This spring is a creatively fertile time for the Chicago dance scene. Discover many premiere pieces by local or visiting companies, or take in revivals of well-established works at the major theaters regularly hosting dance.
—Millennium Park's Harris Theater for Music and Dance continues its reputation for being a major house for modern dance by hosting world-renowned local dance companies and presenting visiting troupes:
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's Spring Series features revivals of Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato's Jardà Tancat plus a Bach-inspired duet from Multiplicity. Also on the bill are Lucas Crandall's full-company work Imprint from 2016, set to piano and cello music by Brahms. ( Four performances from Thursday, March 16, through Sunday, March 19; HubbardStreetDance.com )
Giordano Dance Chicago's Spring Series features Liz Imperio's world premiere of Lost in the World, plus the restaging of Frank Chaves' Grusin Suite. ( 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 31 and April 1; GiordanoDance.org )
Visceral Dance Chicago's Spring Concert features a world premiere by artistic director Nick Pupillo, plus Minor Threat by guest choreographer Mark Godden. ( 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8; VisceralDance.com )
Jessica Lang Dance is back with a newly choreographed piece called The Wanderer set to Franz Schubert's operatic song cycle Die schöne Müllerin. ( 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 3; JessicaLangDance.com )
Ballet Chicago Studio Company's 20th-anniversary concert features George Balanchine's Serenade plus other works by Daniel Duell and resident choreographer Ted Seymour. ( 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6; BalletChicago.org )
Philadelphia-based Rennie Harris Puremovement Street Dance Theater showcases hip-hop dance in the show RHAW. ( 2 p.m. Saturday, May 13; RHPM.org )
The Harris Theater is at 205 E. Randolph St. Visit HarrisTheaterChicago.org .
—The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University plays host once again to three major dance companies that are famed world-wide.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns for its 47th annual Chicago visit with many local premieres ( including Hope Boykin's r-Evolution, Dream ) plus the timeless Revelations by the company's late namesake founder and choreographer. ( Six performances from Wednesday, March 22, through Sunday, March 26; AlvinAiley.org )
The Joffrey Ballet's Global Visionaries repertory program features a world premiere by Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman, plus revivals of Yuri Possokhov's The Miraculous Mandarin ( set to music of Bela Bartok ) and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Mammatus. ( Ten performances from Wednesday, April 26, through Sunday, May 7; Joffrey.org )
The Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, returns with a revival of Red Giselle. ( Three performances from Friday-Sunday, May 19-21; EifmanBallet.com )
The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University is at 50 E. Congress Parkway. Visit AuditoriumTheatre.org
—The Dance Center of Columbia College continues its diverse programming by hosting visiting companies and local dance events.
The Chicago debut of the New York-based Liz Gerring Dance Company features the namesake's evening-length work Horizon, which explores physical surprises in a media-saturated world. ( 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, April 6-8; LizGerringDance.org )
The B-Series mini-festival is all about the culture of hip-hop and street dance. Free performances are Friday-Saturday, April 14-15.
The Dance Center of Columbia College is at 1306 S. Michigan Ave. Visit Colum.edu/Dance-Center.
—With its multiple floors of dance studios and a mainstage theater, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts continues to be a mecca for dance.
Lin Shook Perceptual Motion Inc. brings together different dancers ranging in age from 23 to 83 for Shook and guest choreographer Harvard Vallance's intergenerational piece Inside, Dancing Out. ( 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8; PerceptualMotionDance.com )
Jin-Wen Yu Dance is based out of Madison, Wisconsin, and it returns for two repertory shows featuring the namesake choreographer's work at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 14, and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15.
Hedwig Dances' two-weekend run of the repertory concert Of Time and Tide. The repertory features Jan Bartoszek's Four Strong Winds in each show, while Kate Corby's Harbor is paired the first weekend and Victor Alexander's Parting Shadows is seen at the concluding two shows. ( Four shows from Friday, April 21, through Saturday, April 29; HedwigDances.com . )
The Ruth Page Center for the Arts is at 1016 N. Dearborn St. Visit RuthPage.org .
—Amid comedy shows and concerts, the Athenaeum Theatre also rents its 984-seat Main Stage for a number of dance shows.
Ballet 5:8 commemorates its fifth anniversary with Scarlet, a world-premiere ballet-film piece inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter. Set to music by American classical composer Charles Ives, Scarlet features choreography by Juliana Slager and projections by filmmaker Preston Miller. ( Two shows Saturday-Sunday, March 18-19; Ballet58.org )
Chicago Tap Theatre returns with the concert Liaison featuring a mix of tap dance and live music. Also on the bill are guest artists from Tap Olé from Barcelona, Spain, and Tapage from Toulouse, France. ( 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25; ChicagoTapTheatre.com )
Nomi Dance Company's 10-year anniversary season finale called Ten Yeared features a new piece by Giordano Dance Chicago guest choreographer Joshua Blake Carter, plus the returns of repertory pieces by artistic director Laura Kariotis and dancer Amanda Hickey. ( 8 p.m. Saturday, May 20; NomiLamadDance.com )
The Athenaeum Theatre is at 2936 N. Southport Ave. Visit AthenaeumTheatre.org .
Also of note:
—Chicago Repertory Ballet is another local company celebrating its fifth anniversary, this time at the Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Repertory performances featuring choreographer Wade Schaaf's one-act The Four Seasons. ( Four shows from Friday, March 24, to Sunday, March 26; ChicagoRepertoryBallet.com )
—The Chicago Human Rhythm Project celebrates the global diversity of percussive dance all over Chicago with touring performances of Stomping Grounds at the Chicago Cultural Center ( 6 p.m. Monday, April 3 ), the National Museum of Mexican Art ( 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8 ), the DuSable Museum of African-American History ( 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15 ) and the Irish American Heritage Center ( 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 29 ). Visit ChicagoTap.org for more details.
—As for ongoing works, The Museum of Contemporary Art's major exhibit Common Time, dedicated to the influential late gay modern choreographer Merce Cunningham, continues through Sunday, April 30, at 220 E. Chicago Ave. Live performances of Tesseract, a multimedia collaboration featuring former Cunningham dancers Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener and filmmaker Charles Atlas working with 3-D video can be seen from Thursday to Saturday, March 23 to 25. Visit MCAChicago.org .
—Chicago Danztheatre's Consumed, which Sara Maslanka directs, continues through Saturday, March 25, at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster Ave. Visit DanzTheatre.org .
