An ongoing, iterative process and project, Radiate explores the mundanity, humor and time-bending experience of pain and care. Working across video, craft and movement, this piece invites audiences to make themselves comfortable in the artist’s home as she continually traces deeply worn pathways, seeking warmth and relief. Radiate centers access through the open use of tools like captions, Artistic Sign Language and audio description, as well as various types of seating, blanket, pillows and other tools that allow audiences to attend to and curate their embodied experience of the work.

Radiate originated as a dance film created as part of Synapse Arts’ 2021 New Works program with the mentorship of Bryan Saner. The film premiered during an online showing of the New Works artists and has since been shown at Elevate Chicago Dance 2022. Each year, as radiators turn on and her body grows tight in the cold, Maggie returns to Radiate, tracking the development of her thinking, moving and making with/in pain. The live version of Radiate was developed in large part through the support of a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Production residency in partnership with Links Hall.

Access Dramaturg: Alison Kopit
Sound & Audio Description: Andy Slater
Artistic Sign Language: Joán Joel
ASL Interpretation & Support: Jordan Brown & Makeda Duncan
Projection & Production Design: Giau Minh Truong
Lighting Design: Ale Chanti
Embedded Writer: Shireen Hamza

About Maggie Bridger

Maggie Bridger is a sick and disabled dance artist, fiber artist, organizer and scholar interested in reimagining pain through the creative process. She is deeply connected to and informed by the disability arts and culture movement and the development of “disability aesthetics,” a term used by disabled artists to articulate the particular ways that disability appears in the content, form and process of their work. Maggie is a 2022 City of Chicago Individual Artist Program grantee and has held artist residencies through High Concept Labs, the Chicago Cultural Center’s Learning Lab, and most recently, was selected to participate in Chicago Dancemakers Forum’s Production Residency program. Her work has been shown at Elevate Chicago Dance 2022, The Art Institute of Chicago, Cottey College, CounterBalance and The Plant, among others.

A core part of Maggie’s work is to aid in making Chicago’s dance community more accessible. She is a co-founder, along with collaborator Sydney Erlikh, of the community-run Inclusive Dance Workshop Series. Maggie is a founding member of Unfolding Disability Futures, a local collective of disabled performing artists and community curator of High Concept Lab’s LabE, a program to platform, connect and support Chicago’s Deaf and disabled artists. She has worked with organizations such as Synapse Arts, 3Arts and High Concept Labs in various capacities as an access worker or consultant.

Maggie is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Disability and Human Development. Her writing has been published in the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Le Sociographe and the Journal of Cultural and Literary Disability Studies. She is an 2022-2023 Administrative Fellow with the Dance Studies Association and serves on the organizing committee for the Chicago Dance Studies Working Group.

Maggie’s work as a dancemaker often gestures at imperfection of access within a performance setting, and at the limitations of our attention as audience members, disabled and non-disabled alike. Many aspects of Maggie’s works remain partially illegible to all audiences. Balancing that fugitive desire with a foundational commitment to access is the puzzle at the heart of Maggie’s work.
—Shireen Hamza on Radiate for the Performance Response Journal (soon to be published)

Artist Links: @maggliz, www.maggiebridger.com
Running Time
One hour.

Due to the high volume and wide breadth of work we present, we are often not able to proactively offer content advisories for individual performances. However, if you have specific concerns about stage effects (such as strobe lights or fog/haze) that might have a bearing on comfort or well-being, or if you would like to know more about the age appropriateness of the performance, please contact the box office at 312-335-1650.
Mask Required Performances

All audience members, performers, crew, etc. will be asked to wear masks while in the performance venue. Please note, however, that the Steppenwolf is a public building and that there will be unmasked people in the building, including in the lobby space immediately outside of the theatre and the bathroom.

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Tags: Ale Chanti, Alison Kopit, Andy Slater, Bryan Saner, Chicago, Giau Minh Truong, Joán Joel, Jordan Brown, Lincoln Park, Maggie Bridger, Maggie Bridger: Radiate, Makeda Duncan, Radiate, Shireen Hamza, Steppenwolf Theatre