Stravinsky’s timeless masterpiece, Rites of Spring, opens softly as if it were just waking. It’s a short-lived calm, soon consumed with a whirling swirl of complexity, beauty and power. That intricacy and duality may be reasons why choreographer Molissa Fenley chose it as the musical framework supporting her groundbreaking composition, State of Darkness, choreographed in …
State of Darkness All About Discovering the Light Read More »
Artists have a special sensitivity to life. Their minds are like eyes that see the world a little differently than most of us. With their imagination and through their chosen form of expression, they feed their visions back to us in music, painting, theater, dance and verse. Whatever their format, they are telling stories about …
You can’t talk to anybody these days who isn’t looking for something to feel good about. Lots of us are homing in on Christmas as that jolt of joy that’ll ease the weight of this oppressive and thriving pandemic. We won’t even mention the stifling political angst that’s griped the country for months. But there’ve …
You don’t ordinarily think of dancers as inspiring but Netflix’s new five- part series Move will make you reconsider. The show travels the world and introduces you to people who are not only masters at what they do but also qualify as visionaries in the way they approach dance. Charles “Lil Buck” Riley and Jon …
The Totally Fake Latino News with Culture Clash may be wrapping up its virtual run with the La Jolla Playhouse soon so this would be a good time to drop in and catch some top rate comedy from a point of view that’s been much too neglected. Practicing their very own brand of social commentary …
The silver lining encircling the world’s current health emergency may be whisper thin, but it does exist and reveals itself in the most unlikely ways. One of them is the Battery Dance Festival (BDF) 2020. It’s a New York thing and because it’s so unusual and so specific to location, you’ve likely never heard of …
Battery Dance Festival 2020 – Where the Whole World Dances Read More »
With the eyes of the world looking so anxiously toward the future, a chance to catch some telling glimpses of the past can prove surprisingly therapeutic; as well as add some perspective to the tension filling so many of our current days. Last year, the Chicago History Museum made a momentous acquisition that, today, lets …
With the torrent of the love raining on Beyoncé’s latest triumph, Black is King, few linger on the message filling nearly every minute of her paean to Black identity. “We have always been wonderful”, a lyric from one of the album’s songs, summarizes that message nicely. Black is King is the visual and musical odyssey …
Dance for Life, Chicago’s annual blowout dance extravaganza, was conceived by Chicago Dancers United (CDU) nearly three decades ago in the wake of another frightful contagion. Much more specific in its impact, the AIDs epidemic could be considered even more devastating than our current crisis because its diagnosis, before the development of any viable treatment, …
Have you ever thought you had a fair understanding of something only to find out there was a huge gap in your knowledge bank? A gap so big that it made you a little embarrassed for being so presumptuous? That’s how it was with Take Me to the World, an exuberant Zoom extravaganza filled with …