CLEAT Series: Chris Knowlton's 'Echo Network' Night 1 at Elastic Arts

Join us for a special two-night CLEAT Series presentation of Chris Knowlton’s Echo Network! This work is a dance, sound and technology performance that explores networked synesthesia, sensory substitution and the idea of sound as touch at a distance. The work draws biomimetic inspiration from mammals like dolphins, bats, wolves, elephants and whales who use echolocation, calls and songs to navigate low-visibility environments and strengthen social bonds. Haptic data from muscle sensors and pressure-sensing insoles worn by dancers drive immersive projections and real-time spatialized soundscapes in Elastic Art’s CLEAT system, allowing the audience and dancers to hear the dance. With elements first hatched during the 2023 Chicago Cultural Center Dance Studio Residency and further expanded in a 2025 work-in-progress showing, ‘Echo Network’ experiments with new modes of non-verbal accessibility in dance. The project imagines a naturalized digital social network as a place for embodied connection as the ensemble navigates themes of discovery, play, exchange, migration and loss. 7pm doors both Friday and Saturday evening. Artist Bios Christopher Knowlton (lead artist / director - he/him) is a queer transdisciplinary movement artist and research scientist who uses emerging technologies to create augmented and interactive performance work. Inspired by science, nature, play, improvisation and human-centered approaches to design, he has produced many solo and collaborative dance works that have been featured locally and internationally, spanning dance, film, new media, puppetry and storytelling. Chris is also a biomechanical research scientist at the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Rush University Medical Center. Rachel Damon (collaborative dancer - she/they) is a designer, choreographer, producer, educator, and performer whose career connects classrooms, backstage, and presentation. As a Co-Director of Synapse Arts, they have been honored by support from MetLife, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, 3Arts, Illinois Arts Council, City of Chicago, Awesome Foundation, CliffDwellers Foundation, and more. Damon’s projects have been presented at MCA Chicago, The Detroit Institute of Art, Ingenuity Cleveland, TEK BOX Minneapolis, The Field Museum, Roy Hart International Arts Centre (France), and Vo’Arte (Portugal), and in parks, stairwells, and alleys galore. Damon has developed her dance-theatre, site-specific, craft, film, and kinetic textile works through residencies with The Ragdale Foundation, Links Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago Artists Coalition, Roman Susan Gallery, and South House (England). Dylan Roth (collaborative dancer - she/her) is a Chicago-based dance artist. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance Performance Columbia College Chicago in spring 2012. Professionally, Dylan has performed with Aerial Dance Chicago, Banks Performance Project, Bodies in Urban Spaces, Carson Reiners, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater's Emerging Artists Ensemble, Esoteric Dance Project, Kelly Anderson Dance Theatre, Khecari, Meadows Dance Collective, Synapse Arts, Sildance/AcroDanza, We Stand Sideways Dance, and The Space Movement Project. Chrissy Martin is a transdisciplinary performance artist and educator with roots in contemporary dance forms, contact improvisation, Afro-Caribbean dance, postmodern experimental music, vocal jazz, and physical theater. Chrissy blends these forms to rigorously examine her intersecting queer and neurodivergent identities. Martin is an avid member of the global contact improvisation community and has facilitated and taught workshops across the Midwest. Chrissy’s integrated movement style is deeply informed by a lifelong somatic practice. She has taught dance and somatics at Cleveland State University, Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University.