Bio
Lindsay Hopkins is a performer, facilitator and healing practitioner. She is a US based artist who spends part of her time in Sweden. She is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on improvisational movement, sound, physical theatre and curating events with opportunities for active participation in somatic practices and community building. She draws on her experiences and training with: improvisational dance and movement, nonviolent communication, social mapping, Theater of the Oppressed, and Playback Theatre to bring embodiment, creativity, intuition and sensory awareness into her workshops, events and performance works. She is trained in energy healing, breathwork, bodywork and Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy approaches. She has a private healing practice working with individuals and groups in coming home to their body and activating creative capacity through healing.
Lindsay has worked as a Teaching Artist in Chicago with Silk Road Rising, Victory Gardens, Center for Community Arts Partnerships (Columbia College), the Howard Area Community Center, Youth Organizations Umbrella Inc. and the Shanti Foundation for Peace. She’s facilitated workshops with Smith College, North Park University, AADK (Spain), Le Plongeoir (France), Casa de Paz (Oakland, CA), and the Weave Artists Residency (Belgium). Most recently she attended the SASSO Artist Residency in Switzereland with performances in Lucerne, Zurich and Locarno. She’s also created works at Chicago Moving Company, Links Hall, Chicago Opera Vanguard, RhinoFest, About Face Theatre and Dream Theatre. As a developer of Interdisciplinary events she’s worked with At The Table Collective (founder), Dramatis Personae (Artistic Director), Chicago Home Theatre Festival and Chicago Dream House.
**See her CV included below.
Contact her for workshops and events at: hopkins.e.lindsay@gmail.com
Artist Statement
My practice incorporates socially engaged art, movement-based performance practices and devised theatre as platforms for interdisciplinary research. I explore the body, movement, sound and play through games, ritual, skill sharing and improvisation. I construct spaces that investigate the fluid relationship between the macro and the micro—on collective, cultural, and personal embodied levels.
I am curious about exploring somatic practices and the power of the vibration of sound to wake up dormant creative instincts. I am invested in working with somatic practices, energetic awareness and choreographic and sound scores as tools that can transform our relationship with the body, land, hierarchies and cultural habits. I’m interested in the exchange between the inner world and the outer landscapes and social structures, in order to bring unconscious material, that which may be embedded and hidden, to the surface. I believe that the body is the best tool to lead us into the power of the production of sound, gesture, voice and movement. My work is practice in trust. It holds a reverence for what is pre-verbal and what exists before material comes into form.
My art practice is informed by my facilitation experience within arts education and social justice work in Chicago, and my training in bodywork, energy healing, breathwork and Somatic Trauma therapy.
EDUCATION
MA Interdisciplinary Arts, Columbia College Chicago, 2012
BA Theatre, Loyola University Chicago, 2005
GRANTS + ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2024 DCASE Individual Artist Grant, in collaboration with Keefe Jackson, Chicago, IL
2023 SASSO Residency, Ticino, Switzerland
2019 STAIR Residency, Chicago Moving Company, Chicago, IL
2016 Territory of Living, Aktuelle Architektur Der Kultur, Blanca Murcia, Spain
2015 Social Hypnosis, Performance + Research Lab, Le Plongeoir, Lyon, France
2014 DCASE Individual Artist Grant, in collaboration with Artist Karen Yates, Chicago, IL
2013 Propeller Grant in Collaboration with Artist Karen Yates, Chicago, IL
2013 Weave Residency + Exhibition // An Arts Platform, Brussels, BE
2013 DCASE Individual Artist Grant (residence at Howard Area Community Center), Chicago, IL
2012 Chicago Community Arts Assistance Grant, Chicago, IL
PROJECTS
2024 Frequent Streams, in relationship with Lathrop Homes, Chicago, IL
2023 Frequency with the Excursionists, Switzerland Tour @ Mullbau, WIM and Casa Stanata
2022 Conversations, Retractions, Revelations, Reconciliations, Facility Theatre, Chicago, IL
2021 Mycelium Portal, an online container for workshops + conversation with curator Mary Coyne
2018 Every Initiation Needs a Container, work-in-progress showing, Chicago Moving Company
2018 Soul Storage: a participatory photo exhibition, co-produced by Chicago Moving Company
2016-17 Radical Bodies // Sound, Scores + Somatics, co-Facilitator, Links Hall, Chicago, IL
2016 Territory of Living, Aktuelle Architektur Der Kultur, Blanca Murcia, Spain
