This feels like an inflection point for Chicago dance. Some of the city’s most venerable institutions are celebrating milestones, with the Joffrey Ballet marking its 70th anniversary — and 30 years in Chicago. Ensemble Español, touted as one of the world’s best Spanish dance organizations, kicks off its 50th season this fall, a milestone Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is also fast approaching. Others are finding elegant endings, like Links Hall, which ceased operations this summer after nearly four decades as a hub for small, experimental performance. DanceWorks Chicago, a longtime incubator that wrote the book on springboarding early career performers, plans to sunset at the end of the year, aligned with founding artistic director Julie Nakagawa’s retirement. Recently, generations of Chicago dancers gathered to celebrate Shirley Mordine, the founder of Columbia College’s dance department and its pioneering Presenting Series.
The landscape is ripe for something new to take hold. It will, but a glance at the fall calendar reveals many veteran artists and companies asserting, “We’re not done yet.”
Sitting in the audience of Dance for Life recently, it occurred to me that there’s no great way to honor that kind of commitment in this unforgiving field. Emerging and early-career artists get noticed through Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch. I started imagining a list of those we’re still watching, like Victoria Jaiani, who has now crossed the 20-year mark performing with the Joffrey Ballet and is as thrilling a performer as ever. Jacqueline Burnett and David Schultz’s extraordinary careers at Hubbard Street date back to 2009. They’re still dancing, now while juggling twins. Mastering a craft — like Adam Houston has throughout his 13 years at Giordano Dance Chicago, or Damon Green, an 18-year veteran of The Seldoms — takes time and perseverance. And we’re the lucky ones who get to watch.
Joffrey at the Lyric and Harris
A pair of productions precede the “Nutcracker” this fall, including a rare trip across town to the Harris Theater. The season opens with “Carmen,” the Joffrey’s second full-length ballet by late British choreographer Liam Scarlett in as many years. If his “Carmen” is anything like his “Frankenstein,” audiences are in for a treat. And in November, a limited run includes the Midwest premiere of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida Kahlo-inspired “Broken Wings” and a world premiere from Chanel DaSilva set to live music by The Main Squeeze. Both women are known entities at Joffrey, having previously set original works on the company (DaSilva with “Swing Low” and “Colorem,” and Ochoa’s “Mammatus” and “Platée”).
- Sept. 18-28 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, tickets at 312-386-8905 and joffrey.org
- Nov. 6-9 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St., tickets at 312-334-7777 and harristheaterchicago.org
Still more Joffrey
“The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S.” debuted at the New York Public Library last year, drawing from the library’s archival holdings for a first-ever retrospective. Rare film footage, costumes, shoes, props, papers and other Joffrey goodies are making their way across the country for a three-month stay, marking the company’s 70th anniversary and 30th year in its adopted home.
Oct. 3-Dec. 20 at Wrightwood 659, 659 W. Wrightwood Ave.; tickets $20 at 773-437-6601 and wrightwood659.org
Robyn Mineko Williams on leaving something behind
Some familiar faces join Robyn Mineko Williams for her latest project, “To Leave You,” which expands on recent curiosities about memory, personal history and the residue we leave behind when we’re gone. It’s not so much about impact, though Williams’ artistic output over the last few decades has certainly made one. Rather, it’s personal, a kind of memory book filled with musings for her son, created with fellow Hubbard Street Dance Chicago alums Jessica Tong and Jason Hortin. “To Leave You” kicks off Chicago Performs, a weekend-long festival dedicated to some of Chicago’s leading dance artists. Helen Lee makes a platform for audiences to work through big feelings in “Curiosities of Wellness in Bodies of Grief and Joy,” a participatory sharing that includes music, dance, dialogue and a meditative walk to the lake. And Red Clay Dance Company makes its MCA debut with a new dance inspired by the museum’s 2021 installation “The Black Girlhood Altar.” Sept. 18-21 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; tickets $30 at 312-397-4041 and mcachicago.org
A one-stop shop
There are several ways to do Chicago Live!, a two-day, multi-arts, all-Chicago extravaganza launched in 2021 along Navy Pier. One strategy is to bring a lawn chair and pick a stage, camping out in one spot for the whole day. Those looking to get their steps in might ping pong between the Lake Stage, near Polk Bros Park at the Pier’s entrance point, and the East Stage, at the very end, practically in the lake. Along the way, you’ll find lots of additional festival-specific entertainment. And this year, to celebrate the fifth anniversary, Chicago Live! commissioned world premieres from Giordano Dance Chicago, Aerial Dance Chicago and Momenta, plus two music ensembles. Also new: a fully staged musical performed by Music Theatre Works aboard Shoreline Sightseeing cruises on Saturday afternoon. Think dinner theater — but lunchtime. And on a boat.
