Erica Mott, based in Chicago, is a performer, director, and deviser whose work is particularly inspired by observation of her immediate environment. The recent winner of a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, Erica is currently launching into a worldwide schedule of performances and teaching residencies in New York; North Carolina; Malerargues, France; Oaxaca, Mexico; and Skagastrond, Iceland.

Peter McDowell Arts Consulting and HelloARI Design are proud to launch Erica’s new web site which we feel reflects the visual and theatrically compelling nature of Erica’s performance.

Through mask, clown, butoh-inspired movement and site-specific performance, she attempts to capture and heighten the magic, mystery and tragedy in everyday activities and interactions. She endeavors to find universality in these actions and her performance that may be communicated across social, economic, and cultural boundaries.

Thanks to her grant from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum, from June 2010-July 2011, Erica will be developing new choreography based on intensive research into the intersections between objects and dancers’ bodies. Her research will take her to France to work with acclaimed puppetry and spectacle performance company Royal Deluxe and to San Francisco for an ongoing collaboration with choreographer, Sara Shelton Mann. She will continue to research and develop this new work for a premiere in July 2011.

The Chicago Dancemakers Forum is a catalyst for innovation and a means to increase dynamic interaction among Chicago’s dancemakers. The Lab Artist program supports artistic exploration, research, and development that leads to production of a new work, culminating in public performances. The select choreographers are active in their field and developing a distinctive trajectory in their work. They possess the skills and experience to undertake a larger project of extended scale, and the capacity to benefit from an environment of artistic interchange.