Covering Midwestern Performing Arts Since 2009…

Our goal is to educate and illuminate audiences, sparking curiosity for Midwestern artists and the rich performing arts communities who live and work in “flyover country.”

Redefining Arts Criticism

Our writers are at the forefront of the evolving nature of arts criticism and revitalizing and transforming critical discourse in the arts.

Rigorous Play and Rhetorical Experimentation

We are open to new approaches in arts journalism while maintaining ethical standards of practice.

Founder and editor Lauren Warnecke is a freelance arts and culture writer, educator and administrator. Her writing appears in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine, Dance Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, St. Louis Magazine and WGLT Radio, among others. As senior editor of See Chicago Dance, Lauren oversees SCD’s digital publication and contributes reviews and columns. She co-facilitated critical dance writing intensives in Chicago and Durban, South Africa and participated in writing residencies at the National Center for Choreography, Bates Dance Festival and JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience.

Holding degrees in dance and kinesiology, Lauren presented research on dance training practices at the National Dance Education Organization and the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. She teaches coursework in dance history and technique, exercise physiology and kinesiology for dancers with adjunct appointments at Loyola University Chicago and Illinois Wesleyan University. Her academic writing is published in Agenda (2020), with forthcoming writing scheduled for University of Akron Press and University of Illinois Press.

Lauren enjoys cooking, cycling and attempting to grow things in her backyard. She lives in central Illinois.