Imagine a better post-pandemic world.

That was the request of artists presented in this year’s edition of the Pivot Arts Festival. Since 2013, this vibrant, multi-arts festival has capitalized on Edgewater’s ripe performance possibilities (and sometimes Uptown and Rogers Park, too). Forced to go digital last year, Pivot Arts gleefully returned to a hybrid format for 2021, offering a mix of live performance, installations and an online gallery.

A true testament of any new company is not their first show, but their second. Choreographer and now artistic director Stephanie Martinez launched Para.Mar Dance Theatre during the height of the pandemic; as one of the first Chicago dance companies to put on a live performance after COVID-19 halted arts organizations writ large, they are now also one of the first to venture indoors.

Here is a heavy question: Is it possible for a human to be crushed under the tremendous weight of accumulated knowledge?  Here is another one: Are we maintaining and growing a culture worthy for future generations to inherit, or are we just bickering tribes complicit in upholding a system of degrading and illusory “American” values? These are but some of the questions being asked by Red Clay Dance Company and they are like a slap in the face—more like a wake-up call than an act of violence. Fortunately for us, their latest show is not pulling any punches.

From the first moment of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) dancer Jacqueline Burnett staring blankly at us from the driver’s seat of a retro van, I was invested. She breathed, going through the motions of backing out of a parking spot. Why the flash of worry across her face? Or was it a pang of sadness? Feeling lost? She turned to check the back window and the scene flashed to Burnett and another dancer in the back of the van at night, swaying together in an intimate moment.

Artists have to make art to thrive. It’s that simple, because if you don’t, the creative muscle atrophies, or worse. If you’re an artist and you can’t make art, your soul tends to sputter and cough and gasp for breath, just to stay alive. This is especially true, both literally and figuratively, for dance artists, for whom the physical danger, isolation and restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have been especially tough.

Returning to live performances this fall, The Joffrey Ballet moves into its new home at the Lyric Opera House with a full season scheduled for 2021-22. Announced Wednesday, the ballet company’s programming essentially picks up where they left off after COVID-19 forced an abrupt end to the 2019-20 season—their final at the Auditorium Theatre.

Traducción al español encontrada aquí. Spanish translation found here.

English translation found here. Traducción en inglés encontrada aquí.

This weekend the 2021 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works opens featuring seven local artists with a variety of backgrounds. Presented by Links Hall, the virtual performances span two weekends and cover multiple genres including performance art, puppetry, installation, performance as social practice, and of course, dance. All performances are pre-recorded to be streamed on YouTube. Two panel discussions with Co-MISSION artists and other Chicago creators will also be streamed via Zoom, as well as a choreographic workshop/class led by Taimy Ramos Velazquez.