Maggie Bridger

Maggie Bridger (MS) is a PhD Candidate at the University of Illinois, Chicago in the Department of Disability and Human Development. As a sick and disabled dance artist, her research and artistic interests center around disabled bodyminds in dance, with a focus on reimagining pain through the dancemaking process. Maggie is a co-founder of the Inclusive Dance Workshops, for which she and her project partner, Sydney Erlikh, received a 2021 Chicago Area Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. Maggie has worked as an access consultant and coordinator for organizations such as 3Arts and Synapse Arts. Maggie’s writing has been published in the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies and she is co-writing a chapter on the history of integrated dance in Chicago which will appear in the forthcoming edited collection, Dancing on the Third Coast. She has been invited to speak at Cottey College, Columbia College Chicago, Loyola University and the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign. Maggie is a 2022 Dance Studies Association Administrative Fellow. Maggie was part of the inaugural cohort of the Dancing Disability Lab at UCLA, serves on the committee to organize Chicago’s integrated dance concert, CounterBalance, and was one of Synapse Arts’ 2021 New Works artists. Her work has been commissioned by MOMENTA Dance Company, a physically integrated dance company in Oak Park, IL. Maggie is a 2022 Artist in Residence with High Concept Labs. In the Fall of 2022, she is in residence at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Learning Lab where she is leading an initiative entitled, “Cultivating Chicago’s Disability Dance Community.”

Why did you choose DHD at UIC?
I was drawn to UIC because of Chicago’s vibrant history of disability art and the department’s involvement in the disability art community via Bodies of Work.

What do you want to do with a DHD degree?
With my degree, I hope to continue to uplift, create, and share a disability-centered approach to dancemaking and pedagogy.

Research Interests
Disability Dance, Disability Arts and Culture, Pain Studies, Dance Studies, Performance Studies, Ethnography

Selected Presentations
“Sustaining a Bodymind: Disability and the Value of Moving With/In Pain.” Dance Studies Association, New Brunswick, NJ, October 10-17, 2021. “Shared Time: Collaborative Inclusive Dance Making at a Distance.” ADA30 Symposium at Oregon State University, Virtual, May 4-27, 2021. “Disability Culture in Practice.” NDEO National Conference, National Dance Education Organization, Virtual, October 23-25, 2020.

Selected Publications
Bridger, Maggie, Sydney Erlikh, and Chun-shan Yi. “Reverberation! A New Wave in Disability Art.” Canadian Journal of Disability Studies 10.2 (2021): 7-26. Bridger, Maggie. “Maggie Bridger: Responding to Netta Yerushalmy’s Paramodernities #6.” On the Ground, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, https://dance.colum.edu/pararesponse-6.

Awards and Honors
2022 Independent Artist Program Grant, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events 2022 High Concept Labs Artist in Residence 2022 Ethel Louise Armstrong Grant, Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois, Chicago 2021 Synapse Arts New Works Artist 2019-2020 Chicago Area Albert Schweitzer Fellow

Education
MS, Disability Studies, University of Illinois, Chicago, 2021. BA, Dancemaking & Dance Studies, Columbia College Chicago, 2011. AA, Cottey College, 2008.