It’s been nearly two decades since Bob Eisen moved to New York. He’s a tall drink of water with smiling eyes and a cheeky smirk, one of three founders who, in 1978, formed a new dance space called Links Hall.

These days Eisen splits his time between Manhattan and St. Petersburg, Russia, but returns to Chicago every so often to visit his old stomping grounds. Here, he’s among friends.

This week, more than others, has been paralyzing. I’ve felt an all-consuming draw to imprint the Kavanaugh hearings and the actions of the Senate Judiciary Committee, knowing this is a week we will think about and talk about for decades. It’s hard right now not to see dance as a distraction from this decisive moment in our country, or feel unjustified in taking the time to reflect on something other than looming questions about the nature of partisan politics and their corrosive effect on American idealism.

As Nicole Gifford and Melissa Mallinson came onstage for their usual curtain speech, Post-Its in hand, a gaggle of people in pedestrian clothing started trailing white raffia streamers from the waistband of Amalia Rivera’s shorts. It’s the set up for Jacksonville Dance Theatre’s “The Things they Carried,” the opening dance of Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival’s final lineup (whose first weekend, by the way, was scattered with little morsels of goodness).

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s 41st season weaves an 80-minute tapestry of uninterrupted movement and music in a program of HSDC premieres. Two choreographic sermons, Jon Boogz and Lil Buck’s creation tale, “There Was Nothing,”  and Emma Portner’s feminist/environmental saga,  “For All Its Fury,” sandwich “Perfectly Voiceless,” an extended instrumental interlude performed live by Third Coast Percussion Ensemble. 

The fall dance season moves into high gear with October’s exciting line-up. Links Hall is popping with the return of its founding innovators, along with a slew of outside-the-boxers pushing performance boundaries, and plenty of new talent to celebrate its fortieth anniversary as Chicago’s bastion of high risk dance. Cerqua Rivera launches three weekends of new and retrospective works at three different venues, and Chicago Dancemakers Forum presents its annual “Elevate Chicago Dance” marathon day of dance at the Cultural Center.

It took two tries. Two trips down Lake Shore Drive during a re-paving project that is ultimately going to be great for the suspension of my car  but sucks right now. And two tries circling and circling between McCormick Place and the 31st street beach looking for anything resembling a parking space. Tucked between those two landmarks, against an uber-busy lake shore during this third wave of summer last weekend, is a petite enclave of nature: a prairie restoration project called the Burnham Wildlife Corridor.  

When The Dance COLEctive celebrated its 20th anniversary a year ago, the company’s founding director, dancer/choreographer Margi Cole was ready to take on a new challenge, with reorganization and a changed mission. Years spent developing an extensive repertoire of her own work on a core company of dancers gave her ample opportunity pursue artistic ideas on dancers she had shaped and nurtured over time and who understood her distinctive style.