Chicago's great indoor-outdoor celebration of all-things-dance is taking place this week, through August 27, 2011, at venues all over the city. Dance audiences have packed the house for performances by headline-commanding dance artists and their companies. They have stood in line for first-come, first-serve tickets to performances on stages in the intimate theatre at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the made-for-dance Harris Theatre. They even packed the huge, traditional Auditorium Theatre, Thursday night.
And no wonder. The talent on display at the Chicago Dancing Festival usually comes with big ticket prices attached, and every performance at this festival is free to those lucky enough to acquire a seat. They have been treated to a rich summer soup of contemporary dance offerings including Aspen Santa Fe Ballet's presentation of Uneven by the Spanish choreographer Cayetano Soto, and Chicago's own Hubbard Street in Too Beaucoup. The latter is a work by Israeli dance maker Sharon Eyal who selected the local group to give her work its world premiere earlier this year.
Festival-goers were also introduced to New Yorkers Doug Varone and Dancers in Varone's Lux. And they've been "moved" by Martha Graham interpreter/impersonator Richard Move, and his ability to bring the iconic dancer back to life, "teaching" the Graham technique, and performing "Lamentation Variation," his solo homage to her.
At the Festival finale, Saturday on stage at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, thousands more enjoyed the Martha Graham Dance Company of today interpreting her 1948 Diversion of Angels, along with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in its signature piece, Esplanade. They were treated to healthy servings of Jiri Kylian choreography - Ballet West performing his Sinfonietta - and Balanchine masterworks by the Joffrey Ballet, and guest artists Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia from New York City Ballet. And for the third time this week, River North Dance Company, amused another festival audience with Charles Moulton's Nine Person Precision Ball Passing.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced the evening, assuring the crowd of 10,000 that spilled onto the lawn far beyond the outdoor seats in front of the stage, that they were part of something entirely unique. "No where else in America has there been anything like this," he said. "Five free nights of amazing dance performances, and only in Chicago."
Founders Lar Lubovitch and Jay Franke Launched the CDF with a Star-studded Cast
The Chicago Dancing Festival has reached its 5th anniversary, and what started as one spectacular mid-week night of free dance on the Pritzker stage in 2007, has grown by leaps every year. That one-night stand five years ago featured, in addition to the Joffrey Ballet and Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, out-of-town luminaries: San Francisco Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Florida, and soloists from American Ballet Theatre.
In 2008, the Joffrey, the ABT soloists and Muntu were back, joined by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Oregon Ballet, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and more. The shows were divided into Modern Masters and the Celebration of American Dance; a lecture/demonstration "close up" of artists with the Martha Graham and the Limon Dance companies was added, and Chicago's new summer dance extravaganza was truly launched.
This festival is the culmination of ambitions to nurture and grow the Chicago dance audience shared by the highly-regarded New York choreographer Lar Lubovitch - a Chicago native with strong ties to his hometown - and former Chicago dancer Jay Franke. Franke described these ambitions in an email following the 2010 festival, adding that "Lar and I were truly amazed at the response we had our first year." In the press release announcing the 2011 festival schedule, Lubovitch stressed their long-term commitment to it: "We hope this is just the beginning of our growth."
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is CDF's First Honorary Chair
New to the CDF this year was an all-day event, "Movies," featuring dance on film, at the Chicago Cultural Center, and also some inspired public relations frills. These included naming an honorary chairman this year - an honor accepted by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Often celebrated as a former student of dance, as well as for his experience as a Washington insider, the mayor's involvement brought wider attention to the local festivities. His name helped inspire the Washington Post's feature coverage of the festival, as well as earning it a brief mention by New Yorker dance critic Joan Acocella.
The CDF also designated several local writers as official Chicago Dancing Festival partner-bloggers. Former dancer-turned-freelance-writer, the "Rogue Ballerina," and Scott Silberstein of HMS media writing "Straight from the Arts," have enthusiastically followed each performance, recording their educated perceptions and sharing a myriad of details for those who find the art of dance just too breathtakingly fleeting.
Kathlin F. Sickel - Reading and writing in print and online. So much to uncover and report. Join me; let's see what we can discover.
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