McKenna Mahacek

McKenna Mahacek is a Chicago-based dancer, choreographer, and producer whose practice explores embodiment, aging, connection, and the possibilities of collaboration. Working across live performance and film, she draws from contemporary dance, improvisation, and site-responsive practices to create work that invites diverse bodies and perspectives into the creative process.

McKenna is the founder and producer of Fledgling Dancers Amsterdam, a platform she created to support emerging artists and provide opportunities for dancers and choreographers to share their work. Since its founding, the platform has given a stage to more than 100 artists. Her collaborative practice is also shaped by three years performing with Amsterdam-based contemporary collective Modern Bruises and the instant composition collective Movement Laboratory, where she co-created original dance theater works and researched real-time improvisation and spontaneous composition.

In 2026, McKenna premiered her first full-length dance-theater work, McKenna Mahacek Turns 30, a collaborative exploration of aging and our changing relationship to the body, created with a cast of 14 dancers. Her work in film includes choreography and performance for Gwenno Morgan’s music video Soar, which received Best Cinematography at the Malta Dance Film Festival, as well as her solo Bound, which received the Dance Artistry Award at the West Michigan Dance Festival.

Across her work, McKenna is interested in making contemporary dance more accessible to both audiences and performers through inclusive casting, collaborative research, and processes that make space for bodies of different ages, experiences, and abilities.