Curriculum Vitae
jenniferligaya@gmail.com
Teaching/Work Experience
Dramaturg —Honey Pot Performance/DCASE  Nov 2020-Dec 2022
Dramaturg for Public Health &Safety and Arts & Culture Pillars for Artist engagement team of the city of Chicago’s We Will Chicago initiative to develop a new city plan, developing the process of identifying priority problems to design program to, defining key questions/themes around the artist engagement programming, with the data gathered used to provide documentation to support the development of updated city policy.

Occupational Therapist —Chicago Public Schools     August 2017-Jan 2020
Providing interventions and access to education incorporating art, music, movement, and technology as interventions

Guest Lecture- Northwestern University    February 2019
Guest Lecture and workshop facilitation in performance, narrative, and theater as activism

Teaching Artist —Urban Gateways    Jan 2016-Jan 2017
Teaching Artist in Residence at Dolton School District instructing 7-8 grade students in Performance Composition and Production through Art Integration programming with English and Social Studies Instructors

Teaching Artist — Urban Gateways    July 2015-Dec 2015
Teaching Artist in Residence at Higgins School providing after school programming to 4-8 grade students in Audio recording and programming.

Teaching Artist — Urban Gateways    June-July 2015
Teaching Artist co-instructing during Summer Residence at Miles Davis School instructing students K-7 grade in Music Performance during summer programming.

Education
PhD Student in Performance Studies — Northwestern University    Current
Currently completing courses toward PhD

MA Interdisciplinary Arts — Columbia College Chicago    2014-2017
Completion of graduate degree with focus on Performing arts

BS Occupational Therapy — University of Illinois at Chicago    2001
Completion of undergraduate degree in Occupational Therapy

Residencies/Awards
SPARK Grant-Chicago Artist Coalition 2020
Recipient of 2020 SPARK grant for artists working in Chicago
Executive Board Member-Honey Pot Performance 2019
Enacts duties and responsibilities of Board Membership
Artist Residency- Ragdale Foundation    2019
Week long residency at Ragdale Foundation concluding with works-in-progress culminating event focused on work developed for full length composition titled ways of knowing.
Sponsored Artist Residency-High Concept Laboratories 2019
Spring 2019 Sponsored artist during 4 month long process centered residency developing
work in progress showing from concepts in the incubatory stage

Interdisciplinary Performances and Exhibits
If/THEN- Chicago Cultural Center/Green Line Performance Center    March 2020-April 2021
Original performance weaves together the original commissioned works of featured artists in a culminating event of divine alchemy. Works are inspired by a year long process of creative ritual, playing improvisational scores together built on themes from Cuban artist Belkis Ayon’s work, practices of spiritual guidance and intuition, and notions of ritual and ancestral connection.

Re-Birthing Womb Water- black water by Jupiter Performance Studio    August & Dec 2020
Commissioned original video and sound installation to explore and celebrate blackness and water as liberation technologies.

Orasyon for Litao- The Petty Biennial.2 at NYCH Gallery    February 2020
Original sound sculpture building participatory performance composition in the call and response and improvisation tradition, activating the water with four different sound frequencies, along with words, color, and movement, allowing the community to take and drink of it to close the work.

They Scared We Sacred- The Petty Biennial.2 at Glass Curtain and NYCH Gallery    Nov. 2019-Feb. 2020
Original sound based performance composition score in the call and response tradition, using movement, object, and curated text, as foundations for live sound archive.

Ways of Knowing- Honey Pot Performance at Experimental Station    November 2019
An full length production that introduces concepts around knowledge production and body awareness through improvisational performative experiences.

Comfort Station-Logan Square    September 2019
An evening of original sound and performance based work placing 2 artists working in different genres, in conversation.

South Fork Jam- High Concept Laboratories Sponsored Artist Exhibit in cooperation with Co-Prosperity Sphere    June 2019
Exhibit of culmination of work produced during High Concept Laboratories Sponsored Artist residency from January-June 2019. The artist collection included 5 sound compositions that range from participatory, object based, and listening centered sound experiences.

TUTU: Arts at Public Life at the Greenline Performing Arts Center     April 2019
Composition and performance considering truth and resilience in support of CPD torture victims, part of Still Here exhibit in association with Old Town School’s Music Moves program

The Leopard- Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art    April 2019
Composition and performance of movement response to Isaac Julien’s 2007 video installation The Leopard in association with the Performance Studies Department at Northwestern University under the direction of Dr. Soyini Madison

Hambone- International Puppet Theater Festival/ Links Hall      January 2019
Object movement piece exploring blackface and minstrelsy with puppetry as an act of resistance.

Game of Trolls- Pintig Theater Group    November-December 2018
Theatrical performance exploring stories of martial law in the Philippines.

Mother Tongue- Chicago Home Theater Festival /Edgewater    May 2017
Interdisciplinary site specific performance work exploring notions of home

Abundance — Threewalls In-Session Series/Navy Pier    May 2017
Interdisciplinary salon incorporating improvised movement and performance to activate visual work.

The Dessert Shoppe-Black and Brown Residency — Currency Exchange Café    December 2016
Immersive experience exploring the mythos of sweetness

Frog Belly — Chicago Home Theater Festival, Humboldt Park    April 2016
On site performance utilizing text, sound composition, movement, and song, to combine gesture, ritual, and sound, Frog Belly explores notions of marronage through the sensorial, and asks not only how does feeling activate resistance, but also how does resistance feel?

4 Seconds — /Shift/Honey Pot Performance Benefit Gala, Stony Island Arts Bank    February 2016
Mixed media performance utilizing text, sound composition, movement, and song, to explore the impact of violence on the Black male through the body of the woman.

End Dehumanization — Columbia College Chicago    November 2014
Sound composition and performance utilizing deconstructed sound bytes movement, to explore the impact of police brutality and protest.

Vocal Performances
Live acoustic performance of original and cover music
ChillFest — Chicago                           Nov 2015
African Festival of Life — Chicago     July 2014 and 2015
Festival of Life — Chicago                  June 2013, 2014,2015
K.L.E.O Center — Chicago                 June 2013, 2014, 2015
DuSable Museum — Chicago          September 2014
Tonic Room — Chicago                    May 2014
Hard Rock Café — Chicago

Dance Performances
With Tamboula Ethnic Dance Company
Field Museum — Chicago
Old Town School of Folk Music — Chicago
DuSable Museum — Chicago
University of Chicago — Chicago
Chicago Music Festival — Chicago