There’s always something going on in the Chicago dance world, although—truth be told—it remains more seasonal than theater or instrumental music. The busiest times of the year for local dance certainly are the autumn and spring, each of which is highlighted by a major dance festival and by the home stands of many locally based touring dance troupes. Dance choices definitely will pick up next month and—especially—once we reach March. For the immediate future, however, the major dance action is in the suburbs, north and south.
In Skokie, the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (just down the road from Old Orchard) is warming up for a winter season that will offer several family friendly dance attractions between now and April. The most imminent event is the Best of Dance Chicago, this Saturday (Jan. 14) at 8 p.m. The program offers highlights from last November’s Dance Chicago 2005 festival of more than 200 dance troupes and individual artists. The Skokie program will offer works by nine companies and choreographers, among them Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Hip Hop ConnXion and Salt Creek Ballet, all of which should make for a highly diverse evening. In addition, the Best of Dance Chicago will offer a one-hour family program, Dance for Kids, at 2 p.m. Call (847) 673-6300; $34 for full-length evening program, $17 for Dance for Kids; free parking or valet parking.
Heading south to Governors State University, you have one opportunity only to see classical dance in, arguably, its purest form with the Jan. 15 appearance of the Russian National Ballet performing Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty. While the terminology of ballet may be French, it is Russia over the last 150 years that has been the real master and curator of the romantic ballet tradition through such companies as the Bolshoi and the Kirov. The Russian National Ballet, founded in 1999 with support from the Russian Ministry of Culture, was established to fill a void in classical ballet training that occurred with the fall of Communism and its huge state subsidies for the arts.
The principal dancers of the company are young professionals just 17-25 years old, but most of whom have spent most of their lives studying dance. The youthful artists certainly will give an authenticity to this passionate love story of a cursed princess waiting for Prince Charming’s kiss. Sleeping Beauty will be presented with lavish sets and costume and a full orchestra. The single performance is Jan. 15, 4 p.m, at the Center for the Performing Arts at Governors State University in University Park (south on I-57 near Park Forest); (708) 235-2222; $38-$47; free parking.
The Joffrey Ballet may not be dancing in Chicago at the moment (having just completed its glorious annual stand of The Nutcracker), but the troupe is in the news just the same with a series of announcements surrounding its current 50th anniversary season. The biggest announcement is that the Joffrey has purchased two floors (45,000 square feet) of a still-under-construction Loop high-rise building at the northeast corner of State and Randolph streets (across from Marshall Field’s/Macy’s) at 8 E. Randolph, and that naming rights are included in the deal. When the ballet company takes possession of the third and fourth floors of 8 E. Randolph in December, 2007, it will be named the Joffrey Tower. Floors one and two will be retail; floors three and four will house the Joffrey offices, seven rehearsal studios and a black-box theater; and floors nine through 32 will be condos. The site—it’s the old Loop Theatre movie house and Walgreen’s—runs one-half block north along State Street and one-half block east on Randolph. The developer is Smithfield Properties.
Long before the Joffrey Tower is completed, the company will culminate its golden anniversary season with its first-ever alumni reunion, a four-day event next June 15-18. The Joffrey is calling all dancers who have worked with the troupe since it was founded in 1955 by the late Robert Joffrey and the current artistic director, Gerald Arpino. Conductors, choreographers, crew and staff who’ve worked with the troupe also are invited. The contact for information is Lynne Chervony Belsky, lynnbel@aol.com.
The life of the great modern dance pioneer and icon, Sybil Shearer, will be celebrated in a memorial tribute Feb. 5, at the Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall. Shearer, whose long and fruitful career centered in Chicago for more than 50 years but extended around the globe, died last Nov. 17 at the age of 93. She had given her final performance at Fullerton Hall on the eve of her 93rd birthday just last February. Over the decades, Shearer—as a student or performer—was associated with such 20th Century dance greats as Martha Graham, Hanya Holm and Agnes de Mille. Shearer herself taught John Neumaier (among thousands of other students) who had been artistic director of the Hamburg (Germany) Ballet for 30 years. Shearer established her home and studio in Northbrook in 1951, and later created the Morrison-Shearer Foundation and Museum to further and preserve her work and that of the modern dance field. A large crowd is expected for the one-hour tribute, which begins at 1:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.