Alumni Spotlight Lisa Martain Hoffer

 

 

Lisa Martain Hoffer, Special Events and Corporate Membership Coordinator at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago 

What years did you work with The Dance COLEctive?  

1994 - 1995?? I'm still amazed and honored Margi asked me to be a part of her inaugural year. What was she thinking? lol. Pretty sure I said yes immediately. I had been a dance major in high school and college but 10 years post, I was past planning to perform. I wasn't even taking class regularly. I truly enjoyed the opportunity to join The Dance COLEctive of the transformative journey of that first year.  

Lisa in action!

Any favorite TDC Memories? 

Someone always had to hold my hand during crossovers because I couldn't see anything in the dark without my glasses. "Who's got Lisa??" And laughing our asses off about everything. We were all good friends before we became a company. I think that came through in our performances; our desire to make Margi proud.  

 

 

In costume in Women's Song

On Stage or Site-Specific Performance? 

I'll never forget the sounds of the train at Links Hall (Wrigleyville location). Once we went on right after another group who had used sod in their performance. We took our bows coated in dirt and grass in unusual places. The lack of air conditioning really made it stick.

 

 

What are you doing now?  

I've always worked for non-profits and/or cultural institutions which is how I met Margi. I was Assistant to the Chair at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago where of course Margi was on staff. I'm going on 2.5 years now as the Special Events and Corporate Membership Coordinator at the Museum of Science and Industry. I squeeze in a class when the mood hits me. Though I'll confess it's not that often as the years go by. 

First Night Springfield 

 

Where can we find more information about you? 

LinkedIn

Do you use any Margi-ism’s?

Sweaty coo-potch - Not for use around parents or children but sometimes your dance clothes don't breathe the way they should. 

Ginch - Every joint in my body has a ginch. Getting older is getting harder to ignore.  

Memory from Margi

Lisa really worked with the company before it was officially "the company"!  Before we did real video documentation.  Before big company photo shoots. I had the pleasure of meeting and working with her at the Dance Center.  What stands out in my memory was her genuine enthusiasm to be a part of a creative process, her outstanding sense of humor and her distinctive laugh!  Never a dull moment when Lisa was in the room.  That has continued for as long as I have known her.  I was drawn to her long beautiful limbs and quirky and unassuming movement style.  Lisa was integral in helping to establish the vibrant energy that sparked the development of The Dance COLEctive.  She has remained a true friend and fan!!

Margi and Lisa in 1995/96?!

 

 

Coming Home Changed

Written by Collaborator Bonnie Brooks

Plunging in to work with the Dance COLEctive and Margi Cole on the production of REboot feels mighty familiar.  It’s a new way of working with Margi, yet it’s on familiar (and nearly familial) ground.  Ms. Cole and I have gotten used to working together.  Yet each new time we take up a new shared assignment, I am struck again by the good fortune of finding a collaborator who offers so very much.

Bonnie at work! 

We met in 1999, when I moved to Chicago to chair the Dance Department at Columbia College Chicago.  A grad of the program (who’d gone on to earn an MFA at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Margi was already teaching part-time and had spent a number of years working with Julie Simpson managing the Dance Center’s presenting series before refocusing her energy on her own dance company and on her work as an educator.  Through a series of what I’ll describe as fortunate circumstances, she advanced within the Dance Center team to become associate chair of the Dance Department for several years, giving me the “first round” of close collaboration.  We discovered we balanced each other out remarkably well.  I was often out fighting institutional admin battles, Margi keep the operation running back in the office.  I came quickly to appreciate her exceptional work ethic and the dedication she brings to what she does.  And I felt awe observing her juggle sustaining her small modern troupe, her teaching duties and student mentoring, and her admin work without, it so often appeared, missing a beat.  As time went on we came to be friends, friends who could actually work together (it’s kind of like being able to cook with someone, either you can or you can’t). 

When it came time to decide, post-chairmanship, if I would accept our Dean’s request that I take up leadership of the dance presenting series, I answered, “I can do it…if you’ll let me hire Margi to do it with me.”  She was the only person I knew who, I was certain, would be able to hit the ground running and who could read my mind as fast and accurately as I could read hers.  And so we did it – the relentless work of fundraising, producing, scheduling, keeping the internal bosses updated on all things financial, and doing our best to keep our guest artists informed and happy (that latter isn’t do-able at the Dance Center without the amazing Kevin Rechner and his tech crew, it truly takes a village).   Today, Ellen Chenoweth now runs the presenting series and continues to benefit from all the knowledge, skill and history that Margi brings to that work.  All I can say is I could not have done my part in those challenging years without her.

Last summer in beautiful Maine!

Mind you all the while Margi sustained her artistic project with the Dance COLEctive.  When she told me three or so years ago that she’d decided to re-imagine the Dance COLEctive’s mission and re-orient towards project work with a wider frame of participating artists, I remember thinking, “that’s gutsy and generous and practical.  Just like Margi.”  Giving up a steady ensemble of dancers for is no small decision for a choreographer, but Margi wanted a bigger and more flexible world.  Since making that decision, she has forged through several years of testing the waters and new short-term collaborations, she has added several solos to her personal repertory choreographed by the likes of Margaret Jenkins and Deborah Hay, and most recently she participated in a three week international residency at the Art Omi Art Center in Ghent, NY.  You can read about that in her blog posts here.

Now we are a few short weeks out from the first public performances of the Dance COLEctive since the big change.  It’ll feature Margi’s choreography plus work by Colleen Halloran and Pete Carpenter.  I’ll write about the concert in more detail an upcoming blog post.  But what she’s doing, in a way, is coming home changed.  She’s working with familiar dancers and collaborators.  The concert will be in a relatively new space dreamed up and realized by an old friend.  She’s dancing as well as choreographing.  And she’s got a back-up producer in Third Way Projects (that would be yours truly) who is also doing some re-inventing in post-institutional life.  This time I get to work on her project.  How grand is that?  It’s definitely different, but it’s also definitely like coming home. 

Opening September 14.  We so hope you will be there!