Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak in Stamina of Curiosity. Photo by William Frederking.

I gave myself a pat on the back for surviving the first four days of this month, but the action just won’t let up (in the best way). I’ve already told you a thing or two about Lucky Plush Productions and Hedwig Dances‘ engagements this weekend, both of which I’m checking out after a music doubleheader Wednesday of Dead Man’s Bones [Ryan Gosling (yes, that one) and Zach Shields' band] and my pop obsession of 2009, La Roux. Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago is decidedly not messing around with their fall Harris program, whose tentpole is the world premiere of Rennie Harris‘ “I Want You” but also includes a horn o’ beyond-plenty o’ new works (by Autumn Eckman, with musicians Dan Myers and John Ovnik, and Lindsey Leduc Brenner) and repertory faves. I had such a lovely time in Madison last weekend I’m going back to Wisco this Saturday for Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak’s Stamina of Curiosity: Our Strange Elevations at Alverno Presents in Milwaukee. Previous presentations from the Stamina series — three of which I danced in — have built upon/recontextualized their predecessors the way a grandmother can transfix her children’s children with the same story time and time again. How Shanahan’s research will play out on a large proscenium stage like the Pitman Theatre can’t be guessed, but you can count on every facet of the experience figuring into the ensemble’s performance.

Giordano dancers Craig Kaufman and Meredith Schultz in "Gravity." Photo by Kam Hobbs.

Now, I realize it isn’t everyone’s job to attend a performance every night of the week, but there are magical things happening in this neck of the woods and you owe it to yourself to check out at least one of them.

In today’s Windy City Times I run down what Hedwig Dances, Lucky Plush Productions and River North Chicago Dance Company have planned for their birthdays, as well as The Moving Architects’ upcoming show and other hap’nins.

Caroline Reid as Pam Ann, one carry-on, and one personal item.

Pop into the Windy City Times for my preview of Aussie comic and gay icon Pam Ann’s one-night-stand Sunday at the Harris.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Sculpture by Richard Serra. Photo by Anna Finke.

Today’s Windy City Times is packed with all kinds of fall arts preview magic. Head down to the corner and pick up a copy, click here to read it online, or park it and tap the read link.

—Mikhail Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Sept. 25-27: Although he’s made some of the most important creations of the past few decades, Swedish choreographer Mats Ek’s dances have been all but absent from Chicago stages. That will change in a big way when Mikhail Baryshnikov and Ek’s wife Ana Laguna bring “Solo for Two” (1996) and “Place” (2007) to life for three performances at the Harris. That in itself would make the program a highlight of the year, but Mr. Baryshnikov has generously decided to also dance two solos while he’s in town—be advised that remaining tickets are going quickly. $55-75 at 312-334-7777 or www.harristheaterchicago.org

—Natya Dance Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie, Sept. 26: Hema and Krithika Rajagopalan’s full-length Shakti Chakra—The Energy Cycle exemplifies the style of this Indian-American dance company and the Bharata Natyam technique at which it excels. $30 at 847-673-6300 or www.northshorecenter.org

—Nora Chipaumire with Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oct. 1, 3-4: The MCA opens its wonderfully dance-heavy ’09/10 season with the world premiere of lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukurahundi. These exiled Zimbabwean artists—Chipaumire is a dancer and choreographer living in New York, while Chimurenga musician Mapfumo works out of Eugene, Oregon—seek to communicate and bring eloquence to the suffering plaguing their beloved homeland. $10-25 at 312-397-4010 or www.mcachicago.org

—Merce Cunningham Dance Company, The Dance Center of Columbia College, Oct. 1-3: Along with the loss of Pina Bausch in June, Merce Cunningham’s death in July saddened the performance world and sparked debate about how, in their absence, their art might live on. For the time being, MCDC retains its international touring commitments and thus will perform two programs at the intimate Dance Center theater as scheduled. Longtime fans of his genius and innovation will be there, and those who have never seen it live simply cannot miss it. $38 at 312-369-8330 or www.colum.edu/dancecenter Note: The word on Twitter is that this engagement is completely sold out.

—Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Oct. 1-4: Glenn Edgerton’s first season as artistic director opens with a world premiere by Jorma Elo, whose “From All Sides” the company débuted in 2007 and “Double Evil” San Francisco Ballet brought last fall. I’m a big fan of Elo’s movement: Liquid, precise and individualized, it looks like the world we live in. A hot new relationship between HSDC and the Art Institute is also worth keeping an eye on—once a month beginning Sept. 24, Hubbard Street’s dancers and staff will appear at the museum for a variety of events. Fall series tickets are $25-90 at 312-334-7777 or www.harristheaterchicago.org; visit hubbardstreetdance.com for more information.

—Links Hall 30th Anniversary Celebration: This storied space at 3435 N. Sheffield has barely had a day off since 1979—home to everything from workshops and rehearsals to dance, theater, music and cabaret, it offers its floor to a local and global network of artists from dawn to well past dusk. Great shows are on the venue’s calendar all season long, but Oct. 2-3 the grind will be put on hold for 30 consecutive hours of performance and partying. For a detailed schedule, call 773-281-0824 or visit linkshall.org

—Miami City Ballet, Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, Oct. 2-4: George Balanchine’s American reimagining of ballet has spawned a regiment of companies and each gives his legacy a different spin. Since 1985, Miami City Ballet have put the most daring and athletic aspects of his choreography up front. Artistic Director Edward Villella, the boxer who became a Balanchine star in the ’60s, has chosen “Symphony in Three Movements” and the earlier of two Valse Fantaisies to represent his mentor; extending the show in both historical directions are Swan Lake’s smoldering Black Swan Pas de Deux and Twyla Tharp’s “In the Upper Room.” $30-89 at 800-982-2787 or ticketmaster.com/auditorium

—Luna Negra Dance Theater, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Oct. 9-10: Live music from pianist and Ravinia CEO Welz Kauffman, singers Michelle Areyzaga and Paul Corona, and Grammy winners Turtle Island Quartet and Paquito D’Rivera are just a few enticements to attend Luna Negra’s 10th Anniversary gala on Oct. 9; the other reason is this company’s stable of dancers and endless reserve of energy, which you can also see on a regular program the following night. Tickets are $25-55; visit www.harristheaterchicago.org or call 312-337-6882 for more information.

—Hedwig Dances: Also celebrating a birthday—its 25th—is Hedwig Dances, whose members are working in multiple media over the next few months with a two-day, free festival of dance cinema Oct. 13-14, an engagement at Links Hall Oct. 23-25, and the premiere of Artistic Director Jan Bartoszek’s film “Arch of Repose” at the Music Box Nov. 11. Pick up the details at hedwigdances.com

—Joffrey Ballet, Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University, Oct. 14-25: An evening-length Othello by Lar Lubovitch opens the Joffrey’s season with music by Eliot Goldenthal, an Oscar-winning composer who scored this summer’s Public Enemies. The ballet is receiving its Chicago premiere from the company—it originated at American Ballet Theatre in 1997—giving our balletomanes a chance to weigh in on Lubovitch’s polarizing depiction of Shakespeare’s Moor of Venice. $25-145 at 312-739-0120 and www.joffrey.com

—Lucinda Childs: DANCE, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oct. 15-17: The amazing complexity of this stage piece, which synchronizes a film by conceptual artist Sol LeWitt with live dancers visible through the scrim it’s projected upon, has been painstakingly rebuilt. It visits the MCA over a weekend also including its annual gala and a solo piano performance by Philip Glass, who created the score for DANCE’s 1979 premiere. $40; details at www.mcachicago.org

—Lucky Plush Productions, The Dance Center of Columbia College, Oct. 22-31: Choreographer Julia Rhoads is marking her multidisciplinary company’s first decade with a new work, Punk Yankees, which mines Lucky Plush’s rich repertory and research into the issues of authorship and authenticity erupting not just around dance, but all forms of art. Tickets are $24; call 312-369-8330 or visit www.colum.edu/dancecenter. Visit www.stealthisdance.com for more on the process behind the piece.

—Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Oct. 23-24: Philadelphia-based company Rennie Harris Puremovement is a beloved and critically-acclaimed group that consistently exercises the full potential of hip-hop dance theater. GJDC is originating a new work by Harris for its fall series, MOVE!, that will be presented alongside a broad variety of premieres and favorites. $15-60 at 312-334-7777 or www.harristheaterchicago.org

—Anna Halprin/Anne Collod & guests, MCA, Nov. 5, 7-8: Anna Halprin’s busy and beautiful Parades & Changes shocked and energized the New York dance world on which it dropped in 1965; Anne Collod is a French choreographer who for some time has been cherry-picking modern masterpieces to keep alive through meticulous reconstructions. Their cooperative revival parades & changes, replays is a project marrying past and present in the eternal spirit of creativity—don’t miss it. $25 at 312-397-4010 or www.mcachicago.org

—River North Chicago Dance Company, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Nov. 7: Yet another anniversary, River North’s 20th, kicks off with Artistic Director Frank Chaves’ repackaging of company calling card “Reality of a Dreamer” with Sherry Zunker, his former creative partner turned entertainment industry mastermind. Monique Haley’s unapologetically carefree (and lovely) “Uhuru” also returns, along with other works. $30-65 at www.harristheaterchicago.org or call 312-337-6882

—Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University, Nov. 14-15: Hubbard Street fans should take note of this New York troupe’s first Chicago appearance under Benoit-Swan Pouffer’s stewardship. Its generous and brave artists will bring work by Crystal Pite, Didy Veldman and Jo Stromgren—powerhouse dancemakers all—to the Auditorium’s vast stage.

These shows merely scratch the surface of all that’s going on this autumn. Some you’ll hear more about in future issues include:

—Peter Carpenter‘s My Fellow Americans, Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Theater, Oct. 8-9 and 15-16

—Winifred Haun & Dancers, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Oct. 9-10

—Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, Alverno College, Milwaukee, Oct. 24

—Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre, Links Hall, Nov. 19-21

Rachel Bunting/The Humans at The Other Dance Festival.

Here we go, folks: It’s another September, another Other, and another Dancin’ Feats. Trot on over to The Windy City Times or look out below!

A full rundown of the fall dance season is coming shortly so I won’t get into enumerating the heap of great performances coming our way.

Deserving of its own rundown, however, is this month’s eighth occasion of the Other Dance Festival, a three-week compendium of the modern-dance scene’s busiest exponents. ODF (or simply “The Other”), as its name suggests, was originally called into being as a fringe event, showcasing work by artists unaffiliated with or uninvited to the larger Dance Chicago festival. But as Dance Chicago was moved toward the end of the calendar and altered its scope to be inclusive of student and suburban companies, the Other has been able to stretch out into repute and recognition, becoming one of the best-attended and most-anticipated events of the season. It’s all but outgrown its home at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse theater, with its six shows frequently selling out and latecomers often left standing or sitting on floor cushions.

