River North Dance Chicago’s one-night-only fall season filled the Auditorium Theatre with tears and joy Saturday night, bringing a chapter in this venerable company’s history to a close as it celebrated retiring artistic director Frank Chaves’ 23-year tenure at the helm.
Before the dancing got underway, three key figures in River North’s life gave testimony to Frank’s contribution to the company, to the art form, and to the city of Chicago. Auditorium Theatre Executive Director Brett Batterson could hardly keep from choking up, reflecting on Frank’s passion for dance and for River North, his inspiring spirit, generosity, and artistic leadership, and his undying devotion in friendship. Company ballet master Patrick Simoniello corralled a tearful salutation saying, “This is not good-bye,” and River North Board of Directors President Marcus Boggs called Frank “the heart of River North," and reiterated Frank’s missive to his dancers that they had to move forward, “as if you had a new heart.””
Last night’s concert was unequivocally one from the heart--a collective, vibrant beating heart whose palpable rhythm infused both sides of the footlights with a heightened sense of joy, despite the shadow of sadness that hovered over the occasion. The River North dancers were at their effervescent best, technically polished, energy to the rafters.
For his final performance as artistic director, Chaves chose a mixed program with an emphasis on the more jazz-based spectrum of the company repertory. It included three of his own pieces and six favorites from among those he had commissioned others to set on the company over the years, spanning a retrospective on River North’s development between 1991 and 20012. Interspersed between live dance performance was archival film footage of Frank rehearsing the company, dancing, and talking about his career, first as a dancer for fourteen years, including stints with New York’s Ballet Hispanico, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, and six years with Hubbard Street. In addition, company members and fellow choreographers spoke about their work with him.
“I hear the music, and the music makes me do this,” a young Frank intoned from the large projection screen. Chaves’ innate musicality provides a through-line to a career that produced twenty new works for River North Dance Chicago over his twenty-five years with the company, first as a co-artistic director with founding director Sherry Zunker.
Opening the program was Chaves‘ ballroom-inspired “Love Will Follow” (2001), set to Kenny Loggins’ jazzy beat. Six couples swept across the stage, the men in suits and ties, the women in swirling gowns, in the simple elegance of a nightclub interlude, an early River North crowd-pleaser.
Ashley Roland’s “Beat” (2001), a mesmerizing men’s trio, showcased the virtuosity and individual artistry of James Gowan, Julien Valme, and Cole Vernon. Moving with the sinewy mutability of Silly Putty, each dancer took a turn in the spotlight. Roland’s superb lighting, recreated for this concert by Stephen Arnold, caught their rippling articulations of shoulder, torso and spine with a singing edge.
The concert also marked the retirement of two long-time company dancers. Lauren Kias, who has been with RNDC for 10 years, took a star turn in the women’s trio, “A Mi Manera” (2001). Jessica Wolfram, retiring after 14 years, danced Nejla Yatkin’s heart-rending solo, “Renatus” (2012). Wolfrum leaves the company at the height of her artistry, embodying the emotional layering and depth of interpretation this tour de force work requires.
Chaves’ “Temporal Trance" (1998) was an early harbinger of some of his most innovative and exciting work to date, exploring through raw, impulse-driven gesture and visually striking sculptural configurations the abstraction of the human form.
It was a pleasure to revisit such company favorites as Randy Duncan’s “Turning Tides” (1997) and the pathos of Sherry Zunker’s “The Man That Got Away” (1991). Hanna Brictson pulled out all the stops in a go-for-broke performance of a solo excerpt from Robert Battle’s “Train” (2008).
The grand finale, fittingly, was Chaves’ celebratory “Habaneras, the Music of Cuba” (2005), his tribute his native culture. The positively infectious dancing spirit that infused the house was a tribute to his audience as well, a parting gift and a loving salute by the dancers to their director. Chaves, diagnosed ten years ago with a rare degenerative spinal disease, hopes to continue choreographing, and will pop into rehearsals from time to time. River North plans to give itself the year for as-yet-undetermined new artistic and managing directors to settle in, resurfacing for a Fall 2016 season in Chicago. In a curtain call that no one could bear to let end, Chaves took his bow, hands on his heart. We wish you well, both to Frank and to River North! May your futures be filled with courage, strength, and the ever-renewing discovery of joy in dance.