Past Resident Artists
Reign Drop
November - December 2021
Reign Drop is a trans dancer, choreographer, and teacher from Illinois. Over the last five years, Reign has grown roots in the Chicago dance community focusing on creating sustainable and accessible dance spaces for all ages. Reign is a choreographer researching contemporary dance techniques captivated by movement that demonstrates self-advocacy, freedom, and connection. Reign proudly graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BA in Dance. During their time at The Dance Center they had the privilege of being mentored by Ellen Chenoweth, Paige Cunnigham, Carrie Hanson, Jeff Hancock, and Darrell Jones. In the Chicago community, they have choreographed for New Dances in 2020, as well as other local company showcases, the iconic Chicago drag queen, Shea Coulee’s "Rewind" music video, and is the Co-Founder of We Are Dance Collective. Reign aims to be heard—to share their story—to honor the stories of all magical trans people.
Ibrahim Sabbi
Wolfpack Collaborative Artist
May 2022
Ibrahim Sabbi is a working dancer, choreographer, and visual artist. A native of Chicago, he is a BFA student in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sabbi has performed leading roles in works choreographed by Melanie Bales, C. Kemal Nance, Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, Endalyn Taylor, and Danzel Thompson-Stout. He was the Artistic Director for Dance 2XS UIUC from 2018 to 2019. Ibrahim Sabbi has experience in the Hip Hop and Street Styles choreography and battle scene in Chicago, L.A, and Urbana-Champaign.
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My work is an experimental approach that strives to reconnect the domesticated self back with one’s own primal and animalistic nature. In the -recess, I look at these terms as having full faith in one’s instincts and body. I enjoy extracting movement from improvisation by having dancers perform a variety of tasks that combine creating visual art with movement art. My visual art reflects this use of improvisation as I bring out the roughness and grittiness of images in a real-world setting through psychedelic scribbles and doodles. I strive for all these elements of my work to create insight into possibly unforeseen realities that we experience on a sub-perceptual level.