Molly Shanahan Mad Shak jobs and careers

About Molly Shanahan Mad Shak

Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak (MS/MS) is an award-winning, Chicago-based contemporary dance company led by choreographer, performer, and educator Molly Shanahan, PhD. Since its founding in 1994, the company has created original dance works known for their emotional intelligence, physical virtuosity, and commitment to movement as inquiry — a space where truth can unfold in real time. For more than three decades, MS/MS has cultivated an artistic practice rooted in what Shanahan calls the virtuosity of compassion — a rigorous discipline of seeing and being seen, of allowing movement to reveal rather than conceal. This philosophy animates every aspect of the company’s work, from the creation of its evening-length performance projects to its community-based teaching and research through Spiral Body Techniques®, Shanahan’s original approach to movement education and somatic inquiry. MS/MS’s projects — including the multi-year Ex/Body series — center the body as a site of knowing, transformation, and interconnection. Each work grows from deep collaboration among a core ensemble of long-term artists whose sustained relationships allow for radical trust, creative risk, and integrity in process. Through performances, classes, and workshops, the company invites audiences and participants to engage in embodied reflection: what does it mean to be human, to connect, to stay present in the unknown? Presented by venues including the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Links Hall, and international festivals, Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak has been supported by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, DCASE, and others. At its heart, MS/MS continues to ask how movement can help us reimagine excellence, equity, and the lived experience of being alive together.