An ongoing, iterative process and project, Radiate explores the mundanity, humor and time-bending experience of pain and care. Working across video, craft and movement, this piece invites audiences to make themselves comfortable in the artist's home as she continually traces deeply worn pathways, seeking warmth and relief. Radiate centers access through the open use of tools like captions, Artistic Sign Language and audio description, as well as various types of seating, blanket, pillows and other tools that allow audiences to attend to and curate their embodied experience of the work.

Radiate originated as a dance film created as part of Synapse Arts' 2021 New Works program with the mentorship of Bryan Saner. The film premiered during an online showing of the New Works artists and has since been shown at Elevate Chicago Dance 2022. Each year, as radiators turn on and her body grows tight in the cold, Maggie returns to Radiate, tracking the development of her thinking, moving and making with/in pain. The live version of Radiate was developed in large part through the support of a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Production residency in partnership with Links Hall and was first shown as part of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s LookOut Series in February of 2024.

Maggie’s work as a dancemaker often gestures at imperfection of access within a performance setting, and at the limitations of our attention as audience members, disabled and non-disabled alike. Many aspects of Maggie’s works remain partially illegible to all audiences. Balancing that fugitive desire with a foundational commitment to access is the puzzle at the heart of Maggie’s work.
—Shireen Hamza on Radiate for the Performance Response Journal

Access Dramaturg: Alison Kopit
Sound & Audio Description: Andy Slater
Artistic Sign Language: Joán Joel
ASL Interpretation & Support: Jordan Brown & Makeda Duncan
Projection & Production Design: Giau Minh Truong
Lighting Design: Ale Chanti
Embedded Writer: Shireen Hamza