Making Visible: An interview with Okwui Okpokwasili
Guest Contributors NEW YORK / CHICAGO — I saw Okwui Okpokwasili’s piece Poor People’s TV Room when it premiered at New York Lives Arts last spring and was struck by its richly…
Chicago premieres
Music and musings are just ‘Some of a Thousand Words’
Lauren Warnecke CHICAGO — A one-nighter last Saturday marked the second of NYC-based Brian Brooks’ Chicago engagements during his tenure as the inaugural choreographer in residence at the Harris Theater, and his…
An audience-centered ‘choose your own adventure’ with Zephyr
CHICAGO — Nearly a year after the Amid Festival, a magical gathering of performing artists grappling with aging bodies, festival curator and Zephyr Dance artistic director Michelle Kranicke presents her…
Choreographer Alex Sanchez makes his Goodman debut in ‘Wonderful Town’
CHICAGO — One of Dance Magazine’s 2015 “25 to watch,” choreographer Alex Sanchez makes his Goodman Theatre debut with Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Town. The Chicago native trained at Ruth Page…
JUBA! Surprises and Delights (review)
CHICAGO — Last weekend’s JUBA! puts a cap on the 26th annual Rhythm World: Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP)’s month-long tap festival including classes, workshops and performances. For more than…
Robyn Mineko Williams goes UNDER(cover) at Links
CHICAGO — Robyn Mineko Williams, fast becoming one of the most recognizable names in Chicago dance, premieres a new episode of UNDER(cover) this weekend at Links Hall. On the heels…
Urban Bush Women Celebrate Coltrane, Embody Jazz (review)
CHICAGO — Jazz music and contemporary dance: misunderstood genres which often operate ahead of their time. It isn’t until years, or even decades later that audiences accept and begin to…
Choreographer Ashley Page Premieres Joffrey Work in ‘Bold Moves’
CHICAGO — After nearly three decades dancing and choreographing with the Royal Ballet in his native London, and another in Glasgow as the director of the Scottish Ballet, award-winning choreographer…
Jessica Lang Makes Magic at the Harris
Shades of black and white were a recurrent theme on stage for Jessica Lang Dance’s one-night-only program at the Harris Theater last Friday. The audience, however, was all pastels, totally…
TSMP Celebrates 10 years in Millennium Park
My sophomore year of college, I took an interdisciplinary seminar in ecology and economics. We discussed how Midwestern prairie lands have changed over time, and the impact of economic development…