Philip Adrian Elson/Photo: Ryan Bourque

Here’s the concept: a panel of dance experts from Chicago, New York, LA, San Francisco, Seattle and Philadelphia convene in Chicago to collectively select twelve choreographers from each aforementioned city to participate in a competitive performance series judged by audience vote. Both experts and audience judge the artists on four criteria: Potential, Originality, Execution and Merit (it spells POEM by design). The winner takes home $10,000. Take a TV game show, reduce a season of elimination to two rounds, replace the amateur competitors with serious dance artists, toss in the opportunity for actual dialoguing with the audience beyond woots and text messages and you get The A.W.A.R.D. Show!, or Artists With Audiences Responding to Dance—the acronym-mad performance series that, despite a title that’s trying a bit too hard to garner excitement either sincerely or ironically (I’m not sure which, though the exclamation point certainly suggests the latter), does a number of exciting things for the dance community on local and national levels. One is that choreographers are given the chance to receive substantial feedback from the audience both verbally and in writing, and the audience is in turn able to share their thoughts, substantial or otherwise. Another is that the participants are chosen by dance experts who have never seen or heard of them before. This means lots of brilliant, innovative, independent artists and smaller companies were seriously mulled over by heavy hitters from the Joyce in New York, On the Boards in Seattle, Dance Affiliates in Philly and the Dance Center of Columbia College, among others. The result is an eclectic mix of artists you probably wouldn’t see on the same program at the Dance Center had the panel been entirely Chicago-based judges. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Traditional Eastern dance meets contemporary Western dance this weekend at the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Storefront Theater. Shirley Mordine’s celebrated, long-running modern company collaborated with Hema Rajagopalan’s company dedicated to the practice and preservation of Bharata Natyam (a classical Indian dance form) to create three new works on the themes of family, gender, philosophy and gesture. It will be interesting to see what the exchange yields, especially in terms of the latter; Bharata Natyam is characterized by high-speed, rhythmic footwork and distinctive hand gesture, contemporary movement often by weighted, sweeping lines. The languages that emerge when these tongues are tied should be unfamiliar, fresh to the eyes and mind. (Sharon Hoyer)

At the DCA’s Storefront Theater, 78 East Washington, (312)742-8497. July 29-August 1, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 3pm. $18 in advance, $20 at the door.

Photo: Jorge Rosemberg

Tap dance, like jazz music, is an intrinsically American art form: improvisatory, rhythmically dynamic and playfully competitive, sprung from Harlem clubs in the early twentieth century where soloists would take turns besting one another in virtuosity and wit. Unlike jazz, tap remains for the most part outside the greater American dance institution, performed for ticket-paying audiences at revered venues as infrequently as it is offered in the curriculum of degree-seeking university dance programs (i.e. about once per annum), relegated instead to student clubs, studio recitals and—less frequently since the passing of Hollywood’s golden age—Broadway shows.

“There isn’t any infrastructure for American tap in the establishment now,” says Lane Alexander, founder of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, and arguably creator of the infrastructure for American tap in the Midwest. “There aren’t any dedicated spaces for tap. It’s a big deal for the tap community to be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Peter Taub [the MCA’s performance programming director] led us in the door and we felt his embrace of the community needed to be recognized.” Read the rest of this entry »

Danielle Scanlon/Photo: Cheryl Mann

The early twenty-first-century U.S. is a rough place to be an emerging artist. Or an established one for that matter, as the recession delivers blow after blow to already-overstretched arts funders (see the much-beleaguered Illinois Arts Council, supporter of organizations as large as the Art Institute and small as Strawdog Theatre Company, which lost over 60 percent of its budget in the last three years) and artists are forced to scramble and/or go unpaid to bring their work to the public. Melissa Thodos, founder of Thodos Dance Chicago (one of the lucky IAC grantees to receive their money on time this year), makes fostering new choreographic talent part of her company’s mission, on equal footing with performance and education. This weekend, Thodos Dance’s tenth annual “New Dances” program will premiere works by ten company members—four of whom are making their choreographic debut—along with a stunning new piece by guest choreographers Francisco Avina and Stephanie Martinez Bennitt. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Pearl Primus had originally planned on a career in biology but, as an African-American woman in the first half of the twentieth century, she ran into a lot of closed doors. Luckily for the artistic world, Primus went on to become a pioneer of traditional African and African-American concert dance, bringing academic rigor to her research and passion to the floor. Primus was among the first to present African dance to mainstream American audiences, performing original works informed by the black diaspora to academics, civil-rights fighters and Broadway theater-goers alike. In other words, Primus not only paved the way, but also graded the ground and invented the asphalt for companies like Muntu. This Saturday, Muntu will be the first African-American dance company to present Primus’ work, including “A Negro Speaks of Rivers,” her signature piece based on a Langston Hughes poem. The program includes a tribute to Michael Jackson and celebratory dances of the Yankadi, Kassa and Macru people; expect a high-energy, mixed program that will pull you right out of your seat. (Sharon Hoyer)

At the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph, (312)334-7777. Saturday, July 17, 7pm. $25-50.

