Since 2003, The Chicago Dancemakers Forum ( CDF ) has made it its business to identify, support and promote groundbreaking artists. Comprised of representatives from the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Dance Center of Columbia College and beloved performance space Links Hall, its grants amount to something of a 'moment of arrival' for Chicago's most talented and promising dancemakers. From each year's proposals, CDF selects four individuals to receive a $15,000 shot in the arm, as well as extensive support and in-progress feedback. Either the organization is particularly adept at knowing which choreographers are poised on the cusp of breakthrough, or the award itself provides the fuel for its winners to jet toward thrilling creations. Regardless of which is the case—most likely both—CDF Lab Artists account for many of the most exciting and memorable performances of the last five years.
Pictured: Asimina Chremos. Photo by Nadia Oussenko. Let's Go Love. Photo by Misty Winter.
Three of the grant's previous recipients—Asimina Chremos ( 2005 ) , Molly Shanahan ( 2006 ) and Julia Mayer ( 2007 ) —make an appealing program of solos in Dance Intersections: 3 Currents. Each has logged countless hours in the studio, painstakingly developing and refining a unique and idiosyncratic movement vocabulary that finds its truest expression in improvisation. Chremos has the sort of facility and strength that, combined with her quicksilver imagination, makes her improvisations a relentlessly exciting challenge to the eye; she's a prima ballerina for the laptop generation. Julia Mayer, fresh from her ensemble creation reLISH/relâche, cuts a striking figure, even when completely still: Impossibly tall and long-limbed, she moves with an elegant curiosity that lends even awkward and eccentric phrases an air of confident dignity. ( She's well aware of this contrast and highlights it to great effect. ) And, as Eric Eatherly described in these pages last April, Molly Shanahan has 'an authentic movement style that's as personal and honest as it is fresh and daring.' The more one sees her dance the more it becomes apparent that the well of her creativity runs deep, but is less a reserve of catalogued dance moves than an arsenal of carefully-chosen methods of access. The opportunity to view these divergent yet similar artists back-to-back is an act of programming brilliance long overdue.
Dance Intersections: 3 Currents, Aug. 1, 6 p.m.; Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Washington; 312-744-6630; free. Repeats Aug. 21,12:15 p.m., Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State.
Outlandish goofiness that may be hiding something is the stock-in-trade of Matthew Hollis, whose love for love runs as deep as his fascination with cheerleading. Rather than hiding elaborate tales of l'amour under layers of metaphor, Hollis is most often seen grinning, pouting and kicking his pom-poms in an unabashed celebration of the L-word. ( You may have recently seen him doing just that atop his perennial Pride float. ) His premiere work as a CDF Lab Artist is aptly entitled Let's Go Love!, an anthology of stories featuring the eight-member Power of Cheer, and runs two weekends at the Theatre Building Chicago.
Let's Go Love!, July 25-Aug. 3, Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont; 773-327-5252; $20.
Also coming up:
—DanceWorks Chicago is, as their slogan will attest, always moving. Its Dance Chance is a monthly performance of young choreographers' work chosen by lottery from the previous month's attendees. The company itself performs a short concert July 9 with works by Robert Battle, Edgar Zendejas and Francisco Aviña. DanceWorks Chicago, July 9, 12:15 p.m., Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State; free. Dance Chance July 21, 6 p.m., Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N Dearborn; free.
—Dance critic Lucia Mauro hosts a conversation with Nicole LeGette, whose CDF-supported work Landscapes of Uncertainty will premiere this fall. LeGette is a practitioner of butoh, wherein extreme facial expressions and exaggerated gestures develop with hypnotic care into slow-burning, affecting images. About Dance: Nicole LeGette, July 10, Chicago Cultural Center, Randolph at Michigan, 6:30 p.m.; free.
—Ayako Kato ( another CDF recipient ) and live musicians will perform in the garden at Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N. Ravenswood, July 12-13, 7:30 p.m.; 773-769-1069; $5 ( suggested donation ) .
—Videodance, a festival of dance cinema curated by Paris' Centre Pompidou, closes July 20 at the Hyde Park Art Center's Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk and Black Box Galleries, 5020 S. Cornell; free; schedule online at www.hydeparkart.org .
—Chicago Human Rhythm Project's 18th Annual Rhythm World Festival kicks off Mon., July 21, at 6:30 p.m. with a tap jam led by Broadway stars Dianne 'Lady Di' Walker, Ted Levy and Sam Weber. A free performance July 28 at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park will feature Spain's Guillem Alonso, a soloist from Brazil's Barbatuques, Chicago tap ensembles BAM!, Jus'LisTeN and Be the Groove, and five youth groups. The festival closes Aug. 1-3 at Loyola University's Sheridan Campus with a tribute to Chicago tap legends Leon Collins, Mayfair Academy founder Tommy Sutton and Sammy Dyer, and includes numerous master classes and other events. The full festival schedule and information are online at www.chicagotap.org .