'The Atlas Agenda,' a joint venture by Second Floor Dance and Corpo Dance Company, is two completely different evening-length programs over two weekends that feature work by male choreographers and dance artists, including those familiar to the local LGBT community, such as Matthew Harvat ( Circuit Mom ) and Todd Kiech ( Chicago Takes Off ) .

Windy City Times chatted with the two openly gay artistic directors of 'The Atlas Agenda,' Ken Gasch ( Second Floor ) ( pictured ) and Christopher McCray ( Corpo ) , about how it all got started and more.

Windy City Times: How did you get involved in the profession?

Ken Gasch: I got started kind of later in life. I was 16 when I had my first dance lesson. At the time, ironically, I was dating a girl who needed an extra in a production of the Nutracker in Cleveland. From there, I took more and more classes and ended up going to college for choreography and sociology at the same time and came to Chicago. A year after I was here, I began my arts organization. Our main focus is pairing up professional choreographers with non-professional dancers. So, getting the community to come to the performance and get them to participate. We are in our fifth year right now.

As for other things I've done, I teach at a lot of colleges and high schools and work on some independent films. I also do a lot of freelance stuff for different companies. A lot of the work I have done has been collaborative, so working with two or three companies all at one time.

Chris McCray: I actually started in college when I was about 19. When I got to college, I actually started cheerleading and hated it. Somebody suggested I take a dance class. I started to enjoy it. I then saw a performance by a company out of New York and passionately fell in love with it. I started out as an education major. I changed my major and have been dancing ever since. I bounced around a bit, and in New York, studied with different choreographers. I moved back to Chicago, choreographic for a couple of festivals here and there, and got approached to be the artistic director of another company called Chicago Dance Crash. I was the artist director there for three years, then thought it was time to do my own, so I started my own company, Corpo. It's going into its second year now.

WCT: I was interested to hear that only one in 10 dance professionals are male. Being male and openly gay in this profession—how has that impacted your experience over the years?

CM: I think that in a lot ways, as a guy, you have to prove yourself. You have to jump twice as high, turn just as many or three times as many times as a girl to combat the stigma that he just got the part because he is a guy, because there are so few of us. So many times, a guy is there just to kind of lift the girl or give that masculine energy during a performance. So many times, guys aren't allowed to really dance. So for male dancers, you have to really prove yourself that you are there because you are a dancer, not just a guy.

WCT: Does it often get very competitive because there are so few men?

CM: In my personal experience, its not nearly as competitive as it is for women. I think, because there are so few of us, there are enough gigs, and we don't have to claw and fight. It's a little different from New York or wherever.

KG: The Chicago community is really supportive of each other. We're sort of looking out for each other, in a way, instead of our own interests. The community of male dancers is pretty tight with each other. There's some competition, but we all get to know each other pretty quickly, see each other at different gigs, so its almost like a fraternity. We all hang out with each other pretty regularly. That's pretty usual for the Chicago dance community, in general.

CM: And about how being openly gay has impacted myself as a dancer—being a choreographer opened up the range of things I'm willing to tackle. I'm not afraid to do a very sensual duet between two women or a piece about a domestic dispute between two men. You know, the range of possibilities of relationships and not limited myself to just the relationship between a man and a woman.

KG: Because of the stigma or anything like that, its sort of opened the door. It's more about the art than any sort of social commentary.

CM: It's also about exploring male aggression and passion and energy. Or putting a woman in a strong light and not doing it in a stereotypical way. I think those are ways being openly gay has allowed me to shed those stigmas in my own work.

WCT: Is the dance community and profession pretty open to lesbians and gays?

KG: Yeah. The art world, in general, is a little bit more accepting. Again, Chicago is great. There are lots of lesbians who are in companies. Its sort of based on talent and merit, not who you are individually. If you are good, you are going to get the part, whether you are gay, straight, a guy or a girl.

WCT: How did the idea behind 'The Atlas Agenda' come about?

CM: The original idea was Ken's idea. It was a response to Estrogen Fest.

KG: One of the first things I saw when I moved to Chicago was Estrogen Fest. I thought the work they were doing was really great, and decided to do an artistic response from the male perspective.

CM: I think we had a couple of drinks and joked about it. At one point, I think it was called Testoster-ama. After the dust settled, we both sat there and realized this was a really legitimate project. It was something really worth looking into. That's where it started, and it kind of snowballed from there.

WCT: Is there a wide range of genres during the show?

CM: One of the big things, when we first started thinking about the choreographers that we wanted to bring in, was we wanted to show there is a wide variety of different choreographers and male perspectives. It's not all the same thing. Range and diversity—that's one of the things we wanted to do. There is a huge range of male dancers and choreographers right here in this city. We wanted to make sure we were trying to touch as many different perspectives as possible. The show ranges from burlesque to classical ballet.

KG: Also hip-hop and modern. Same with the choreographers. Not all of them are gay. … We have all different perspectives in there.

WCT: What do you hope the audience will take away from it?

CM: I hope it brings awareness of the fact that there is diversity of dance in Chicago. Not only just the male perspective, but there is a wide variety of people who are doing things and there is a wide variety of stuff that is out there.