2016 Lessons in Human Development, ensemble under direction of Precious Jennings, Chicago, IL
2016 At The Table: A Mycelial Game, Roman Susan Art Gallery, Chicago, IL
2015 At The Table: A Mycelial Game, co-produced by Links Hall, Chicago, IL
2015 Body Interventions, solo piece at the O+ Festival Pilsen, Chicago, IL
2015 Exodus 2019, Director of solo piece by Davina' Stewart, Rhino Festival, Chicago, IL
2014 Chicago Dream House, Community Programmer/Social Practice Artist, Chicago, IL
2013 Food and the Soul, Director, Jackalope Theatre + Chicago Home Theatre Festival
2013 Character Flaws: Solo Performance Art Festival, Performer + Curator, Chicago, IL
2013 At The Table: a participatory dinner and performance w/ Chicago Home Theatre Festival
2013 American Bacchae, Choreographer, RhinoFest, Chicago, IL
2012 Power Dynamics: A collection of stories, Director, Dramatis Personae*, Chicago, IL
2012 Artist Gumbo Curator, Dramatis Personae*, Chicago, IL
2011 The Suitcase Opera premiere, Asst. Dir. for Karen Yates, Chicago Opera Vanguard
2010-11 Playback Theatre Ensemble, performances at National Association of Drama Therapy & The Vet Arts Project
2006 Loving Repeating, world premiere musical directed by Frank Galati, Asst. Choreographer, MCA Chicago
FACILITATION + WORKSHOPS
The Sacred Art of Play in Performance, for the Cast of La Ruta at the Smith College Department of Theatre, March 2023
(Re)Claiming Grief: An Embodied Journey Back to the Earth, for the Department of Environmental Science and Policy Smith College, March 2023
The Art of Facilitation, Trauma awareness training for Teaching Artists with Silk Road Rising, September 2022
The Sacred Art of Play, hosted by Chicago Moving Company, June 2022
Mycelium Portal, Conversations + Workshops with Performing Artists, January 2020-July 2021
West Ridge Story Festival with Silk Road Rising, Chicago USA, September 2019 - December 2019
Mini Somatic Discovery Camp, hosted by Chicago Moving Company, July 2019
Radical Bodies // Sound, Scores + Somatics at Links Hall, Chicago USA, November 2016 - October 2017
Improvisation and the Energy Body at Ponderosa, Germany, August 2016
Exercises for the Activist hosted by Tools for Solidarity, Belfast UK, April 2015
Social Hypnosis, Co-Facilitator at Le Plongeior, Lyon, France, April 2015
Visiting Artist and Guest Lecturer at North Park University, Chicago USA, January- April 2015
Playlab Performance Exploration at Links Hall, Chicago, IL, December 2014 - December 2015
Theatre of the Oppressed + Playback Theatre Workshop, Canticle Farm + Casa De Paz, Oakland, CA, August 2014 + January 2013
Howard Area Community Center Staff Development Workshop, Chicago USA, November 2013
Theatre of the Oppressed + Playback Theatre Workshop at the Weave Residency, Brussels, Belgium, October 2013
TEACHING ARTIST
Silk Road Rising, Chicago, IL
September 2014 - September 2023, EPIC Playwriting course Teaching Artist
* Chicago Reader Media Feature Here
Victory Gardens Theatre, Chicago, IL
Sept 2018 - April 2019, Teaching Artist
Center for Community Arts Partnerships, Sullivan HS Art Program, Columbia College Chicago
Aug 2013 - May 2014, Teaching Artist for Theatre Program
Sept 2012 - Aug 2013, Program Coordinator and Louder Than a Bomb Team, Spoken Word Co-Coach
Howard Area Community Center, Youth Programs, Chicago, IL
June 2013 - Aug 2014, Independent/Contracted Teaching Artist for Theatre Program
Sept 2009- Oct 2012, Program Coordinator + Curriculum Creator for Teen Reach Program
Insight Arts, Chicago, IL
Dec 2010-May 2011, Freelance Teaching Artist for Theatre program
TVI Studios, Chicago, IL
Oct 2006-June 2008, Acting Coach
Shanti Foundation for Peace, Evanston, IL
Sept 2006-June 2007, Artist in Residence
Youth Organization Umbrella, Evanston, IL
Sept 2003-Aug 2006, Teaching Artist + Mentor/Tutor
TRAINING
Improvisational Movement and Dance with artists: Ayako Kato, Nana Shineflug, KJ Homes, Nancy Stark Smith, Keith Hennessey, Abby Crain, 2011- Present
Moon Fool (UK based), ACT Physical Theatre Training, Chicago, IL, 2014
Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Training, Ginger Nepomuceno & Rumble Arts, 2011-2013
Puppetry + Playback Theatre, Liz Muckley and Chicago Creative Arts Therapy Network,
2009-2011
Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate, September 2021 – February 202
Breathwork Facilitator Training Levels II + III, April 2020
Breathwork Facilitator Training Level I, April 2019
Usui Reiki Master Training, August 2016
Usui Reiki Levels I + II, October 2015
Thai Bodywork Practitioner 200 hr, March 2014 – June 2015
Arts Education Curriculum Institute, Ingenuity, November-December 2014
Rev Up: Social Justice and Youth Activism, 32 hr training, Chicago Freedom School, April 2012
Advancing Youth Development Certification, 28 hr Training Program, March-April 2010
Contact me for arts education + facilitation opportunities at: hopkins.e.lindsay@gmail.com