The Other is a production of the Chicago Moving Company (CMC) , a 37-year-old company in residence at the theater but, more specifically, it’s helmed by CMC’s Managing Director, Kay LaSota. (Elizabeth Lentz was a longtime co-producer until her relocation to Seattle last summer.) LaSota manages the logistical feat of programming 16 companies’ appearances and the technical aspects of organizing lighting and sound designs for as many works. Encouraging attendance with “open minds and eyes,” LaSota doesn’t shy away from curating evenings that underline the vast breadth of techniques and styles employed by Chicago’s dancemakers.

Of the Other’s offerings this month, week one finds Columbia College dance instructors Paige Cunningham and Darrell Jones looking at movement as athleticism with a premiere duet. Wearing pulse monitors and exercising to the point of fatigue, their creative process has been one that resembles an Olympic hopeful’s training regimen more than free-associated studio time. A live improvisation on double bass accompanies a dance trio by members of CMC, Lucky Plush Productions and Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak show pieces that point to the companies’ own performances in October, and Same Planet Different World will share “Sextet,” new to that group’s repertoire.

Breakbone DanceCo. and Mordine & Co. Dance Theater both unveiled pieces earlier this year—”Excavation of Remains” and “New Ground,” respectively—which they’re reviving for the Other’s second weekend. “As I entered so will I leave” by Cindy Brandle will take its bow as a quartet previewing an upcoming evening. Brandle’s not alone in assessing the state of our selves, split as they are into real and virtual representations, but as a prevailing cultural question of our time it certainly bears investigating. Margi Cole, also a faculty member at Columbia’s Dance Center, has recently taken her work deeper into multidisciplinary territory and continues to fold text and video into her work, this time in collaboration with dancer/costume designer Jeff Hancock. Matthew Hollis, beloved by both the dance and queer communities, will perform “That Afterschool Special Feeling,” plumbing his personal history for a tale of his first love, Jim. Rounding out the evening, Janet Schmid brings back “Craptastic,” a dance about wipe-outs and near misses that zooms out to address grace during instability.

ODF’s third weekend coincides with a number of great events around town, including the return of Merce Cunningham Dance Company following the death of its namesake last month, a 30th anniversary celebration for Links Hall, Nora Chipaumire at the MCA and Miami City Ballet at the Auditorium. Nevertheless, intrepid folks will be able to fit it all in, and should. Peter Carpenter’s “My Fellow Americans” is a portrait of Ronald Reagan drawn from the point of view of those whose needs and voices his policies consistently tried to suppress; Carpenter and his dancers will perform an excerpt from what will premiere in full the following weekend. The Humans, about whom I’ve written much in this space, will be accompanied by musician Samuel Robinson for a dance promising enthusiasm and, intriguingly, “costumes that transform from black & white to Technicolor.” Putting her personal experience directly into her art, choreographer Ayako Kato—who gave birth just two weeks ago—will meditate upon the event for her solo dance, “Born.” The ever-incisive Carrie Hanson will show “Death of a (Prada) Salesman,” which interrogates the luxury-goods market through the lens of Arthur Miller’s play, and Hedwig Dances, celebrating it’s twenty-fifth anniversary, shows a dance included in its October program, “Rein, Bellow” by Colleen Thomas and Bill Young.

The Other Dance Festival runs Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17-18, 24-25, and Oct. 1-2 at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Theater, 3035 N. Hoyne. Single admission is $15, and $12 for students and seniors; festival passes for all three programs are available for $35. Call the Chicago Moving Company at 773-880-5402 or visit www.chicagomovingcompany.org; tickets are at www.brownpapertickets.com

Coming up:

—Jonathan Meyer’s Khecari Dance Theatre opens his evening-length work “The Waking Room” on Thursday. Seemingly narrative but intentionally resistive of conclusive readings, the work’s three men are observed in a sort of ritualistic power struggle played out in distressed costumes reminiscent of late-19th-century French court attire, but Christopher Preissing’s original score sets the action in a more contemporary—possibly even future—moment. Performances are Sept. 10-19 at the Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 S. Morgan, and tickets are $15. Call 773-837-0145 or visit khecari.org for details, dates and times.

—Dim Sum Dance’s creations may take place more rarely as its artistic director, Julie Mayo, temporarily relocates to California to continue her studies. However, Jessica Wright, a superb exemplar of Mayo’s style, is sticking around and producing some work of her own. “A Chosen Pick of the Decided Spot,” danced by Wright and other performers from within the Dim Sum/Moving Architects circle, marks her debut as a choreographer and producer. It will be at the Life Force Arts Center, 3148 N. Lincoln., Sept. 11-12 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12/$10 artists; visit www.jessicawrightdance.org and www.lifeforcearts.org

—The Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF) presented a fascinating series of presentations and discussions at Wicker Park work/performance venue Silverspace last season by dancemakers and other practitioners in the field; by springtime they were consistently packed with a huge variety of curious folks. The series kicks off another round Sept. 14, when CDF, Links Hall and the Goethe-Institut co-present “Body, Space, Music,” a free performance and talkback with Raimund Hoghe, German choreographer and dramaturge for 10 years with Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal. Hoghe will dance, read and present video from his recent investigations; Dancin’ Feats strongly recommends you attend. It will be at the Goethe-Institut Chicago, 150 N. Michigan, Suite 200, 6-8 p.m. Read up on the artist at www.raimundhoghe.com; call 773-281-0824 for more information.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company in Ulysses Dove's Vespers. Photo by Andy Snow.

Quite the stretch on this month’s punny headline, I know — something about the long-delayed heat seems to have torpified my corny. Anyhow, hop on over to the Windy City Times for August’s Dancin’ Feats or freshen up that lemonade, crank up the fan and hit the jump.

Dancin’ Feats
by Zachary Whittenburg
8:12::2009

This is the slowest month Chicago dance will have all year, and it isn’t all that slow. The Bill T. Jones/Duncan Sheik Broadway project Spring Awakening enters its last weekend of a short run at the Ford Oriental, 24 W. Randolph. Reviews have been mixed but suggestions that Jones’ work is a spiritual inheritor of Golden Age choreography by the likes of Jerome Robbins and Agnes de Mille should be enough to pack the house with procrastinators like myself. See www.broadwayinchicago.com.

Nineteenth-century story ballet Coppélia is a breezy three-act comedy with a great Delibes score and no shortage of the hijinks and implausibility typical to the form; its particular flavor of imagination-stretching plot points generally revolve around believing a plucky young woman could convincingly approximate a robot using only mid-Industrial Revolution technology. Still, it can be a blast and, under the wings of Hanover Park’s Faubourg School of Ballet, 40 dancers will bring the doll to life for two special performances dedicated to autism awareness. Visit www.autismillinois.com/happenings.

Next Tuesday, the Chicago Dancing Festival drops for nearly a week of wall-to-wall dance performances downtown. Two Harris shows and a discussion/demonstration at the Museum of Contemporary Art filled up in a flash in June but Saturday, Aug. 22, remains full of free fun for those that stop by. At half-past noon in Wrigley Square, 3 p.m. at “The Bean” and 5 p.m. on the Pritzker’s lawn, DanceWorks Chicago will appear in Twyla Tharp’s The One Hundreds. The 1970 audience-involvement piece, “appropriate for all ages and ability levels,” is a package of 100 11-count mini-dances simple and easy to learn that strip context away from pedestrianism to create an anti-formance statement as mysterious as it is wholesome. DanceWorks has a sizeable chunk of the series selected and its dancers will welcome the public. At 7:30 p.m., the Pritzker stage will host the festival’s closing event, a behemoth free show rewarding packing an early dinner and staking out a spot. Chicago Human Rhythm Project featuring Step Afrika! will open with a stompy bang, likely supplying a copious amounts of syncopated energy and good vibes. Houston Ballet, which hasn’t been here since who-knows-when, will massacre a few pairs of pointe shoes for William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company will dance the piece Ulysses Dove made for it in 1986, Vespers. Lubovitch’s company will preview Coltrane’s Favorite Things, Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs Ailey’s solo-as-religious-experience Cry, and Hee Seo and Cory Stearns from ABT will dance Le Corsaire. Interestingly, the program also includes Les Ballets Grandiva, who will presumably projectile-radiate patriotism en travesti in Marcus Galante’s Star Spangled Ballerina. Get details on both, and excited, at www.chicagodancingfestival.com.

Unrelated to but concurrent with these will be Argentina Tango Onstage, going on underneath the Pritzker at the Harris. Two performances, at 4 and 8 p.m., feature an array of tango artists including Alberto Podestá, whose stardom in the field began six decades ago. The larger festival, hosted by the Palmer House, the Cultural Center and Merle-Reskin, has more details on its Web site at www.chicagotangofest.com.

One of the constantly booked Pritzker’s summer series is On Stage at Noon, providing some culture for your alfresco lunch. Katha (Legends), choreographed by Natya Dance Theatre founder Hema Rajagopalan, will surely introduce the company and Bharatanatyam, the traditional form on which Rajagopalan’s contemporary work is based, to new audiences when it takes its turn Wed.-Thursday, Aug. 19-20. Culled from the more modern end of Indian culture but also incorporating Bharatanatyam, Masala Bollywood is Kalapriya Dance Company‘s new stage-and-cinema work showing two nights only (Friday-Saturday, Aug. 21-22, at 7:30 p.m.) at Noble Square’s Vittum Theater. See www.natya.com and www.kalapriya.org.

If you’ve attended a dance performance at Links Hall, The Galaxie, the Athenaeum, Hamlin Park or Ruth Page (not to mention a healthy assortment of Northside playhouses), you’ve seen the lighting design of Josh Weckesser. This go-to chameleon — the variety among his designs consistently surprises — also sporadically produces a Josh Weckesser Dance Spectacular. This time his revue will include an interpretation of Peter Gabriel’s sardonic 1986 hit about movin’ on up, “Big Time,” promising a tall man in a tweed jacket but no psychedelic stop-motion clay avatars. It’s at The Building Stage Friday-Saturday, Aug. 21-22, at 8 p.m. “So much larger than life” and such a reasonable $11 — get tickets at www.ticketweb.com.

The next full evening of work by Dim Sum Dance, including new and old pieces by founder/director Julie Mayo and guest dancemaker Tiffany Rhynard, Fever Drift is in four parts and will be a must-see for fans of modern dance. I’ve sung Mayo’s praises before but it’s because she’s on such a different plane from what anyone else is working on at the moment; if a pinball machine were held perfectly horizontal, its chrome ball would move around much the same as Dim Sum’s dancers, slowly and unpredictably, and periodically being shot through space by flashing traps with odd sounds. The performance is at Hamlin Park Thursday-Friday, Aug. 27-28, at 7:30 p.m.; absorb further information at www.dimsumdance.org.

Closing out the month is annual benefit Dance for Life, which, if you’ve somehow never heard of it, is a terrific gala performance at the Harris that benefits five — count ‘em — charities supporting those living with HIV/AIDS and their loved ones. The dancing is peerless and the occasion, while solemn, is usually presented with good humor, heaps of great spirit and premiere choreography (this year by Harrison McEldowney and Randy Duncan). Paying $75 buys you 12 months of good karma and a ticket to the 7:30 p.m. show; double that or more adds cocktails at a pre-performance soirée and other perks. Details are at www.danceforlifechicago.com.

Lane Alexander. Photo by Kristie Kahns.

Why, hello there! How about some dance news? The latest Windy City Times is out today at your local newsstand; pick one up or hit the break for my latest column.

Dancin’ Feats
by Zachary Whittenburg
7:8::2009

Summer’s for festivals, and this month brings two huge, weeklong events to Chicago’s dance fans. Opening July 22 is a slew of performances programmed as part of the 2009 Jazz Dance World Congress. Produced here by Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago and the Department of Cultural Affairs, the JDWC is to jazz dance what Cannes is to film buffs and just as international. Held in locations over its twenty-nine year history as diverse as Japan, Germany, Mexico and Costa Rica, it’s nevertheless foremost a Chicago tradition — this will be the seventh time it invites companies the world over to the Windy City.

The “Congress” part is designed to expose attendees as much as possible to the expertise of its guest faculty and panelists. Classes are held daily, discussions are hosted by teachers, dancers and administrators in the field and, new this year, auditions for well-regarded collegiate dance programs (at the University of Arizona, University at Buffalo, Hofstra University, and Point Park University and others) as well as performer positions at Royal Caribbean International will give attending dancers multiple opportunities to seek out the next phase of their careers.

Each evening, though, is a celebration of the form open to the public: Seven companies a night will present dances and, while the full rundown is too expansive to get into here, some highlights are a pair of world premieres by Japan’s Masashi Action Machine on Wednesday’s and Thursday’s programs, Mexico’s Cuerpo Etéreo Danza Contemporánea Friday, and the début of Sherry Zunker’s Mature Dance Project (a who’s who of brilliant Chicago artists in their thirty-teens) and Philadelphia’s Philadanco! Saturday. A choreography competition and the premiere of the documentary “Gus, an American Icon” on Wednesday round out the Festival’s incredible smorgasbord.

Tap dance and the percussive arts are celebrated and honored each year at Rhythm World which, like the JDWC, is comprised of opportunities both to learn and appreciate. July 27 is the kickoff of residencies, workshops and master classes by an impressive roster of tap virtuosos like Sam Weber, Derick Grant, Jakari Sherman, Chloe Arnold, Jason Samuels Smith, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Chicago Human Rhythm Project Director (and Rhythm World organizer) Lane Alexander. Classes are tiered for offerings for everyone from nine-year-old novices to working professionals. Sunday, August 2 at 6:30pm, a free concert will be held at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park featuring BAM!, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Jus’ LisTeN, the South Shore Drill Team, Chicago Tap Theatre and Be the Groove. Monday there’s a free tap improvisation jam at the Cultural Center, Roosevelt University’s gorgeous Ganz Hall hosts a Tap Slam competition and Cutting Contest improvisation tournament Tuesday, and come Thursday and Saturday, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s theater will be home to two performances including many of the aforementioned Master Teachers, guest artists and tap ensembles.

—Jazz Dance World Festival is held at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Dr., July 22-25. For program and ticketing information, visit www.jazzdanceworldcongress.org and www.harristheaterchicago.org

—Rhythm World is held at multiple locations in downtown Chicago from July 27-August 9. For more information, a schedule of events and tickets visit www.chicagotap.org

Also this month:

—The final program of this spring’s Epiphany Dance Experiment is a focus on movement as performance art and features four intriguing practitioners of that approach: JulieAnn Graham, RTG Dance, Britt Posmer and Marissa Perel. At the Epiphany Episcopal Church, 201 S. Ashland Ave., July 12 at 6:00pm. $12 at the door.

—The Space/Movement Project, recently one of three finalists at The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009, will premiere their latest work Safety in Numbers over two weekends at Hamlin Park Fieldhouse. Tracking ideas about community through local genealogies of six choreographers (also dancers) and three additional performers, this collective of young dancemakers is one to watch. At 3035 N. Hoyne Ave. in Roscoe Village, performances are July 16-17 and 23-24 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $15 at brownpapertickets.com; more information is at thespacemovementproject.org

—Thodos Dance Chicago presents new works each year by members of its company and a guest choreographer. Having seen all of it in progress — I’m serving on the program’s advisory panel — I can vouch for the accomplishment and incredible variety of its pieces. At the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St., July 17 and 18 at 8:00pm and July 19 at 5:00pm. $25 tickets, less for students, seniors and children, and more information on the bill is at www.thodosdancechicago.org

—Atalee Judy of Breakbone DanceCo. is a recipient of this year’s prestigious Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Grant. Although much of her body of work has focused on social-political and feminist issues, Judy is investigating much different territory with her upcoming premiere Excavation of Remains. Born of a new collaborative approach, seven artists have originated an anthology of dances that reflect thoughts on death and near-death and, in some cases, process past true-life experiences with the end. Also at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse, Excavation of Remains opens July 29 and runs Wednesday through Friday that and the following weekend, August 5-7, at 7:30. Tickets are $15, $10 on opening night, and are available at brownpapertickets.com or by calling (773) 841-BONE. Visit breakbone.com

Nederlands Dans Theater in Jiří Kylián's Wings of Wax. Photo courtesy NDT.

