Punk-rock ballerina Karole Armitage’s company Armitage Gone! Dance makes its Chicago debut this week at the Dance Center of Columbia College. The company will perform “Time is the Echo of an Axe within a Wood and Ligeti Essays,” the first two sections of Armitage’s Dream Trilogy.

You returned to the U.S. in 2005 after about ten years in Europe, choreographing for ballets and operas. What prompted you to come back?

I wanted to work with a group of creative, determined, adventuresome dancers. We’re so marginalized in the U.S., we have special convictions. It’s really for the quality of the dancers that I came back. [Armitage Gone! Dance] started with one experimental piece, and continuing made sense.

How do you feel the world of American dance has changed in the time you were gone?

Well, I visited a lot throughout that time. But the biggest changes have been cultural. Consumer culture and packaging of celebrity culture became more extreme. Everything is more homogenized; magazines aren’t writing about dance as much and dance has become more homogenized to try and survive.

Can you talk a little about how dreams influence you?

I didn’t use dreams as a point of departure. I think of the stage as a place to put a condensation of the world on view. I was thinking first about psychological time. What people see on stage is not about realism, it’s about our internal life—a more poetic way of encountering the world instead of a narrative, naturalistic way. Dreams are what motivate us, how we would like our life to unfold. Even if they’re not something we can achieve, we all need to dream. Dreams are a sign of beauty and potential.

How do David Salle’s sets work within these pieces?

We worked carefully to calibrate how sets, costumes, lighting work in cohesion to take the audience into a dream. In “Time,” the beaded curtain suggests two zones of experience, the conscious and subconscious. The costumes have a metallic sheen, reflecting light. Light is the idea binding things together. In “Ligeti,” the bare tree suggests an ice storm, beautiful and fragile. The way these elements work together is a unique experience. I think art should always be unique—an expression of the individual. (Sharon Hoyer)

Armitage Gone! Dance at The Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 South Michigan. This production is now closed.

By Tamara Matthews

Is it any surprise that artists seem to fare more successfully at cross-cultural collaboration than diplomats do? Exhibit A: “Les écailles de la mémoire (The scales of memory),” one such successful collaboration that is being featured at The Dance Center of Columbia College on March 6–8. This work is the culmination of a two-year partnership between the Urban Bush Women, an all-female dance company based out of Brooklyn, New York, and Compagnie Jant-Bi, an all-male dance company based out of Toubab Dialaw, Senegal.

At their best, collaborations prove the powerful effects of uniting shared interest and finding common ground by highlighting what makes us the same without forgetting what makes us different. According to Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, founding artistic director of Urban Bush Women, one of the most essential elements in this mix is love. “Love is, for me, why we exist, and everything that we go through has to come back to that­—whether that’s as a community, as a couple, as a person. That, for me, is at the center of everything.”

This collaborative journey of (way over) a thousand miles began with a single and fortuitous step. Zollar and Germaine Acogny, the artistic director of Jant-Bi, both participated in the Gwendolyn M. Carter Conference in African Studies and the 2004 Congress on Research in Dance Special Topics at the University of Florida, Gainesville, in February of 2004. Two months later, in April, the two women met again when their companies were both in residence at The Dance Center. After discovering their undeniable artistic similarities, they decided to start working together on a project.

In addition to the two artistic directors, a harmonious combination of parts—including contributions from the associate artistic director of Urban Bush Women (Nora Chipaumire), the composer (Fabrice Bouillon), the lighting designer (J. Russeel Sandifer) and the costume designer (Naoko Nagata)—created the perfect fit in this piece. Zollar says, “I think we brought really great strengths to the table. What was wonderful about this collaboration was that we were all equals in that everybody’s accomplished and secure in where they are in their life and their work.”

Crossing continents, the two companies spent time in one another’s respective countries taking the chance to create, absorb and explore. The discoveries made therein shaped the themes of the resulting work, which Zollar describes as “Journey: our journey in the piece, our journey together, our journey across water, across continents, across gender, across histories. Resistance: our histories of resistance to oppression. Memory: what’s shared. And love, ultimately.”

