chicago dance – Page 5

Dance Spaces In Chicago, DanceBridge Program & More

April 24, 2012 by 4dancers

If you are a Chicago-based dance artist or choreographer, this is for you.

4dancers spent some time looking into dance programs and spaces that are affiliated with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. We talked with Emmelia Halpern-Givens, Dance Programs Assistant at the Chicago Office of Tourism & Culture and she shared some great information about resources that those in the dance community here have available to them here…

Here is Emmelia with a closer look:

DanceBridge is our incubator program. We run 3 sessions a year (Winter, Summer and Fall) and send out an open call to Chicago based artists/companies, then pick between 2 – 3 artists each session. They’re given 3 months of space to work, followed by 2 nights of an informal showcase where they split profits between themselves and our box office. The work is usually an excerpt or a work-in-progress, and we offer lighting and sound as well as room for about 85 people each night.

I think it’s an awesome program because it’s free space! Plus, it allows lots of artists opportunity to be in that space, whether as a choreographer or a dancer. Also, because it’s at the Chicago Cultural Center which is a public building, I think it offers visibility to new audiences who just kind of walk in the night of the showcase and decide they’re here, so why not see the performance? I think the accessibility of the space is a great benefit to the program itself.

The dance studio is on the first floor (Randolph entrance) and overlooks Michigan Ave/Millennium Park… could you ask for a better view? Nothing better than walking through the park after rehearsal.

It also has marley floors and thick walls. In terms of privacy in a public building, it holds up well. It has one glass door on the south side and we have a folding screen in the studio to for artists to move if they feel it necessary, otherwise you’re generally on your own.

We also have 2 application based programs for the theater department.

Our studio theater, which is located in the Chicago Cultural Center runs an incubator program where companies get the space for a month and then perform in a one night showcase at the end. Again, like the DanceBridge program, the performances are generally pretty bare bones but still get great turn outs and we’ve had companies do incubators and several years later make it into the Storefront theater for a 6 week run. (Striding Lion Performance Group performed in this programming in 2009.)

Our storefront theater is just across the street in the Gallery 37 building, it’s a 99 seat black box that presents between 8-10 companies a year. Companies get between 3-6 week runs. This year we have Chicago Dance Crash doing a 6 week run in our space followed by Khecari doing a 3 week run. For dance companies, that’s huge! The reviews will have time to land before the run closes.

For more information about these programs/spaces, visit the DCA Theater website.

10 Questions With…Anne Kasdorf (The Space/Movement Project)

March 6, 2012 by 4dancers

Today’s 10 Questions With… features Anne Kasdorf of The Space/Movement Project…

1. What exactly is The Space/Movement Project?

We’re a group of dancer/choreographers who are fully dedicated to a collaborative artistic process. We produce contemporary dance work primarily in the Chicago area, and we also manage two rehearsal spaces that offer low-cost rental to local artists.

2. How did this group come about?

The group was founded by three post-college dancers (one of whom, Stacy Wolfson, is still a member) who were feeling a bit exhausted by the city’s audition circuit. They were interested in performing and producing work but also recognized the financial and creative strain that going solo can create. TS/MP was born based on the idea that if they came together they could share the resources (space, dancers, production costs, etc.) necessary to fulfill their artistic goals. Although today our organization generally supports itself financially, the same supportive vision is still maintained.

3. What is unique about TS/MP?

TS/MP consists of seven members and seven artistic directors. When we make a dance, each and every one of us is formulating its entire development. Originally we gave ourselves the freedom to individually choreograph short stand-alone dances. Back in 2009, we applied for the Joyce SoHo/Columbia College A.W.A.R.D. Show and opted to submit two stand alone duets that we proclaimed we would combine into a simultaneous quartet. They definitely called our bluff and invited us to compete. At that point there were five of us working together to mesh the two dances, sharing in every decision along the way. With the enormous success of this project, (we were selected to be competition finalists and later presented the work at the Joyce SoHo in New York City) we recognized that we were onto something that really worked within our company vision. We’ve been creating evening-length works using this model ever since. I don’t know of any other dance groups-at least locally-who are applying this level of collaboration to their process.

4. What type of background do the dancers in this group have? [Read more…]

Chicago Dance Scene — Beneath the White City Lights

February 22, 2012 by 4dancers

Christopher Kai Olsen is an Emmy Award^®-winning Chicago filmmaker that I thought readers here might be interested in learning more about. Last year he created almost 50 minutes of original film projections for Thodos Dance Chicago’s multimedia story ballet. The White City: The Columbian Exposition of 1893 is an original work – set against the backdrop of the famed Chicago World’s Fair. It was co-conceived and choreographed by Melissa Thodos and Tony Award^®winner Ann Reinking.

Thursday, February 23rd, Chicago dance lovers will have the chance to see Beneath the White City Lights: The Making of an American Story Ballet at 10:30 PM on WTTW11. As part of the story ballet creative team from its inception, Olsen was afforded unprecedented access to the visionary endeavor, and in addition to his own artistic process, began documenting the making of the ballet, from concept, through rehearsals to its March 2011 premiere at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park.

