The Other Dance Festival has begun! Located at Hamlin Park Fieldhouse's blackbox theatre, the shows take place on Thursday and Friday night. The first shows began this week, Sept. 17-18, and continue until October 1-2, 2009. Shows are at 7:30 and feature such artists as Mordine and Co., Matthew Hollis, and Peter Carpenter! This festival is an amazing opportunity to get a look at what highly respected local dance artists are doing. If you want a taste of the Chicago dance scene, this is the place to get it! This festival is popular, so buy your tickets in advance.
Click here for more information!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Laboratory Dancers In Full Swing!
Laboratory Dancers are holding an audition for their upcoming show! The show will take place at Hamlin Park. Dates are February 11 - 12, 2010. There will be two pieces, one each by Artistic Co-Directors Emily Lukasewski and Alexandra Subak. Dancers are welcome to audition for one or both pieces. Please arrive early and ready to move!
Tentative rehearsal times are Wednesdays from 5-9pm and Sundays from 1-5pm. If you have any scheduling conflicts regarding the audition or rehearsal times, please contact us at laboratorydancers@gmail.com as an alternate audition date is being planned.
AUDITION INFO:
Friday, September 11, 2009
7:00pm - 9:00pm
4057 Damn (near Damen and Lincoln/Irving Park Brown Line)
Enter on Belle Plaine
Also feel free to drop in on Laboratory Dancers Company Class, happening every Sunday from September 6 - October 25 from 10:00am - 12:00pm at the Rumble Arts Center (3413 W North Ave)! Classes include live accompaniment, guest teachers, and stimulating material to suit everyone, regardless of background or experience! This class is open to everyone, even beginners, with just a $5 suggested donation. You will not want to miss it!
Laboratory Dancers is an inclusive artist collective located in Chicago. We are an evolving project-based vehicle for creating and presenting all kinds of art from dance to magic.
Laboratory Dancers strives to fertilize a breeding ground for people to come out and create provocative conversation starters through any means or medium. We wish to provide a catalyst for production of ideas, a stage for the slow digestion of ideas and a collective of people to instigate the exchange between consumption and production.
Welcome to our Laboratory.
Tentative rehearsal times are Wednesdays from 5-9pm and Sundays from 1-5pm. If you have any scheduling conflicts regarding the audition or rehearsal times, please contact us at laboratorydancers@gmail.com as an alternate audition date is being planned.
AUDITION INFO:
Friday, September 11, 2009
7:00pm - 9:00pm
4057 Damn (near Damen and Lincoln/Irving Park Brown Line)
Enter on Belle Plaine
Also feel free to drop in on Laboratory Dancers Company Class, happening every Sunday from September 6 - October 25 from 10:00am - 12:00pm at the Rumble Arts Center (3413 W North Ave)! Classes include live accompaniment, guest teachers, and stimulating material to suit everyone, regardless of background or experience! This class is open to everyone, even beginners, with just a $5 suggested donation. You will not want to miss it!
Laboratory Dancers is an inclusive artist collective located in Chicago. We are an evolving project-based vehicle for creating and presenting all kinds of art from dance to magic.
Laboratory Dancers strives to fertilize a breeding ground for people to come out and create provocative conversation starters through any means or medium. We wish to provide a catalyst for production of ideas, a stage for the slow digestion of ideas and a collective of people to instigate the exchange between consumption and production.
Welcome to our Laboratory.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Swan Lake Revamped
The ballet Swan Lake is a staple of classical theatrical dance in the West. It stands serenely on a pedestal, worshiped by little girls in tiny tutus. Who would dare to attempt such a daunting task as re-interpreting Swan Lake? Idan Cohen.
This Israeli choreographer's vision is realized through three female dancers who stay on stage throughout the entire piece. The work is given a complete aesthetic overhaul, with dark colors and twisted shapes. For more information, check out the link below for a full article from the Jerusalem Post titled When the Cygnet Grows Up.
Idan Cohen’s Swan Lake. Photo by Marek Weis.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Coming up in August!
August 22, 7:30pm
Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park
Chicago Dancing Festival Finale
Artists presenting work that night include Lar Lubovich and William Forsythe.
