The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago Announces Interim Director

Campus Communications Staff / Jan 06, 2023

PhotoMeredith Sutton was named interim director of the Dance Presenting Series.
Meredith Sutton will become the interim director of the Dance Presenting Series.

Lisa Gonzales, chair of the Dance department at Columbia College Chicago, has announced that Meredith Sutton has accepted the position of interim director of the Dance Presenting Series. Meredith will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Dance Center’s public programming, including curation, fundraising, finance and administration, education, audience development, and public advocacy, among many other duties. 

Meredith assumes the position after serving as program manager for the Dance Presenting Series (DPS) since February 2022. Before moving to Chicago, Sutton was associate professor of Dance at the University of Southern Mississippi and had also been a faculty member at Tulane University and the University of Virginia. She has performed in the works of noted choreographers such as Robert Battle, Ulysses Dove, Ohad Naharin, and Blondell Cummings, and has shared her own choreography in venues such as the Kennedy Center and for the New Orleans Ballet Association as their resident artist and choreographer. 

“As the Dance Presenting Series embarks upon its 50th anniversary, it is an honor to have the opportunity to serve as interim director.  I look forward to connecting audiences with a plethora of diverse artistic perspectives that dually spark joy and inquiry,” Sutton says. “Dance is a medium that draws upon our interconnectedness as a community, and I am thrilled to have a hand in continuing the legacy of what DPS has provided for those in Chicago and beyond its borders.” 

“Meredith brings a wealth of experience to the Dance Center during a vital period of strategic planning for the Dance Presenting Series,” shares Gonzales. “We’re so fortunate to have a dancer at the helm bringing an embodied perspective to our work, and I can’t wait for our community to experience the artists she invites into our midst.”  

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