Visiting Assistant Professor and Denison Alumn Molly Shanahan ’90 will perform a new solo dance work entitled Blackbird’s Ventriloquy, featuring music by percussionist Kevin O’Donnell, September 22nd-30th at Links Hall in Chicago, IL.

Including Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak in their “66 Things to Do in Chicago in September,” Chicago Magazine describes Shanahan as “a master of improvisational dance.” Newcity Stage writes, “Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak continues her investigation of movement norms and the exchange between audience and performer in this fresh iteration of her ongoing ‘Blackbird’ project.”

Windy City Times includes Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak in what they describe as “a slew of top-notch performances” at Links Hall, describing Blackbird Ventriloquy as “a solo arguably 10 years in the making.”

They write, “Performed as a ‘reopened archive’ of her 2007 solo, ‘My Name is a Blackbird,’ Shanahan, a rigorous somatic researcher and dance scholar, re-explores the ‘complicated memory’ of her own physicality in this new evening-length work.”

See Chicago Dance writes, “The archive that informs Blackbird’s Ventriloquy is both literal and figurative, based palpably in Shanahan’s body, and in dozens of hours of archival video footage, recorded conversations/interviews, and personal journals.”

Shanahan states, “Blackbird’s Ventriloquy is a new project with a long and complicated memory. I’m joined by Kevin O’Donnell, who worked with me during the past two years on creating sound for the piece, and movement coach/longtime collaborator Kristina Fluty.

Shanahan will perform excerpts from Blackbird Ventriloquy as part of the Denison Dance Department Fall Concert, December 7-9, 2017, in the Doane Dance Performance Space.