Sept. 20-21 at Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave.; more information at navypier.org
Homeward bound
Ten years into Pranita Nayar’s expansive project illuminating an array of diasporic artforms, Mandala South Asian Performing Arts teams with Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre co-founder Kevin Iega Jeff for a joint interrogation of memory, cultural identity and belonging. “Homeward” is an artful commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a federal law abolishing discriminatory policies restricting immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere. It was part of a wave of change stemming from the Civil Rights Movement, railing against laws that upheld American homogeneity — and symbolized through Nayar and Jeff’s cross-cultural collaboration.
Sept. 20 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St.; tickets $45 at tickets.uchicago.edu. A free performance of the same program takes place Oct. 10 at North Central College, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville; mandalaarts.org
Something old, something new from Giordano
For their annual pilgrimage to the suburbs, the jazz company revives Brock Clawson’s 2009 “Give and Take,” last performed in 2019, and the season’s only opportunity to see Al Blackstone’s endearing “Gershwin in B” one more time. Company member Simon Schuh makes his choreographic debut with the main company, expanding the quartet he created for “Giordano on Giordano” last spring into a full-length work for six dancers.
Oct. 18-19 at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie; tickets $40-$83 at 847-673-6300 and northshorecenter.org
“R&J” fanfic
Chicago Repertory Ballet artistic director and chief choreographer Wade Schaaf is creating a new ballet inspired by secondary characters from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Here, the action is centered not on star-crossed lovers, but the elder Lady Capulet and a tryst with Tybalt, bringing upheaval to the aristocracy. “The Capulets” is not Schaaf’s first flirtation with Shakespeare, having previously produced a balletic interpretation of “Macbeth.” Here, Schaaf goes bigger and bolder, with an original libretto, custom-made musical score (Matty Mattsson) and projection designs by John Pobojewski.
Nov. 7-16 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.; tickets $39-$168 at chicagorepertoryballet.com
Something from nothing
A group of seasoned choreographers feeling the acute dearth of performance opportunities opted to create one for themselves, launching the 3320 Dance Series last year as a platform for entrenched artists working on a smaller scale. For its second go-around, the series boasts new works by Joanna Read/Same Planet Performance Project, Michelle Kranicke/Zephyr Dance, DFBRL8R Gallery director Joseph Ravens and long-time Seldoms performer Damon Green, plus contributions from Jackie Stewart (perhaps best known for winning the first and only A.W.A.R.D. Show! Chicago), footwork phenom Jamal “Litebulb” Oliver and the 10-year-old collaboration between Preeti Veerlapati and Kinnari Vora called Ishti Collective.
Nov. 7-15 at Dovetail Studios, 2853 W. Montrose Ave.; tickets $27-$45 at tickettailor.com
Hubbard Street on Halsted Street
Doubling down on their recent foray into rangier repertoire, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago revives Bob Fosse’s “Percussion IV,” more than 30 years after Fosse’s muse, Gwen Verdon, first set the piece on the company. It’s an idiosyncratic bit of Fosse’s catalog, wildly different from last season’s “Sweet Gwen Suite.” The other selections on the program aren’t even in the same galaxy, with repeats of Ohad Naharin’s “Black Milk,” Aszure Barton’s “A Duo” and Johan Inger’s “Impasse” completing the evening in Steppenwolf’s cozy downstairs theater. Nov. 14-23 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted St.; tickets $20-$95 at 312-335-1650 and hubbardstreetdance.com
Ensemble Español celebrates 50
As a tribute to the company’s two artistic directors, Ensemble Español forgoes its typical guest artist lineup in lieu of a golden anniversary celebration exclusively choreographed by Libby Komaiko and Irma Suárez Ruiz. The program aims to demonstrate the breadth and depth of their art form — with pieces spanning the classical, folkloric, contemporary and flamenco styles — and the company’s half-century of output, earning them apt praise both here and abroad. Signature works by both women are included, like Komaiko’s 1993 “Bolero” and Ruiz’s “Pasion Oculta,” a more contemporary classic created in 2019 and set to recognizable music by Escala. Among the deeper cuts are “Zapateado,” a thrilling, largely a cappella dance of the vaqueros first performed in 1976, and “Entre Dos Almas,” a 1998 duet in the alegrias style, set and performed by Ruiz and the company’s executive director, Jorge Perez — another fixture in the company since 1985.
Nov. 15 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets $35-$142 at 312-341-2300 and auditoriumtheatre.org
Lauren Warnecke is a freelance critic.