“First Draft” filled with promise, possibility and potential

 

Winifred Haun and Dancers First Draft on March 1st at Links Hall held space for many Chicago creatives to illustrate the bright future for their dances.

The work presented may be incomplete, or altered in the future, but has a beginning, middle, and end. The evening showcased a variety of modern, contemporary, praise, and west African dance.

“The Fight To Be Found” by choreographer Imani English opens with three dancers and a solo center stage. Elegant violins play over the speakers. Three more enter, all six wearing various shades of earthy brown flowy clothes.

Compañía Nacional de Danza and the universal language of movement

 

On Feb. 10th, Madrid-based Compañía Nacional de Danza (National Dance Company) made its Chicago debut at the Auditorium Theatre, showcasing a mesmerizing series of performances that explored the intricate layers of human existence. The carefully selected pieces presented the company's choreographic history while guiding the audience through an emotional journey of connection and loss. In an interview with See Chicago Dance, Artistic Director Joaquin De Luz and the company artists provided new insight into the work.

An intriguingly relatable ‘Invitation’ to Links Hall

 

A quartet threaded in and out of one another as the audience took its seats in Links Hall Friday. Using contact improvisation in a stationary clump downstage, Jeanine Durning’s latest choreographic performance, “Invitation Situation,” shattered our formal introduction expectations by pressing play before spectators entered.   In, out, around and through, four women—Andee Scott, Mary Williford-Shade, Heidi Brewer and Clare Croft—negotiated the same space as a cloak of silence muted the room. Like a mother giving a stern glance to her child, the movement told us what time it was.

Black Grace spotlights Pacific Island experience with “Paradise Rumour” at Harris Theater

 

New Zealand contemporary dance company Black Grace makes their Chicago debut on March 1st at the Harris Theater at Millenium Park including a family matinee on March 2nd. The group will present “Paradise Rumour” (2023), choreographed by director Neil Ieremia. Both performances will transport audiences to the Pacific Islands in what promises to be a culturally rich and dynamic tour.

Resonance | Anna Martine Whitehead, FORCE! an opera in three acts

This is an opera, but what is an opera? If opera is defined simply as “big work,” what could be blacker? FORCE! features a live band that blends gospel, folk, pop, and jazz, with experimental dance, song, and the spoken word. As the work unfolds, characters reveal layered interiors creating a strange sisterhood with the power to disintegrate walls that blooms in the shadows of the prison industrial complex. As the artists manifest the free worlds of which they dream on stage, their voices resound with collective power.

Blue hues and moves: A vibrant journey through ‘Studies in Blue’ by The Joffrey Ballet

 

The Lyric Opera House lit up with excitement last Thursday, February 15th, as the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago premiered “Studies in Blue,” a collection of three energetic works that test the limits of classical ballet and reflect the shared human experiences of loss, love, friendship and sense of place.