324 stories by "Laura Molzahn"
How 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, …
"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…
It'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. Bu…
A 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…
Chicago 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 Cit…
Street 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 l…
We're not exactly provincial in Chicago; there's a pretty hefty smorgasbord of dance here. Still, many classics of 20th century dance aren't often seen on our stages, especially danced by th…
Given the chance, most people would choose order over chaos for their own lives. But somehow a bit of chaos doesn't hurt when it comes to art: the theater script that doesn't fit neatly toge…
What's it like to be brown or black in the city of Chicago? My stepson, who's African-American, was once handcuffed in our yard for trying to go into his own house through the back door. He'…
With a massive undertaking like the Chicago Dancing Festival, which features multiple programs of multiple companies, planning is both essential " and impossible to perfect. Still, festival …
A hardboiled detective, lounging in his office after dark, savors his solitude with a bottle and a shot glass. There's a knock at the door, and when the dame enters, she's wearing a long ove…
"In the beginning, I think they wanted to do something to help the cause," says choreographer Randy Duncan, speaking about the performers who first gathered in his now-annual Dance for Life …
Something about tap dance feels thrillingly existential. As one intensely unplanned moment follows another, the synergy of dance and music seems beyond control, like a wind that blows strong…
Imagine assembling an ocean liner in your basement, then carting it out onto a body of water, hoping it will float. That must be something like the experience Thodos Dance Chicago has mounti…
"I tried to make sure Coltrane's poem was the foundation of what we were doing," says tap dancer Jumaane Taylor. "It was a turning point in his life, and that really moved me. So I used his …
Biting off more than anyone could comfortably chew, Chicago Dance Crash tackles good and evil in the new "Evil & Good," a rough collection of nine vignettes that actually achieves a semblanc…
Drag queens, a marching band, a stunt bicyclist, a cheerleading squad and an emcee in stiletto platforms with his own posse of two: "We Will Tap You! A Celebration of the Music of Queen" was…
You almost feel you've stumbled into a bridal situation, with yards of tulle draped here and there, flowers littering the perimeter of the space, many glittery surfaces, and four nymph/bride…
When Dame Libby Komaiko started Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theater with a few student-dancers in 1976, "I wasn't thinking it was going to be like this! I had no idea it would grow into t…
It's not easy to pack the Auditorium, even if you don't count the balconies. But Giordano Dance Chicago did that Saturday, in a one-night performance that concluded this season's Made in Chi…
Basically a tap-dance rehearsal is a matter of seeing, hearing and doing, its nuts and bolts the rhythms the feet make and the shapes the body takes. But watching choreographer Lane Alexande…
A dozen dancers, all colors and ages, stand in a circle, facing in. They don't stand for long. Instead they stamp, flap and flutter their feet, each in his or her own way, taking their turns…
The bigger and better known a company, usually, the bigger the venue. That's also the usual direction dance artists hope to take. So it's a little crazy that choreographer Robyn Mineko Willi…
The avant-garde wouldn't have such a bad name if all artists cared for their audiences the way most of the six in "Dance Shelter 2016" do. It's a shame that, as usual, the Chicago Moving Com…
The seeds of Sir Frederick Ashton's mercurial "Cinderella" are buried in its Sergei Prokofiev score. Listening to the overture, with its quicksilver transformations from major to minor keys …