FREE
See full line-up
August 26, 7:00pm
The Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre
River North's Artistic Director moderates a conversation/stage rehearsal with his dancers.
$10
RSVP: culture@centeronhalsted.org OR 773.661.0763
Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park
Chicago Dancing Festival Finale
Artists presenting work that night include Lar Lubovich and William Forsythe.
FREE
See full line-up
August 26, 7:00pm
The Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre
River North's Artistic Director moderates a conversation/stage rehearsal with his dancers.
$10
RSVP: culture@centeronhalsted.org OR 773.661.0763
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Getting Off the Ground
I have recently begun thinking more seriously about the enormity of a task like getting a new dance company up and running. The very idea is daunting enough that I'm sure many people never even try. Many more try and give up. And I'm beginning to understand why.
For starters, there's the dolla$. I mean, one of the most basic principles of fund raising is that the more you spend, the more you make. Well, when you're just starting out (especially when you're just starting out as a recent college graduate who doesn't even have insurance) your back is really up against a wall, finance-wise. So what are we to do? Especially in an economic climate as bleak as ours currently is. We aren't even supposed to feel the relief of the supposed upswing that we're in for a few more years!
The only answer that I can see is to get creative and recognize that patience is a virtue. Big shows and official status and regular paychecks may be years off. In fact, they're almost definitely far off in the future. But creative thinking and perseverence are really the only options we have. Arts work has never been easy, but a few have always made it to the big time. As time goes on, I'm starting to think it's hard work and not luck that makes the difference. Luck obviousy helps, but the work is so very hard. It's harder than I thought and I've been hearing horror stories about how hard arts work is since I was 14. But the biggest rewards come to those who wait and work and beat the odds.
I'm just going to put my nose to the grindstone and fight for my reward, even if it takes years.
For starters, there's the dolla$. I mean, one of the most basic principles of fund raising is that the more you spend, the more you make. Well, when you're just starting out (especially when you're just starting out as a recent college graduate who doesn't even have insurance) your back is really up against a wall, finance-wise. So what are we to do? Especially in an economic climate as bleak as ours currently is. We aren't even supposed to feel the relief of the supposed upswing that we're in for a few more years!
The only answer that I can see is to get creative and recognize that patience is a virtue. Big shows and official status and regular paychecks may be years off. In fact, they're almost definitely far off in the future. But creative thinking and perseverence are really the only options we have. Arts work has never been easy, but a few have always made it to the big time. As time goes on, I'm starting to think it's hard work and not luck that makes the difference. Luck obviousy helps, but the work is so very hard. It's harder than I thought and I've been hearing horror stories about how hard arts work is since I was 14. But the biggest rewards come to those who wait and work and beat the odds.
I'm just going to put my nose to the grindstone and fight for my reward, even if it takes years.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Nijinsky on youtube
Browsing through the June 29, 2009 issue of The New Yorker, I found a short piece about videos of Nijinsky dancing on youtube. Being an avid Nijinsky fan, I was immediately drawn in. Nijinsky was never filmed dancing, so I was curious as to how where these films had come from. Apparently, one enterprising youtube user, Christian Comte, has been making short clips of Nijinsky dancing based on photographs of his performances from the golden age of the Ballet Russes. The clips are very short (0:09 to 0:45) and appear quite stiff and awkward. However, they do give a sense of how Nijinsky's movement might have flowed, one into the other. Also, to be perfectly honest, it's quite enjoyable to lose oneself in the fantasy of such "lost footage."
For more information, check out the article from The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/06/29/090629ta_talk_acocella
Christian Comte's youtube page
http://www.youtube.com/user/christiancomte
For more information, check out the article from The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/06/29/090629ta_talk_acocella
Christian Comte's youtube page
http://www.youtube.com/user/christiancomte
The Tragic Loss of Pina Bausch
German choreographer Pina Bausch is dead at 68. Her creativity and imagination breathed fresh life into concert dance and her choreography captured emotion on a whole new scale. Her version of the "Rite of Spring" is the only choreography I have seen (other than the reconstruction of Nijinsky's original work) that is powerful enough to stand up to Stravinsky's score. She will be sorely missed in the dance community.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/arts/dance/01bausch.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/arts/dance/01bausch.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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