The world's athletes won't be congregating in Chicago in 2016 thanks to city's dashed Summer Olympics bid. But the Windy City still attracts international dancers ( who are just as fit and skilled as athletes ) each summer. Get your fill of warm weather and terpsichorean wonderment this season—both indoors and out.
—Mexican Dance Ensemble, Millennium Park's Harris Theater for Music and Dance, May 30: Mexico's indigenous traditions and culture get encapsulated in dance in the evening-length piece Trazos de Provincia. See Mexican folkloric dance aggrandized into a stage spectacle. Tickets are $26. Call 312-334-7777 or visit www.mdechicago.org .
—Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Millennium Park's Harris Theatre for Music and Dance, June 3-6: Perhaps Chicago's most famous modern dance troupe, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago finishes off its home season with an eclectic summer stint of premieres and a returning favorite.
The big news is a yet-to-be-named world premiere piece by Aszure Barton, a New York-based Canadian choreographer who is artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan and resident choreographer for BJMDanse Montréal.
Tickets are $25-$90. Call 312-334-7777 or visit www.hubbardstreetdance.com .
—Concert Dance Inc., Ravinia Festival's Bennett Gordon Hall, Highland Park, June 10-11: The Ravinia Festival may be most famous for its music, but dance also figures in the lineup each season. This year Concert Dance Inc. returns with a world premiere dance called Irregular Pearls that celebrates the 200th anniversary of Mexican Independence. Another world premiere by choreographer Venetia Stifler commemorates the 20th anniversary of the deaths of out composers Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein with the latter's arrangement of El Salon Mexico.
Tickets are $10. Visit www.ravinia.org or call 847-266-0641.
—Chicago Human Rhythm Project's BAM! and Trinity Irish Dancers, Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion, July 3: The Grant Park Orchestra teams up with two famed Chicago dance troupes for an early Independence Day celebration in a free daytime outdoor concert. Try not to think about budget cuts to the usual city festivities and instead focus on the selection of favorites by American composers and the fancy tap and Irish-step footwork on stage. Free, but visit grantparkmusicfestival.com for more information.
—Thodos Dance Chicago, Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, July 16-18: It's the 10th anniversary of Thodos Dance Chicago's New Dances program, which allows the company's dancers to also create and choreograph new works in a supportive environment. See what new pieces grow from company members and guest choreographers.
Tickets are $35. Visit www.thodosdancechicago.org for more information.
—Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, Millennium Park's Harris Theater for Music and Dance, July 17: This celebrated Chicago institution that showcases traditional African and modern African-American dance presents two company premieres as part of its program titled Cultural Bridges… The Pearl Primus Project. Two pieces originally choreographed by Dr. Pearl Primus are reconstructed: the 1944 piece "A Negro Speaks" ( featuring poetry by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes ) and the 1945 work "Hard Times Blues" about sharecroppers in the South. Don't miss out on this revitalization of dances by an American arts pioneer.
Tickets are $15. Call 312-334-7777 or visit www.muntu.com .
—Jazz Dance World Festival, Millennium Park's Harris Theater for Music and Dance, July 22-25: Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs team up to host an international festival of jazz dance. Lots of local companies are represented ranging from River North Chicago Dance Company to Joel Hall Dancers. Then there are companies from other parts of the U.S. and from countries around the globe ( Six dance companies are featured at each performance ) .
Visit www.jazzdanceworldcongress.org for tickets and an exact lineup for each performance.
—Rhythm World 2010, Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion, Museum of Contemporary Art, July 26-Aug. 8: The Chicago Human Rhythm Project's annual festival centered around tap and percussive dance brings in students to learn from a myriad of professors for two-weeks worth of classes, lectures and especially performances.
Ticket prices vary depending upon the event and venue. Visit www.chicagotap.org for more information.
—The A.W.A.R.D. Show 2010-2011, Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, July 28-31: Call this So You Think You Can Choreograph? Be a part of the audience that helps decide which Chicago choreographer or dance troupe will win $10,000 and represent the Windy City at New York's Joyce Theatre.
Tickets are $15. Visit www.colum.edu/dance_center for more information.
—Chicago Dancing Festival, Millennium Park's Harris Theater for Music and Dance and Pritzker Pavilion, Museum of Contemporary Art, Aug. 26-28: The first Chicago Dancing Festival in 2007 was an unforgettable experience. On the stage of Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion, some of the best dancers from the nation's most famous dance companies were performing for free.
Equally memorable to me was the mercenary Russian tourist who was aggressively seat jumping to get a better view—highlighting the fact that it's vital to secure these free spots as soon as they become available.
This year's festival features three concerts at three different venues.
First up is a concert at the Harris Theater focusing on Modern Masters. On the bill is Lar Lubovitch's Coltrane's Favorite Things, Robert Battle's In/Side ( performed by an Alvin Aliey guest artist ) , Paul Taylor's Last Look ( performed by the Julliard School Dance Ensemble ) , Christopher Wheeldons "Liturgy" ( performed by a guest artist from New York City Ballet ) , Mark Morris' V and work to be determined by the Joffrey Ballet.
In between is a lecture dance demonstration called The Dancing Skyline at the Museum of Contemporary Art. A prominent Chicago architect will joins with a festival choreographer to explore how both art forms have historically inspired each other.
The grand finale is called "A Celebration of Dance" at the Pritzker Pavilion, which features The Mark Morris Dance Group performing Grand Duo, Britain's Royal Ballet sending guest soloists to pair to Sir Kenneth McMillan's pas de deux to Manon, while Salt Lake City-based Ballet West performs George Balanchine's "Serenade." The Joffrey Ballet is keeping audiences guessing with a work that is TBA.
Of particular interest are two more works by Robert Battle, the choreographer who is slated to take over leadership of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater when artistic director Judith Jamison steps down next year. Battle's The Hunt is to be performed by Alvin Aliey II, while Kanji Segawa performs Battle's Takademe.
Since the festival is free, go to www.chicagodancingfestival.com to get e-mail alerts to when tickets become available.
—Delfos Danza Contemporanea, Ravinia Festival's Bennett Gordon Hall, Highland Park, Aug. 27-29: This season, the Ravinia Festival isn't presenting a world premiere on the level of Bill T. Jones' Abraham Lincoln-inspired piece "Fondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray" ( though you can watch a forthcoming documentary called A Good Man on the creation of last year's Lincoln bicentenary piece on PBS ) .
Instead, Ravinia hosts the festival debut of the influential Latin American dance company from Mexico, which performs Monologos del Cuerpo for three performances.
Tickets are $40. Visit www.ravinia.org or call 847-266-0641.
For more information on Chicago dance, be sure to check out Alicia Wilson's "Dancin' Feats" column every second week in the Windy City Times.
