hey!
we’re the co-directors of bim bom studios, amanda + michael.
we live in the apartment behind the studio.
nice to meet you!
michael macdonald | sound
michael is a chicago-based musician, engineer/producer, and co-director of bim bom studios (formerly of Pallet Sound). he got his start making music with experimental pop band, Oshwa. his musicianship and engineering can be heard on works by artists such as Tasha, Tenci, Claude, The Curls, The Slaps, Burr Oak, Ester, and many more. his work has appeared on NPR Music, VICE, The FADER, Pitchfork, Stereogum and Consequence of Sound. for more information and work samples, click here.
amanda maraist | space
amanda maraist is a dancemaker and performance community advocate
making performance work and accessible arts programming in Chicago. her work synthesizes mutualism, play, world-building, and ethnographic research into practical somatic strategies for thriving.
she simultaneously produces her own artistic performance work while also co-directing bim bom studios; an accessible, sliding scale hourly movement rehearsal + performance space in Belmont Cragin. these two efforts exist in symbiotic tandem: creating performance that is collaborative and accessible - as well as creating physical spaces within the dance ecosystem that fill gaps left by evaporating institutions. her commitment to support the community, and the strategies employed to arrive at something that both survives and thrives, show up in the aesthetics and actions of her performance and the spaces she imagines.
she is most recently supported by a 2024 Links Hall Co-MISSIONS Residency, a 2025 residency at the Ragdale Foundation, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, and a 2025 Synapse Arts New Works residency.
bim bom studios is a 2024 recipient of the City of Chicago’s Small Business Improvement Fund grant for capital improvements, and has also received programming support from the Cook County Small Business Bureau’s Source Fund in 2024.