Photo: Sandbox Studio Chicago

The space between performer and audience is where Molly Shanahan and her collaborators in Mad Shak work. Her Stamina of Curiosity project, now in its fourth year, is an ongoing exploration of authenticity and the moment through the lens of Shanahan’s fluid, ceaselessly rippling and spiraling choreography. Last year’s iteration, “Sharks Before Drowning,” brought aggressive, masculine energy into the previously vulnerable equation. This chapter, entitled “The Delicate Hour,” goes beyond, recognizing both the potential of strength and the power of dismantling it. Read the rest of this entry »

Victoria Jaiani and Fabrice Calmels in "Before the Rain"

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Though he collaborated with John Cage, one of the musical titans of the twentieth century, the late choreographer Merce Cunningham famously created his work independent of the music; he believed in chance so much that he once did a piece wherein the audience created individual soundtracks using shuffle mode on their iPods. I thought about this a fair bit during the Joffrey Ballet’s “Winter Fire” program, so forcefully did the music shape my perception of the three pieces being performed. The opener, William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated,” was an abstract work where the thrilling dancing seemed as much to background the harsh cacophony of Thom Willems’ ” dissonant soundtrack. I found myself in an aggressive mood by the end of the piece, in a football state of mind. Christopher Wheeldon’s “After The Rain” could not have offered a sharper contrast. One of the most perfectly beautiful works I’ve ever seen, it features couples dancing in graceful duets to the simple yet lush violin and piano of Arvo Pärt’s “Tabula Rasa” and “Spiegel Im Spiegel.” Read the rest of this entry »

Ricardo Santos/Photo: Sandro

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White, line-drawn figures walk across an LED screen running the length of the stage while below a few dancers create abrupt, angular lines to sounds reminiscent of subway stations and the beeps of a telegraph machine. Thus begins Wayne McGregor’s “Infra,” a piece he created for the Royal Ballet of London after the underground bombings in 2005. The Joffrey brings the piece to the U.S. for the first time, executing choreography that demands hyper-flexibility interspersed with quicksilver phrasing.

The cool precision of McGregor’s choreography can sometimes come off as devoid of emotion, but the currents of anxiety and fragility underpinning the subterranean “Infra” are very human. A series of duets that follow the opening sequence, set to strings and piano by Max Richter, are the embodiment of urban modernity: coolly flawless, detached, yet yearning just beneath the polished surface. When the couples line up across the stage, each pair executing their precise sequences in separate, constricted rectangles of light, digital figures passing overhead, never has perfection looked so quietly desperate. Read the rest of this entry »

THE JOFFREY BALLET ANNOUNCES 2012-2013 PROGRAMMING, A SEASON CELEBRATING MAVERICKS AND MILESTONES

Season to feature two mixed repertory programs including the 80th Anniversary of Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table, works by James Kudelka, Ji?í Kylián, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp, a Chicago Premiere by Houston choreographer Stanton Welch, the return of acclaimed story-ballet Othello, and the Silver Anniversary of Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker

CHICAGO – Ashley C. Wheater, Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet, announces the company’s 2012-2013 season, launching in the fall with a mixed repertory program featuring James Kudelka’s Pretty BALLET and Ji?í Kylián’s Forgotten Land, along with the return of Kurt Jooss’ anti-war masterpiece The Green Table, celebrating its 80th Anniversary, October 17 – 28, 2012. Following will be the 25th Anniversary production of Robert Joffrey’s beloved The Nutcracker, December 7 – 27, 2012. In the New Year, the Joffrey presents a winter mixed repertory program featuring a Chicago Premiere by Stanton Welch and the return of Twyla Tharp’sNine Sinatra Songs and Jerome Robbins’ Interplay, February 13 – 24, 2013. The season is completed in the spring with the return of Lar Lubovitch’s acclaimed Othello, presented in honor of the choreographer’s 70th birthday, April 24 – May 5, 2013.  Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Jennifer Girard

River North Chicago Dance performs Valentine’s weekend at the Harris; it’s appropriate timing for a show entitled “Love Is…” highlighting passionate partnering work. Artistic Director Frank Chaves spoke with Newcity about two premieres on the program: one from him, one from Mauro Astolfi, Director of Rome-based Spellbound Dance Company.

Your new work, “The Good Goodbyes,” is a collaboration with Chicago Children’s Choir director Josephine Lee.
Josephine and I had worked together in 2006 on my biggest work to date, “Underground Movements.” Josephine is a phenom; we really clicked as creative soul mates. We talked about wanting to work together again. One of my favorite instruments of all time is the piano and that’s her instrument. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Mark Palmer

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The title of Margaret Jenkins’ evening-length work exemplifies the ethos of the performance, both in the connotative meaning of the words and in the gentle play of syllables on the tongue and lips. Massive-scale projections by Naomie Kremer transform the theater walls into a dream-universe of constellations and kaleidoscopic light, bearing equal importance on the stage as on the white-clad dancers, who sidle in to play against a vast field of shifting lights. Read the rest of this entry »

By Sharon Hoyer

A stirring dance show can make a body want to dance right out of the theater, swinging around railings and leaping down stairs. The Seldoms get to do just that as lobbies, stairwells, backstage, balconies, the primo seats and—why not?—the stage too, as every corner of the Harris Theater becomes performance space in “This Is Not A Dance Concert,” their highest-profile site-specific work to date. Dancers (and musicians, led by Tim Daisy) are stationed at different locations throughout the five-story theater. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: David Weathersby

RECOMMENDED

Honey Pot Performance invites audiences into the sensuous world of Chicago House, celebrating the feminine side of a movement that gathers all races, genders and sexual identities to the universal pleasure of losing oneself in a transfixing, danceable beat. The Sweet Goddess Project challenges the notion of House as a male-dominated scene, exploring not only female contributions to the scene, but also concentrating on the sense of community and empowerment inherent to the movement. Read the rest of this entry »

BONEdanse/Photo: Chrystyne.com

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Therapy, motivational albums, self-help books, tranquilizers, psychotropic drugs… Freud gave a language and a theory to our modern psychological damage, the rest of the twentieth century gave us ways to mend it. Atalee Judy and the newly christened BONEdanse delve into our peculiar cultural history of psychic damage control, including 1950s-era recordings from Dr. Beverley Weeks advising anxious housewives to up their tranquilizer regimen and case studies of characters suffering varying degrees of dysfunction: the hypochondriac, the hysterical housewife and, more daringly, the sociopath dictator. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

The Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s annual winter tap fest expands this year to two locations, adding a handful of performances to the regular program of multilevel workshops and master classes taught by some of the best hoofers in the business, including Lisa La Touche of STOMP. In the past, the Winter Jam focus has been on education, with classes taking place at CHRP’s headquarters at the Athenaeum Theatre. Read the rest of this entry »