(Here’s an intriguing first look at Royal Road, but for the full impact, not to mention the rest of the scene, you’ll have to be in Chicago on Saturday, March 9, and find your way to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.)
Knowing a really good dance company is like knowing a cool rock club. It’s a scene all to itself, and after you’ve been there enough times, you get so that even if you don’t know exactly what they’re doing that night, you just go. Not only that, you probably tell somebody else too, because once you get the idea that whoever is deciding what they do there really knows what they’re doing, all you have to do is show up, and be ready to find out about another thing you’re glad you found out about.
Luna Negra Dance Theater is on a roll like that. Looking back at the last few times they’ve brought one of their creative adventures to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago, there’s an unbroken progression of glad-you-were-there performances that would make anybody want to be there Saturday, March 9th when they present Made in Spain.
Last year at this time, they brought Artistic Director Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s Carmen.Maquia, and it dazzled everybody. A few months later, in their Luna Nueva program at the MCA’s Edlis Neeson Theater, Ramírez was joined by Mónica Cervantes and imaginative Argentinian choreographer Diana Szeinblum in another compelling evening, and then in October, they put on another outstanding show. Ramírez created an exceptional new work called 18+1, and Brazilian choreographer Fernando Melo, besides reprising his immensely successful Bate, created an equally strong new work called Walk-In
Made in Spain looks to be another one of those nights. Mónica Cervantes brings her very complete understanding of how to put a dance together to a new work called Presenté and Fernando Hernando Magadan presents the World Premiere of Royal Road. Royal Road features an original score by Turtle Island Quartet who will perform live, and to complete the evening, Made in Spain will also include Magadan’s Naked Ape.
