Hedwignites 2019 was held on March 8, at the Arts Club of Chicago. The evening began with a wine reception and silent auction, followed by dinner with a fun table game design competition entitled Play Bauhaus. We were gratified by an inspirational speaking program, beginning with a Keynote Address by Henry Godinez, followed by the presentation of Hedwig Awards to Ping Chong and Vin Reed, a paddle raise and finally the piece de resistance: a dance performance, excerpted from FUTURA, the company’s critically acclaimed work presented later that year in Germany at the Bauhaus Centenary.
In 2018, the Board of Directors established the annual conferral of Hedwig Dance Awards to recognize and celebrate transformational leaders, artists, critics, mentors, and funders who create, illuminate, and nourish contemporary dance. Founder and Artistic Director Jan Bartoszek explained: “Having produced dance for more than three decades, we felt it was time we showed our gratitude to the individuals and organizations that have paved the way for contemporary dance in Chicago.”
Presented by Peter Taub
Ping Chong is a theater director, choreographer, and video installation artist. Born in Toronto and raised in New York City’s Chinatown, he is a seminal figure in the Asian American arts movement, an internationally acclaimed artist and a pioneer in the use of media in theater. His theatrical works bring his unique artistic vision to bear on major historical issues of our times, and focus on bringing unheard voices and under-represented stories to the stage. Encompassing puppetry, dance, documentary theater, sound, media and other experimental theater forms, his works have explored a wide variety of subjects from a hidden genocide in Africa to modernization in China to the experiences of Muslim youth in post 9/11 America. Throughout, the common thread has been a unifying commitment to artistic innovation and social responsibility.
Since 1972, as founder and artistic director of Ping Chong + Company, he has created over 100 productions which have been presented at major theaters, festivals and museums worldwide. Major interdisciplinary works include Collidescope: Adventures in Pre and Post Racial America ( with Talvin Wilks, 2013 University of Maryland, 2015 University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2017 Wake Forest University), Throne of Blood (2010 Brooklyn Academy of Music and Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Cathay: Three Tales of China (2005 the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Kwaidan (1998 Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Festival), Deshima (1990 Tokyo International Theater Festival), Nosferatu (1985/1991 La MaMa), Angels of Swedenborg (1984/2011), among many others.
In 1992, he created the first Undesirable Elements production, an ongoing series of community-based oral history projects, working with real people to explore issues of culture and identity. Representative works in the UE Series include DIFFICULT LIVES (2019, Tokyo Metropolitan Theater) BEYOND SACRED: Voices of Muslim Identity (2015, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center and touring) INSIDE/OUT: Voices of the Disability Community (2008, Kennedy Center), CRY FOR PEACE: Voices from the Congo (2010 Syracuse Stage) and GAIJIN (1995 Yomiuri Prize, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.) His puppet theater work ALAXSXA|ALASKAl premiered in August 2017 and continues to tour.
Theatre Communications Group has published two volumes of his plays “The East West Quartet” and “Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theatre”. Ping Chong is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a USA Artist Fellowship, two BESSIE awards, two OBIE awards, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2015 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship and a 2014 National Medal of Arts.
Presented by Kevin McGirr
Vin Reed’s curious commitment to the dance community has involved everything but the dance.
Vin finds inspiration everywhere. This has fueled his creativity that has included marketing dance companies, designing sets, costuming, choreography, and creating rogue engagements to expand public awarenes for dance.
An Ohio native, after graduating from University of Cincinnati’s renowned College of Design, Art, Architecture & Planning, he joined Eva Maddox Associates, a pioneer in branded environments. During his time there, he and the company received numerous national and international awards for innovation.
Vin was introduced to the Windy City’s vibrant dance community when he was selected to design the identity and user experience of SeeChicagoDance.com. Creating lasting impressions around dance, a most ephemeral art form, was a match well-suited for Vin’s multi-disciplinary skill. He has worked tirelessly to build audiences, and market performance accessibility, to support the artistic visions of the city’s exceptional dance talent including Hedwig Dances Giordano Dance Chicago, Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Danceworks Chicago, Same planet performance Project, Luna Negra and many more.
In 2006, Lar Lubovitch invited Vin to be part of the founding team of the Chicago Dancing Festival. His design and marketing talents exposed thousands of people to the visceral power of dance and included creating “Signatures,” a full-color program guide with 100% of the ad revenue going back into the dance community. “Signatures” provided the opportunity for marketing budgets to be self-sustaining.
As arts budgets tightened during the recession, Vin became passionate about pushing arts funding through the community to reach emerging artists. Vin began sharing his skills in construction, fashion, and photography. He provided photos and video to hundreds of choreographers allowing them to promote their work and take bigger stages. He created costumes and set pieces for dozens of dance makers to build their vision into bigger movements. And he has endlessly postered Chicago to bring public awareness to our energetic dance community.
Vin uses a storytelling aesthetic to creatively connect with audiences. His costumes have been featured on WMAQ-NBC 5, in Time Out Chicago and seen at “Break Out,” the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago 2013 dance retrospect.
He was a founding board member of Danceworks Chicago and currently sits on their advisory board. In addition, Vin has been an adjunct professor of fashion students at the College of DuPage, and is currently a guest lecturer at Nortwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Henry Godinez is a professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University and the Resident Artistic Associate at the Goodman Theatre, where he is the director of the Latino Theatre Festival. Significant among Henry’s long list of credits at the Goodman include fostering the co-production of Pedro Paramo with Teatro Buendia of Cuba, directing The Sins of Sor Juana, Boleros for the Disenchanted that had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as Millennium Mambo, Straight as a Line, The Cook, Mariela in the Desert, Electricidad, Zoot Suit, and the Goodman/Teatro Vista co-production of Cloud Tectonics. Other Chicago credits include the productions for Northlight, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Apple Tree, Victory Gardens and Windy City Playhouse.
Godinez is the co-founder and former artistic director of Teatro Vista and has directed productions at Portland Center Stage, Signature Theatre Company in NYC, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, and Colorado Shakespeare Festival.
As an actor his credits include Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Writers Theatre, and on Film/TV including The Fugitive, Above the Law, The Beast, Boss, Chicago Code, Chicago PD and Chicago Fire.
Peter Taub is a curator and arts manager with a strong commitment to developing and producing artist-centered projects in the performing and visual arts. He cofounded Chicago Dancemakers Forum, and was the founding director of the performing arts program at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from 1996 – 2016. While at MCA, he established the New Works Initiative to support artists with creative residencies and commissions. Prior to MCA, he led Randolph Street Gallery, an artist-run center focused on socially- and politically-engaged exhibitions, performances, installations, and public art.