With new works from Shannon Alvis, Rebecca Lemme, Anna Long, Lizzie MacKenzie, Jacqueline Stewart, Jessica Miller Tomlinson, and Chicago Repertory Ballet, Dancing to Dream promises to be one of the years most imaginative dance concerts. We asked Dancing to Dream's Jacqueline Stewart about her dream to make this all happen. Here's what she told us:
Chicago Dance Crash performs in "Lil Pine Nut" at Chicago's Ruth Page Center for the Arts, adding to they're rich history of telling evening-length stories with a brilliant fusion of styles from hip-hop to contemporary. We asked Crash Rehearsal Director KC Bevis all about, and here's what she told us:
DanceWorks Chicago presents ChoreoLab, the culminating event of their Dance360 programs. DanceWorks Artistic Director Julie Nakagawa, the choreographers, and several of the dancers shared an inside look with us. Here's what they told us:
At Dance For Life 2019, Robyn Mineko Williams will present an excerpt from Echo Mine, and we asked Robyn about the work, about Claire Bataille, and about Dance for Life. Here's what she told us:
On Friday and Saturday July 26th and 27th, Aerial Dance Chicago brings their latest production, "Higher Ground" to Chicago's Ruth Page Center for the Arts. We asked Company Dancer Hannah Rosenfeld to give us an inside look at what we'll see. Here's what she told us:
DancerMusic writer Crystal Gurrola interviews forward. the movement founders Kaytee Cox and Ally Sanov on the company's debut performance.
Hedwig Dances brings together choreographers Rigoberto Saura and Taimy Ramos in "SEA LEVEL: Above and Below". We asked these rising choreographers about Saura's "The Flowering Mechanism" and Ramos' "A Flor de Piel", and here's what they told us:
Although nobody talks about it very much, courage is an important part of dance. It takes courage to go on stage and perform of course, but it also takes courage to keep facing the reality of imperfection, a reality that in some ways becomes more vivid the more you find the courage to improve. Then there are even more intimidating, more difficult challenges, some of them very frightening, and that's when you need courage just to keep going. Paige Fraser has always done that and more. When she was awarded a Princess Grace Award, when she was named by Dance Magazine to their prestigious 25 to Watch, and all of the other times that her work has been so widely admired, many people might have thought that it was because of her exceptional gifts as a performer, and of course it was. But the only reason anyone ever got to see Paige Fraser's always-impressive performances is because she kept going, even when anyone with less courage might have given up. Fraser has begun to turn more of her attention to choreography, and her latest work is a twenty-five minute piece entitled ASCENSION for Northwestern University. We wanted to hear more from Paige about her work as a choreographer, and especially about ASCENSION, so we asked her to give us an idea of what we'll see in March at Northwestern's Josephine Louis Theater. Here's what she told us:
If you missed Giordano Dance Chicago's Fall Series at the Harris Theater back in October, have no fear; the company is doing an encore performance of their Live in the Momentum program Saturday, February 2 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. For the last 56 years, Giordano has worked to preserve and invigorate the legacy of jazz dance they have so carefully and lovingly built. As the company continues to grow, so does their network of support, including those whose task it is to curate the programs that a theater presents. At North Shore Center for the Performing Arts this task falls upon General Manager Michael Pauken. For the last 16 years, Michael has searched far and wide to bring the best of the best into a theater that falls into the same category. With such an abundance of artists and performances to choose from locally, nationally, and internationally, there has to be something unique, almost magical that makes a company or artist standout from the pack. DancerMusic's Kristi Licera caught up with Michael to learn more about why Giordano Dance Chicago fits the standard, and how his relationship with GDC has grown over the years. Here's what he told us:
If you go to see Trinity Irish Dance Company at Chicago's Auditorim Theatre (on Saturday, February 2nd at 7:30pm), you may very well be enchanted by the riveting visual pageant of intricately imagined movement, and you may be mesmerized by the complex rhythmic score. But if you've read any of the things people have said about this company, you might not be entirely surprised; their performances from New York to Tokyo and a lot of places in between get big time respect. What is more likely to surprise you is how unique, how completely in its own space this exceptionally creative performance is. Mark Howard is the founder and Artistic Director of Trinity Irish Dance Company, and the process, patience, and unending possibilities for inspiration that have become Trinity Irish Dance Company were something that we wanted to learn much more about, so we asked him. Here's what he told us:
