Artists

 

MaryAnn McGovern (Director) is a Chicago-based contemporary dancemaker and community organizer. Her work serves to agitate and activate, by confronting socio-political issues and building calls to action into her projects.

MaryAnn’s work has been supported by Velocity Dance Center and the BOOST Dance Festival in Seattle, The Garage in San Francisco, The Illinois Arts Council, and The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. She holds a BA in Dance from Columbia College Chicago, and a CLMA from Integrated Movement Studies.

 

 

 

 Shweta Dharap is trained in Bollywood dance, Indian folk and semi-classical dance. Later she pursued a Diploma in western classical dance where she trained in ballet, jazz and contemporary. She is also part of a hip-hop crew and has worked for an Indian and Bollywood dance company in Chicago.
She finds great joy in dance performance and training. Her view of dance is an entity that can coexist and integrate with other fields and she is curious to explore these intersection of various disciplines with dance like law, science, medicine.
CCBs mission is to create opportunities for dancers and dancemakers- and Shweta feels CCB has been instrumental in providing her with one- for a dancer who is an outlier. She thinks that the company with it’s mission and it’s work is definitely challenging the status quo which is hugely important for the industry.

Layzabeth Gonzalez is a fronteriza dance artist based in Chicago, IL who aims to use movement as a source of healing and joy for every body. Since moving to Chicago in 2019 she has dedicated her time as a teaching artist for the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Youth Education Programs and became a member of Contretemps Contemporary Ballet in February 2020.

 

 

Abigail Roberts trained at Barrington Dance Academy, Wright State University Dance Program and with Dayton Ballet II performing in full length ballets by Karen Russo-Burke Mary Brennan, and Septime Webre, guest works by Dwight Rhoden, Wade Schaffer, Eddie Ocampo, and student pieces by Bailey Olean. She holds a B.S. in Accounting from Western Governors University and is certified as a PBT instructor. She has performed professionally with Elements Contemporary Ballet and is a founding member of Contretemps Contemporary Ballet. Abigail has Genu Varnum which is affects the bone alignment of her knees and ankles, being part of Contretemps is a blessing to be able to share that ballet technique is not just for those who are “built” for ballet, but every bone structure is for ballet.

 

 

 

Jasmine San Juan-Llenas began her professional career as a performing artist when she joined the Ballet Manila company in 2010 and has performed in many of their classical and modern repertoire. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology at Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan in the Philippines. In the last 5 years, Jasmine has been focusing on early childhood and dance education. She was a teaching artist with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Youth Program and their Adaptive Dance Program. Currently, Jasmine is a mom of 3 boys and is working on completing her certificate in Dance Education through the National Dance Education Organization’s online institute.

 

 

 

A Chicago native, Lourdes Taylor (she/her) trained with Homer Bryant at Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center in Ballet, Jazz, Horton, Graham, and Hip-Hop techniques among others from ages 3-18. In college, Lourdes was a company member with D2, The Philadelphia Dance Company’s (Philadanco) apprentice company and completed a minor Dance upon graduation. Lourdes also works frequently with the Hiplet Company, and is an incoming PhD student at the University of Chicago in English. This season, Lourdes is incredibly excited to be working with Contretemps Contemporary Ballet to enact its mission of body diversity and inclusivity through movement. A fun fact about Lourdes: she loves science fiction, and is currently reading Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower!