Preview

Bold New Directions for Hubbard Street’s MCA Season

Hubbard Street Artistic Director Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell has come full circle in a whirlwind career that began as a dancer in Lou Conte’s original Hubbard Street Dance Company. She went on to an illustrious thirteen years in Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre as heiress apparent to all of the roles that international star Judith Jamison had danced, and which Ailey had created for her.

Joffrey’s “Winning Works” wins the day for dancers, choreographers, and audiences

 

The Joffrey Ballet will once again present the “Winning Works” choreography competition and performance beginning March 16 at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. The competition is a call for ALAANA artists— African, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Native America—to submit work to be performed by the Joffrey Academy Trainees and Studio Company, set to a commissioned score by a composer/collaborator.

FLOCK returns to present “Somewhere Between” at Columbia College, March 23-25

 

German/American duo FLOCK (Alice Klock and Florian Lochner) continue to impress audiences around the world with their brand of dance, fluid and interconnected partnering, superb technique and introspective storytelling. This Spring, Flock returns to Chicago to present new work with an expanded roster of dancers.

Screendance Club Wrapped: The Good Christian

 

On Wednesday, January 25th, I was so fortunate to moderate the first Screendance  Club of 2023 highlighting Talia Koylass and her 2018 dance film, The Good Christian.  The film is a meditation on Black women, Black spirituality, and the church explored  through three vignettes performed by a trio of Black women dancers shot in a gorgeous  south side Chicago church. Each section of the film is distinct in its color,  cinematography, costume, and choreography to a mix of serene, pensive music and  punctuated Kendrick Lamar songs.

Joffrey’s “Anna Karenina” Out of This World

 

Protestors hoisting ragdoll ballerinas marched between the lyric opera house’s towering columns shouting, “Shame on you, shame on you!”

As the dimming foyer lights indicated that the show was about to begin, I snagged one of the protestors to ask what all the fuss was about.

“These artists are from Russia,” said a young woman, “They are going to take the money to Russia and those money [sic] are going to go to bomb Ukraine and kill our families.”

“The Joffrey Ballet?” I asked.

Steppenwolf’s Work Around Series Features Three Chicago Dancemakers

 

Fans of dance in Chicago know where to look to find their favorite artists and companies. Up and coming artists regularly grace the blonde-wood floor of Links Hall. Larger companies fill the main stages at the Athenaeum up north and the Studebaker downtown. Local legacy and out of town touring companies put on must-see shows at the Auditorium or the Harris.

Of all the theaters who host dance, the name Steppenwolf rarely comes to mind. But that may be about to change thanks to the LookOut series.

Screendance Club Wrapped: Trap Moulin Rouge

“Trap Moulin Rouge by Jasmin Taylor, in co-production with Motion/Pictures Dance Project, takes audiences to Chicago’s South Side to showcase the vibrant Black culture and dance that emanate from it. Taking sonic and aesthetic inspiration from the 2001 film “Moulin Rouge,” Trap Moulin Rouge combines classical, R&B and jazz melodies with a variety of dance styles with the aim of creating and promoting equity in Chicago through the performing arts.” - via Art on theMART

Joffrey Ballet Cracks the Nut!

 

Yum! Just as Joffrey dancer Fernando Duarté’s delectable Mother Nutcracker blithely cracks walnuts atop her house, Joffrey Ballet’s 2022 edition of its production cracks open hallowed traditions of the best-known, longest-lived and most universally-performed ballet, dating back to its premiere in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1892.