Mary Iris Loncto

Mary Iris

Mary Iris Loncto is a dancer and actor from Ridgewood, New Jersey.  She recently graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied dance with Susan Lee, Jeff Hancock, Laura Wade, Amanda Lower, Annie Arnoult, and Joel Valentín-Martinez.  In Chicago, she has recently performed in Theatre-Hikes’ 10 Ways To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse and Collaboraction’s Peacebook festival.  In 2014, she joined Northwestern’s Jeff Hancock and the cast of Hancock’s Impolite Society at the Kennedy Center to perform in the National College Dance Festival.  She has also trained at the American Dance Festival, the Boston Conservatory, and the Joffrey Ballet School in New York.

Lin has served the dance community for over 25 years as a performer, choreographer and teacher. She has an MA in Dance from American University where she received the Independent Choreographer's award from the Metropolitan Dance Association in Washington, DC. She served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Dance Coalition for 7 years and founded the Chicago Dance Coalition Newsletter. She has also served on the dance panels of the Illinois Arts Council and the Department of Cultural Affairs. Lin is a Dance Specialist in Chicago area schools through Urban Gateways and Art Start and an Artist-in-Residence for the Illinois Arts Council. She has done extensive writing for the Illinois Arts Alliance for Education, the Chicago Board of Education and the State of Illinois.