Preview

Tune into June!  This month, the official herald of summer breathes its balmy spirit of fun and frolic into the heart of Chicago Dance. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

Extroversion versus introversion and experimentation are at the core of the immersive, world premiere performances of Under(cover) dubbed “a moveable episode of dance, sound, light and space.” The brainchild of Robyn Mineko Williams brings together original music, lighting, dance and projections in an interactive environment.

Bras, broomsticks, and triple time steps sweep across the Chicago dance landscape in  the merry month of May!  Chicago Dance Month continues into the coming month with a bursting bouquet of exciting dance events you won’t want to miss.

MAY HIGHLIGHTS:

Tap Dance and tragedy don’t usually find themselves in the same room, but Chicago Tap Theatre’s new tap drama, “Time Steps” (opening tonight and running through April 10 at Stage 773), locates the two at the tricky intersection of entertainment and serious theatre. 

If you had a chance to go back in time and re-live your most defining moment over again as often as you wished, what would you change? What could you change, and what would it cost you? Heady questions for a tap dance show. 

Fasten your seat belts! April takes off with Chicago Dance Month, jam-packed with site-specific happenings and performances in public venues and neighborhoods throughout the city. 

Chicago Dance Month offers many ways to discover our city’s energetic and varied dance scene with more than 50 performances, events, and classes, 

If you ever wondered how a work of choreography comes into being, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre’s  “Inside/Out” spring initiative, in collaboration with Old Town School of Folk Music, is a perfect opportunity to see the choreographic process in action. 

At age 14, Sono Osato auditioned for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo onstage at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. She would become the youngest dancer to join the company, and the first of Japanese descent. Osato would go on to dance for American Ballet Theater and on Broadway, despite widespread anti-Japanese sentiment throughout the United States during World War II. On January 9, Osato, now age 96, will return to the place where her story began for “Sono’s Journey,” a world premiere by Thodos Dance Chicago.

Father Time will have to do the Quick Step to catch up with Chicago dance in 2016. Major venues promise calendars full of exciting dance to inspire, entertain, and stimulate. An overview of what’s coming in the next few months will help you plan ahead, but first take a look at what’s waiting right on the doorstep of the new year.