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A note from Lynn Shapiro:

To The Dance Community, Its Dedicated Audience Members, and All Our Readers:

For the past five years, I have had the privilege of serving as editor and dance writer for See Chicago Dance. At this time, I am stepping down from my role as editor. This will give me more time to spend with family, including new grandchildren, and to devote myself more fully to my work as a visual artist. I will continue to write for See Chicago Dance, but with a less demanding schedule. 

This weekend, the Hyde Park School of Dance (HPSD) will once again cap the year with the studio’s annual “Nutcracker” ballet. Now in her 25th year of leadership, HPSD founding artistic director August Tye (who somehow also has the time to be ballet mistress and choreographer for the Lyric Opera of Chicago), started her school’s “Nutcracker” tradition almost from the very beginning. 

Santa will surely find out who’s been nutty or nice this December  in Chicago, with more Nutcrackers per square mile than plastic reindeer dancing across rooftops.  Traditional renderings of the classic Christmas story, inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman’s 19th century tale, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” and set to Tchaikovsky’s iconic score, proliferate throughout the greater metropolitan area. New spins on the tried and true include none more grand than Christopher Wheeldon’s 1893 Chicago World’s Fair adaptation for the Joffrey Ballet, running the whole month at the Auditorium Theatre.

Video Corpo Festival shifts the lens on movement with the collaboration of three innovative performance presenters: Defibrillator Gallery: Nov. 16–Dec. 7, 1029 W. 35th Street; Zephyr Dance: Nov. 17–Dec. 7, at SITE/less, 1250 W. Augusta Boulevard; and Pivot Arts: Nov. 30 at Chicago Filmmakers, 5720 N. Ridge Avenue. 

Bodies are complicated. Our bodies are strong, but they’re also fragile. They’re private, but increasingly part of public debate. The policing of women’s bodies, the rights of transgender people to use public bathrooms, or stereotypes surrounding how black and brown bodies are perceived by a white minority which still holds the power in this country – these are not new social issues for us, but they’re urgently bubbling over in an inflammatory and polarized political climate. For many Americans, their bodies are on the ballot next Tuesday.

Chicago audiences can give thanks the whole month of November for the bountiful dance feast from companies and choreographers near and far. Enjoy a cornucopia of traditional ballet, jazz, culturally specific dance, contemporary and interdisciplinary performance art in both small and large venues throughout the city and suburbs.

NOVEMBER HIGHLIGHTS:

The fall dance season moves into high gear with October’s exciting line-up. Links Hall is popping with the return of its founding innovators, along with a slew of outside-the-boxers pushing performance boundaries, and plenty of new talent to celebrate its fortieth anniversary as Chicago’s bastion of high risk dance. Cerqua Rivera launches three weekends of new and retrospective works at three different venues, and Chicago Dancemakers Forum presents its annual “Elevate Chicago Dance” marathon day of dance at the Cultural Center.

When The Dance COLEctive celebrated its 20th anniversary a year ago, the company’s founding director, dancer/choreographer Margi Cole was ready to take on a new challenge, with reorganization and a changed mission. Years spent developing an extensive repertoire of her own work on a core company of dancers gave her ample opportunity pursue artistic ideas on dancers she had shaped and nurtured over time and who understood her distinctive style.

When Links Hall moved into its new space on Western Ave., the site of the old Viaduct Theatre (and the old viaduct, as it turned out), Bob Eisen scheduled a rehearsal to see if it “still felt like Links.” It did, said Links Hall director Roell Schmidt, who for nine years has been the force behind Chicago’s hallowed grounds for experimental dance and performance.