Paige Caldarella

Paige Caldarella (MFA University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) received her B.F.A. from the Juilliard School and immediately went on to dance with Merce Cunningham Company from 2000 to 2004. Caldarella is an emerging contemporary ballet choreographer whose work explores the relationship between contemporary ballet and the array of techniques with which it intersects. In 2012, she received a Chicago Dancemakers Forum grant for the development and performance of Off Center. The piece illuminated the relationship between contemporary ballet and vogueing techniques. Caldarella was also a 2012 invited choreographer for the Cincinnati Ballet’s New Works Series. She has presented her work at Chicago’s Cultural Center, the Krannert Center, Links Hall, Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center, and Summer Stages Dance in Concord, Massachusetts. Currently, Caldarella is an Associate Professor in Dance at Columbia College Chicago. Her commitment to innovative ballet and contemporary dance pedagogy was acknowledged and rewarded with a 2015 Teaching Excellence award. Caldarella is a sought-after guest teacher whose residences include University of California, Berkeley; University of Florida, Gainesville; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Beloit College; and Boston Ballet's summer program.

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