Dancin’ Feats
by Zachary Whittenburg
6:10::2009

I’m not trying to start a brawl, but I’ll go ahead and say that Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián is the most influential artist working in the field. His formal, musical style has absorbed the lessons and secrets of nearly every school of movement, from the Aboriginal dances of native Australians to the kinetic fluidity of the B-boy tradition. Although Nederlands Dans Theater dates from 1959 (when 18 Dutch National Ballet members broke off to pursue a more progressive agenda), the company is to this day indelibly associated with Kylián, who from 1975 to 1999 served as Artistic Director creating dozens of signature ballets and solidifying the troupe’s sterling reputation.

Though only in his early sixties (and still quite prolific), a succeeding generation of dancemakers is emerging from under Kylián’s wing, hinting at the path that lies ahead of the identity he’s built for NDT and contemporary dance as a whole. Anders Hellström, Artistic Director since 2004, has commissioned many works from these young artists and Jim Vincent, who will take over for Hellström in the fall, will no doubt continue the trend. The choreographic team of Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot are exemplars of this new look, taking Kylián’s sculptural approach to set design one further and accelerating the intricacy of his vivid mechanics almost to a blur. Shoot the Moon, a work from last year, turns the stage into a haunting carousel of rooms and live video, Philip Glass’ score fleshing out the anguished acrobatics and Expressionistic grimaces of a series of couples. Although frantic at times, it lands hard and firm on many unforgettable images and elevates “I wonder what’s going on next door” voyeurism into exquisite third-person poetry.

Crystal Pite is NDT’s most recent choreographer-in-residence and last year synthesized many themes of her portfolio for The Second Person, a city of a dance that pushes multiple idioms and strong personalities into close proximity. Inescapably, choreography is to some extent puppetry, and Pite tackles the subject head-on, using a small wooden mannequin as a cipher inflated with life by a stage-filling ensemble. Omniscient narrative pops up in other forms as well, in prim British voiceovers and duets that have dancers swapping turns manipulating one another. It’s a sprawling, ambitious work, but Pite keeps her eye on the road and, as is her wont, reins her tangents down to Earth with a succinct and breathtaking finish.

Kylián doesn’t go unrepresented, mind you: 1997′s Wings of Wax is as good as any example of his unparalleled inventiveness with couples, and its solos for men leave little doubt as to how high NDT’s male dancers set the bar. Nederlands Dans Theater hasn’t performed in Chicago in over thirty years: Get tickets today if you haven’t already.

At the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Pkwy., June 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. $30-89. Visit auditoriumtheatre.org for more information.

Other offerings this month include:

—Mixed-bill Dance Shelter continues for a second weekend at Hamlin Park Fieldhouse, featuring work by Nana Shineflug, Cindy Brandle, Rachel Bunting and Atalee Judy. June 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m., 3035 N. Hoyne Ave. $12-15. Details at chicagomovingcompany.org

—Aerial dance company AMEBA says to hell with gravity as they take to the floor, walls and ceiling with String Theory: You are a force of nature June 12 and 13 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Pkwy., at 7 p.m. $20. Call (773) 463-4402 or visit www.amebadance.org

—Synapse Arts Collective exercise a unique voice in Chicago dance, taking vocal expression and fusing it with movement generated through a collaborative process. The five performers assembled for Stridulate have considerable skills in both environments, allowing their work to seep into its audience through multiple sensory channels. The Galaxie hosts six performances at 2603 W. Barry Ave., Fri. June 12 and 19 at 8 p.m. and Sat. June 12 and 20 at 4 and 8 p.m. Go to www.synapsearts.com

—In the Middle, Somewhat Replicated is the cheeky title of Lucky Plush Productions’ and Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts’ joint production/reunion. An evening of four works orbiting around very timely issues of authorship and authenticity, it reunites the Bay Area’s Sheldon Smith and Lisa Wymore with Lucky Plush’s Julia Rhoads and kicks off the company’s tenth anniversary. At Link’s Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield Ave., June 12 and 13 at 8 p.m. and June 14 at 7 p.m. $15. Find out more at luckyplush.com and stealthisdance.com

—Also at Link’s Hall this month are Jaema Joy Berry’s You Can’t Dance Out the Side of Your Mouth June 19-21 and the always-terrific (and very cheap) benefit series Poonie’s Cabaret June 15. Visit linkshall.org

—Innervation Dance Cooperative struck gold last year with Everyman, their loose interpretation of a 15th Century morality play set to Led Zeppelin. Featuring nine choreographers and a thorough once-over, it’s back for a run at the Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble St., June 18-20 at 8 p.m. and June 21 at 2 p.m. $15-18. Go to innervationdance.org

—At the Vittum the following weekend are Matter Dance, back with their new production Revolving Doors. June 25-27 at 8 p.m. and June 28 at 3 p.m. $20 with more information at www.matterdance.com

—Chicago native Paul Sanasardo, celebrating 80 years, and Muscovite Dmitri Peskov share a bill at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts June 26 and 27. Sanasardo, a point of connection to nearly all of modern dance history from Martha Graham to Pina Bausch, has created Sleepless Nights in the City to a suite of music by modern composers and Peskov, who’s received much acclaim from the local press, brings five works to the stage (two premieres and three repertory dances). Both shows are at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday’s performance coincides with a benefit for the new Joel Hall Dance Center and is $50. Find out more at sanasardopeskov.com

—Props for Spain are in order upon the 33rd anniversary of the American Spanish Dance Festival. Presented by Northeastern Illinois University’s Ensemble Español Center for Spanish Dance and Music, a whole host of activities and performances are on tap at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts at 9501 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie, June 26 and 27 at 7:30 p.m. and June 28 at 3 p.m. Tickets $26-46. Go to www.northshorecenter.org

Neta Pulvermacher.

