The Dance COLEctive - Margi Cole

Margi Cole

Margi Cole, Artistic Director and founder of The Dance COLEctive, has received recognition for her contribution to the field of modern dance through awards such as the Illinois Arts Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum grant and the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a program which selects leaders in their respective fields to represent the United States on a month-long tour of European countries. TDC received its first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for its Southeast Tour in March 2008.

She has also been acknowledged for her choreography and performing in Chicago by nominations from the Ruth Page Awards. Her works have been performed in several venues including The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago where she was a two-time recipient of a Choreographic Mentoring Scholarship. Cole's works have been showcased in several venues including: Northwestern University, The Dance Center-Columbia College Chicago, Links Hall, Chicago's Next Dance Festival, First Night Springfield, Dance Chicago, the Harold Washington Library and performed site-specific works at the Glessner House Museum, the Illinois State Fair, the Chicago Symphony Center Day of Music and Gorham's Bluff in Alabama. The Alabama Ballet, Springfield Ballet Company, the Birmingham Museum of Art and Columbia College have commissioned Cole's works.

Margi has danced with numerous well-known choreographers and companies including: Ralph Lemon, Stephen Koplowitz, Ann Boyd, David Rousseve, Bill Young, Douglas Nielsen, Timothy O'Slynne, Paula Frasz, Colleen Halloran, Mad Shak Dance Company, Mordine & Company Dance Theatre, Renee Wadleigh and Ellie Klopp. Margi is active in the Chicago dance community as an arts administrator, dancer and choreographer and is a member of the Columbia College Chicago Alumni Board

Ms. Cole graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts, received a BA from Columbia College Chicago and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As an instructor Margi has taught in Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama and at the American College Dance Festival. She served on the faculty at the University of Illinois where she was on the list of "Teachers Rated Excellent by their Students" for four consecutive semesters and is presently a part-time faculty member at Columbia College Chicago. Cole was a winner at the Panoply Festival 2001 Choreography Competition in Huntsville, AL, for her work "Tell It By Heart".