Name: Halloween Creepy Crawlies
Start: 2024-10-12T13:00:00-06:00
Location: Dovetail Studios

Halloween Creepy Crawlies is a family friendly dance production that explores the mysteries of Halloween through a lost ghost’s search for her haunted home. On her way, she is helped by Ballerina Witches, Jazzy Vampires, Modern-Dancing Mummies and even a Jack O’ Lantern named Jake! Join us on October 12 + 13 at Dovetail Studios for this Halloween adventure!
This project is partially supported by an Individual Artists Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and is a part of the Dovetail Studios 16x2 performance program
This production was created by Mariah Eastman, artistic director of Darvin Dances, a Chicago based modern/contemporary dance company. Along with six professional dancers, there are two young dancers from the Chicago community participating in this production (dancers are based at Dovetail Studios and Dance on Broadway). The choreography was created by Mariah Eastman with Alicia Wilson choreographing for the young dancers. Illustrations were created by Nat Thomas (https://natthomas.work/work) with lighting design by Richard Norwood.
CHOREOGRAPHERS + PERFORMERS BIOS
Blake Campbell (she/her) was born in Elkhart, Indiana. At age 16, Blake got her G.E.D. and moved to Chicago to pursue contemporary dance training with COMMON Conservatory. In the past 4 years, Blake has performed works by choreographers: Terence Marling, Katlin Michael Bourgeois, Alysia Johnson, Ethan Kirschbaum, Robyn Mineko Willams, Meredith Dincolo, Jackie Nowicki, and many more. Blake had the honor of being cast in New Dances 2023 + 2024 in collaboration with DanceWorks Chicago. Along with dancing, Blake is passionate about writing poetry and has won a few poetry competitions.
Emily Carroccio (she/her) is a Chicago-based dancer, choreographer, and teacher originally from Cleveland, OH. She moved to Chicago to pursue a BA in dance and BS in molecular biology from Loyola University Chicago. Since graduating, Emily has had the privilege to perform with The Humphrey-Weidman Artists Collective and Kindred (THWACK), the Lucid Banter Project, and Rasa Dance Chicago. She has also had her original choreography commissioned and presented throughout the Chicago area. Emily shares her love of dance by instructing youth classes and wedding dance lessons, and she is an active member of the Chicago swing dance community! IG: @_emilycar
Mikaela Dalton (she/they) initially started dancing after she saw an episode of Angelina Ballerina at age 3 and subsequently begged her mom to sign her up for classes. Once in the studio, Mikaela developed a deep and enduring passion for dance as an art form.Throughout her childhood, Mikaela trained intensively in ballet, and was fortunate enough to dance alongside professional dancers in productions such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty. In 2016, she moved to Florida to attend Jacksonville University where she began training in styles such as contemporary, commercial jazz, and contact improvisation. Upon receiving her BFA in dance in 2020, Mikaela moved back home to Rhode Island to dance as a trainee with Festival Ballet Providence during the pandemic before moving to Chicago in 2022 to pursue her teaching and choreographic career.
Robin Davis (she/they) was born in North Carolina where she attended University of North Carolina School of the Arts High School Contemporary Dance Program. They then attended New York University Tisch School of the Arts graduating with a BFA in Dance and a BA in English on the Creative Writing Track. During her time as a dance artist in Chicago, they have had the pleasure of working with Meadows Dance Collective, Darvin Dances, Red Clay Dance Company and are a current company member with Winifred Haun & Dancers. They have presented work at DanceChance, Jello, Common Ground, Khecari's Resource Share Residency, and First Draft. They are excited to return to work with Mariah Eastman for the Halloween Creepy Crawlies cast premiering this October!
Mariah Eastman (she/her) holds a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Dance and Choreography. In 2021 she created Café Cortado which explored caffeination culture and highlighted two local Chicago coffee shops through prerecorded interviews, dance film and livestream dance. She is the creator of the Holiday Dance Carol, an annual Chicago holiday tradition. In 2022 she presented Navigating the After, a performance exploring recovery after sexual assault using live dance and audio interviews from survivors. She started her own company “Darvin Dances” in 2023. Since January 2023 Darvin Dances has performed in multiple productions including the following; First Draft produced by Winifred Haun & Dancers, Breaking the Silence Café produced by Resilience Chicago, Common Ground produced by The Rooted Space, On the Move and Wave Walls produced by See Chicago Dance as well as their inaugural production of “Inclined to Decline”. Eastman has also toured her work in New York City, Baltimore, Marthas Vineyard and Richmond (VA). She is the creator of the Chicago Dancer Pay Transparency Project under the Darvin Dances umbrella.
Madison Meade (she/her) is a modern/contemporary dancer with a BFA in dance and a minor in theatre from the University of Kansas. During her time at KU she was a part of the University Dance Company and was a recipient of the Elizabeth Sherbon Award. Her screen-dance Stasis was included in the digitally presented Kansas Screen-Dance Festival in 2021 and her most recent work Cascade Failure was shown in Echo's "Reverb III". She is currently dancing in Chicago, Illinois with Darvin Dances and Echo Modern Dance Collective. Recently she has performed in the “Simantikos Choreo Kick Off 23”, Darvin Dances’ “Inclined to Decline”, See Chicago Dance’s “On the Move”, Matter Dance Company’s “Aligned”, Echo Modern Dance Collective’s “Reverb III”, and “Common Ground” at the Rooted Space. In addition to performing and choreographing, she is a ballroom dance instructor at Duet Dance Studio.
Mandy Milligan (she/her) graduated from the University of Cincinnati Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Ballet performance in 2014. She received additional training at the Graham School for Contemporary Dance, Beijing Dance Academy, Dance Works Chicago, Interlochen Center for the Arts, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Perry-Mansfield. She danced with Winifred Haun and Dancers from 2017 - 2024 and was promoted to Assistant Choreographer in 2020. She has worked with companies from all over the Midwest such as Mamluft & Co., Dance Kaleidoscope, Simantikos Dance, Cocodaco Dance Company, and Kanopy Dance Company. Mandy specializes in Contemporary Graham technique and has been mentored and trained by Deb Goodman, Winifred Haun, David Hochoy, Lone Kjear Larson, Virginie Mecine, Liberty Harris, and Lisa Thurell.
Alicia Wilson (she/her) began dancing at the age of three. Since then, she has trained in ballet, pointe, modern, jazz, hip-hop, tap, lyrical, and acrobatics. When she was sixteen, she trained with Ballet Chicago at their 2009 Summer Intensive and fell in love with the city, so it was an easy choice to attend Columbia College Chicago, where she graduated in 2015 with a BA in Dance. She has spent time studying Urban styles of dance in London, England, where she helped to organize the 2014 Collide Dance Festival in Stratford. Alicia now lives, performs, choreographs, and teaches in Chicago. She is the Dovetail Studios Competition Team director.
Tickets for Halloween Creepy Crawlies are $20
https://www.darvindances.com/