In this week’s Windy City Times: My rundown of upcoming event The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009 at the Dance Center. Read at the WCT site, pick up a copy, or

Summer stakes for Chicago dance
by Zachary Whittenburg
5:27::2009

Sweeping conclusions about the state of performance in the era of American Idol have at this point all had their day in the sun. According to some, the integrity of the form is irreparably damaged: Put audiences put in charge of art and watch mediocrity rule. Others claim it’s had no effect at all, that successes continue to be as unpredictable as ever despite an increased visibility of and ceremony surrounding their creation. Let’s also note that few from either camp are saying the process and the argument aren’t entertaining. Regardless, it’s a format that’s apparently here to stay and one that’s being translated into nearly every vocation imaginable. Surely we’re only months away from the premieres of America’s Next Top Trial Lawyer or So You Think You Can Pedicure.

Outside the tailor-made arenas of ballroom dancing and flashy, commercial solo performance, dance hasn’t been affected by this paradigm shift. If anything, the success of Dancing With The Stars and its ilk has instigated a bit of a reversal of the high- and low-cultural merge that’s defined art of all kinds for the last 50 years. Choreographers and performers are self-segregating into those looking for a break via television and people who couldn’t give a damn. Three years ago, though, a program was born that not only introduced friendly competition and cash prizes to the concert dance realm, but did so in a way that preempted the concerns of those who would choose obscurity over even a whiff of selling out.

Israeli-born choreographer Neta Pulvermacher (pictured), briefly based out of Chicago, and the SoHo annex of revered New York City dance venue the Joyce Theater held the first A.W.A.R.D. Show! in 2006, inviting companies to compete in three heats for a $10,000 grant for new work. Growing larger and more visible each year, Pulvermacher’s brainchild hit the mother lode this spring when it was announced that the Boeing Company was going to underwrite the expansion of The A.W.A.R.D. Show! into Seattle, Philadelphia and Chicago (financier Scott G. Kasen will continue to provide the purse for New York’s competition).

Key to its success is the idea that the audience-vote mechanism for advancing art isn’t inherently compromising at all. The acronym-loving Pulvermacher (the competition’s name stands for Artists With Audiences Responding to Dance) came up with four things voters would be instructed to take into account: Potential, Originality, Execution and Merit (POEM), noting that “the way an audience views a work when it is empowered to vote is extremely different” than in a more traditionally-passive theater setting. Even to its most avid fans, dance can be oblique and hard to read. Pulvermacher elaborates: “The idea is that, by declaring out loud and upfront that audiences for The A.W.A.R.D. Show! are charged with the rights and the responsibility to make qualitative choices about what they see, the selection process becomes transparent and hopefully encourages honesty. Then, the audience and artists can get on with the task of really looking at the work before them for what it is and to try and see it deeply. For me, The A.W.A.R.D. Show! is about freedom—the freedom to see, respond, imagine, dream, create, make or even fail, and the freedom to speak your mind and heart.”

With applications due barely a month after Boeing’s grant was announced, Chicago’s hopefuls had little time to prepare. The inaugural crop of contenders, though, are an impressively-varied collection of artists: Hubbard Street alumnus Francisco Aviña works in Mexico City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles as often as he does here, while Archana Kumar, who recently relocated from Seattle, uses Bharatanatyam (a classical Indian dance form) in tandem with improvisation and Western modern dance technique. Established companies jumped at the opportunity as well, including Lucky Plush Productions, The Seldoms and Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, as did upstarts like Rachel Bunting, Lizzie MacKenzie and Jessica Miller Tomlinson. Each of the the three programs will produce one winner; a fourth show brings them back and ends with two receiving one thousand dollars each and one netting the ten grand.

A panel of judges retains a good chunk of the final decision, but every participant will walk away with the kind of direct feedback and honest criticism only anonymity can provide. One of “the best features” of the series, Pulvermacher says, is the frank responses audience members write with their votes, which the choreographers get to take with them back to the studio whether they’re victorious or not. She says people are “much more honest” in writing and that one of the main goals of The A.W.A.R.D. Show!—true discussion leading to more rigorous and vital work—is ensured by this unusual porousness between artists and observers.

Campaigning has already begun in earnest: Participating companies have been flooding their mailing lists with calls for votes and demonstrations of support. It will have to come down to what goes onstage, though, not only because of the overall quality of the 12 aspirants’ work and talent but because the bills pit apples against oranges.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! takes place June 24-28 at the Dance Center at Columbia College, 1306 S. Michigan, at 8 p.m.; tickets are $15 each. More information is available online at www.colum.edu/dance_center.

Cindy Brandle Dance Company in Searching for SuperGirl.

Another month, another Wednesday, another Dancin’ Feats. As always, poured after the jump for those who prefer to stay put.

While the concert-dance industry continues to be populated by a preponderance of women in all areas, a tradition as curious as it is unfortunate nevertheless soldiers on: The highest ranks of artistic and executive directorship continue to be held predominantly by men. An inspiring bit of contrary evidence, however, is increasingly more visible here in Chicago. The rapid growth of our dance community is due in large part to women founding new companies and expanding existing organizations. Should trends continue—and I hope they do—we could shortly find ourselves in a completely new paradigm of gender equality in dance leadership.

