December 4, 2014 | Moving Reflections

What a wonderful year 2014 has been for dance in Chicago!  So many outstanding creative enterprises in so many different genres make our city an ever-expanding hub for deepening dance traditions, pioneering exciting dance innovation, cross disciplinary collaborating, and world class performance.

Summing up Dances from the Underground in a brief preview seems a daunting task; the triple bill featuring The Seldoms, Peter Carpenter Performance Project, and Kate Corby & Dancers will show works in varying stages of development over two weekends at Links Hall.

After a ten-year hiatus, Dance Theatre of Harlem returned to a cheering Chicago audience Friday at the Auditorium Theatre. A well-balanced program demonstrated the company’s vitality and versatility in the classical lines of resident choreographer Robert Garland’s ethereal  “Gloria,” Ulysses Dove’s modernist “Dancing On The Front Porch of Heaven,” and Garland’s funky “Return.” In each of the three pieces, the use of music was a defining factor in the degree to which the choreography achieved structural unity. 

Elements Ballet’s new production, The Sun King: A Contemporary Ballet in One Act (premiere), which debuted at the Pritzker Pavilion on November 13, is both an ambitious and ambiguous tale of two cities, or two men, as it were.