Shen Wei Dance Arts
September 23-24
The New York-based company makes its Chicago debut with Folding and Rite of Spring, two iconic pieces by choreographer Shen Wei, best known for his contribution to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics—an exquisite homage to Chinese landscape painting. The two works on the bill date from the early 2000s and emphasize Shen’s commitment to abstraction and spectacle.
Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, 312-341-2300, auditoriumtheatre.org, $29-$68
Reggie Wilson/Fist + Heel Performance Group
Citizen
October 12-14
Inspired by a portrait that hangs in Versailles of Jean-Baptiste Belley, a freed slave turned soldier and politician, Citizen juxtaposes five solo performances in an exploration of the idiosyncrasies of the individual spirit. Carried out by a spare cast in the span of an hour, the piece also features video projections and Reggie Wilson’s postmodern mix of blues, folk, and dances of the African diaspora.
7:30 PM, Dance Center at Columbia College, 1306 S. Michigan, 312-369-8300, colum.edu/dance-center/performances, $30, $24 seniors.
Performing Home
October 13-15
The second Chicago Architecture Biennial gathers artists and architects from more than 20 countries together under the theme “Make New History” (see Anjulie Rao’s feature about the CAB on page 14). In an associated program curated by Cynthia Bond, choreographers, artists, scholars, and activists investigate the diverse meanings of what we call home. 7 PM, Links Hall, 3111 N. Western, 773-281-0824, linkshall.org, $10
Elevate Chicago Dance
October 19-21
What has dance become in Chicago in 2017? Through ten programs in nine locations all around town, 40 local companies give us a taste of the current dance community. Among the styles featured are tap, butoh, Afro-fusion, disco, and the broad category of so-called contemporary dance. This one-time-only festival is the culmination of several years of work by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum and the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Various locations and times, chicagodancemakers.org/elevate, free-$30
Faye Driscoll
Thank You for Coming: Play
November 9-12
The second part of Faye Driscoll’s Thank You for Coming trilogy channels emotions central to the aftermath of the 2016 election: rage, anxiety, and the disturbing sense that what we see and hear have nothing to do with reality. Driscoll and dancers focus on shadows, stutters, repetitions, and gaps to construct and then deconstruct a fictional autobiography to investigate the dissonance between the spoken and the lived.
Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago, 312-397-4010, mcachicago.org, $30. v