Wendy Clinard
Wendy Clinard (she/her) is a Chicago-based dancer, choreographer, educator, and relationship builder, and the founding artistic director of Clinard Dance, established in 1999. Her work is rooted in flamenco but extends across contemporary performance and community-centered practice, pioneering a unique style that emphasizes rhythm, improvisation, and dialogue with music, text, and visual art. Over the past 25 years, she has developed a repertoire of original evening-length works—including Quest of Theseus, Unraveling Rhythms, Jondo Portraits, From the Arctic to the Middle East, Chicago’ s Watershed, and The Flamenco Quartet Project—that have been presented locally, nationally, and internationally in Spain, India, China, and Syria. Clinard’s leadership has earned her recognition, including two MacArthur International Connections Fund awards. The first in 2015 to support an exchange with Indian choreographer Hrishikesh Pawar in Pune, and the second in 2019 for a collaboration with Compañia Nino de Los Reyes in Madrid, Spain. She has also been commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta to choreograph for Symphony Center and Ravinia Festival and has been invited to platforms such as Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. These projects reflect her dedication to cross-cultural collaboration and the expansion of flamenco as a contemporary form.
Education and mentorship have been central to Clinard’s practice. She has taught flamenco, choreography, and improvisation for over 25 years at institutions such as DePaul University, Columbia College Chicago, Oberlin College, and the University of Peking, alongside extensive community-based work through Urban Gateways, After School Matters, and her own Clinard Studio in Pilsen. Her residencies at the Tofte Lake Center, Hambidge Center, and the City of Chicago’s DanceBridge Program further reflect her commitment to both professional development and community exchange.
Clinard’s artistic path began after completing a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1993). She went on to apprentice with flamenco dancer Edo Sie and pursued sustained studies in Spain with Juana Amaya and Hiniesta Cortez. These formative experiences grounded her in flamenco’s rigor and traditions while fueling her lifelong inquiry into improvisation, hybridity, and the transformative power of movement. In recent years, Clinard has expanded her work into the intersection of art, justice, and healing. She completed a Chaplaincy Training Program at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies (2021) and is currently a Community Learning Fellow with the Beyond Prisons Initiative at the University of Chicago (2025). These experiences inform Clinard Dance’s Carcelera Project, developed in partnership with Heartland Alliance’s Fully Free campaign, which amplifies the voices of justice-impacted communities.
Through her performances, teaching, and justice-aligned initiatives, Wendy Clinard continues to shape flamenco as a living, evolving art form—one that bridges cultures, fosters belonging, and affirms art’s power to educate, transform, and heal.
Flamenco Quartet Project, At the Old Town School Of Folk Music, 2024
Image by Joel Maisonet
Featured Artworks
Collaboration with Chicago Sinfonietta, 2025
At the Symphony Center
Everyday People Everyday Action/ featuring Chris Courtney and Akito Tsuda, 2019
At the National Museum of Mexican Art/Pilsen,
Image by Carolina Rodriguez
Palmas/Listening/Accompanying, 2023
At the Greenline Performing Arts Center
Image by Joel Maisonet
Carcelera Project /with King Moosa and Jumaane Taylor, 2024
Image by Joel Maisonet
At Greenline Performing Arts Center
Flamenco, Jazz, Blues and Rap, 2025
At Space in Evanston
Image by Joel Maisonet
Student Show, 2025
At our studio in Pilsen
Image by Maria Santillan