Personal histories were just as important as larger, cultural history in the finalized work. Zollar says, “We decided to look at our lineage because it’s one of the traditions in different parts of Africa that when you greet people, you say your lineage, who you are. When I was growing up in Kansas City, we did it another way. You’d have someone ask ‘Girl, who’s your people?’” In “The Scales of Memory,” dancers are given a chance to affirm their identity under this shared tradition, and Zollar feels that, “When we can say this is who I am and this is our history, I think it’s an important thing.”

Cultural and gender divide notwithstanding, the two companies have surprising similarities. Urban Bush Women are known for holding nothing back, tackling rarely touched on subjects such as African American women’s hair (“HairStories”), the legacy of choreographer Pearl Primus (“Walking with Pearl…Africa Diaries”) and voluptuous booties that deserve celebrating (“Batty Moves”). Their dance style is strong and powerful, emoting “explosive exuberance,” according to The Village Voice, and “fierce intensity,” according to The New York Times.

Similarly, Jant-Bi’s dance style has been called “powerfully direct, emotionally authentic-feeling” by The New York Times, and the troupe is not afraid to tackle full-force subjects like genocide in Rwanda (“Fagaala”).

So what is the subject addressed in “The Scales of Memory”? “I think the central theme is: How do we talk to each other when we are similar and when we are different?” shares Zollar. “That is something we have to figure out as a nation and as a global community.”

At the Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 South Michigan, (312)344-6600. This production is now closed.

Unlike the proverbial “bull in the china shop,” the “ 800 lb. Gorilla in the room” has problems getting attention. A gentle giant, it sits, delicately, on the sofa while the relatives talk around it. As far as truths go, it’s the most obvious thing, but it usually takes an outsider to point it out.

While many expect art to play the role of “outsider,” there are certain limitations. It’s not just that social criticism runs the risk of polarizing audiences that look to art for some escapism. In its push towards abstraction and purified form much of contemporary art has been by its very nature de-politicized.

To combat this double repression—of what we, collectively, refuse to acknowledge and what is often bracketed in artistic production—Shirley Mordine, founder of Mordine & Co. Dance Theater and doyenne of the Chicago dance scene (she founded the Dance Center at Columbia College), has curated a multi-disciplinary showcase broaching the theme of the unsaid. “The 800 lb. Gorilla in the Room…(what we’re not talking about)” opens this week at the Ruth Page Center.

Inviting six multi-disciplinary companies to present excerpts of works on culturally uncomfortable themes, Mordine “hopes not only to get us all talking, but also to push the limits of the kind of abstract expression she herself is committed to,” explains Heather Hartley, of Mordine & Co. You might think of it as a call for an artistic guerilla war of sorts.

The title of the piece leading the program—“Rupture”—refers to the panic-inducing loss of ground accompanying political and social crisis, one Mordine associates with our current historical situation. Choreographed for eight dancers, it’s performed to live-sound accompaniment by DJ mix artist Erik Roldan. Another highlight is punk-dance outfit Breakbone DanceCo. The quartet will present multimedia “datastarve”—a piece deconstructing ideals of aesthetic perfection by correlating images of women’s bodies with those of horses (think thoroughbreds and models on catwalks).

It’s not all dance, however. The showcase includes a performance by Chicago LiveWire Theatre—excerpting from its full-length “Soldiers: The Desert Stand,” “Recruitment” plays on war-department absurdities. Absurdist, yes, but, as they clarify, it’s a “serious play on war.” (Debbie Goldgaber)

“The 800 lb. Gorilla in the Room…” at Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 North Dearborn, (312)337-6543. This production is now closed.

