Hedwig Dances’ Founder and Artistic Director
Ms. Bartoszek’s artistic credentials include fellowships from the NEA (1), Illinois Arts Council (8), Chicago Dancemakers Forum, and the National Performance Networks’s Creation Fund; mentoring of numerous artists; and, a 20-year leadership role in making dance a vital force at the Chicago Cultural Center (1992 to 2011). She has choreographed over 60 dances in her career that critics have described as “intelligent, accomplished, moving” (Chicago Tribune) and “poignantly human” (Chicago Reader). These dances have been presented in national performance venues and internationally in Cuba, Honduras, Brazil and Canada. Throughout her career, Ms. Bartoszek has fostered a spirit of collaboration with other artists; merging choreography, media, text and music.
Ms. Bartoszek received a Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Dance and was honored in “100 Women Making a Difference” by Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine in recognition of her artistic contribution to the Chicago cultural community. Her choreography credits include work for Steppenwolf, Northlight, Live Bait and Court theaters, as well as with director Ping Chong. As a performer, she toured nationally and internationally with Ping Chong & Company performing in BAM’s Next Wave Festival; Montreal’s Festival TransAmeriques; and at the Teatro Goldoni for the Venice Carnivale Festival and the Charlie Vernon Performance Company at the American Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), and the Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis), among others. Ms. Bartoszek has served on the Advisory Board of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago, the Board of the Chicago Dance Coalition, and dance panels for the Illinois Arts Council and the Oregon Arts Commission. Jan has taught at Northwestern University as well as at the School of the Art Institute/Chicago; Roosevelt University and the University of Chicago. In recent years, she has taken an interest in dance made for the camera. She established and co-curated an annual dance film series at the Chicago Cultural Center (2007-2010) with Sarah Best; choreographed and directed Arch of Repose, a poetic dream-like dance film with cinematographer Daniel Kullman and producer Nicolas DeGrazia of Bitter Jester Creative (BJC), a film production company; and is developing a behind the scenes documentary with BJC of Hedwig Dances’ recent collaboration with the Havana-based dance theater company, DanzAbierta.