Meet and mingle with our Hedwig Dance Award recipients plus Hedwig Dances’ artists, leaders, dancers and designers. Be the first to learn about Hedwig Dances’ exciting plans for 2023 and beyond.
6:00 PM | WINE RECEPTION
6:35 PM | PERFORMANCE
Welcome – Jan Bartoszek, Founder and Artistic Director, Hedwig Dances
Exclusive Preview of Hedwig’s Newest Work – KAOS2 by Rigo Saura, Artistic Associate
7:00 PM | DINNER
7:50 PM | Keynote Address
Lauren Warnecke
Dance Writer and Reviewer
LIVE AUCTION and PADDLE RAISE
HEDWIG DANCE AWARD PRESENTATIONS
See photos and biographies further below.
DANCE ADVOCACY AWARD
Michael Reed
Presented by Kip Conwell
Technical Director, Chicago Aerial Dance
DANCE LEADERSHIP AWARD
Ladonna Freidheim
Presented by Shawn Lent
Programs and Communication Director, Chicago Dancemakers Forum
HEDWIG HEART OF THE ARTS AWARD
Mark Kelly
Presented by Sharene Shariatzadeh
President and CEO, LUMA8
CHAMPAGNE TOAST
Festive Cocktail Attire
Valet Parking Available
Presented by Kip Conwell, Chicago Aerial Dance
Michael Reed’s 45-year career in technical event production has touched nearly every facet of arts and entertainment, including work in music, dance, theater, and film.
Lighting design credits include the Chicago City Ballet, The Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble, Hedwig Dances; Collaboraction Theater Company; the Hollywood films “Roll Bounce,” and “The Breakup;” and segments of “The Phil Donahue Show” and WTTW’s “Soundstage.”
In 1994 Michael founded Reed Rigging, Inc., an event rigging company specializing in suspending lighting, sound, scenery, and video equipment overhead for a vast array of A-list clients and events including Lallapalooza, Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election rally, The Chicago Auto Show, and 15 U.S. tours with The Dave Matthews Band. In 2018 Michael sold the company to two key employees
Along with the growth of Reed Rigging came the resources to give back to the community. Anthony Mosely, artistic director of Collaboraction Theater Company once said, “Physical materials mean nothing… unless you have valuable people to share them with.” For the last 30 years Michael and his team at Reed Rigging have donated material and creative support for a long list of organizations and “valuable people,” including Dance For Life, The Names Project (the AIDS Quilt), AIDS Walk Chicago, CAST Summer theater program, Project 606 Dance, Hedwig Dances, Aerial Dance Chicago, Matter Dance, Collaboraction, Hedwig Dances, Wire Music Club, Chicago Media Project, The Academy of Movement and Music, Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, Chicago Folks Operetta, Alley Stage, Open Door Repertory, OPRF High School, Pride Films and Plays, and A Concert For Charlottesville (2017).
Since the founding of Reed Rigging, Reed has actively sought out ways to give back to the community. One way was teaching. The other way was to donate his time and equipment to organizations who would not otherwise have access to equipment which would enhance their shows. Over the course of the last 25 years, Reed and his company has provided support to a vast array of dance and theater companies Including: Dance For Life, The Names Project (the AIDS Quilt), AIDS Walk Chicago, CAST Summer theater program, Project 606 Dance, Hedwig Dances, Aerial Dance Chicago, Matter Dance, Collaboraction, Hedwig Dances, Wire Music Club, Chicago Media Project, The Academy of Movement and Music, Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, Chicago Folks Operetta, Alley Stage, Open Door Repertory, OPRF High School, Pride Films and Plays, and A Concert For Charlottesville (2017).
Reed Acceptance Remarks Hedwignites 2023Presented by Shawn Lent, Communications and Program Director, Chicago Dancemakers Forum
Ladonna Freidheim is passionate about inclusion, dance, science, and joy! She is a formally trained dancer, experienced arts administrator, adaptation and disability inclusion specialist. Ladonna grew up dancing. After a degenerative disability ended her ballerina life, she recovered from surgeries with paralympic athletes who introduced her to disability culture. With the aid of braces and a cane she is able to navigate the world most of the time, but it is Ladonna’s wheelchair that has restored her dancer’s soul. A masters degree in occupational therapy contributes considerable expertise to her work adapting choreography and promoting inclusion. In 2006 Ladonna joined Dance>Detour, the first physically-integrated performance company in Chicago. She currently performs with the MOMENTA Dance Company. Ladonna founded ReinventAbility in 2014 to enlighten perceptions of disability while improving lives and bringing joy! She is the driving force behind DisFest, Chicago’s first annual disability arts celebration, which premieres this year. Ladonna has been nominated for 3Arts Awards in dance and education, is a Make A Wave recipient, was appointed to a dance panel by the National Endowment For The Arts, serves on the See Chicago Dance Board of Directors and the Chicago ArtsEd Leadership Committee. Ladonna is honored to be receiving a 2023 Hedwig Dance Leadership in Award.
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Presented by Sharene Shariatzadeh, President and CEO, LUMA8
Mark Kelly recently retired after several successful years as the Commissioner of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), which presents and promotes high-quality free festivals, exhibitions, performances and holiday celebrations each year in parks, the historic Chicago Cultural Center and other venues throughout the city.
