Gu Jiani’s ‘Right & Left’ Challenges Assumptions (review)
Lauren Warnecke Joseph Lam, Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (CI), climbed a short set of stairs from the house of the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater…
reviews
At the Harvest Fest, Less is More
The 6th installment of the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival (HCCDF) is trying a new format, with two programs rather than three, spread out over two weekends. The result is…
Dance Merges with Mingus in Millennium Park (review)
The inevitable end of summer has given us some perfect evenings for a picnic and a show in downtown Chicago. Indeed, the lawn at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park was…
Esoteric Celebrates 5 Years with Juxtaposition (review)
A small but supportive audience fell on Links Hall’s white space for the opening night of Esoteric Dance Project’s Juxtaposition. EDP offered two works choreographed by husband/wife Artistic Directors Christopher…
Innervation Dance Cooperative’s ‘Tuned In’ is a bit out of tune (review)
At the top of the show, Innervation Dance Cooperative (IDC) founder Michael Sherman bounced up on stage for his pre-show speech and joyfully said, “Enjoy yourself and have a good…
‘The Salts’ really know how to party
The Salts is the latest show put on by The Inconvenience, marking the first time that the ultra-hip multi-disciplinary performance collective has dedicated a full evening to dance. The work…
Dance Shelter: Raw, unfiltered, unreasonably long
In Chicago Moving Company’s first performance since the death of Chicago dance guru and CMC founder Nana Shineflug, Dance Shelter maintained all her goodness and unbridled spirit. Nana was perhaps…
The ‘Carpenter COLEctive’ is greater than the sum of its parts
CHICAGO — Margi Cole and Peter Carpenter have been courting for awhile (artistically, that is). Cole has joined Carpenter as a dancer for the last few installments of his serial…
Review: ‘Neel’ is the stuff of dreams and nightmares
CHICAGO — The fascinating thing about dreams is how vivid they are when they’re happening, and how quickly they fade from memory. Almost as soon as you wake up, the…
Review: Loosen Up, LinkUP (or maybe don’t)…
CHICAGO — Walking into Studio A at Links Hall on Saturday night, the room seemed not quite ready. An orange A-frame ladder remained out near the upstage wall, extension cords…