"Choreographer Shirley Mordine long ago established her reputation as one of the most accomplished craftsmen in Chicago. Her canny manipulation of the raw material of dance - sheer movement of space and time - knows no peer." — The Reader, Chicago
You might expect to enjoy live jazz and a glass of locally brewed beer or wine at City Winery, but add tap dancing to the mix and you have an unlikely, if happy, pairing with the chic vibe of this West Randolph Street bar, restaurant and performance venue.
Chicago Tap Theatre’s unique blend of live jazz and tap drew a capacity crowd to City Winery this past Sunday for the second annual installment of “Sweet Tap Chicago,” the company’s cabaret program.
Radio City Productions is looking for a diverse cast of Rockettes to perform in the 2019 production of the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes in New York City. American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) contract with competitive salary and benefits including 401(k) plan and year-round health insurance. Open call auditions will be held in Chicago May 7th with callbacks on May 8th.
Alvin Ailey, his message, and his spirit live on in the two pieces on Saturday night’s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater program at the Auditorium Theatre. (The same program was performed this past Wednesday and will be repeated today, Sunday, at 3 p.m., rounding out its five-day Chicago engagement.)
Premiering last night at Fasseas White Box Theatre in Lincoln Park, "Harmony: A live music and dance festival" produced by Tiffany Lawson Dance showcases works by choreographers, dancers, and musicians from around the Chicagoland area as well as Oregon, California, Wisconsin and Ohio, creating a platform for dancers and musicians to collaborate, experiment and improvise in three nights of live performances. Each night of the festival features a different program with different choreographers and musicians.
March 9 and 10, The Joffrey Ballet steps away from their typical performance venue to present innovative works and elevate both emerging choreographers of color and emerging professional dancers. After an open call specifically for choreographers of color, the annual Winning Works Choreographic Competition pairs four up-and-coming dancemakers with the Joffrey Academy of Dance’s pre-professional students for three performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art that highlight a range of styles and voices.
Two women swayed, holding each other, as a voice broke across the theater from a man standing at the back of the stage. With softness escaping in the cracks of his voice, he sang a Spanish love song. Phrases such as “sabes que te quiero, que eres esperanza” (“you know I love you, that you are hope”) framed the women as their smooth partnering became disjointed. A supporting lift where one dancer slid on to the other’s crouched back, limbs extended gracefully into the air, became a headlock on the floor, which led the couple to separate and dance alone.
“This is the urgent dialog of the 21st century,” says a bolded sentence in the program for the Chicago premiere of Urban Bush Women’s “Hair & Other Stories” at the Dance Center of Columbia College.
Last night’s North American premiere of the English National Ballet (ENB) and Akram Khan’s “Giselle” at the Harris Theater was, hands down, the most exhilarating night of ballet I have ever seen.
Robyn Mineko Williams grew up in the suburbs. She comes from a mixed-race family – half Japanese and half “Caucasian mutt,” as she describes it. She’s a woman, an American and a Chicagoan. But traveling to Cuba to create a work on Malpaso Dance Company, she was, first and foremost, a choreographer.