By Sharon Hoyer

Grants from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum are designed to free artists from scrounging for funding and creating sacred time to reflect on, develop and deepen their work. When Kevin Iega Jeff went into the studio with a CDF grant, he found himself going back to his origins, tracing his development as a dancer and choreographer through the people that gave context to his world. He traveled to his parents’ respective hometowns in South Carolina, talked with mentors, friends and other dancers, all to better understand how his roots nourished his current life and work.

“For me it was an opportunity to reflect upon the years I’ve been here in Chicago and how people who have helped to make me possible have inspired my life,” Jeff says. “I’ve been here sixteen years and the journey has been great and challenging, uplifting at times and low at times—like anyone’s life you have high periods and low periods—and what anchors you in that are the people who give you an understanding of who you are in creation.” Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

In her latest experiment, artistic director Michelle Kranicke manipulates the elements of proximity and attention span, allowing audience members to position themselves on the periphery or at the center of the Epiphany Church stage, and reminding us that perspective—and subjectivity in general—are potent players in the watching and, consequently, creation of dance. Kranicke was inspired by artist Brice Marden’s search for the perfect color via painting and repainting the same canvas—a practice she inverts by attempting to strip away the components of dance performance. It will be interesting to see what is revealed by the blank canvas, particularly for those with the guts to sit in the middle of the action (or inaction or potential action, alternately). The program also includes a new trio by associate AD Emily Stein, concerned with the complex relationship between the performer and the audience. The title, Kranicke says, was chosen for its implication of intent: looking is far more participatory than seeing. Check out this show; it’s all about you. (Sharon Hoyer)

At Epiphany Episcopal Church, 201 S. Ashland, (773)489-5069. June 24-26, 8pm. $20.

RECOMMENDED

For their fourth full-length performance, Matter Dance selects a circus theme, complete with comedian ringleader MCs, a live band and a collection of short dance works in a mishmash of styles—an appropriate concept for a young company that makes accessible, audience-friendly dance their mission. Matter Dance founder and dance therapist Gail Adduci Gogliotti says that the varied performance backgrounds of herself and her two Marquette grad co-founders—one a sketch comedian, one a corporate financier—is a particular strength of the company. The show features a guest performance by members of Chicago Dance Crash—a company that places ballerinas on stage with B-boys, martial artists and modern dancers (and did so three years before the Fox network turned the concept into a game show). It promises to be an entertaining evening no matter your taste. (Sharon Hoyer)

At the Vittum Theater, 1012 North Noble, (773)342-4141. June 17-19, Thu-Fri at 8pm, Sat at 2 & 8pm. $20, $10 children and students.

Aimee Tye, Dmitri Peskov/Photo: Kevin Reed

Dmitri Peskov has the intoxicating demeanor of the man who embraces art in all its manifestations. An active poet with a master’s degree in foreign languages and literature and a background in both drama and martial arts, his conversation is delightfully riddled with unassuming references to Beckett, Kurosawa and Brueghel. “Of Fleeting Things,” the first piece for his newly formed company, takes its name from the rejected title of M. Somerset Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage” and explores, in what might be described as novelistic form, the temporality and beauty of human experience.

“The quest for something more is what makes us human,” Peskov muses via phone. “If we suffer we are alive, but people jump to conclusions about my work. I’ve been called angst-ridden, but I think ‘Of Fleeting Things’ is soothing. Suffering is human, but we do more than suffer.” Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Todd Rosenberg

RECOMMENDED

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) is closing out the season this weekend with a Summer program that exemplifies why these dancers truly are cultural badasses. Adding a fifth world premiere to their repertoire this season, HSDC will unveil Aszure Barton’s first work for the main company of dancers.  Through a process working with each company member to develop a shared language, Barton’s piece will highlight the individuality of this eclectic group of artists and their power to function as ensemble.  As we went to press, problems with music rights postponed the theatrical premiere of  Alejandro Cerrudo’s “Deep Down Dos” until the fall; it has been replaced with “Bitter Suite,” which was created for the company by Jorma Elo in the fall of 2009. The evening will close out with the return Toru Shimazaki’s “Bardo,” and exhaustingly athletic journey to the underworld that demands the full dexterity of the dancers.  This program may not be a bottle of accessible pills, but it will do what HSDC does so best: new work, challenging work and work that rattles your bones a little bit.  (William Scott)

At the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph (312)334-7777. June 3-6; Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm. $25-$90.