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:
How in the world would you do a PRE-View of Rhythm World, Chicago Human Rhythm Project's amazing annual festival of tap and percussive dance? If you've been to see us at DancerMusic before, you know that our PRE-Views are here to tell the world about events that are interesting, exciting, entertaining and cool, so that everybody can go see them and not miss them. Rhythm World is all of that for sure, so what's the problem? The problem is that Chicago Human Rhythm Project's Rhythm World is like the big, long, eighty-car freight train of cool, entertaining, interesting and exciting. So what did we do? We redesigned our PRE-View format to include a new SPEED ROUND of questions for CHRP's Founder and Director Lane Alexander. Here's what he told us:
There can't be too many things in Dance more complicated, more challenging, or more promising than the collaboration between choreographer and composer. But there probably aren't too many people in Dance or Music better able to tell us about the mysteries of this process than Joe Cerqua. Cerqua is the Co-Founder of Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, and at Cerqua Rivera, dance and music are richly and relentlessly interwoven in everything the Company even thinks about. We thought this would be perfect time to ask Joe to tell us about working with Sherry Zunker on "Between Us", which Cerqua Rivera will perform at Dance for Life 2018. Oh yeah, we also asked him to give us a quick look at the new piece he's working on with Monique Haley. Here's what he told us:
On Friday, June 29th, and again on Sunday, July 1, Thodos Dance Chicago and DanceWorks Chicago will present the very latest incarnation of a legendary dance event, NEW Dances. Audiences at Chicago's Ruth Page Center for the Arts will see a brand new dance company, specially formed for this performance, in works by six choreographers, specially made for NEW Dances. This year marks a new beginning, adding a present and a future to the story of New Dances. Two of the most influential, and most creatively community-aware professionals in Chicago dance -- Melissa Thodos and Julie Nakagawa -- decided last year to transition the New Dances event to a joint effort by DanceWorks Chicago and Thodos Dance Chicago. The performances feature new works by choreographers Shannon Alvis, Braeden Barnes, Katlin Michael Bourgeois, J’Sun Howard, Chris Johnson, and Anna Long. We asked both Melissa and Julie to let us in on a little more of this story, and here's what they told us:
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 beginning of any career, we often make sacrifices. Sometimes this means late, unpaid nights in the office or putting in extra work at home, but what happens when these sacrifices become the norm? For many dancers in any stage of their career, the extra hours in the studio and unpaid rehearsals and performances come as no surprise. The justifications for putting up with these circumstances range from "I need to prove myself" to "This is the best opportunity I have." While those things may be true in the beginning, many dancers will continue to tell themselves these lines
As a current or potential audience member, you may catch a review of the show in the local paper. But one there is one thing about a review that you will never be able to skirt around; those words in that newspaper did not come from the mouth and heart of the artist or creator. That's where DancerMusic comes in. We pride ourselves in giving artists like Reesie Davis, Founder and CEO of Praize Productions, Inc. NFP, the opportunity to share reflections and discoveries of the work that she, her company and school of dancers work so hard to achieve and realize. We recently caught up with Reesie and asked her to share her reflections on PPI's recent production of REVIVAL: The Answer was Healing! Here's what Reesie shared with us in her 4PHOTOS:
Let's paint a picture of Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre's Inside/Out: Ameican Catracho. In the foreground of the picture is Cerqua Rivera's performance on Wednesday, June 20th at 7pm, at Evanston's beautiful new dance and music venue Studio5. There Artistic Director Wilfredo Rivera, CRDT Co-founder Joe Cerqua, and other participants in the creative process will offer a look into the making of American Catracho, the large-scale work that Rivera launched in 2016, and which will be completed this year. American Catracho explores the experience of immigrants and refugees who, like Rivera himself, venture to leave what they know to find a new life in a new land. It's been a major, three year project for the Company, and although there's a lot in the foreground, there's even more in the background. Taken all together, it turns the whole picture into a kind of magic painting, because each time you look closely at what is in the background, what you see in the foreground will change. Knowing that, we asked Noelle Kayser to give us even more background on the process of making American Catracho, and here's what she told us.
As a child, you may have often dreamed of yourself as a prince or princess in your favorite story. But as we age and discover the truth about the world around us, we begin to see the cracks in our beloved tales. We learn that those portrayed as evil may not have been so bad after all, and what we once thought to be the truth is merely a representation of what someone wants the truth to be. Now that we're adults, how do we change these stories to reflect our reality, while still maintaining the magic they gave us as children? August Tye, Founding Artistic Director of Hyde Park School of Dance, has the answer. August, her artistic team, and a cast of over a hundred dancers are getting ready to share this revelation in their production of Amira: A Chicago Cinderella Story at the Reva and David Logan Center in Hyde Park. DancerMusic Dance Editor Kristi Licera caught up with August to learn more about this massive undertaking. Here's what August told us:
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