Ensemble Español celebrates forty-seven years with “Flamenco Passion 2023” at the Northshore Center and Northeastern Illinois University

 

Ensemble Español is touted as “the premiere Spanish dance company and center in the U.S.” A title like that is a lot to live up to; fortunately, they’ve got a rich history of performance to back it up.

“Our Biggest Show Yet!”; South Chicago Dance Theatre performs “Memoirs of Jazz in The Alley” this Saturday at the Auditorium Theatre

 

By now, fans of the Chicago dance scene know about South Chicago Dance Theatre. We’ve seen them on some of the biggest stages—The Harris Theater, The Jay Pritzker Pavilion—but one famous stage has thus far eluded the company. No more! SCDT performs “Memoirs of Jazz in the Alley” at the Auditorium Theatre on June 10th at 7:30pm, a milestone for the company and a potential highlight of the summer season of dance.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Celebrating over 55 years of partnership with the Auditorium Theatre, the illustrious Alvin Ailey returns to its Chicago home for a must-see six-performance program with both new works and beloved classics including Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations. Steeped in cultural history and expanding with new boundary-breaking choreographers, this is truly a must-see event!

Hubbard Street Delivers Infinite Joy in summer season’s “Facets”

 

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s summer season, “Facets,” at Chicago’s Harris Theater (May 18-21) opened with Randy Duncan’s "Love Infinite (2022)," setting a breezy tone for the entire evening with a joyful celebration of the power of love to heal the world.

Set to composer Ira Antelis’ music of the same name, with the poetry and spoken words of I sadat's,  "Love Infinite" introduces us to Hubbard Street’s newest roster of dancers under the visionary artistic direction of Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell.

MOMIX

Known internationally for presenting works of astounding inventiveness and physical beauty, MOMIX, a company of dancer-illusionists founded and directed by Moses Pendleton, marks its long-awaited return to the Auditorium Theatre following its engaging production of Home for the Holidays in December of 1997.

Compañía Nacional de Danza

Making its Chicago debut at the Auditorium, the Madrid-based ‘National Dance Company’ performs varied and representative repertoires, recognizable inside and outside Spain, covering classical, neoclassical, and contemporary dance. Compañía Nacional de Danza is led by Artistic Director Joaquín De Luz, a past soloist with American Ballet Theatre and principal dancer with New York City Ballet. The company will perform Passengers Within (2022), a new work by De Luz to music by Philip Glass and inspired by today’s society and our slavery to the system of modern technology.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet

Founders Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, armed with a rich Alvin Ailey lineage and a cadre of 16 spectacular dancers, have re-envisioned ballet through technical precision, athletic prowess, and sheer passion. Complexions’ blockbuster hit, STAR DUST: From Bach to Bowie, honors two musical icons in a high-octane performance with a pair of pieces choreographed by Rhoden: Hissy Fits, showcasing selections by Johann Sebastian Bach, and Star Dust, sure to rock audiences with a soundtrack celebrating David Bowie classics, including “Young Americans,” “Heroes,” and “Space Oddity.”

Sugar Hill: The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker

An exhilarating story told in dance, SUGAR HILL is set to the music of the genre-defying collaboration between jazz icons Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn in a captivating way that has never been done before. SUGAR HILL reveals the glamour of the 1930s as seen through the lens of the nonconformist daughter of a high-society Black family in Manhattan and her fantastic dreamworld in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem.