Support Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak’s Almost 25 campaign: celebrating almost 25 years of mind-opening dance and growing into 25 more.
“…a unique, gutsy contemplation of performance, its philosophy and practice, expressed in precise, subtle, even paradoxical moments.” – Laura Molzahn, Chicago Tribune
For almost 25 years Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak has created and presented critically-acclaimed dances that reimagine the human body in movement, and the relationships that occur in live performance.
Shanahan’s sinuous, utterly motivated and deeply felt movement is like nothing you’ve seen by another troupe. – Laura Molzahn, WBEZ 91.5
Since 1994 we have created and premiered over fifty original works. Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak’s budget has remained modest over almost 25 years. We keep our overhead low and we are tenacious in adapting to the constantly shifting arts economy.
Now it’s time to grow:
Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak is a “singular voice in Chicago dance” (Zac Whittenburg, TimeOut Chicago) who has been “distilling the essence of performance—the relationship between audience and artist—for years, exposing the honest beauty of the body in its natural state: fluid, organic motion” (Sharon Hoyer, New City Chicago).
Contributions to Almost 25 in 2016 are primarily geared toward the development ofBlackbird’s Ventriloquy, an evening-length solo dance by Molly Shanahan with original scores by multiple artists, including a return engagement with Kevin O’Donnell, as well as movement coaching and collaboration with Kristina Fluty. Blackbird’s Ventriloquy is being developed at Silo/Kirkland Farm in Bucks County, PA over two intensive residency periods this summer.
Our rewards reflect our commitment to sharing our work with our community, and foster direct connection to our process when possible.
We chose Kickstarter as a platform because their charter as a Benefit Corporation resonates with our mission: to bring our work to life, share it, and consider its impact on our world as a measure of success that comes before but not in place of the bottom line.
How Kickstarter works: we receive funding ONLY IF we reach or exceed our goal of $2,500. It’s a clear demonstration of how every backer at every level truly contributes to the success of the campaign.
Both patient and adventurous, Molly Shanahan likes to go deep, sometimes examining one issue in multiple works over as many as seven years. The payoff is a unique, gutsy contemplation of performance, its philosophy and practice, expressed in precise, subtle, even paradoxical moments. – Laura Molzahn Chicago Tribune
We’ve been doing this, in multiple iterations, for almost 25 years. The risks and challenges that are inherent in every project are one and the same with the rewards of moving into unknown territory. We embrace them all, and look forward to sharing what we encounter in “Blackbird’s Ventriloquy.”