Author Archives: Dorothy Samachson

PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY College of DuPage Arts Center, March 26 No matter how you try to categorize Paul Taylor’s contributions to contemporary dance it’s an almost impossible task. This prodigiously gifted choreographer and artistic director is unique. The themes of his programs vary, and his dancers are among the most virtuosic on any stage, […]

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY at Ravinia September 2-5 Martha Graham’s remarkable career spanned 70 years, during which she revolutionized dance in America and exerted a major influence on dance around the globe. Originally she created many of her dances–over 180 of them–for herself, but even when she could no longer dance she kept on making […]

BALLET CHICAGO at the Civic Theatre February 13-15 Ballet Chicago’s three performances in the Civic Theatre last weekend offered proof positive that the term “promising” can no longer be applied to the troupe. Their five years of struggle and adversity are paying off handsomely, and artistic director Daniel Duell can take pride in his company’s […]

MOMENTA at the Ruth Page Foundation Theatre November 1 and 2 Momenta is the only group I know of in the Chicago area that is dedicating its energy, imagination, and scarce funds to authentic re-creations of vanished dances by important American choreographers. Stephanie Clemens, Momenta’s artistic director, began the project three years ago to acquaint […]

THE NUTCRACKER at the Arie Crown Theatre December 7-9, 12-16, 18-23, 26-30 In times as uncertain and threatening as ours, we must be doubly grateful for that most comforting standby, The Nutcracker. Just about wherever one looks in the United States–on major stages, in gymnasiums and community centers–American audiences are flocking to see virtue triumphant: […]

BOLSHOI BALLET at Arie Crown Theatre August 1-5 The Bolshoi Ballet, which returned to Chicago for six performances after a ten-year absence, remains one of the glories of the civilized world. Yet despite the unmatched virtuosity and elegance displayed by principals and corps in both Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet, something was missing from […]

LYNDA MARTHA DANCE COMPANY at the Dance Center of Columbia College May 4, 5, 11, and 12 In the 11 years since she founded her company, Lynda Martha has been pretty consistent in presenting dances–whether by herself or by guest choreographers–in a style that might be loosely identified as the modern-jazz idiom. The works that […]

BALLET CHICAGO at the Civic Center for Performing Arts April 25, 27, and 28 Ballet Chicago’s three performances at the Civic Opera House last week offered heartening assurance that the young troupe is well on its way to establishing itself as a resident ballet company Chicago can take pride in. Artistic director Daniel Duell can […]

RUDOLF NUREYEV & FRIENDS at the Civic Center for Performing Arts April 5-8 In the 29 years since he made his spectacular, desperate leap across the Iron Curtain at a Paris airport, Rudolf Nureyev has achieved great things. As the first Soviet dancer to defect, he represented a political victory that attracted vast new audiences […]

WORKS BY DORIS HUMPHREY Momenta at the Academy of Movement and Music January 27 and 28 and February 3 and 4 A new spirit is making its presence felt in dance these days. More accurately, I suppose, I should say that this new spirit is the past–the nearly lost, nearly forgotten dance of the past, […]

THE NUTCRACKER at Arie Crown Theatre December 8-30 It’s sort of funny–if one stops to think of it–that The Nutcracker should be a treasured all-American Christmas entertainment for the entire family. Based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a well-known 19th-century German writer, and composed by a Russian for the edification of the czar and […]