Ashley Goos

Throughout the month of April, in celebration of Chicago Dance Month, SeeChicagoDance is publishing personal essays and stories about all aspects of dance submitted by our readers. This is the first of several that have crossed our threshold. If you have a story to tell, a personal essay about any aspect of dance, a rant or a rave to share, it's not too late. Send submissions to editor@seechicagodance.com. For details and submission guidelines, see Audience Architects Community News. --LCS

Go crazy! Whether you’re a dancing fool or a fool for dance, April is Dance Month in Chicago, so kick up your heels and head out for a month that showers the city with the breadth, diversity and artistic richness of the Chicago dance community. In addition to the dozens of dance performances and classes taking place throughout the month, Chicago Dance Month Open Doors, Open Spaces partners are offering FREE events that welcome dance fans to an open rehearsal, a site-specific performance in an unusual venue or a discussion about the creation and presentation of dance.

Funky, steely-strong, soft and seductive, hip, cool, gutsy, or slinky, Giordano Dance Chicago hits all notes on the jazz scale for its Spring Engagement  at the Harris Theater Friday, March 31st and Saturday, April 1st at 7:30 PM. 

Hailed as America’s original jazz dance company, Giordano Dance Chicago continues to expand its founding director Gus Giordano’s original vision of bringing jazz dance to the concert dance stage in all its many permutations. 

Chicago Tap Theatre’s brand of foreign policy did more for U. S. international relations  in its one night at the Athenaeum Theater Saturday than the U.S. State Department has accomplished in the past two months. If only they knew! 

Being in two (or five, or twenty) places at the same time might begin to approximate what it feels like to experience “Tesseract,” by filmmaker/visual artist Charles Atlas and choreographer/dancers Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener (7:30 PM, through Saturday, Museum of Contemporary Art). It also invites its audience to see the possibilities of dance as one element of a larger canvas. But first, put on your 3-D glasses!

Music plays a defining role in Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s first of four programs, spread out over six performances at the Auditorium Theatre (March 22-26). 

PBS.org’s Child Development Tracker lists the characteristics of an average five year old: creative and enthusiastic problem-solvers, language is well-developed, speak in complex and compound sentences, and recognize that art can tell a story. As Chicago Repertory Ballet (CRB) celebrates its fifth anniversary, it is tracking right along in its development. Artistic Director Wade Schaaf is nothing if not creative and enthusiastic, and by keeping his ensemble functioning, clearly he is a problem solver.

If you’re looking for a dance date that elevates your feelings about the essential truth of the human experience in a perfectly balanced, choreographically rich and stunningly executed program, make a date with Hubbard Street this weekend (Thursday-Sunday, March 16-19, Harris Theater). The beautifully constructed program casts its light on four distinctively different gems, each radiant and sparkling with unique qualities, and yet delivering together an especially cohesive and satisfying evening of dance.