Anyone who’s ever doubted the staying power of a new year’s resolution should know the story of The Moving Architects. A Pennsylvania native here since 2003, Erin Carlisle Norton decided four years later on Jan. 1 she would start her own dance company; later this month the company will premiere her newest work, Stops on the Line, as part of a multitude of cultural events spurred by the 100th anniversary of visionary urbanist Daniel Burnham’s plan for the city of Chicago. True to their name, the Architects pay homage to the planner by way of what is perhaps the single most significant building to the plan and this city’s history, Burnham’s own Union Station. An evening-length work in one act, Stops on the Line evokes a specificity of time and place, and blends abstract composition and character-driven dance-theater scenes with a sure hand. Original music performed by composer Ian Hatcher makes a solid pair of rails, driving staccato rhythms chugging along in effective contrast to the delicate instrumentation of acoustic guitar and glockenspiel.

A recent recipient of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Grant, Julia Rae Antonick is off and running into her big year with PEND, a premiere collaboration with dancers Katie McCaughan and The Humans’ Precious Jennings along with composer Joseph St. Charles. As comfortable with unpredictability as Norton is meditatively deliberate, her creation unfolds alongside a stated aim to unfold from within a deep commitment to discovery through investigation. Antonick is wildly generative: Even her shortest creative processes yield a wealth of material. She’s a young prospector who’s found herself in a perpetual gold rush, and it will be worth watching how all that movement is sorted and applied for PEND and her project for the Dancemakers Forum, Duologue.

Appropriately enough, Cindy Brandle’s latest work directly addresses the state of contemporary women. Searching for SuperGirl looks at this not just through the lens of dance, however: It’s a multimedia evening that includes an exhibit of images by photographer Kat Fitzgerald (who contributes to Windy City Times, among other publications), original music by pillar of the community Barry Bennett, short films by Carl Wiedemann and Breakbone Dance Co.’s Atalee Judy, as well as pre-show music by Brandle herself.

Bravely opening her process to the public, Ginger Krebs has taken on the body itself for the premiere dance Rehearsals for Becoming Gods. In a succinct summary of the work, Krebs states the observance that humans are becoming increasingly dissociated from their bodies, viewing them more often as “states from which to escape, humiliating betrayals of our ideals, and uncooperative entities that require management.” Five dancers step in to assist her in using movement, logically enough, as a medium through which she can further explore this point of view.

Last (alphabetically) but not least, Zephyr Dance represents the upperclass women of this month’s unofficial festival of female choreographers. A decade on the scene, Artistic Director Michelle Kranicke and her associate, Emily Stein, will each show a piece for their annual spring concert; while I haven’t seen Stein’s suite of four solos, The Forest, Kranicke’s Erased Dance—also a quartet—was on last month’s Epiphany Dance Experiment program and clearly demonstrates she’s no novice. Moving as a single entity, the dancers reminded me of the rhythmic purities and faded lines of Agnes Martin’s large canvases; the dance rewards a balanced combination of wandering thought and patient focus.

Three of these performances are being held at my new favorite venue, Epiphany Episcopal Church, 201 S. Ashland. Stops on the Line, May 15-16 at 8 p.m., is $15 in advance at  www.themovingarchitects.org; Rehearsals for Becoming Gods, May 30-31 at 3 p.m., is free; and Zephyr Dance’s Spring Concert, June 4-6 at 8 p.m., is $20 at  www.zephyrdance.com .

Cindy Brandle Dance Company presents Searching for SuperGirl at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, May 15-16 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20; call 773-509-1709 or visit www.brownpapertickets.com .

PEND, by Julia Rae Antonick, is at Overdier Hall at the United Church of Rogers Park, 1545 W. Morse, May 29-30 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 each; see www.seechicagodance.com .

Also in the mix:

—Boris Eifman has had a good deal of ink spilled over him recently. Touted by many as a “savior” to the grand, multi-act story ballet, his St. Petersburg-based company will interpret his interpretation of the quintessential Russian novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, chosen as a frame through which the immensely complex question of the state of the Russian soul may be answered. The production will take place at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, May 14-15 at 7:30 p.m.; May 16 at 8 p.m.; and May 17 at 2 p.m. $32-77. Visit www.auditoriumtheatre.org for more information.

—Ayako Kato’s Epiphany Dance Experiment, mentioned above, continues with Simply Showing, featuring choreography by Janet Schmid, Melissa Simo and J’Sun Howard as well as groups Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting and Green Cross at the Epiphany Episcopal Church, Sunday, May 17, at 6 p.m. There is a $12 suggested donation. Visit epiphanydance.blogspot.com.

—Quicksilver Occasion Pieces names the evening of May 29 at Wicker Park rehearsal and performance studio Silverspace. Houston bassist Thomas Helton will accompany dancer Asimina Chremos and vocalist Carol Genetti for an informal performance with refreshments. It will be at 1474 N. Milwaukee at 8 p.m. Donations accepted; visit www.asiminachremos.com and web.mac.com/thomashelton.

—Title of the year goes to Chicago Tap Theatre’s “fairy tale tap dance opera” with a touch of the meta, Little Dead Riding Hood. Find out what happens when pigeonholed characters say “enough!” and take matters into their own … shoes. It will run at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, May 29-June 14. Tickets are $18-30; see www.chicagotaptheatre.com .

—Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s final program under the leadership of Jim Vincent includes his latest (but perhaps not last) creation for the company, Slipstream, to Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. Joining it are audience faves Extremely Close by Alejandro Cerrudo and Nacho Duato’s Gnawa. At the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph, June 4 at 7:30 p.m.; June 6 at 8 p.m.; and June 7 at 3 p.m. More information is available at www.hubbardstreetdance.com