HEAD-Y STUFF DanceWorks Chicago took off in 2008.
David Letterman be damned; after considering the standouts in Chicago’s 2008 dance archive, we found it impossible to arrange the creative work in a competitive, ranked format. Instead, in no paticular order we recall seven major developments that deeply influenced the Chicago dance scene—for better or worse.
1. DanceWorks Chicago debut
After running and refining HS2, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s junior company, Julie Nakagawa and her partner Andreas Böttcher took off and started their own pivotal training ensemble for outstanding preprofessional dancers. The two have a magical way of nurturing young artists. They might have done too good of a job: We’ve heard that HSDC main company directors were concerned that the smaller, younger, yet no less excellent HS2 was becoming more popular with some bookers than the full-grown group (which is much more expensive to present). With colleague Debbie Kristofek and financial backer Pam Crutchfield, the couple broke off from Hubbard and formed DanceWorks Chicago. The organization found a home at the historic Ruth Page Center for the Arts and held a beautiful debut performance in the center’s theater in June.
2. Dancer Maia Wilkins’s contract not renewed at Joffrey Ballet
Fans of the svelte and elegant leading ballerina were stunned in March when new artistic director Ashley Wheater did not renew Wilkins’s contract—nor her fellow dancer and husband Michael Levine—for the following season. The pair made their farewell performance in May and have been seen teaching ballet classes and coaching dancers in minor companies and neighborhood studios ever since. It is heartbreaking when accomplished artists are plucked from the stage near the end of fine careers but before retirement seems imminent.
3. Peter Carpenter’s The Sky Hangs Down Too Close
Since his days in the wild 1990s with XSIGHT! Performance Group, we’ve known Carpenter as a strong talent on stage. But he hit new heights as the backstage brains of one of the year’s strongest premieres. As the nonperforming lead artist of Sky, Carpenter conceived and directed the work while eliciting choreographic input from the dancers of Lucky Plush Productions. In the work based on a Brecht play, Carpenter turned his attention to a dynamic, kinetic, violent and sometimes hilarious world where individuals struggle with struggle itself.
4. Deaths of Gerald Arpino and Gus Giordano
Two of the dance world’s internationally-recognizedpatres familias died in 2008. Arpino, cofounder of the Joffrey Ballet with Robert Joffrey, died in late October. Giordano died in March and the jazz-dance troupe that he founded delivered a special tribute performance at the Harris Theater in October. Giordano’s daughter Nan continues to guide the artistic direction of the school and performing group.
5. Kickoff of the Epiphany Dance Experiment
Ayako Kato may be a diminutive, shy woman, but she’s got the determination to move mountains. Her desire to create a platform for excellent improvisational dance led her to assemble the city’s newest dance series, Epiphany Dance Experiment. With the support of the Rev. Meigan Cameron, the historic Epiphany Episcopal Church sheltered some of the city’s finest artists of the genre in “Improv Evolution Vol. 1,” the November kickoff of the series.
6. Matthew Hollis’s Let’s Go Love!
After endearing himself to audiences for a few years with his cheerleader-inspired choreo-monologues, Hollis finally got the support (from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum) to grow his performative exploration of self-esteem and queer identity into an evening-length show that ran at the Theatre Building Chicago. The work, which included an ensemble of charismatic male and female cheerleader-dancers, didn’t disappoint.
7. Launch of TakeChicagoDance.com
Two years after getting the Web-based performance calendar SeeChicagoDance.com up and running, the team at Carol Fox & Associates decided to take advantage of increased demand for recreational dance instruction fostered by television shows like Dancing with the Stars. TakeChicagoDance was launched with fanfare at the Chicago Cultural Center in late March.
NEXT> Ten off-the-radar dance moments of 2008