Annie Beserra and Striding Lion Performance Group present an hour-long dance theater piece inspired by the work of German expressionist performer Valeska Gert. Gert was a provocateur, a renegade and considered by many to be the first punk. I spoke with Beserra about the upcoming performance of “Dada Gert.”

Why did you choose Valeska Gert as the subject for your piece?
I first fell in love with her in grad school. I had a professor who had spent most of his career in Germany and had rare clips of Gert’s solo works. This woman absolutely exploded with expressivity; she was shocking and she was rhythmic, even though it was a silent film. She was such an incredible performative force it was almost like she was under possession. I’m a very theatrical performer and she more than anyone I’ve seen is living in both dance and theater fully. I was so moved by her I started working on a dissertation about her at Northwestern. About a quarter of the way into the process I realized that I couldn’t do the embodied research I wanted and that really this is a show, not a dissertation. I did a lot of studio and solo work; then I developed a trio. This performance is the product of years of work. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo courtesy Nikolay Krusser

RECOMMENDED

Boris Eifman is the writer’s choreographer; his muse is the figure of the artist, the genius, the madman. His theatrical ballets have emerged from the real and imagined psyches of Don Quixote, Hamlet, Anna Karenina, the Karamazovs, Tchaikovsky and, most recently, Auguste Rodin and his tumultuous relationship with his colleague, muse and lover Camille Claudel. Eifman’s “Rodin” opens with Claudel in the asylum (where she spent out the last thirty years of her life), then travels back in time through Rodin’s memory—meeting his young student turned lover, co-author of his works, subject and object of creative jealousy. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo courtesy Matthew Gregory Hollis

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NEXT is an annual showcase of new works by recipients of the Mordine & Co choreographic mentorship—a long-standing tradition of the forty-four-year-old company. This year’s program features pieces by current Mordine mentees Penelope Hearne and Liana C. Percoco as well as a multimedia solo by company member Monica Thomas and a guest appearance by the breathtaking Ayako Kato, who received mentorship under Mordine in 2010. Kato will perform a portion of her “Untitled” series (the title is apt for an artist so skilled at bringing unnameable to life)—a reflection on the balance between composition and improvisation. Read the rest of this entry »

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One of the most diverse dance programs this year will take place in the Loop, on the stage of the Auditorium Theatre. The Movement + Music Showcase is a collection of all new pieces by six Chicago companies and their musical collaborators for one night, one performance only. The six companies—representing a spectrum of styles and traditions—were selected from workshops held at the Auditorium’s Katten/Landau studio; some of the names may be familiar, some perhaps less so: Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Kuumba Lynx, Mexican Dance Ensemble, DanceWorks Chicago and Thodos Dance Chicago. Giordano Dance Chicago also gets a special invite. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo courtesy Ozzie Ramsay

RECOMMENDED

There’s no better home for Michael Estanich and Lucy Riner’s “Homeland” than the Old Town School of Folk Music. The creative partnership behind RE|Dance premiered their tender and touching, sentimental yet sincere slice of Americana at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse back in January, and the black-box style theater at Hamlin Park provided a marvelous blank canvas for the imagination to paint scenes beautifully described in words by Daiva Bhandari and in now-abstract, now-literal movement by the whole ensemble. But the patina of the piece is steeped in the era preserved and celebrated by the Old Town School. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo courtesy Herbert Migdoll

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The Joffrey reprises Lar Lubovitch’s evening-length interpretation of the famous tale—a theme of Chicago stages this year; the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Lyric Opera are also staging productions of the tragedy of the Moor. The Joffrey first performed Lubovitch’s high-drama story ballet in 2009 and many of the same dancers can be seen in title roles many nights: willowy, girlish April Daly as Desdemona, Matthew Adamczyk a perfectly arch and seething Iago, and towering Fabrice Calmels the quintessential Othello, a great warrior carved from stone. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Rossi Dimitrova

By Sharon Hoyer

Since the advent of the nuclear family and the relegation of our nation’s elderly to nursing homes, we rarely see multiple generations in the same room, much less on the same stage. In “We Hope, Conspire,” Annie Rudnik engages a primarily invisible population. The conspirators: a combined ensemble of non-professional dancers ranging in age from seventeen to late-thirties and residents of Norwood Crossing senior assisted-living home. Performances span three weekends: the last two at Norwood Crossing and this upcoming weekend at the new Links Hall. The change of venue will surely affect the feel of the show, but Rudnik has, without a doubt, created a piece unlike anything you’ve seen. One performer said that being on stage and being in the audience are exactly the same experience. And that experience is tremendously tender, authentic and humane. Rudnik talked about the piece before last Sunday’s performance. Read the rest of this entry »

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Detroit’s leading contemporary dance company visits the Auditorium Theatre for the first time, representing D-town through the music that made the city famous. “Motown in Motion” is a dance tribute album of sorts—a collection of pieces set to iconic Motown Records recordings and choreographed by leading names like Gregory Patterson, Ginger Thatcher, Joel Hall and, of course, the ensemble’s founder Laurie Eisenhower. The program also includes favorite selections of repertory, two by Chicago-based choreographers Ron de Jesus and Michael Foley. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo courtesy Cheryl Mann

RECOMMENDED

Frank Chaves was born in Cuba, but left as a very young child, well before he could form distinct memories of his birthplace. When Chaves, founder and artistic director of River North Dance Company, returned to Havana accompanied by the founder of the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, a new project was born. “Havana Blue” is the product of a two-year collaboration between Chaves and Orbert Davis—a seven-part love letter to the city set to original Afro-Cuban music by Davis and performed live by the Philharmonic. The partnership is a real treat; Chaves’ theatrical, vivacious choreography should pair beautifully with the verve and spontaneity of live jazz. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo courtesy William Frederking

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During the intemperate months, the stage of the Pritzker Pavilion is protected from the elements by massive windows spanning the entire proscenium. It allows park visitors to gaze in at the gorgeous wood construction of the stage and yearn for the coming warm weather and free performances. Over two weekends, it is allowing a small audience to gaze back. Four contemporary dance companies—Hedwig Dances, Same Planet/Different World, The Dance COLEctive and Zephyr Dance—are using the enclosed stage as an intimate venue, placing the audience upstage in the choir loft (seats I recommend if you don’t grab the first row on the floor) and dancing with the expansive Pritzker lawn and Art Institute Modern Wing’s gentle glow as backdrop. Two companies share a bill each weekend; last weekend Hedwig and SPDW alternated pieces in a program that shifted moods as frequently as the Chicago spring. Read the rest of this entry »