Dance Center
1306 S. Michigan Ave.
The Dance Center provides students with a superior contemporary dance education in the context of a world-class, nationally recognized dance performance season. Since its doors first opened in 1969, the Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago has presented hundreds of professional companies and choreographers.
Home to one of the nation's finest college dance programs and one of Chicago’s premier presenters of contemporary dance, the Dance Center serves the greater Chicago dance community and audiences. The center is hailed as one of the most important presenters of contemporary dance in the United States, bringing world renowned companies to Chicago every year. Columbia students have the chance to work closely with the visiting companies through master classes and discussions.
“Some of the most memorable performances I’ve seen in my near twenty years of covering dance in Chicago have taken place on the Dance Center stage. Experimental work, student and faculty showcases, nationally and internationally revered artists have all rarified the Dance Center’s air for half a century.” - Sharon Hoyer, New City
The Dance Center is a 33,000-square-foot, four-story art deco facility that includes a 268-seat performance space, six dance studios with sprung wood floors, dressing rooms, and locker rooms with showers. The state-of-the-art building with its highly-trained staff provides students access to the technical aspects of dance performance from learning how to work with a lighting designer to understanding video projection and producing events. Through its community outreach and education initiatives, the Dance Center seeks to deepen appreciation and understanding of contemporary dance and contribute to the health of Chicago communities.
Upcoming Events:
- Afro Fusion Dance Workshop Hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, Tom Tom, a founding member of Westsyde Lifestyle, will take you on a journey of learning, discovery, growth, and culture. Westsyde Lifestyle is a pioneering dance crew at the forefront of the aesthetic development of Afro urban culture and lifestyle, securing its legacy for generations to come....Get the details
- Afro-Contemporary Dance Workshop with Vershawn Sanders-WardMake a date to dance every Friday this spring from 10:30 AM to 12 PM! From February 14 through and including March 21, 2025 new instructors every week, drawn from Chicago’s wealth of dance talent, visiting artists, and exceptional students lead this sampler series of a kaleidoscope of techniques, styles and approaches. All classes take place in...Get the details
- Cosmic Docks by Nora SharpThe Dance Center continues to spotlight Chicago dance artists who are pushing the boundaries of the form. Cosmic Docks is a dance-theater one-them-show from Nora Sharp, born from the outer space of trans dis-certainty that journeys down a choreographic and comedic rabbit hole of intertwined sci-fi futurism and personal history. Shaped by repression, resistance, and...Get the details
- Building the Scene of Dis/a/ssociation by Zach NicolThis workshop considers states of dissociation and alienation felt in the body and produced in the social realm. We will use durational group improvisation and seek to consciously embody divergence and opposition. We will explore registers of disconnection, dissonance, and detachment in our movement. We will lose focus and use attention, assemble a method to make...Get the details
- THICK: a crumbling freak show by Po'Chop | Jenn FreemanThe Dance Center continues to spotlight Chicago dance artists who are pushing the boundaries of the form. The 2025 Festival features world premieres: THICK: a crumbling freak show is a multimedia solo performance by Jenn Freeman | Po’Chop that confronts notions of femininity and civility and calls into question the creation of otherness. Freeman asks,...Get the details
- Cosmic Docks by Nora SharpThe Dance Center continues to spotlight Chicago dance artists who are pushing the boundaries of the form. Cosmic Docks is a dance-theater one-them-show from Nora Sharp, born from the outer space of trans dis-certainty that journeys down a choreographic and comedic rabbit hole of intertwined sci-fi futurism and personal history. Shaped by repression, resistance, and...Get the details
- THICK: a crumbling freak show by Po'Chop | Jenn Freeman (COPY)The Dance Center continues to spotlight Chicago dance artists who are pushing the boundaries of the form. The 2025 Festival features world premieres: THICK: a crumbling freak show is a multimedia solo performance by Jenn Freeman | Po’Chop that confronts notions of femininity and civility and calls into question the creation of otherness. Freeman asks,...Get the details
- Ballet Check-In by Tuli BeraOftentimes when we think of a ballet class - we accept that we will be expected to go through the standard/traditional ballet barre, center, and across-the-floor combinations. This class encourages a pause for inquiry and conversation to check in with what we are doing and why we are doing it. While this class will incorporate...Get the details
- SPRING FORWARD: Dance Student Performance NightThe spring edition of original, brand new, short works by student choreographers selected by faculty from an open application process. Some chosen artists are sharing pieces on the Dance Center’s stage for the first time, others offer works informed by years’ immersed in the DC’s the pluralistic curriculum. Lit by Theatre’s rising lighting designers, these...Get the details
- SPRING FORWARD: Dance Student Performance Night (COPY)The spring edition of original, brand new, short works by student choreographers selected by faculty from an open application process. Some chosen artists are sharing pieces on the Dance Center’s stage for the first time, others offer works informed by years’ immersed in the DC’s the pluralistic curriculum. Lit by Theatre’s rising lighting designers, these...Get the details
- Red Clay Dance Company: 16Red Clay Dance Company makes its highly anticipated return to the Dance Center in a program exploring emotional depth, technical prowess, and thought-provoking themes. The concert features a world premiere by legendary, award-winning choreographer Bebe Miller alongside Artistic Director and inaugural Walder Platform Awardee Vershawn Sanders-Ward's re-staging of Written on the Flesh. 16 is p......Get the details
- Red Clay Dance Company: 16 Red Clay Dance Company makes its highly anticipated return to the Dance Center in a program exploring emotional depth, technical prowess, and thought-provoking themes. The concert features a world premiere by legendary, award-winning choreographer Bebe Miller alongside Artistic Director and inaugural Walder Platform Awardee Vershawn Sanders-Ward's re-staging of Written on the Flesh. 16 is p......Get the details
- Red Clay Dance Company: 16 Red Clay Dance Company makes its highly anticipated return to the Dance Center in a program exploring emotional depth, technical prowess, and thought-provoking themes. The concert features a world premiere by legendary, award-winning choreographer Bebe Miller alongside Artistic Director and inaugural Walder Platform Awardee Vershawn Sanders-Ward's re-staging of Written on the Flesh. 16 is p......Get the details
- DELVE: Dance Faculty and Alumni ConcertThe Dance Center’s renowned professional dance faculty and alumni choreograph new works performed by students....Get the details
- DELVE: Dance Faculty and Alumni Concert The Dance Center’s renowned professional dance faculty and alumni choreograph new works performed by students....Get the details
- WITH INCANDASCENCE: Dance BFA Capstone ConcertSeason 51 culminates with the graduating class of Dance BFA senior students Kayla Hansen, Konnie Kakridas, Aly Owens, and Rhianna Young’s original works drawing upon their years of study and practice....Get the details
- WITH INCANDASCENCE: Dance BFA Capstone Concert Season 51 culminates with the graduating class of Dance BFA senior students Kayla Hansen, Konnie Kakridas, Aly Owens, and Rhianna Young’s original works drawing upon their years of study and practice....Get the details
