WINIFRED HAUN & DANCERS

Winifred Haun & Dancers is a professional contemporary dance company and presenter led by award winning choreographer and dancer, Winifred Haun. Founded in the 1990’s in Chicago, the Company re-located to Oak Park to 2004. Winifred Haun & Dancers has produced over 125 original dance works, including one full length ballet, commissioned 32 original musical scores, and participated in over 280 public performances and events. Every year the Company produces 1-3 full concert seasons, and 20-30 free or low cost community events, performances, workshops and Flash Mobs.

Winifred Haun & Dancers has garnered many awards and accolades, including Critic’s Choice from the Chicago Reader and TimeOut Chicago, and features in the Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Oak Leaves (Pioneer Press), WBEZ Radio, and many others. In 2005, the Company was featured as part of the critically acclaimed PBS series, “The Chicago Dance Project,” and in 2010 was featured on PBS-WTTW’s nightly news program, Chicago Tonight, for performances at the Cheney Mansion. The Company has also been featured on-line at: HuffingtonPost.com, Examiner.com, and 4dancers.org, Major awards include the 2000 Ruth Page Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Dance in Chicago” for initiating and producing Chicago’s NEXT Dance Festival, which grew to be the midwest’s largest dance festival for the new work of Chicago area artists, the Oak Park Area Arts Council’s 2009 “Best in Class” Award and a 2015 International Connections award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Winifred Haun & Dancers has been invited to perform at many prestigious venues and festivals including Circus Oz in Melbourne Australia, Dance Center of Columbia College, Athenaeum Theater, Link’s Hall, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas), the Pavilion (Montrose, CO), Overture Center (Madison, WI), Epic Center Theater (Kalamazoo, MI), St. Mary’s College (Indiana), Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Fermilab’s Ramsey Auditorium, and in many non-traditional performing spaces such as Historic Pleasant Home, Oak Park’s Handel Week, and the Cheney Mansion.

The mission of Winifred Haun & Dancers is to create and produce the dance works of Ms. Haun and other local, midwest and national artists and to make those works available to the widest possible audience. Presenting works with a strong technical base, and often employing humor, the Company produces and presents dances that reflect the complexity of the human condition and inform the viewer’s perception of him/herself and the world. It is our fervent belief that, with greater self knowledge, all humans can participate in changing the world for the better. Part of the Company’s artistic vision is to have dance viewed not only in the context of professional presentation, but also at the community level and in
non-traditional performance venues.

Artistic Director, Winifred Haun, is a veteran choreographer and dancer. She was a soloist with the critically acclaimed Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater from 1985 to 1991. Ms. Haun has won three Ruth Page Award nominations for Choreography and Performance and in 2001, she won the Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Dance Community. Ms. Haun’s choreography has been commissioned by Chicago Ballet, Ariel Dance Chicago, Zephyr Dance, Kanopy Dance Co., Lonny Joseph Gordon and many other Midwest and national groups. She has taught dance and dance composition at the Joffrey Ballet’s Academy of Dance, Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago Academy for the Arts, Beijing National Dance Academy and at numerous festivals and workshops worldwide. In 2008, Ms. Haun was appointed Associate Artist at Voice of the City, a Chicago based multi-arts educational organization. Currently, she teaches modern dance at Hubbard St. Dance Chicago, Deeply Rooted Productions and Legere Dance Center in River Forest.