Ruth Page Civic Ballet: 50 Years of Nutcracker (review)
Lauren Warnecke Most Chicagoans familiar with dance know the names Robert Joffrey and Ruth Page, but before the Joffrey Ballet relocated to Chicago in 1995, Ruth Page was one of the only…
dance shows
Lucky Plush Breaks Into the Harris
My first thought upon walking into the house of the Lucky Plush Productions’ Mix at Six and seeing a bunch of strangers was: “Why isn’t every single dancer I know…
CATCH Takes Chicago
In response to the 2012 Cultural Plan, the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (known to us artist-folk as DCASE) has beefed up its programming to…
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…
Nomi: the little company that could
In the days following the death of Paul Christiano, many of the photos and sentiments circulated on social media were from Laura Kariotis. As Artistic Director of Nomi Dance, Kariotis…
Adam Rose’s ‘Against Being’ is a Dance About Nothing
“Well, we haven’t talked about philosophy,” said Adam Rose, when asked, “Is there anything else?” toward the end of our interview about his latest work, Against Being. Rose premieres Against…
The Cronus Land Seduces the Senses (review)
Are dances made for artists or audiences? Yes. There is a delicate balance between art for art’s sake and pure entertainment. On the one hand, we need audiences in order…
Joffrey’s ‘Sylvia’ breaks from tradition, just like it used to
Following a highly successful pre-season weekend last month featuring up-and-coming choreographers, the official opening night of the Joffrey Ballet’s 60th anniversary season threw many of ballet’s conventions out the window.…
Frank Chaves’ Swan Song
Even on the heels of a highly successful 25th anniversary season, the announcement of Frank Chaves’ retirement as Artistic Director of River North Dance Chicago (RNDC) was not wholly unexpected.…