Remembering the dancer, choreographer, cofounder of Links Hall, and former Reader critic Dancer, choreographer, Reader writer, and real estate salesman Charlie V…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 08:30PMCathy Marston's staging features brilliant duets, but her take on Charlotte Brontë's classic has some limitations. Among the great pleasures of 19th-century nov…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:10PMIn the coming months Chicago will host all kinds of dance artists, from international companies to little jewels of the local scene. Among the more unusual offerings: Batsheva Dance Company,…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:30AMOver the years, grass-roots warrior Bril Barrett has spread the gospel of tap every chance he gets, making his own way but also paving the way for others. The organization he founded in 2001…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 10:25AMMolly Shanahan has a way of making you question the fundamentals of dance. Is movement conscious or unconscious, voluntary or involuntary? A matter of muscles or mind? Why do different peopl…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:44PM"We're looking to make sure we deliver on the promise of a new venue," says Mark Yonally. This weekend, for the first time, he brings Chicago Tap Theatre's "Tidings of Tap!" — an upbeat, f…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:33PMAn unusual quantity and quality of vintage dance graced Chicago this year. To name just a few items: the Joffrey's reprises of Sir Frederick Ashton's "Cinderella" and Jiri Kylian's "Forgotte…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:34AMIt's obvious, in a way, that there's a relationship between sex and dance. But what is it? Certainly some choreographers exploit it, often with a wink. Almost all, even when they seem to ign…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:34PMChicago Dance Crash excels at having fun, at playing. Which isn't as easy as it might sound: To let go and yet venture beyond the silly requires a bit of bite here, a bit of pathos there. It…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:54PM"The Nutcracker" is always a big production, literally. But on Election Day, Joffrey Tower was buzzing as never before. And not about the election, despite the artists' campaign T-shirts and…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 07:00AMThere's a lot of history bound up in Dance Theatre of Harlem, and not just because it was founded 47 years ago. When the company performed here in 2014, for the first time in many years, it …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:48PMWith its fall series, Hubbard Street — Chicago's repository of contemporary dance, old and new, American and European — burgeons yet again. And though it sometimes seems all contemporary…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:54PMUnlike many of us, Brian Brooks looks back to his teen years not only fondly but eagerly. The reason? "I found dance, or dance found me," he says. Choreographing at age 14, three years befor…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:37PMIf you double down, you're putting yourself out there, throwing down the gauntlet. It's a step beyond the ordinary — exactly what Dorrance Dance has done in "ETM: Double Down," an evening-…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:24PMFor years I've been hearing about Tere O'Connor: a choreographer's choreographer, an exemplar of craft and integrity as well as a generous mentor to young artists. He's had a New York compan…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:45PMThough restrictions on travel from the United States to Cuba have eased a lot in the past year, trips for the sole purpose of tourism are still prohibited. So why not make things easy on you…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:00AMA man lying belly down, arms extended overhead, pulls himself onstage with painful slowness, inching forward as if crawling out of or into something. Gradually we see that there's another ma…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:30AMFor Chicago artist Barak ade Soleil, the term "disability" describes a "social model," he says, "the construct of oppression brought on by society — not referring to my body per se, but to…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:41PMMaybe it's the season, but Zephyr Dance's "Valise 13" made me think of the ghostly chemistry between buildings and their inhabitants, whose histories threaten to combine and combust. Maybe i…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:53AMNora Chipaumire's "Portrait of Myself as My Father," running at the Dance Center through Saturday, was in full swing when we walked in Thursday, everyone armed with earplugs supplied by the …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:34PMSilver confetti raining down like volcanic ash; a guardian in a "Matrix"-style long coat; masked dancers and a (briefly) nude dancer: All appear against a towering diamond-faceted backdrop w…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 09:58AMWhat a difference a year and a half makes. A bitter presidential race has divided our country — or exposed its divisions — along clear lines in the starkest of terms. And clearly, even o…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:39PMDuring the recent presidential debate, candidates were asked specifically about cyberattacks. Because when it comes to national security, the battlefield is no longer just about troops and b…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:33PMChances are, when you picture two cultures coming together, nothing good springs to mind. Maybe Trump supporters and protesters at the same rally. Maybe Packers and Bears fans at the same ga…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:12PMMore than most theater companies or music ensembles, dance troupes — especially those focused on contemporary dance or one of its many permutations — are dedicated to the new. From start…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 08:02AMHow can you go wrong with a roomful of geniuses? You can't. "An Evening of Dance With MacArthur Fellows," Friday night only at the Harris Theater, proved a program of extraordinary quality, …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:27PM"We know what it takes," says Nicole Gifford, co-founder of Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival. "We know it costs a lot of money to rent rehearsal space, to pay dancers." And in ord…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 04:30PMIt's hard to argue when you're dancing — or singing or drumming, for that matter. You can express yourself, you can be in community with others, you can even be competitive or aggressive. …
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:43PMA choreographer born in Zimbabwe takes dance to the boxing ring. Tappers perform on an electronically rigged floor. A Chicago company hosts a performance/sleepover at a park district field h…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 11:21AMChicago must be the world capital of dance-theater troupes integrating text and movement — with spectacular results from companies of all sizes: Hubbard Street (collaborating with Second C…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 02:18PMStreet dance doesn't get much respect — and that includes Chicago's homegrown style, footworking. Though kids have been doing it on the West and South sides for nearly 30 years, in parking…
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 01:24PM