In “Six Boxes,” by minimalist sculptor Donald Judd, an ensemble of mirrored cubes hide or dissimulate their own presence by reflecting the surrounding space. The effect is an apt visual metaphor for the themes of inaccessibility and self-imposed isolation explored by choreographer Michelle Kranicke (artistic director of Chicago-based Zephyr Dance) in “Just Left of Remote,” premiering at The Dance Center of Columbia College on October 25.

Of course, the resonance with Judd’s work is hardly a coincidence; “Remote” first took shape in the high desert of Marfa, West Texas, on the military base Judd re-purposed as a studio and installation space. Inspired by Judd’s work, Kranicke decided to use part of a CDF Lab Artist grant she had received to creatively seal herself there.

“My goal was to spend a long period of time alone with the work itself,” Kranicke explains. “What really struck me was how the larger, concrete sculptures were a part of the landscape but also stood apart or held back from it.” Several months later, Michelle returned with her company (and her costume designer)—making the creative process a more collaborative affair.

While developing the choreography, Kranicke—opting for an original score—began a sustained collaboration with composer Michael Caskey. “I was looking for a sound that wasn’t drum driven. That’s pretty typical in dance now, and I wanted the challenge of working without it.” Caskey responded with a rhythmic and haunting composition, using accordion, cello, harmonium and concertina—and even some recorded vocal tracks that Kranicke and her dancers laid down in Marfa.

The result of all this collaborative effort is a seventy-minute performance for four dancers (including Kranicke) that juxtaposes stretches of taut stillness with sequences involving gusty, space-covering movement—all while a projector with live video feed plays with notions of physical presence. “What we’ve tried to do is set up a game with the audience of watching and anticipating movement, however slight,” Kranicke explains.

And this final playful collaboration may be the most important. Having explored isolation in remote regions, this avant-garde company now aims to bring it home to their audience. (Debbie Goldgaber)

Zephyr Dance premieres Michelle Kranicke’s “Just Left of Remote” October 25, 26, & 27 at 8:00pm at the Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 South Michigan, (312)344-8300.

By Tamara Matthews

The most innovative dance choreography these days isn’t springing from the mind of some wunderkind fresh out of fine-arts school. It belongs to an 88-year-old legend who continues to push dance down avenues that no one else has discovered on the map yet. No choreographer continues to reinvent and change quite like Merce Cunningham does.

Since emerging from the traditions of Martha Graham’s dance company in 1945, Cunningham’s unique career trajectory has been undeniable. Bonnie Brooks, Department Chair of The Dance Center at Columbia College—which is hosting the Merce Cunningham Dance Company this weekend—finds Cunningham’s work exhilarating.

“He’s probably the world’s greatest living choreographer, setting whole new directions of what’s possible with dance. When you think about his whole body of work, what you see is this monumental experiment.”

It’s an experiment that has opened up new paths for dance as an artistic medium. Brooks places Cunningham as “the doorway into postmodernism. He moved away from narrative and in separating dance and music, he set up a situation in which dance could be its own discourse.”

Someone very familiar with that discourse is Robert Swinston, a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company since 1980 and assistant to the choreographer since 1992. He is an ardent believer in Cunningham’s methods.

“I’m a follower to the nth degree. Learning from Merce was to follow his path, because of his tremendous stature, and his ability to work consistently and deeply and to discover things about himself or about the body.”

The concept of separating dance and music is still a radical one and it’s a defining characteristic of Cunningham’s work. Audiences accustomed to traditional dance and music pairings have to adjust their expectations. Under Cunningham’s methodology, Swinston says, “The audience can relate according to their own imagination. They aren’t being guided to think or feel anything specific. Sound affects you immediately, but it takes time for movement to develop.”

Dancers accustomed to traditional dance and music pairings have to adjust their expectations as well. As a Cunningham dancer, Swinston shares, “You have to be self-reliant, you can’t just go in by music cue. The body rhythm is different than the musical rhythm. When we do all the rehearsals we are in silence.”

