Ali relocated to Chicago in 2016 after graduating from Smith College with a BA in Contemporary Dance Studies. Originally from California, she has worked with such choreographers as Angie Hauser, Rodger Blum, Joy Davis, Bronwen MacArthur, Jennifer Nugent and Omar Carrum and Claudia Lavista of Delfos Danza. Ali has been collaborating with dropshift dance since 2017.
Christina Chammas (shuh-MESS) (she/they) is a Chicago-based dance artist originally from Michigan. Christina earned a BFA in Dance from Wayne State University. She was commissioned as the 2019 Alumni Choreographer in Residence at Wayne State University, and recently completed the Visiting Artist Residency 2020-21 with Collective Sweat Detroit. They have performed in works by Amanda Ramirez, Kimberly Baker, Enid Smith, Nora Sharp, Andrea Cerniglia, and in Erin Markey’s performance-art musical, A Ride on the Irish Cream. Christina has been a member of dropshift dance since 2018 and continues their collaboration through repertory performance.
Jill graduated from Middlebury College in 2014 with a double major in Dance and Psychology. Originally from New York, she has a background in many different styles of dance. She joined dropshift in the fall of 2015, and continues to also be passionate about sharing her own work within the dance community as an independent artist.
Collin has worked closely with The Chicago Moving Company, Same Planet Different World, Concert Dance, Inc., Space Dance Movement Project, Rachel Damon, Momentum Sensorium and The Humans. Her costumes have traveled to New York, where she was chosen to participate in a ten-week artist residency at The Canal Chapter. The Chicago Reader named Paper Shoes, costumed by Collin, one of The Best Dressed productions of 2011.
Musician Shi-An Costello (世 安) has been described as “a precise, engaging artist unafraid of deep ambiguities” (The Reader) and “a tour de force” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Formerly a touring concert pianist, Costello can now be found collaborating locally with groups like Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Visceral and dropshift dance companies, Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony’s CMPI, members of Lyric Opera of Chicago, and independent artists across multiple disciplines and aesthetics. A recording artist of 4 solo albums, Costello can be found recording for IMAX Films, IFC Films, and various independent Chicagoland recording projects.
Richard has designed Louis and Keely ‘Live’ at the Sahara for Hershey Felder Presents at the Royal George Theatre, and Le Bête, and Cookie Play for Trap Door Theatre. Richard is the production manager for the theatre at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Nadia Oussenko is a Chicago-based choreographer, filmmaker, photographer, and educator. She has been combining her training in choreography and interest in film since 2004. Oussenko has had her works featured nationally and internationally, and she has collaborated with a number of Chicago artists. She holds an MFA in Dance at the University of Illinois.