Houston Ballet made its Chicago debut this weekend with two performances of the lavish full-length ballet Aladdin. Chicago is only the fourth city to view the ballet, with previous performances in Houston, London, and Tokyo. Artistic Director Stanton Welch is no stranger to Chicago, having choreographed a new version of La Bayadere performed by the Joffrey Ballet last Fall. Welch didn’t choreograph Aladdin, but the commission of David Bintley for the new story ballet is clearly in line with his aesthetic.

Chicago Tap Theatre (CTT)’s Love Taps is a play without words, or, as they call it, “an interactive tap dance opera.” The storyline is pretty typical: boy (Gio) meets girl (Gwen) (played by real-life sweethearts Jennifer Pfaff Yonally and Mark Yonally), boy and girl date, girl breaks up with boy because he’s an important web designer who doesn’t have time for her, girl gets back in the saddle through an online dating portal boy developed, girl and boy create fake profiles and end up on a blind date, boy throws away technology to be with girl, and they live happily ever after.

Last August, members of the Asian American Press (and about four dance writers) were invited to a press conference onstage at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University. Heads of state from the Auditorium, The Joffrey Ballet, and The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago stood in a line downstage with the petit Lin Hwai-min as, one by one, they announced how exciting March, 2014 was going to be.

We hope you enjoy Audience Architects' new series, "Dance is...what YOU make of it." REAL audience members share REAL opinions on watching dance. 

Watch a sneak peak of our collection of interviews with Chicagoans from all walks of life and all ages as they discuss what moves them about the beauty of dance. Check back weekly for new episodes!

To see all the videos in this series click HERE. 

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago filled its Spring Season dance card with an all-Jiri Kylian program and showed up for the ball dressed to kill in the designer wear of Kylian’s choreography. It not only fit them to a T, but inspired especially focused performing that showcased the company in rare form. Even for this sleek, technically facile troupe, the emotional core of Kylian’s choreography seems to have touched their raw nerve as a company and produced a particularly passionate connection to the movement. 

We hope you enjoy Audience Architects' new series, "Dance is...what YOU make of it." REAL audience members share REAL opinions on watching dance. 

Watch a sneak peak of our collection of interviews with Chicagoans from all walks of life and all ages as they discuss what moves them about the beauty of dance. Check back weekly for new episodes!

This episode: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

The curtain goes up, but only enough to tickle curiosity over the luminous string of human beads clumped across the rim of the stage in Melissa Thodos’ Change of Phase (Chicago premiere).  The curtain, suspended no more than three feet off the floor, hovers over a dozen rounded spines. Nothing moves. Suspense builds, until the sound of breath inhaling animates the bodies in slow-rolling compression toward the center of their mass. The squeeze of their combined weight forces vertical expansion of bodies that coalesce in a soft upward explosion of arms, legs, and heads.