All stories by Lauren Warnecke on BroadwayStars

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Riveting 'Indumba' frees Deeply Rooted from what they’ve always done by Lauren Warnecke

“They dance to give voice to the voiceless,” said education director Nicole Clarke-Springer at the top of Deeply Rooted Dance Theater’s 20th anniversary season finale, a weekend of per…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 05:40PM
Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Minimalism and her: Talking to Twyla Tharp about upcoming premiere at the MCA by Lauren Warnecke

Twyla Tharp views her career as a linear one, starting at the beginning and following a path up to now. That path includes more than 160 credits in dance, film, writing and Broadway — more…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:00AM
Friday, December 1, 2017

The mixed feelings of 'In the Presence of Chasms' by Lauren Warnecke

On tap through Friday at Hamlin Park, “In the Presence of Chasms” presents five dance tidbits by choreographers Megan Rhyme and Tanniqua-Kay Buchanan. Producer Rhyme’s original spark f…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:35PM
Sunday, November 19, 2017

Chicago Dance Crash celebrates 15 years with its edgy, hip-hop kind of class by Lauren Warnecke

In 2002, an actor, a dancer and a martial artist started a fusion hip-hop contemporary dance company. It sounds like the set-up for a bad joke, but one’s got to wonder if Illinois State Un…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:45AM
Wednesday, November 8, 2017

'Golden Celebration of Dance' celebrates Auditorium Theatre's 50th — and echoes a big night in 1967 by Lauren Warnecke

Halloween night of 1967 was a special day in Chicago, the highly anticipated grand reopening of the Auditorium Theatre after a 26-year absence from public programming. The theater closed at …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AM
Friday, November 3, 2017

Milwaukee Ballet's 'La Boheme' makes the passionate Paris story the star by Lauren Warnecke

I first interviewed Milwaukee Ballet artistic director Michael Pink in 2014, and he said, “If we can get you through the doors, we can a have lasting impact.” Pink has kept that promise …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:20AM
Tuesday, October 31, 2017

What's masculinity? COCo. Dance makes its Chicago debut with 'Virago-Man Dem' by Lauren Warnecke

Virago is a term typically used to describe women — heroic, strong and courageous to some; shrewd and overbearing to others. In either interpretation, the word implies a transgression of g…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:20PM
Sunday, October 29, 2017

Giordano Dance pushes to the future in season opener by Lauren Warnecke

Giordano Dance Chicago’s two-night fall series at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance opened over the weekend with the 2005 “Giordano Moves.” Created just three years before founder…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:05PM
Thursday, October 19, 2017

Joffrey Ballet sets aside its modern lines and embraces 'Giselle' by Lauren Warnecke

It’s a classic, but not classical. “Giselle” premiered in Paris in 1841, created for the ballerina Carlotta Grisi by choreographers Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot and set to a magnifice…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:40PM
Tuesday, October 17, 2017

They’ve been building up to this: Elevate is a citywide festival of dance by Lauren Warnecke

This weekend, Chicago dance artists and venues are opening their doors and inviting the public to stages all over the city to witness excerpts, works-in-progress and studio processes from ou…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:20AM
Saturday, October 14, 2017

'Performing Home' at Links Hall: What does Chicago mean to you? by Lauren Warnecke

In Eric Barry’s now infamous “Goodbye Chicago” manifesto published in the Huffington Post, the aspiring comic aired all of Chicago’s dirty laundry — laying out the idiosyncrasies o…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:15PM
Friday, October 13, 2017

Meaning in Reggie Wilson's 'Citizen' is slowly and pointedly revealed by Lauren Warnecke

“We are what we repeatedly do,” said writer Will Durant, describing Aristotle’s observations on the effects of practice. We now understand this as the principle of specificity. If you …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:20PM
Friday, October 6, 2017

Cerqua Rivera Dance's 'Alone/Together' leans on the music, and the fun by Lauren Warnecke

The marriage of music and dance is what Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre is all about. And though it’s a dance company, this group’s fall series “Alone/Together” relies as heavily on the …

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:00PM
Tuesday, October 3, 2017

'Unwinding' traditional Indian dance, this choreographer can't go back by Lauren Warnecke

“Reimagining classical Indian dance for modern times.” I must have written that description a dozen times, about a dozen different works over the past few years. But pulling apart a thou…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:35PM
Tuesday, September 26, 2017

As spiffy new Links Hall grows, so does its arts residency with Co-MISSIONS by Lauren Warnecke

Links Hall, a well-known incubator and performance venue for dance and performance artists, spent its first 30 years in a raggedy old space above a Wrigleyville pub near the confluence of Cl…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:40PM
Monday, September 25, 2017