The one-act ballet chronicled in the film brings the 1893 Columbian Exposition to life through dance, in a story filled with passion, ingenuity, intrigue, and murder. Its cast of historic characters includes famed architect John Root, ill-fated Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. and America’s first serial killer Dr. H.H. Holmes, who preyed upon young women amidst the chaos of the World’s Fair. (The film’s dramatic crescendo is danced inside Ms. Reinking’s inventive interpretation of Holmes’ claustrophobic “Death Box”).

We asked Christopher a few questions about the project, which he answers for us here…

2012-TDC 2012 Gala_1-tweak2 — Christopher Kai Olsen, Melissa Thodos and Ann Reinking

Can you tell readers how you came to be involved with this project?

I first began working with Melissa Thodos, Ann Reinking and Thodos Dance Chicago back in 2009 on “Fosse:Prelude”, a short film about three Bob Fosse dances featured during their 2009-2010 season. Collaborating with TDC during this project was such an incredible experience that I jumped at the opportunity to work with them again on The White City the following year.

What is unique about this film?

With “Beneath The White City Lights”, I had the rare opportunity to film from inside the experience itself, allowing audiences to see The White City through the eyes of the dancers, choreographers, and designers who put their heart and soul into the production.

What did you find interesting about working with dancers?

I have a great deal of respect for Melissa’s leadership of the company, and for how her direction has attracted such a spectacular group of kind, talented and hard working dancers. How they manage to perform at Olympic intensity hour after hour, for months at a time, and keep coming back for more (with a smile!) is incredibly inspirational.

Also, as an FYI…the week immediately following the broadcast, The White City stage performance returns to Chicago as the centerpiece of Thodos Dance Chicago’s 20th anniversary concerts. Performances are Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3, 8pm at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 East Randolph Drive, Chicago. Tickets, $25-$60, are available at (312) 334-7777, or online at harristheaterchicago.org.

Success and Housewives: Making Modern Dance Make Sense

February 8, 2012 by 4dancers

by Lauren Warnecke

GrindCalwm-3953 — Photo by Kelly Rose of Savage Rose Photography

Perhaps one of the biggest barriers that “normal people” express about going to see modern dance is that they don’t understand it. At nearly every post-show talk-back I’ve ever attended there are at least one or two people who start their comment with, “Now, I don’t know anything about modern dance, but…..” yada yada, you fill in the blank. The standard issue response that I tend to hear is “you don’t have to understand it,” or “whatever you FEEL it’s about, IS what it’s about.”

That is completely true, and something I’ve said myself on numerous occasions. But over the past few months I’ve been formulating a theory that it’s not a particularly useful response. In other words, I’m thinking that “come to this weird thing you don’t have to understand” isn’t as effective a tagline as we’d like to think it is to getting butts in seats. After all, we are all human. We crave compelling stories and generally tend to try to apply meaning to things. Dance, however, often lives in a world of abstraction where the layers of meaning are imbedded in movements and gestures that don’t obviously reveal their stories. That’s what program notes are for…

The problem is, sometimes we (the choreographers) are so lost in the tangled web of ideas and abstraction that we too can’t exactly articulate what our pieces are about. When I gaze into a set of program notes and read that the dance I’m about to see is about a girl’s fiancé breaking their engagement, or satanic cults, or gender identity, I get a little overwhelmed.* Seeing a dance concert should be a relaxing and enjoyable experience that is accessible to everyone, and satanic cults are something I don’t often feel like dealing with on a Friday night. It’s not that these topics aren’t important and can’t or shouldn’t be explored through dance; it’s just that maybe you can find another way to express your idea by pairing it with something a little easier to swallow. Either way, heavy topics often become so abstracted by the time they reach the stage that you might as well say that the piece is about puppies, because the untrained eye won’t really see the difference anyway. No matter the subject, we come up with quips and phrases for press releases and program notes that say sort of what we think our piece is about, but most program notes could really just say “this piece is about whatever you feel it’s about and you don’t have to understand it” (read: “I’m not so sure what it’s about either…”). [Read more…]

Joffrey Ballet Chicago: Choreographers Of Color Award

September 24, 2011 by 4dancers

The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, recently announced a national call for artists to submit applications for the Joffrey’s Second Annual Choreographers of Color Award.

This Award is to recognize promising young choreographers of color whose diverse perspective will ignite creativity in the form of original works of dance. The deadline to apply is October 1, 2011 and the winners will be sent notification by November 1, 2011.

The selected choreographers (3) will be given at least 30 rehearsal hours to set their pieces on the Joffrey Academy Trainees. They will each also receive a $2,500 stipend and an opportunity to work directly with Artistic Director, Ashley C. Wheater, and Academy Artistic Directors, Alexei Kremnev and Anna Reznik. The new works will be performed at various venues throughout the year.

To apply, interested choreographers must submit the following by mail: a DVD with a five-minute or less excerpt of their choreography with a brief written description; a letter of intent describing their interest in the competition and the kind of work they will create; a headshot and curriculum vitae with three references; and, a general application, which can be found online at joffrey.org/choreographersofcolor. Materials can be mailed to: The Joffrey Ballet, Attn: Choreographers of Color Competition Selection Committee, 10 E. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL, 60601.

Good luck, and be sure and let us know if you will be entering the competition!

Disclosure – Affiliate & Ad Info

Copyright Notice