Preview

A light in the darkness: Winifred Haun and Dancers open "Moonstone Season" with new work: "When Day Comes"

 

There is no doubt that life was hard during the COVID pandemic, however, dancers found a way to create work and keep moving. Notable and emerging artists continued to produce work during the lockdown phase, often dealing with the topics of isolation and loneliness, but also optimism and hope. But how might the creative process be affected if the same work were created during and after the height of the COVID pandemic?

GIORDANO DANCE CHICAGO: 60 YEARS PIONEERING JAZZ DANCE INNOVATIONS

 

“Fill me in on your new dancers,” I asked executive director of Giordano Dance Chicago Michael McStraw in a recent phone interview. Little did I know my innocent query would be met by a heartwarming story of peril, determination, survival, and, ultimately transformation during the COVID Pandemic.

“GDC almost didn’t make it through the Pandemic. The loss of revenue was catastrophic,” McStraw said. Thanks to a federal emergency grant they were able to re-hire and bring back all the dancers.

Preview: Mandala South Asian Performing Arts presents "Diwali: Story of Ram", one of the traditional Hindu epics told with a modern twist.

 

For hundreds of years the story of Ram, the seventh avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, has remained a family favorite. Ram’s journey as told in the text of the Ramayana is the embodiment of chivalry and virtue. For centuries, entire communities would gather to witness the story of Ram told through the expressive art form of Bharatanatyam dance.

In the past, this performance could last 14 days, with a different story being told each day. However, if you don’t have 2 weeks of free time at your disposal, then you’re in luck.

Out of this world; Witness macabre horror in “as though your body were right” presented by Khecari.

 

The sun was setting as I squinted at an address on the side of a residential stone house. My only other direction was “in the garage”; So, I crept around the side of the building and encountered a sign on a closed chain link gate, which spelled out in big, bold letters:

“MAKE DO”

Past the gate wound a path that led to a small garage. Dim lights shown in the windows. Before I could touch the handle, the door swung open. They had been expecting me.

Chicago's Own Humanitarian Hero Rescues Kyiv City Ballet of Ukraine with First Ever U.S. Tour

 

You’d never expect three 19th-century icons of classical ballet perfection to intersect with a 21st-century war and lethal international politics, but that’s exactly the crossroads where the Kyiv City Ballet of Ukraine found themselves with Russia’s brutal attack the day after the company had landed in Paris for performances. Unknowingly escaping disaster, the company had taken one of the last flights out of Kyiv and found themselves in exile from their homeland. They have not been able to return since.

Chicago's Own Humanitarian Hero Rescues Kyiv City Ballet of Ukraine with First Ever U.S. Tour

 

You’d never expect three 19th-century icons of classical ballet perfection to intersect with a 21st-century war and lethal international politics, but that’s exactly the crossroads where the Kyiv City Ballet of Ukraine found themselves with Russia’s brutal attack the day after the company had landed in Paris for performances. Unknowingly escaping disaster, the company had taken one of the last flights out of Kyiv and found themselves in exile from their homeland. They have not been able to return since.

Preview: Never been stronger; Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project presents "Reclamation" at the Pritzker Pavilion

 

A comprehensive 2019 report by Candid, Sustain Arts and See Chicago Dance, titled “Mapping the Dance Landscape in Chicagoland,” shocked members of the dance community with several startling statistics: From 2002 to 2016, the number of dancemakers in Chicago had increased by 23%, but two-thirds were making less than $15,000 a year, and roughly half were people of color. Furthermore, only three out of eighty-seven nonprofit dance organizations received more than half of all philanthropic funding despite an increase of 46% in institutional philanthropic funding for dance.