after that, later, then (2012) was a Time Out Chicago Critics pick.

Zachary Whittenburg, chief dance critic writes: "Like consommés extracted from dance, poetry, song and theater simmered together, diminutive solo artist Tif Bullard's works exist in multiple genres simultaneously. They can be difficult to decode but offer rich depth of detail. This one 'abstracts and epitomizes a year of medical and spiritual turbulence.'"

Click here to view thoughts like waves a video from "after that, later, then"

Click here to view Cardinalogy a video from "after that, later, then"

after that, later, then is a solo piece constructed from dance, text, song, costume and image that revolves around sudden interruptions, emotional swells, and gnostic shifts that force a change in context of identity.  The piece abstracts and epitomizes a year of medical and spiritual turbulence. Tif's work is known for highly-detailed physicality, hypnotic musicality, theatrical flair, dark humor, raw vulnerability, and contemporary relevance.

after that, later, then marks Tif’s eighth appearance at Links Hall since 2007.

Tif develops her work in a two-directional poetic process - one of expression and one of impression.  Her expressive process is a deep personal exploration of life history, body awareness, and artistic questions of identity that lead her to explore through dance improvisation, self-generated text, created clothing, and metaphoric theatrical images.  Her impressive process revolves around  "sampling" actions, words and identities found in popular culture – she samples movement, text and imagery from a wide range of contemporary sources, especially online, and performs them through her own body, creating new identities for herself and new contexts for the sampled work.

after that, later, then will further develop many influences and performance practices that Tif has explored building her solo and collaborative work. In echo chamber (2007) Tif first explored using record players and live video interactions with alternate video personae. Her work in Caption:Decoded (2007) purified her “sampling” practice by pitting herself against a stream of live television to which she created immediate improvised physical reflections. In Surround (2008), Tif developed an improvisational choreographic process using concepts of “expansion and distillation.” Her Fellowship-awarded MFA Thesis work at SAIC, When I disappear, we begin (2009) took sampled online choreography to a new level with the completion of a 11-minute solo dance sequence made entirely of re-composed motions captured from hip-hop dance and Gurdjieff sacred dance. Most recently, FEEDBACK (2010, developed with Marissa McKown and Michael Macias) used her “sampling” idea to build an entire performance from online comment, viral video, and internet noise blended with confessional, autobiographical texts.

In her youth, Tif was a nationally ranked figure skater. She studied acting in Chicago and completed her undergraduate degree at DePaul's School for New Learning in Performance and Culture.  She went on to receive her MFA in Performance at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago winning the James Nelson Raymond Fellowship. Tif has performed collaboratively with many well-known performance groups including Brian Torrey Scott, Weather Talking, and Plasticene. Tif is also a professional costume designer with credits Off-Broadway and in Chicago including the Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theater, and Victory Gardens Theater.


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