CHADDICK DANCE THEATER
The Company
Chaddick Dance Theater is an Austin-based dance company that presents one production per year. Led by choreographer and dancer Cheryl Chaddick, the dance company’s performances explore themes of identity and personal truths. Chaddick Dance Company’s creative process is driven by personal research, exploration, and ultimately, a movement-centric choreographic process that involves ongoing interaction between Chaddick and the company’s dancers.
Common themes in Chaddick’s work include the inner conflicts between oneself and our desired image and our deteriorating ability to connect with and feel empathy towards other people. Drawing from family, work, relationships, spiritual quests, and cultural influences, the heart of the company‘s work is the desire to find the human element amidst growing isolation and a loss of individual distinction. Ms. Chaddick believes it is important and necessary for people to tell their stories. She sees dance as an instrument to teach, impact, question, and inspire others through the arts.
Chaddick worked in San Francisco for nearly two decades, where she received critical acclaim for her choreography and dance work, which was deemed “full-bodied and gorgeously phrased” (SF Bay Guardian) with “splendid partnering, fluidity, and generosity of spirit” (SF Chronicle). Following her return to Austin in 2007, she founded Chaddick Dance Theater and began her first local production, entitled “Second Wind.” Two “Second Wind” dancers received nominations for “best dancer” awards from the Austin Critics Table. Subsequent Chaddick Dance Theater three week run production run of “Freefall” (2009) and “a co-production with Kathy Dunn Hamrick and Berstomg Armstrong in the summer of 2010 at the Austin Ventures Studio Theater. Her 2011 production, “Tender Voices in Flight,” took place February 17-20, 2011 at the Austin Ventures Studio Theater, 501. W 3rd Street with quest choreographer and well-known teacher Kate Warren. In March of 2012, CDT presented full evening performance “Dark To Light” inviting a piece from a new young emerging Austin choreographer, Maia McCoy, and Katherine Hodges.
CDT partnered in a the three month-long community event of Ballet Austin’s Light 2012/The Holocaust & Humanity Project. Which was a unique event focused on Holocaust educational partnerships that would promote the coexistence and the protection of human rights against bigotry and hate through art, education and public dialogue
Chaddick Dance Theater kicked off their annual 2014 spring season "From The Inside Out" with two premiere works with guest artist, Little Stolen Moments for the grand opening of First Street Studio Inc. Summer 2014, Cheryl Chaddick taught classes at the space as well as teaching for American Ballet Theater's Summer Intensive at UT.
The company held its Annual Winter Concert since 2006 and Fall Dance Festival since 2015.
In 2017, CDT partnered with the City of Austin in a site-specific performance at Austin City Hall. In 2018 CDT went back to Ballet Austin and performed an evening-length work incorporating projections, floor patterns, and creative lighting.
Chaddick Dance Theater has hosted the annual Fall Dance Festival since 2013, bringing in a variety of artists from the Austin community for an eclectic showcase of dance genres. CDT has presented ATX Summer Dance Film Festival at First Street Studios for the past 2 years inviting all levels of artists who are diving into dance and film.
History
Chaddick Dance Theater was founded by choreographer Cheryl Chaddick in Austin in 2007. A native Texan and an accomplished artist, she moved to Austin from San Francisco, drawn by the people of Texas and the vibrant art scene.
Company Chaddick, Cheryl's company in San Francisco, was one of the most acclaimed and imaginative of the modern dance companies in the Bay Area. Founded in 1985 by dancer, teacher, choreographer Cheryl Chaddick, this dynamic dance ensemble consistently earned accolades from the critics.
Company Chaddick turned out “full-bodied and gorgeously phrased choreography” (SF Bay Guardian) to the delight and satisfaction of Bay Area audiences. Company Chaddick has forged a movement style characterized by “splendid partnering, fluidity, and generosity of spirit” (SF Chronicle), that is principally based on the Artistic Director’s freedom, a resonance that offers new insight into the human condition, energy and playfulness, and imbued with emotional and ordinariness of modern life. Her themes have ranged from spiritual crisis (Batter My Heart) to the rawness of addiction (Dragons), from the bio-rhythms of life (Inner Springs) to the challenging world of corporate politics (Hard Drive). Works such as these, which reflect the experiences of the dancers, the agonies,Ms. Chaddick's work springs from the joys, audiences and the community, distinguished Company Chaddick during its 21 years in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Following her return to Austin in 2007, she founded Chaddick Dance Theater and began her first local production, entitled “Second Wind.” Two “Second Wind” dancers received nominations for “best dancer” awards from the Austin Critics Table. Subsequent Chaddick Dance Theater three week run production run of “Freefall” (2009) and “a co-production with Kathy Dunn Hamrick, in the summer of 2010 at the Austin Ventures Studio Theater. Her 2011 production, “Tender Voices in Flight,” took place February 17-20, 2011 at the Austin Ventures Studio Theater, 501. W 3rd Street with guest choreographer and well-known teacher Kate Warren. In March of 2012, CDT presented full evening performance “Dark To Light” inviting a piece from a new young emerging Austin choreographer, Maia McCoy, and Katherine Hodges.
CDT partnered in a three-month-long community event of Ballet Austin’s Light 2012/The Holocaust & Humanity Project. Which was a unique event focused on Holocaust educational partnerships that would promote the coexistence and the protection of human rights against bigotry and hate through art, education and public dialogue.
"The Interior Landscape of the Emotional Mind," premiered in Spring 2013 and was sited inside the Ballet Austin building at San Antonio and 3rd Streets in downtown Austin. Nested inside intimate hallways and rehearsal spaces, it ventured to bring audiences into the spaces typically unseen behind the Ballet Austin Venture Studio main stage. Dancers occupied closets and fire escapes, green rooms and smaller, forgotten studios, followed by an audience willing to be led by hosts through the building in slow, successive caravan. The production garnered again another nomination for Best Choreography by The Austin Chronicle the following fall.
Ms. Chaddick was again nominated 3 times in 2015 for Best Short Work, Best Choreographer, and Best Duet for her premiered work, “Vicissitudes”,
MS Chaddick has established 2 successful professional dance companies, established for 25 years in SF, "Company Chaddick" and now currently 10 years in existence.
"Chaddick Dance Theater". She continues to be a thriving creative force in the Austin scene where she currently runs and owns "First Street Studio” a studio/theater/performance space.