Corpo, Portuguese for body, was born of the vision from its founder and artistic director, Christopher M. McCray. Chris completed a fine arts degree from Lincoln College, then went to Duke University’s American Dance Festival where he experienced classes and the talent of Jerry Houlihan, Martha Meyers, and Nicholas Liechter. He then found himself in New York studying with David Dorfman, Lisa Race, and Wendall Beavers. Since returning back to Chicago in 2000, Chris has performed with and choreographed for local dance companies Chicago Moving Company, Hedwig Dances Company, Instruments of Movement and Valerie Alpert & Company. Chris became the Artistic Director for Chicago Dance Crash in 2004.

While Artistic Director for CDC, Chris was the recipient of the Katherine Dunham Award Best Choreography 2006 (Chicago) for his original concept of the movement play Ghost Play from the Black Theatre Alliance. When he is not choreographing for Corpo and rehearsing with its dancers, Chris works for May I Have This Dance, an organization which teaches ballroom dancing to Chicago Public Schools’ elementary students.

Corpo is a dream Chris has had for the last three years. This dance company will help redefine the modern dance community in Chicago. With the introduction of Corpo, as concert dance, Chris hopes to help further establish Chicago’s recognizable dance community as strong and solid.