Visceral Dance Chicago Youth Program

Visceral Dance Chicago Youth Program offers dance and performing arts classes for every dancer. The program takes place in a premier dance facility that includes six large studio spaces and a convertible performance theater. All studios are equipped with a sound system, mirrors, professional flooring, and individual temperature controls, with dressing rooms, a lobby, kitchen, and lounge areas available for all.

Visceral Dance Chicago Youth Program is led by Artistic Director Nick Pupillo. Visceral Dance Chicago has been engaging and connecting its artists with audiences since 2013 and is celebrating twelve seasons. The organization states a mission to create work that is meaningful and powerful, confronting and connecting people in a transformative way, with a focus on tremendous technique and exploring the genuine and real quality of the human being through the dancer. The mission also states a commitment to inclusion and equity, representing and respecting all communities and voices, and using dance as a reflective, interactive tool for promoting healing, compassion, and collaboration without regard to identity, age, gender, race, physicality, or ethnicity.

Visceral Dance is described as a studio, a company, and a feeling, combining art, family, and a community that continues to grow. The company is recognized as a national and internationally recognized driving force in contemporary dance, and is noted for exceptional technicality, diversity, versatility, and daring athleticism. Visceral Dance has been praised for accessibility in its programming by presenting dynamic performances that appeal to a wide range of audiences, performing over 25 times a year in Chicago and providing educational programming to expand its reach and make dance and art accessible to all communities.

Chicago Reader describes Visceral as “a studio, a company, and a feeling; a combination of art, family, and a community that continues to grow.” Chicago Stage Standard writes that “Visceral Dance Chicago breathes life into the Chicago arts community with their ability to intertwine complex human emotions with the raw beauty of dance and physical movement.” SPLASH MAGAZINE notes “such an astounding ability to communicate the inner-workings of the human soul… It is a rare gift to be able to speak to and command an entire room without physically saying a word and for that Visceral Dance Chicago should be commended.”

Last updated April 18, 2026.