Author Archives: Cerinda Survant

BEST OF DANCE & MORE FOR $1.98 at MoMing Dance & Arts Center January 13-15 Concerts featuring several choreographers are casually called “mixed bills,” but some are more mixed than others: the dances presented in MoMing’s “Best of Dance for $1.98,” and its successor “Best of Dance & More for $1.98,” are as diverse–and often […]

HUBBARD STREET DANCE COMPANY at the Auditorium Theatre October 27-29 Chicagoans going to the Hubbard Street Dance Company hoping to see tits and ass in the great Broadway tradition will be shocked. Long Chicago’s most virtuosic, popular, and glamorous company, Hubbard Street now has a new, wide-ranging repertoire that challenges the dancers’ established strengths and […]

BALLET CHICAGO at Orchestra Hall September 22-24 Traditionally, ballet is accompanied by live music, but putting the musicians onstage is unusual. Historically (especially in Chicago), ballet companies attract audiences and acclaim because of guest stars and bravura dancing, not because of the strength of the ensemble or the inherent interest of the choreography. In their […]

NEW DANCES ’88 Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble and guest artists at Ruth Page Foundation July 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, and 23 Hatchlings resemble their parents, and most of the works premiered in the Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble’s choreographic incubator New Dances, now in its sixth year, share the ensemble’s virtues and vices: its careful […]

JANET SKIDMORE AND BRYAN SANER at Mertz Hall, Loyola University July 9 Craftsmanship can transform even the plainest, most mundane material. Scraps of worn-out denim and discarded petticoats become quilts prized for generations or sold for thousands. Mud and grit become mugs, plates, or vases. Some choreographers can make interesting dances out of nothing more […]

HUBBARD STREET DANCE COMPANY at the Civic Center for Performing Arts April 28, 29, and 30, May 1, 5, 6, and 7, 1988 No one ever taught Lou Conte to leave well enough alone, apparently. Three years ago, at the height of his popular and critical success, Conte decided to tamper with a sure thing […]

ROBERT SMALL at the Dance Center of Columbia College April 22 and 23, 1988 No dance experience is worse than an evening of dull solo performance; conversely, a successful one is matchless. It’s difficult for solo dance artists to arouse and hold their audiences’ interest. Some rely on charisma, others on virtuosity, still others exploit […]

THE JOFFREY BALLET at the Civic Center for Performing Arts March 22-27, 1988 Dances are not things like paintings or sculptures. Dances do not have texts like plays, or even a universal notation like music. Dances are experiences, phenomena; they enjoy only a trace existence after the performance. If a choreographer and her dancers forget […]

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE at the Auditorium Theatre February 2-13, 1988 American Ballet Theatre’s programming for their annual Chicago engagement embodies the tension between classicism and romanticism that marks ballet in America. A classical choreographic style emphasizes discipline, simplicity, harmony; the romantic emphasizes enthusiasm, intricacy, emotion. In ABT’s repertory, George Balanchine’s Symphonie Concertante and Ballet Imperial […]

PLACE OF AMBUSH Beth Soll and Company at MoMing February 4-7 The stage is plain and black–black vinyl floor, a black drop upstage, black flats defining the wings. The costumes are plain and white–leotards and trousers for two men, leotards and culottes for four women. The lighting is understated, the score sparse, the movement itself […]