Eye on the Arts
Celia Ipiotis began her professional career as a ballet and modern dancer and choreographer. She received a BFA from Ohio State University and an MA in Media Studies from New School For Social Research. In 1976, Ms. Ipiotis began working with the pioneering videodance artist Jeff Bush and their award-winning videodance productions have been exhibited at World’s Fairs and festivals around the world.
She is now the creator, producer and moderator of the nationally recognized culture series EYE ON DANCE & The Arts (EOD) – a television series devoted to artist’s ideas, achievements, and creative approaches.
Ms Ipiotis has also served as a member of university dance faculties including Hunter College, Harvard and Antioch College. She has participated on international and national arts selection panels and functioned as advisor for WNET’s “Dance In America Series,” She has led panels and forums on arts issues and moderated conversations on the artistic process for the NYC Ballet, The Guggenheim Museum “Works and Process” series, the Juilliard Special Projects Series, Marymount Manhattan College, BAM, NYFA, NYU and many others.
Selected as a “Scholar in Residence” at Jacob’s Pillow, Ipiotis sits on the Hunter College Dance Advisory Committee and on the Manhattan Children’s Museum Dance Protal Advisory panel.
