Chelonia Dance

Chris Johnson (Beloit, WI), director of Chelonia Dance, makes work that speaks to the human condition, drawing attention to matters of social justice. Having addressed topics such as the Holocaust, HIV/AIDS, oppression of culture, and world hunger, she creates work that exposes issues in a poignant but accessible way so that all involved, dancers and audience members alike, are inspired to take positive action. Critics have lauded her work as stirring, mesmerizing and ingeniously shifty. Johnson performed and choreographed professionally with Dale Scholl's Dance/Art in Sacramento and taught for the Sacramento Ballet. She has performed repertory works of José Limòn, Doris Humphrey and Alwin Nikolais. She won the Laureate and Grand Prix at the Seventh International Competition: Festival of Choreographic Collectives "Unity of Russia" in Moscow. Her dance Wreath of Memories was performed by special invitation at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Her work, as well as her students,' has been regularly selected for the gala concerts at the American College Dance Festival Association regional festivals. She has also presented her work at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, and The Union Theater in Madison, WI, and in Sacramento.