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 ill, while the candy shop comes alive with mag…
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, Strauss wr…
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 which broug…
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 …
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 fou…
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 Ha…
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 ar…
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 of the com…
Few productions at the Harris Theater have been more highly anticipated than the North American premiere of English National Ballet's "Giselle." Running Feb. 28-Mar. 2, the tour of this firs…
Sometimes, a dance can be greater than the sum of its parts. I came away from "Shyamali: Sprouting Words" " through Saturday at the Dance Center by Minneapolis-based Ananya Dance Theatre " f…
As the overture to composer Ilya Demutsky's glorious score swelled under the baton of Maestro Scott Speck on Wednesday, haze filled the house of the Auditorium Theatre and billowed across a …
Dame Libby Komaiko, the founding artistic director of Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theater, died Saturday at Chicago's Illinois Masonic Hospital of pneumonia, according to Ensemble Espanol…
For the company's first full evening at home in a decade, the Trinity Irish Dance Company commanded the Auditorium Theatre's big, beautiful stage on Saturday. The engagement is the second of…
It was in 2013, with the addition of Stanton Welch's "La Bayadere" and Lar Lubovitch's "Othello" to the repertoire of the Joffrey Ballet, that I began to notice a concerted effort to build t…
Founded in 1992, the Twin Cities-based Ragamala Dance Company made its Harris Theater debut Friday with the company's 25th anniversary performance "Written in Water." The hour-long work is a…
When going to a RE | Dance Group show, there are a couple things you can usually count on: 1) unapologetically long passages of pretty dancing; 2) poetry woven into the fabric of the dance w…
Winter used to be a rather dormant time for dance, but in 2019 the colder months bring some of the most exciting dance events of the year. Winter is typically a time when touring companies r…
Claire Anne Bataille, founding member of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and director of the Lou Conte Dance Studio, died Sunday morning with her two sons at her side, according to son Isaac So…
Nan Giordano doesn't like the spotlight. She'd rather not give curtain speeches, preferring to greet her guests from Row R at the Harris Theater, across the aisle from R1, a seat adorned wit…
Since Deeply Rooted Dance Theater kicked off its "Generations" program in 2013, the company has been consciously digging into its archives, pairing new works with old ones to create programm…
This year, Chicago's dance stages were filled with bold, ambitious programming, stunning revivals and work which responded to the present by reflecting on the past. It goes without saying th…
Returning to the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts Sunday, Chicago Tap Theatre (CTT) once again delighted Skokie's dance audiences with the company's annual holiday special, "Tiding…
The MCA Warehouse is off the beaten path, in a nondescript industrial area of the city that, unlike the now-swanky West Loop, is still rather industrial. Watching a performance on the second…
It was a nearly impossible feat, a glorious White City, the size and scale of which is almost unimaginable, glistening at the heart of a city that, 20 years earlier, burned almost entirely t…
They're calling it "3-1-2," this season, a revamp of the Auditorium Theatre's "Made in Chicago" series, which for several years has provided a platform for local dance companies to perform o…