Our Roots and Growth
(The History and Future)

Corpo, Portuguese for body, was born of the vision from its founder and artistic director, Christopher M. McCray.

Corpo Dance Company, Inc. is a multi-disciplined dance company committed to challenging, innovating and expanding the performance experience by "exploring and exploiting" the nuances of the human animal using a blend of urban, technical, and athletic movement styles.

Corpo Dance Company, Inc. was formed in December of 2006 and performed its first movement plan, Fisher’s Place, in September 2007 at the Josephine Louis Theatre on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus. The second performance in March 2008 was called b-sides.

Outside of the company’s own dance concerts, Corpo has provided its talent to worthy Chicago based fundraising and community support events. In 2007 several charities benefited from Corpo’s benevolence including The Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry, The Decades of Cabrini Project, The Beverly Arts Center of Chicago, AIDSCARE and TPAN.

Since its’ founding, and in just over a year, Corpo Dance Company has grown to be recognized by its peer organizations in Chicago as a formidable performance company.

Corpo Dance Company is also focused on education. Corpo has developed The Chicagoland Student Outreach Project (CSOP) which provides an arts outlet to Chicago-area public and private school, and park district, students through the company’s September dance concert. Two matinee performances at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts feature a post-show educational experience including a conversation with company members and artistic director, Christopher M. McCray.

The special matinee performances are scheduled to take place on September 9 & 10 and each hour-long performance and post show discussion will help:

• Identify and describe the elements of pathways, level, focus, range in space, sustained and percussive qualities of speed; the principles of ABA and round choreographic form, contrast and repetition; and the expressive qualities of mood and emotion.
• Identify elements and expressive qualities such as tone color, harmony, melody, form (rondo, theme and variation), rhythm/meter and dynamics in a variety of musical styles.
• Describe processes (e.g., conditioning, practicing) used to prepare the body as a tool of dance and how visual aids, stories, poetry, props, music and technology are used for performance of dance.
• Answer other questions directly posed by the audience.
  (in accord with goals 25 & 26 of the Illinois Teaching Standards)

Christopher M. McCray and Jeffrey C. Velis are the founders of Corpo Dance Company, Inc.

Chris is also the artistic director of Corpo Dance Company, Inc. He has been very involved in the Chicago dance scene since 2000. Chris has worked in various Chicago dance studios, where he was a dance instructor and performer. In the last three years, he was the artistic director for another Chicago dance company. In the fall of 2006, Chris was the recipient of the Katherine Dunham Award Best Choreography 2006 from the Black Theatre Alliance.

Jeff spent the last seven years as director for Northwestern University Alumni Relations and now performs the duties of Executive Director/CEO for Corpo Dance Company, Inc. He has spent over ten years in the non-profit sector. Much of his business expertise was initiated while he was employed at General Motors in various sales and marketing fields as well as the sole-owner of a marketing and public relations business for entrepreneurs and non-profits. Throughout his career, Jeff has focused on enhancing his own talents while assisting others in excelling with theirs.