When Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre brings their very successful fall concert Alone / Together to Studio5 on Friday, October 13, you'll be seeing layer upon layer of creativity. That's because one of the most imaginative dance companies you can go see, Cerqua Rivera, will be performing in one of the most imaginatively designed venues in Metro Chicago.
There's more and more talk about a three piece rock band called Lunar Chiefs, and with them appearing this Sunday at the Midwest Musicians Unite for Hurricane Relief benefit, this was a good time for Dancer Music to get an inside look at the band and the benefit. For that, we tracked down Lunar Chiefs founding member and bass player Dank Wellington, and hears what we heard ---
One of the very best places to see what Joe Policastro Trio has got going will be at Studio5, where they take the stage, and a uniquely cool stage it is, on Friday, October 6 (from 8 to 10pm). The group has just released their third album, Screen Sounds, and the trio will be taking advantage of the Evanston venue's excellent production facilities, presenting the music in a multimedia format with experimental film and original lighting design.
'Pushing the boundaries' is always risky, because those boundaries often enclose what works well. Venturing beyond them requires inventing new ways of realizing an artistic vision, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's Fall Series presentation of Peter Chu's Space, In Perspective was full of hazards. But what Peter Chu and Glenn Edgerton accomplished was something to see, as they quite literally wove new perspectives of dance into, around, and on top of a very different kind of dance concert.
There's already been a lot of great Taylor Mitchell choreography on Chicago stages and beyond, and his latest work, a collaboration with composer Dan Hesler called "Here Comes Treble". will premiere next month at Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre's extensive series of concerts for their fall series Alone / Together. We asked Taylor a few of the many things that you could ask this talented young choreographer, and here's what we learned ---
Lighting design is one of the most important, collaborative and creative contributions in the making of a dance concert. Last July, David Goodman-Edberg worked with Abby Ellison on her achingly beautiful work "Beneath the Clouds, Above the Rest", and with Brennen Renteria on his wildly enchanting "When In Doubt". We asked him to choose two photos from each work, and tell us whatever he wanted about his thoughts, his process and his inspiration. His insights offer an incredibly valuable look into the well-lit, but still mysterious world of Lighting Design.
If Studio5 is not a name that you recognize, that's alright, because you'll be hearing about it more and more. It's an unusual new venue in a lot of ways -- an impeccably designed performance space that opened just last year. This Saturday, The Live at Studio5 Jazz series presents Brazilian Guitarist Paulinho Garcia and Mike Allemana, with special guest Grazyna Auguscik sharing vocals with Garcia.
Here at DancerMusic.com, one of our favorite ways to learn about what's going on in Dance and Music is to ask some of the gifted artists that we've worked with. That's why we asked HSPro's Melissa Panetta to tell us about Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's "bold, adventurous and forward-looking" fall engagement, Peter Chu's "Space, In Perspective" ...
Chicago Sinfonietta's Trademark really has to be one of the most creatively imagined concerts you've ever heard of. Besides the World Premiere of Wilfredo Rivera's collaboration with Clarice Assad, Trademark also includes performances from Liam Teague and the NIU Steelband alongside performances of Mozart and Smetana. Teague also performs with harpist Faye Seeman in her composition Fayed to Blue.
Visceral Dance was founded just four years ago, in 2013, but they've already established a remarkable record for artistic imagination. This Saturday, September 16 Visceral opens their Fall Engagement at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts with a program that introduces Danielle Agami's "Pick a Seat" and works from Marguerite Donlon, Mark Godden and Artistic Director Nick Pupillo.