Chicago is fortunate to host the internationally popular Merce Cunningham Dance Company before it takes off to visit Australia and then France. This will be company’s third visit to Chicago in the last four years, part of a continuing collaboration with The Dance Center at Columbia College.

Appearing on both nights of the company’s stay is the piece “eyeSpace,” one of Cunningham’s most recent works. This inventive dance will charm many a gadget-loving technophile. Swinston says of the piece, “I think the element that is catchy is that the audience is given, if they want, iPod shuffles, and the music is in a different order for each person.” With everyone receiving the same visual presentation but a different musical experience, the concept of dance and music existing in separate spheres is made evident.

Also being presented on Friday are “CRWDSPCR” and “Crises.” Made in 1993 using the software DanceForms, “CRWDSPCR” is, as Swinston relates, “very influenced by the computer. You could call it the computer dance—very sharp, quick movements, sort of mechanical, a classic piece.” “Crises,” on the other hand, is far from Cunningham’s computer era, originally made in 1960. Swinston says, “The piece has a sense of drama to it. It stirs up lots of different things.”

Saturday will feature “MinEvent” and “Fabrications.” Swinston describes “MinEvent” as “a sort of short collage of dances, parts of dances or whole dances. This is actually more spontaneous. Depending on the theater and space, the event may change.” “Fabrications,” like many of Cunningham’s dances, was built through chance methods—such as a throw of dice—to decide what sequence the dance phrases go in. It is also, according to Swinston, “a favorite piece of all of the dancers that we all enjoy doing very much. We usually wear unitards all the time and this is one piece that we don’t. It has a lovely sort of resonance.”

Also on offer are master classes and a pre-performance talk by Brooks, which she says “will be a larger orientation to this kind of work and why it’s important. I like to talk about how much fun it is to watch Merce’s work.” Fun, exhilarating and exciting, certainly, but the iPod shuffles will have to be returned at the end.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 North Michigan, (312)344-8300. This production is now closed.

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The floor is bathed in fluorescent red light. The fifteen dancers, outfitted in designer Laura Hazlett’s monochromatic silver sheer costumes, boast sinewy bodies that writhe with a gesture one moment and instantaneously melt into graceful elongation the next. Then, picking up the hypnotic beat of composer Paul Dresher’s live industrial music, the ensemble burst into an explosion of wonderfully restrained, pulsating restlessness. And that’s just the first fifteen minutes. Choreographer Margaret Jenkins’ seventy-five-minute “A Slipping Glimpse,” an evening-length dance concert collaboration between members of the Calcutta, India-based Tanusree Shankar Dance Company and Jenkins’ own San Francisco troupe, is an alluring East-meets-West hybrid of modern dance that’s difficult to categorize. That’s OK, especially since once your eyes and ears begin settling into a particular pattern of movement or sound, Jenkins’ direction or Dresher’s music might mutate into something completely different. A classically trained Indian quartet featuring Eastern-flavored music gives way to a jazzy large-group number underscored by a steady rock beat. A dancer focuses his energy onto the most minimal physical gesture—the tap of a shoulder—as energetically as they do an Olympian-sized lift. And so on with this study of opposites, and in the words of Jenkins, a piece “conceived at a vertiginous moment in history when it’s often difficult to tell on which side of the looking glass we are standing—or dancing.” For this presentation, production designer Alexander V. Nichols will transform the dance center into a theater-in-the-round configuration in which platforms and cantilevered walkways will nestle between four sections of the audience, guaranteeing a multiple-focus staging effect, and the evening will begin with an outdoor prologue a couple of blocks from the auditorium, weather permitting. Like a mood music album brought to choreographic life, the vertiginous “A Slipping Glimpse” promises to be a soothing and sexy dose of kinetic and aural sensations, as well as a great kickoff to the Columbia College Dance Center’s 2007-2008 Season. (Fabrizio O. Almeida)

At the Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 S. Michigan, (312)344-8300. This production is now closed.