Kelly previously served as the Vice President for Student Success at Columbia College Chicago, where he fostered and oversaw an immersive arts experience for Columbia’s burgeoning student body. For more than 30 years, Kelly served in numerous leadership roles at Columbia, supporting students who view the world through a creative lens in attaining a world-class education that blends creative and media arts, liberal arts and business.
Kelly has amassed more than 40 years of experience working as an academic administrator, with prior positions at Wayne State University and City Colleges of Chicago. Kelly was the founder of the Wabash Arts Corridor (WAC) initiative, and he created the artistic vision for the Arts in the Dark Halloween Parade. He is a percussionist who worked with free form jazz artist Hal Russell, and he had the honor of bringing percussion to an Allen Ginsberg performance. Kelly holds a Master of Arts in counseling from the University of Cincinnati and a bachelor of arts in sociology from John Carroll University.
Lauren Warnecke reviews dance for the Chicago Tribune and is a reporter for WGLT, Bloomington-Normal’s NPR Affiliate. With a passion for Midwest artists, Lauren regularly contributes to Dance Magazine and has appeared in Chicago Magazine, St. Louis Magazine and Milwaukee Magazine. She started writing about Chicago dance in the Windy City Times and See Chicago Dance, where she served as editor from 2018-2021. While at SCD, Lauren facilitated an intercontinental dance writing fellowship with the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience in Durban, South Africa. She has been a resident writer at the Bates Dance Festival (Maine), the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron (Ohio) and Trillium Arts (North Carolina). Lauren grew up in the suburbs and attended Barat College, Columbia College Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago, earning degrees in dance and kinesiology. She enjoys cycling, cooking and attempting to grow things in her backyard.
Kip Conwell serves as the Production Director of Aerial Dance Chicago. He also serves as the Biology Lab Manager at Northeastern Illinois University. Kip earned a master’s degree in virology at Arizona State University and his bachelor’s in Biology and Spanish from Knox College. As a founding director of ADC, he takes pride in some of the more unique and rigorous productions in recent memory: rigging for dance in the water at the Crown Fountain of Millennium Park, rigging the historic and scrupulously maintained Grand Ballroom of the Drake Hotel, and rigging the elaborately renovated Crystal Ballroom of the Blackstone Hotel (former stomping grounds of Al Capone). Kip strives to develop a culture of safety, while always searching for new ways to streamline aerial dance rigging. In his free time Kip enjoys cross country ski racing and marathon training.
Shawn Lent (she/her) moves this world as a social practice dance artist, dance educator, and program manager with experience ranging from a field in Bosnia, to a children’s cancer hospital, to the embassy in revolutionary Egypt. The first ever person featured on Seriously Badass Women, she is a U.S. Fulbright Scholar (2011-2012 Egypt) and United Nations Alliance of Civilizations International Fellow, and is leading a community initiative with refugee families in Chicago. Shawn currently serves on the World Refugee Day Chicago Leadership Committee and the Board for ILDEO – Illinois Dance Educators Organization (the state affiliate for NDEO – National Dance Education Organization). In 2019, she was nominated for 3Arts Award in Teaching Artistry and was designated for NewCity’s Players list of the 50 people “who really perform for Chicago,” an honor she again received in 2022. Shawn was the EducationUSA Coordinator for AMIDEAST/Egypt with the U.S. Department of State 2013-2015, served on the editorial team for Createquity and The Clyde Fitch Report, and has spoken at the German Mission to the United Nations, Brigham Young University, University of Maryland, Hope College, Universal Exposition Milan, Dance + Social Justice Conference at NYU, and TEDx Shibin El Kom, and served as the 2014 Commencement Speaker for Millikin University. Shawn holds a Masters in Arts Management degree with a concentration Arts in Youth and Community Development from Columbia College Chicago and a Professional Certificate in Youth Arts Development from Goldsmith’s College, University of London.
Sharene Shariatzadeh is the President & CEO of LUMA8 the company that founded and produces the Arts in the Dark Halloween Parade, an event that celebrates Halloween as the “artist’s holiday.” Now in its ninth year, Arts in the Dark is a magical evening parade that draws together Chicago’s cultural community to delight an audience of 50,000 with unique floats, spectacle puppets and creative performances – all set against the backdrop of historic State Street.
Ms. Shariatzadeh started her career working in business development for Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, and went on to be the first in-house booking agent for the Joffrey Ballet when it moved to Chicago. She left Chicago to launch Puerto Rico’s first online auction site, ISLAZ.com, which was sold to a local portal, Zonai.com in 2000. Upon returning to Chicago, Ms. Shariatzadeh became the Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations for Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and from there she became the Vice President of Business Development and then President of The Conservation Center, the largest private art conservation center in the country. Following The Conservation Center, she helped launch the Chicago News Cooperative, an independent not for profit that created the “Chicago Report” for The New York Times.
Prior to launching LUMA8, Ms. Shariatzadeh was the Executive Director of the association that helped brand the section of Michigan Avenue between the Chicago River and Roosevelt, the Chicago Cultural Mile. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw University.