Shen Wei Dance Arts radically restrained in Chicago debut by Lauren Warnecke

If audiences turned out to the Auditorium Theatre over the weekend expecting to see an Olympic-style spectacle, they surely left disappointed. While Shen Wei, the MacArthur “genius”-awar…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:00PM
Friday, September 22, 2017

Tap dance is right up close for Human Rhythm Project at Columbia College by Lauren Warnecke

It’s been more than 10 years since the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, one of Chicago’s top tap dance companies, last performed at the Dance Center of Columbia College. As the venue’s 20…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:30PM
Sunday, September 17, 2017

Visceral Dance Chicago's fall opener pops and fizzles by Lauren Warnecke

A small but enthusiastic crowd assembled at Skokie’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts for Visceral Dance Chicago’s fall offering, the official season opener for the fledgling c…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:15PM
Saturday, September 9, 2017

All kinds of duets featured in first weekend of Harvest Dance Fest by Lauren Warnecke

The first of two programs in this year’s Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival (through Sept. 16 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts) begins with Alicia Diaz’s “Deep Listening,�…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:15PM
Thursday, September 7, 2017

Fall Dance Top 10: A must-see Elevate Dance and a visit from Olympics choreographer Shen Wei by Lauren Warnecke

While some excellent tours are rolling into town this season, the fall months are primarily reserved for homegrown dance. Especially exciting are two unique, not-to-be-repeated events highli…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00AM

Fall Dance: Onye Ozuzu picks up a hammer and gets back to fundamentals by Lauren Warnecke

Conversations about a Hip Hop Studies minor at Columbia College Chicago began about three years ago, as choreographer and educator Onye Ozuzu was transitioning from chair of the dance depart…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:00AM
Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Instigation Festival a music-dance improv that stretches from New Orleans to Chicago by Lauren Warnecke

Marie Casimir was still the associate director of Links Hall when she and Steve Marquette conceived the first Instigation Festival in 2016, a joint venture to create a cultural exchange betw…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:15PM
Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Of 245 dancers, 6 boys: New initiatives hope to bring young men to dance by Lauren Warnecke

When Victor Alexander was preparing for the next phase of his career, gradually reducing his stage time as a performer in Hedwig Dances and dabbling with choreography, he never imagined he w…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:30PM
Monday, August 28, 2017

Second annual Peacebook brings Chicago’s wounds to the forefront by Lauren Warnecke

In its second year, Collaboraction’s Peacebook Festival shares some commonalities with the now-defunct Sketchbook Festival, presenting an exhaustive display of short, multidisciplinary pie…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AM
Friday, August 25, 2017

'Set Free' at Links Hall a dance performance of practice-meets-improv by Lauren Warnecke

When a play premieres, it feels fresh and crisp, like a new pair of jeans. But living in those “jeans” for a while sometimes yields an entirely different production by the end of the run…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 03:40PM
Thursday, August 17, 2017

Narrow basements and collisions with dancers in 'The Remains' at Defibrillator by Lauren Warnecke

Wednesday’s heavy summer rain left the Chicago sidewalks steaming as guests filed into the new Defibrillator Gallery space in Noble Square, just a few blocks southwest of the gallery’s l…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:20PM
Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Dance for Life still supports those affected by HIV/AIDS but is looking in new directions by Lauren Warnecke

When Keith Elliott, Todd Kiech and Harriet Ross presented the first Dance for Life in June 1992, Chicago’s dance community was in crisis. Friends and colleagues were dying at alarming rate…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:15PM
Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Chicago Dance Crash tries on 'Oz' for its 15th birthday by Lauren Warnecke

It feels like a long time ago that a band of dance misfits formed Chicago Dance Crash — smooshing dance forms together to create a unique fusion style that has helped launch hip-hop onto t…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:57PM
Sunday, July 16, 2017

'New Dances' is end of the beginning, the final performance for Thodos Dance by Lauren Warnecke

Thodos Dance Chicago's performance in the "Made in Chicago" series at the Auditorium Theatre in March marked the end of the group's run as an ensemble company, after artistic director Meliss…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:51PM
Monday, July 10, 2017

Head to SummerDance, you'll be a needed 'citizen dancer' by Lauren Warnecke

"I think it's fair to say that dance in Chicago will not suffer under the new commissioner's work," said Mark Kelly just before we ended our phone conversation. After more than 30 years work…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:32PM
Saturday, July 1, 2017

Review: Chicago Tap's spacey 'Changes' has big themes, daffy plot, Bowie and lasers by Lauren Warnecke

Chicago Tap Theatre's "Changes," now at Stage 773, is a full-length narrative tap dance set to the music of David Bowie. There's not nearly enough space on Stage 773's tiny Pro Theater for a…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:18PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime