There’s something magical that happens to Chicago in the summertime. After a long, cold, winter, it comes as no surprise that everyone wants to be outdoors, including the city’s dance artists. These professional dancers spend a majority of their careers training and rehearsing in the studio and performing in concert and theater venues, with few opportunities outside of site-specific work to experience dancing outdoors. But thankfully, for the past ten summers, Dance in the Parks has given dancers and audiences alike the opportunity to consume concert dance in some of the cities most communal centers – Chicago’s neighborhood parks.
Dance in the Parks aims to change up the experience by drastically changing the environment that concert dance is presented in. Audience members are free to chat about the things they see on stage and are encouraged to participate and dance along if they feel inspired to do so.
While Dance in the Parks is a wonderful opportunity for the dance artists it employs, it also serves as one of the most accessible and inviting ways to experience concert dance. If you are a current patron or lover of concert dance, you know how difficult it can be to convince friends and family to accompany you to the theater. Once you get there, sitting in the dark of theater trying to digest abstract art and movement can be incredibly intimidating, especially if you have no frame of reference for what is happening on stage. Dance in the Parks aims to change up the experience by drastically changing the environment that concert dance is presented in. Audience members are free to chat about the things they see on stage and are encouraged to participate and dance along if they feel inspired to do so. The darkness of the theater is replaced with the vibrant energy of sunshine, allowing both the dancers on stage and the audience members in the park more freedom in their individual and combined experiences.
DancerMusic’s Dance Editor caught up with Founding Director of Dance in the Parks, Katie McCann, to learn more about Dance in the Parks for 2018. Here’s what Katie told us:
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Kristi: Dance in the Parks kicks off its 10th Anniversary season on July 8 at Chicago’s Lake Shore Park, and is one of many free performances that the company will host throughout the summer. What can audiences expect to see and experience at Dance in the Parks performances?
If the weather is great, bring a blanket and something delicious for a picnic dinner. It’s a family friendly show, and dancing along on your blanket is encouraged!
Katie: Our performances are outdoors (weather permitting) on temporary stages in neighborhood parks throughout the city. Our shows are made up of several parts. Our professional company performs the same eight pieces of choreography throughout our 14 park venues. At each venue, we invite youth dance programs from each neighborhood to perform so we can showcase local youth talent and highlight local dance class opportunities. At the end of each performance, we give away donated pairs of tickets to other professional dance concerts throughout the Fall-Spring season. We want to guide our audiences to more ways to experience dance after we leave.
Their [choreographic] styles are mostly modern/contemporary, but their themes range from a theatrically entertaining blind date to the fulfillment of a choreographer’s wish “to just see people working together.”
Our 10th season performance is made up of eight pieces choreographed and performed by professional Chicago dance artists. This year’s show will have six brand new works choreographed by Paige Caldarella, Peter Carpenter, Becca Lemme, Lizzie MacKenzie, Thomas Mattingly, and Mariana Oliveira. Their styles are mostly modern/contemporary, but their themes range from a theatrically entertaining blind date to the fulfillment of a choreographer’s wish “to just see people working together.”
The additional two works are remounts. Michel Rodriguez Cintra’s No More Games from our 2017 season was originally choreographed for a trio of men. The women in the cast really wanted to do the work and asked if we could bring it back, and we did! The only piece we’ve ever taken into rep is Joshua Blake Carter’s Our Town. It premiered last year, and will return as our finale this year with the added feature of incorporating several of our youth performance partners into the performance.
If the weather is great, bring a blanket and something delicious for a picnic dinner. It’s a family friendly show, and dancing along on your blanket is encouraged!
Kristi: Dance in the Parks unique in that it presents “free, professional dance performances to new audiences in the most accessible venues in Chicago—neighborhood parks”. Can you give us some insight into the history of DIP and what you are doing to celebrate this anniversary season?
Dance is for everyone, and we want to make sure as many Chicagoans as we can reach know it.
Katie: I danced in a ballet company in Lexington, KY that participated in an annual outdoor concert in a downtown park. I loved watching the different reactions of the audience members, especially in comparison to their behavior in the opera house. People were more relaxed, kids could wiggle and talk, and everyone loved being able to spend community time together in a beautiful park on a summer evening.
By eliminating high ticket prices, transportation costs, child care costs, and easing the “new” factor by putting concerts in a community’s home park, the company aims to be an excellent first encounter with concert dance
When I moved to Chicago, I realized the Chicago’s park district is HUGE and an integral part of community life in the summer, and that the diverse and vibrant dance community wasn’t working during the summers (arguably Chicago’s best season). I started Dance in the Parks as a way to try to draw more people into the dance community by taking dance concerts out of the traditional theater setting and into spaces they use regularly and feel ownership over. By eliminating high ticket prices, transportation costs, child care costs, and easing the “new” factor by putting concerts in a community’s home park, the company aims to be an excellent first encounter with concert dance (as opposed to your 7-year-old niece’s recital) and encourage future curiosity, engagement, and support of ALL of the amazing dance in the city. Dance is for everyone, and we want to make sure as many Chicagoans as we can reach know it.
Our first few seasons were small, but now in our 10th season (our 6th as part of Mayor Emanuel’s Night Out in the Parks initiative) we’ve reached more than 5000 audience members in 32 parks throughout 29 neighborhoods, and hired 123 dancers, choreographers, designers & technicians. We’re so proud of our growth and looking forward to performing in new places throughout the city.
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Dance in the Parks kicks off its 10th Anniversary Season on Tuesday, July 10 at 6pm at Lake Shore Park, 808 N Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60611. This performance will feature youth performance partners from Gus Giordano Dance School and Ruth Page School of Dance.
To see the full line up of performances, visit danceintheparks.org/performances.
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