“They shine so brightly! Beautiful talents—very high level,” said Sandra Kaufmann, who has set Martha Graham’s ballet, “Diversions of Angels” on the Chicago Academy for the Arts Repertory Dance Company. The dancers, angelic to be sure in their youthful embrace of this iconic choreography, might very well feel like they’ve died and gone to heaven on the eve of their first performances of “Icons of Choreography,” this Saturday at the Athenaeum Theatre.

As we begin to round the bend on another Chicago Dance Month, I admit I’m feeling a bit drunk on dance. It’s been an extraordinary season thus far, and while I’m tempted to take of my shoes and kick my feet up for a while, May is another month chock-full of dance in Chicago. And on this, the birthday of seminal ballet master Jean-Georges Noverre and recognized as International Dance Day, it seems necessary and appropriate to focus on a number of projects rooted in cross-cultural collaborations coming up next month.

Fifteen dance numbers, 31 performers, Portugal the Man, and one high-kicking teddy bear. It’s par for the course with Matter Dance Company (MDC), who presents "Once Upon" through May 4 at the Den.

In its 13th season, MDC bases this year's annual concert on fairy tales, taking audience members on an imaginative journey  through castles, and woods, and cottages, and glades; channeling everything from Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf to Pygmalion in a series of fast-moving vignettes.

The Joffrey Ballet’s “Across the Pond,” at the Auditorium Theatre through May 5th, treats audiences to a refreshing gallery of sounds, textures, and distinctively different choreographic voices in its showcase of three emerging Brittish innovators.

The Joffrey dancers complement the sleek, contemporary flavor of the evening with razor-sharp dancing and a collective level of performing radiance that marks the company as an ensemble of stars.

Talk to any tap dancer raised in Chicago, and the names Lane Alexander, Martin ‘Tre’ Dumas, Bril Barrett and Julie Cartier are likely to come up. These are the pillars of Chicago’s prolific tap scene, and tapper Tristan Bruns has trained with them all. 

A founding member of Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP)’s BAM! and a current member of Barrett’s M.A.D.D. Rhythms, the influence of Alexander – who founded CHRP 30 years ago – and Barrett are crystal clear in Bruns’ dancing, which is a debonair mix of cutting-edge, experimental tap and classy, old-fashioned hoofing.

Is it a cartoon, a surreal nightmare, or a frothy excuse for a balletic sugar-high in fabulously inventive costumes? In its Chicago premiere, running April 11-14 at the Auditorium Theatre, American Ballet Theatre's “Whipped Cream,” is a mixed confection of visual spectacle, first rate dancing, and choreography at cross-purposes with its music and pencil-thin libretto.

Most working dance artists in Chicago have a connection to The Space Movement Project (TSMP), even if you’ve never heard of them. For seven years, TSMP managed Outer Space Studios, a staple rehearsal venue at 1474 N. Milwaukee Ave. now operated by Jessica Marasa and The Watering Can. Outer Space has its quirks, with its super steep stairs, narrow configuration adorned with open concept kitchens, and, at the time TSMP ran it, a hilarious black and teal door that never quite closed right.