Note: This post is not about dance, but easily could be. Assessment and measuring achievement in college and high school dance programs can be tricky business, and in my “day job” teaching health sciences courses at a university we face similar challenges. Here I lay out some reasons why I’ve found oral and practical assessment to be a useful tool…

It was maybe 2011 when I reconsidered the name Art Intercepts. My thought process went something like: There’s no “dance” in the name. I obviously have nothing to do with the Cartesian Coordinate System. Everyone gets it wrong and types Arts Intercept instead of Art Intercepts, or uses AI, which makes me think of artificial intelligence, or some guy named…

A couple years ago I was speaking with a tenure-track professor in Kinesiology at another institution, telling her how excited I was about conducting qualitative research about aesthetic competence. “Can I give you a piece of advice?” she said. Oh boy. No, but, “Of course!” I said. “Don’t do qualitative research.” The professor went on to explain that qualitative research…

Author’s Note: The purpose of this photo essay is to discuss the philosophical assumptions surrounding potential qualitative research methodologies that might be utilized to describe aesthetic competence and dance performance. It is a culmination of earlier work developed during my time in Dublin, Ireland while participating in a five-week study abroad program in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago…

This post could be subtitled “What I did on my summer vacation…” During a five week study abroad program in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago and University College Dublin, during the summer of 2015, I had the pleasure of working with two undergraduate students on a qualitative research project related to sports psychology and dance. What we…

  I happened to glance at my calendar and see a really big milestone coming up. On Tuesday, Sept. 15 this little blog turns 5! Is Art Intercepts everything I wanted and hoped it would be? NO! Certainly not! But you’ve gotta give a girl some credit for sticking with something. In five years, blogging has gone from something stay-at-home…

The Chicago Dancing Festival‘s annual engagement at the Museum for Contemporary Art has explored a variety of themes throughout its nine year history, most with a focus on maximizing the intimate and close-up setting provided by the wonderful Edlis Neeson theater. This year’s theme, “Modern Women” basically spanned the whole history of Modern Dance in a fascinatingly curated program featuring work…

A conversation between Links Hall’s Roell Schmidt and Suzanne Connor of the Chicago Community Trust was the catalyst for the Chicago Teen Dance Festival, a new initiative mirroring the Chicago Jazz Lions Pavilion and kicking off tonight at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The Jazz Lions brings together young jazz musicians to perform at the Chicago Jazz Festival,…

  MCL Chicago is a year-old space in Lakeview, great for improv comedy. It’s an intimate setting with little cafe tables interspersed throughout the audience for a BYOB beverage-of-choice, but like every space, this one has a few down sides. J. Lindsay Brown’s fully improvised dance and song extravaganza with The Glitter Island Gang, Spectacle Spectacular, suffered a bit in this space, which is not…

The inevitable end of summer has given us some perfect evenings for a picnic and a show in downtown Chicago. Indeed, the lawn at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park was packed last Thursday for a unique collaboration made possible by the two heads of state of a venue previously known as the Viaduct Theatre. Links Hall’s Roell Schmidt and Constellation’s Mike Reed joined…