Sara Maslanka Takes on Sexual Violence Through Dance
The Chicago Danztheatre artistic director premieres I Bet You Think This Dance Is About You May 3 to 18 at Andersonville’s Ebenezer Lutheran Church.
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Joffrey Ballet’s ‘Across the Pond’ is a mixed bag with magic, difficult moments
If you've ever watched the sun rise from the seat of a red-eye flight, then you have an idea of what Andrew McNicol's "Yonder Blue" looks and feels like. "Yonder...
‘Whipped Cream’ at the Auditorium: This is ballet as sugar rush, with daffy furbies and dancing vodka — I fell for it
Once upon a time, a boy and his cronies go to celebrate their first holy communion at a candy shop in town. The boy gets a belly ache and falls...
American Ballet Theatre returns to Chicago with ‘Whipped Cream’: Expect candy, bobbleheads and ‘imagination gone wild’
As word traveled that American Ballet Theatre (ABT) was making a new ballet based on Richard Strauss’ “Whipped Cream,” I think my reaction was similar to most everyone else: Wait,...
‘That was mega’: A trio of dances from Israel in Gauthier’s Chicago debut at the Harris
A timeline of Western dance history usually starts in France, with the royal courts of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Russia is a key stakeholder, credited with the classical aesthetic...
Chicago Repertory Ballet’s ‘Macbeth’ has only deepened — this is clearly no longer the ‘undanceable Shakespeare’
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t call William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” particularly timeless — important, obviously, but a bit of a relic. Modern adaptations of the 400-year-old play contextualize its lessons and morals for...
La Femme Dance is (just) for women with work about their African-diasporic heritage. And the stronger for it.
Dancer, choreographer and vocalist Jasmin Williams is moving. The 23-year-old Chicago native has lived in Los Angeles, New York and various places in Europe. Hyde Park is home, but she’s...
Street dance, a mock lynching, a rousing curtain call: ‘Lazarus’ is Alvin Ailey Dance’s way of looking back
The cornerstone of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 60th anniversary season is “Lazarus,” the company’s first two-act work in its history, created by choreographer-in-residence Rennie Harris. The Auditorium Theatre, which...
A stunning ‘Giselle’ at the Harris: Plenty of dance companies remake the classics — none quite like this
When "Giselle" premiered in Paris in 1841, it was an immediate success, part of a trend revitalizing ballet for everyday socialites by abandoning the Greek legends preferred by the French...
A forward-looking hip-hop ballet — just the thing to celebrate Alvin Ailey Dance’s 50th in Chicago
The first time Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performed at the Auditorium Theatre was Feb. 11, 1969. “Mr. Ailey is right up with the times,” wrote Tribune critic Thomas Willis...