Dance can be intimidating for a new audience member. The abstract nature of the art can cause confusion, ambiance in the theater can be stiflingly formal, and if that were not enough, there is the inconvenience of leaving your ever-so-comfortable home to get there in the first place. So why is it worth it to become a firsthand consumer of dance? What makes it all worth it? If you speak to dance audience regulars, they will each have their own answer, and that's the beauty of it. An audience may see the same performance, but each person has the opportunity to
Now on the cusp of their twentieth anniversary season, CRDT's success is due largely in part to the consistently strong choices of Artistic Director and Co-founder Wilfredo Rivera. As from the beginning, Wilfredo's passion, creativity, and commitment to artistic collaboration continue to lead the company to new performance venues, new audiences, and new creative projects that push the boundaries of both the individual artist and the ensemble as a whole. Behind the scenes, there is another person integral to the success and growth of Cerqua Rivera - Executive Director Catherine Painter. For the last five years, Catherine has worked alongside the artistic team at CRDT to ensure that their unique mixture of dance and live music can reach as many communities as possible. The work and thought she has put behind each and every choice for Cerqua Rivera culminated last year in the company's first ever three-venue tour of Chicago. This year's Fall Concert Series placed CRDT back to the same three venues: the series opened in Evanston, traveled down to Lakeview, and will soon close in Hyde Park. The big difference is the program has already made a much bigger splash than in the previous season, and there's still one performance to go. DancerMusic's Kristi Licera caught up with Catherine to learn more about Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre and the choices they continue to make that create the enriching experience the Fall Concert Series offers their audiences. Here's what Catherine told us:
"Under the direction of Ashley Deran and Emily Loar, Project Bound is a tri-focal dance collaboration aiming to foster community engagement, dance/technology experimentation, and socially conscious performance." There's no better proof of their statement than to see the artists of Project Bound Dance in Separate Thoughts, Shared Space. Fostering community engagement? Bound is directly engaging the dance community by splitting the performance with Esoteric Dance Project. Furthermore, the split bill encourages the audiences of each respective company to come together, giving many the opportunity to see artists and works they may not have been exposed to otherwise. Dance/technology experimentation? The evening's program features the culmination of this year's One Hour Project, where Bound brings together dancer, choreographer, and videographer for 60 minutes to create a 60 second dance film. Socially conscious performance? You'll have to read on get the answer to this one, especially since DancerMusic's Kristi Licera got the answer to that question and more when she caught up with Project Bound Co-Artistic Directors Ashley Deran and Emily Loar. Here's what they told us:
Creating a masterpiece can take a lifetime. There is a certain process in crafting each detail that cannot be rushed, but in a world of limited time and tight funding, modern day artists have been forced to find creative ways to make the best of their resources. This is especially true in the world of dance, where choreographers are tasked not only with making movement to communicate their stories and ideas, but must also make considerations for the perfect musical score, costuming, and lighting and stage design. So how do dance makers begin to approach the task of bringing all
These days, it seems that you have all the entertainment you need at your fingertips. Wherever you go, you are sure to see people enraptured by their mobile devices, scrolling through videos on social media or streaming their favorite TV shows. There is no shortage of convenient entertainment, which certainly creates problems for those involved in the performing arts. So, how do you begin to compete with convenience and draw an audience into the theater? If you are Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, you have found a solution – create a unique concert dance experience coupled with a live jazz band.
They say the best gifts are the ones you make yourself. The time, energy and thoughtfulness put into a handmade item is forever ingrained within it, making it truly unique. Here at DancerMusic, some of the best gift makers we know are the ones that create dance. These choreographers often spend countless hours in the studio creating movement, plus an ample amount of time researching and reflecting to refine what they make. No two creations are ever quite the same, and become more unique when you consider that no two performances of the same piece of choreography are identical. As
Dancers have the unique ability to take a piece of music and really show it to you. You may be thinking, how is that possible? Sound is a wave invisible to the naked eye, and even if you were to see that piece of music performed live, you would see the action that creates the sound, but not the sound itself. Here's where the dancer comes in. If a dancer were to create movement to your favorite song, chances are that dancer would pick up on the nuances in rhythm, accents in instrumentation, the subtle meaning behind the lyrics, and
As artists, the best way for dancers to express and work through something as close to home as body expectations is, of course, through dance. This is exactly what The Joffrey Ballet will be bringing to the stage at Dance for Life 2018 with Myles Thatcher's Body Of Your Dreams. DancerMusic caught up with choreographer Myles Thatcher to learn more about his work, as well as Joffrey Artists Derrick Agnoletti and Nicole Ciapponi to get perspectives on working with Myles and dancing this highly athletic work. Here's what they told us:
When the average person thinks of Chicago, a few things hit the top of the list: the sports teams, the vibrant downtown scene and its iconic architecture... the wind (and for locals: confusing parking signs and that particular smell of the ‘L’). What does not immediately come to mind is the incredible array of outdoor spaces and field houses that make up the Chicago Park District. Chicagoans all over the city burst out of their winter hidey-holes to enjoy the fresh summer air and sunshine, and people from the world over come to the more well-known parks for events like
Like many summer programs, Deeply Rooted's four-week summer intensive offers technique classes and gives participants the opportunity to learn, rehearse, and perform select pieces of DRDT repertory. But here's what makes this program special: in addition to technique and repertory, select summer scholarship awardees are invited for an additional two-week process prior to the intensive to participate in the creative process of up-and-coming choreographers. These choreographic works are then presented in the intensive's culminating performance in a feature called the Emerging Choreographers Showcase. In this way, DRDT's summer intensive also serves as a creative incubator for the selected choreographers. In conjunction with sharing a program with some of DRDT's most accomplished choreographers and most beloved works, the emerging choreographers are also given access to the many tools they need to reach their choreographic vision including rehearsal space, a cast of talented dancers, and administrative support. Recently, DancerMusic's Kristi Licera caught up with Emerging Choreographers’ Showcase Producing Director Joshua Ishmon to learn more about the showcase and the choreographers involved. Here's what Joshua told us: