Choreography and Concert DanceDancerMusic ExclusivePRE-View

PRE-View: Dance Divas 2018

June 10, 2018

Picture in your mind a dancer who you love to see perform. Now, imagine that dancer... in drag! If you're having trouble picturing this, then grab a ticket to Dance Divas 2018, where male dancers from some of Chicago's most recognized professional dance companies take on a fabulous, new persona for an even more fabulous cause. Dance Divas is the kickoff event to Dance for Life 2018, an event that Chicago Dancers' United describes as the "annual benefit performance that showcases the city’s unique diversity of talent, dance traditions, and styles." Both events directly benefit The Dancers' Fund, which supports dancers in the local community affected with critical health issues. DancerMusic's Kristi Licera caught up with one of the choreographers and original Dance Diva, Harrison McEldowney, to learn more about Dance Divas 2018. Here's what Harrison told us:

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Choreography and Concert DanceDancerMusic ExclusivePRE-View

PRE-View: Hyde Park School of Dance Presents “Amira: A Chicago Cinderella Story”

June 6, 2018

It's time to introduce a new princess into the world. She cannot shoot icicles out of her fingers nor is she as famed as Sleeping Beauty, but one thing will be certain the moment you meet her: you will feel like you have already met. It may be because this new character is a fresh iteration of a princess we already know and love, Cinderella. But the more likely cause of your familiarity is that this princess, like so many of us in the city of Chicago and in our country, is an immigrant. In this day and age, we

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4PHOTOSChoreography and Concert DanceDancerMusic Exclusive

4PHOTOS: Founder and Artistic Director Kia Smith on An Evening with South Chicago Dance Theatre

June 4, 2018

First impressions are important . There's no denying it, especially when you are debuting a brand new dance company in a city that has an abundance of them. There are many ways to make a great first impression, but often, the best way to do so is to stay true to who you are and to step into the light with a kind and open heart. This is exactly what Founder and Artistic Director of South Chicago Dance Theatre, Kia Smith did. This past May, Smith curated SCDT's first evening-length performance at University of Chicago's Mandel Hall. What may not

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Cesar G Salinas in Giordano Dance Chicago's "Wings" (Photo by Mike Canale)
Choreography and Concert Dance

PRE-View: Giordano Dance Chicago’s Summer Series

June 4, 2018

The reason Giordano Dance can keep bringing it year after year, decade after decade, is because they're always bringing so much that's so new. Their Summer Series at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre on June 9th is a gleaming example of that; the Company will perform works by Ray Mercer, Joshua Blake Carter, Ray Leeper and Christopher Huggins in a multichromatic display of contemporary voices in choreography. Even the two legendary works on the program by Giordano's founder, Gus Giordano, represent what is new as much as they do what is classic. We asked Cesar Salinas to give us a little closer look at the performance, and here's what he told us:

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CHRP's Stone Soup Rhythms (Photo by Philamonjaro Photography)
Choreography and Concert Dance

PRE-View: Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s STOMPING GROUNDS – The Grand Finale

June 2, 2018

If you had just happened to walk in on one of Chicago Human Rhythm Project's annual STOMPING GROUNDS performances, that would have been amazing enough.  STOMPING GROUNDS is a series of concerts that Chicago Human Rhythm Project has presented across the city of Chicago for the past four years, and it's not like anything else. Chicago Human Rhythm Project brings together a real all-star lineup of percussive dance companies, and to see the bright, energetic, irrestible enthusiasm of percussive dance in so many different forms, from so many different artists, steeped in the heritage of so many cultures, well that wouldn't just be amazing,  that's more like a waterfall of amazing experiences, moment after cascading moment. But the Grand Finale of STOMPING GROUNDS promises to be all of that and more. There was so much that we wanted to learn about all of the dimensions of this multifaceted event that we asked Lane Alexander, Founder and Director of Chicago Human Rhythm Project, to give us a little more insight into STOMPING GROUNDS. Here's what he told us:

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Choreography and Concert DanceDancerMusic ExclusivePRE-View

PRE-View: Trifecta Dance Collective presents Solstice

May 31, 2018

Trifecta Dance Collective's upcoming production Solstice features the premiere of "In.grained" -  a special collaborative piece inspired by five senior women from the Glenview area. The tales of these women create the context for the choreographic vision of Co-Artistic Directors Krissie Odegard-Geye and Carrie Patterson, and includes the muses on stage as part of the performance. In addition, the  performance features two other Chicago-based dance companies - Nomi Dance Chicago and Valerie Alpert Dance Company - truly making this an event that includes and invites a sense of community. DancerMusic's Kristi Licera caught up with TDC's Co-Artistic Director Carrie Patterson to learn more about Solstice. Here's what Carrie told us:

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Choreography and Concert DanceDancerMusic ExclusivePRE-View

PRE-View: Simantikos Dance Chicago presents “I Wonder…” at University Illinois Chicago

May 30, 2018

Some of mankind’s greatest discoveries were accidental. If it weren’t for these happy accidents, we would be missing everyday items such as super glue and (god forbid, especially if you’re a college student) the microwave. But we should also remember that accidents can pave the way for artists, including the dancers at Simantikos Dance Chicago. Founder and Artistic Director Haley McElwee did not start with the intention of creating a dance company, but in the three years since its founding, the company has experienced growth that has taken them from area rug-sized performance spaces to artistic collaborations in Italy. DancerMusic’s Kristi Licera recently caught up with Haley to get a peek into Simantikos’ upcoming performance at. Here’s what Haley told us:

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The Chicago Philharmonic "Hollywood Heroes" (Courtesy of The Chicago Philharmonic)
Music

PRE-View: Chicago Philharmonic’s Hollywood Heroes at the Harris Theater

May 23, 2018

On Sunday, May 27th at 3pm The Chicago Philharmonic will present one of their characteristically enchanting concerts, a performance they call Hollywood Heroes. It's a program in which Music Director Scott Speck has gathered eleven brilliant compositions from scores for film, featuring landmark works from composers like Elmer Bernstein, John Williams, Danny Elfman and Maurice Jarre for legendary films like The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars, Spider-Man and Lawrence of Arabia. The Chicago Philharmonic's Artistic Director, Scott Speck brings a bright and careful understanding of why people love music to both his conducting and his programming. With both of those talents on display in Hollywood Heroes, we just had to ask Scott to give us a closer look at the program. Here's what he told us:

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Music

5 Questions With Kasia Ooh About Detroit’s Movement Music Festival

May 18, 2018

You couldn't write a book about music in Detroit, at least not about all of it. But even if you wrote all the books about all the music from Detroit that everybody knows about and loves, you'd still be leaving out all the music made in Detroit that never got out to world stage, that was part of one of the Detroit scenes, one of the chapters that Detroit is always writing. One of the newest chapters in Detroit music is the Movement Music Festival, a celebration of Detroit's massive impact on electronica that happens every Memorial Day weekend. We just had to hear more about it, so we reached out to Kasia Ooh, who knows Movement like few others. Here's what she told us:

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Choreography and Concert Dance

5 Questions With Matthew Hollis About KTF — 10 Years of Mattrick Swayze and Chicago Dance Crash

May 14, 2018

Chicago Dance Crash covers so much ground that you just kind of expect they'll always be up to something different than whatever you saw the last time. But right along side of all those wide ranging adventures in choreography and concert dance,  has a rock-steady tradition that's been going strong for a long time. It's their Keeper of the Floor series -- KTF, the second longest-running live show in the history of Chicago. Founded in 2007, it's been hosted for the last ten years by Matthew Hollis, or as he's better known when he takes charge of KTF, Matrick Swayze. Words cannot do justice to the Crash-infused, Mattrick-Swayze-curated good-natured mayhem of KTF, so instead of writing one more word about it, we asked Matthew to tell us all about Mattrick and ten years of KTF with Chicago Dance Crash. Here's what he told us --

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