This March, the Evanston Dance Ensemble will premiere its completely reimagined production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In six performances over four days (March 15-16 at 7pm and March 17-18 at 1pm and 4pm) audiences at The Josephine Louis Theater will get to see Shakespeare's widely loved romantic comedy in a brand new light. We asked Evanston Dance Ensemble's Béa Rashid to tell us just a little more about this complex creative adventure, beginning with how she even got such a bold idea. Here's what Béa told us:
After closing their twentieth anniversary with a massively successful series of performances at Chicago's Logan Center (their performance of Fana Tshabalala's INDUMBA was named Dance of the Year by the Chicago Tribune's Lauren Warnecke), Deeply Rooted Dance Theater is already right back at it. They're performing at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, February 24 at 7:30pm in a program entitled "Looking To The Future". The program includes works by Kevin Iega Jeff ("Church of Nations" and "In a Child's Eye"), Gary Abbott ("Desire"), and by Nicole Clarke-Springer. Clarke-Springer's "Femme" was featured, and widely admired, in Deeply Rooted's Twentieth Anniversary concerts, but their "Looking To The Future" presentation at the North Shore Center will also include the World Premiere of her work "Alice". DancerMusic's Johnny Nevin asked Nicole about "Alice", Deeply Rooted, and about what she sees moving forward from here. Here's what Nicole told us ...
Anyone interested in dance, and in how dance is changing, would want to hear more from Elia Mrak. Elia Mrak has the thorough understanding of movement and dance that you would expect from someone with his touring, teaching and performance experience, but he seems to have a special gift for weaving threads of insight from many places, and from many disciplines, into a new understanding of what dance and movement can be.
If you get the chance to listen to Doug Varone — to his insights into dance, into movement, or even just into what it means to live and create — it can be so riveting that you just might forget. You might forget that this can only be part of the story, because in three or so decades of choreographing and performing and directing, his impact has been so immense. Dancer Music's Johnny Nevin had the chance to ask Doug Varone about some of the ideas and inspirations that have illuminated his work as choreographer, artistic director, and performer, and here's what he told us ——
With the release of choreographer Ela Olarte's "Benign", DancerMusic is launching two new series. First is our new Press_Play feature, where we'll be bringing you new and necessary digital releases in both dance and music. In addition, this look at Olarte's excellent second dance film also begins our coverage of the new and promising world we like to call Dance Cinema. And what a great way to start -- just press the More button to walk into the brightly imagined world of Ela Olarte.
It's not difficult to imagine that in ten years or so, a story about the HS Pro Studio Showing might begin with something about some of the great dance careers that began there. Yet as probable as it already seemed that the Hubbard Street Professional Program would be turning out great dance artists, that possibility seems even more likely after their first Studio Showing.
As a costume designer, Alex Gordon is increasingly in demand, and the insights he shares with us here about his work for Deeply Rooted Dance Theater show why. It may be just because he is a gifted designer, or it may have much to do with the depth of his perspective as choreographer and performer. In any case, his in-depth thoughts about of the art of costume design offer a rare look into one of the most important and least understood details of successful concert dance.
Deeply Rooted Dance Theater's Deeply Free performances will include works from two of the artists most closely associated with Deeply Rooted's accomplishments, Dance Education Director Nicole Clarke-Springer's "Femme" and Associate Artistic Director Gary Abbott's "Desire". Here are four closer looks at moments from each of these pieces, with thoughts from the choreographers ---
Ballet Hispánico will be at The Apollo Theater on December 1st and 2nd, and DancerMusic reached out to Ballet Hispánico's Diana Winfree to find out some more about the Apollo Performances, about Ballet Hispánico, and about some of the works in the program. Here's what she told us ---
Deeply Rooted Dance Theater is celebrating their 20th Anniversary with a series of concerts entitled Deeply Free (December 8th, 9th and 10th at Chicago's Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts). The Company was founded in 1995 and first performed in 1996, building year after year into what they are now: a widely traveled and even more widely admired Dance Company. DancerMusic begins its coverage of "Deeply Free" by asking Deeply Rooted's Artistic Director and co-founder Kevin Iega Jeff to tell us a little more about Deeply Rooted and about their upcoming performances ...