A  human braid as thick as a traffic jam on the Kennedy roped off the sidewalk in front of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance Tuesday night, causing any casual observer to wonder if the Harris had suddenly started booking rock stars into their high-brow venue, typically reserved for classical music, opera, and concert dance.  But guess again. The overflow crowd of hopefuls that night seemed to migrate en masse night after night to whichever box office held coveted ticket turn-backs for The Chicago Dancing Festival, Jay Franke and Lar Lubovitch’s gift to Chicago.

See Chicago Dance! It may change your life. You never know, when you witness a live dance performance, when it’s going to make an imprint that fires your muscles, rearranges your neurons, and emblazons new sensory perception on your whole system.

September ushers in opportunities to experience just that, with exciting new performing seasons for many Chicago dance companies.

Anja: The Unexpected was unexpected. Just not in the way it suggested. Joel Hall, a local dance favorite who’s celebrating his eponymous company’s 40th anniversary in 2015, made a rare cameo during last Friday’s performance of Anja, Hall’s latest world premiere in association with the Chicago Theatre Company, at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.

There is nothing more exhilarating in the Chicago dance community than Dance For Life, stronger than ever in its 24th annual concert fundraiser for The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and The Dancer’s Fund.

The benefit for both the recipients of assistance and for the artists and producers who donate their time and talent to the project was palpable both on stage and in the audience at the Auditorium Theatre last Saturday night in what has come to be an annual pep rally for Chicago Dance.

The packed Museum of Contemporary Art’s Edlis Neeson Theatre buzzed with anticipation as ardent tap dance devotees, dancers of all stripes, and a veritable who’s who of Chicago dance philanthropy awaited Tommy Tune’s performance of “Taps, Tunes, and Tall Tales,” his memoir in song and dance.