Dance is the soul of this country.  This is so American, it’s ridiculous!” ~Judith Jameson

Just finished watching the live-streaming video of the White House Dance Series: Tribute to Judith Jameson. The Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater had a front row seat for the festivities hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.  Damien Woetzel, former principal with the New York City Ballet, Artistic Director of the Vail International Dance Festival and appointed member of the Presidential Committee on the Arts and Humanities, also hosted a children’s dance workshop with some of the artists from the show before announcing the First Lady.  Woetzel said that the event was a “validation of the arts”.

Mrs. Obama (who looked fabulous, as usual) sat across the aisle from Jameson in the front row and was joined by daughters Malia and Sasha and her mother after saying a few words about dance and Jameson’s contribution to the art.  For the first event in the new dance series, the WH brought a variety of artists.  Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performed the solo Cry (made famous by Jameson),  and excerpts from the quintessential Ailey piece Revelations.  They were joined by artists from Broadway’s Billy Elliot (Electricity), NYCB (Balanchine’s Tarantella), Paul Taylor Dance Company (Cloven Kingdom), MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew winners Super CR3W, and Washington Ballet (excerpts from Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs).

Revelations, which never fails to entertain, was almost too much (fans, umbrellas, et al.) for the tiny stage in the East Room, but ended the show with a passionate reverance to Jameson.  RB was happy they included Sinner Man, the high-energy snippet for three men with awesome athletics and extensions (fave!).  Also of mention, NYCB’s Ashley Bouder’s fast footwork and triple pirouettes in Tarantella.

Seeing dance honored by this administration is wonderful.  RB will tune in next time to — as the First Lady so aptly put — “witness the glory of movement”.

When you dance, I wish you
A wave o’ th’ sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that; more still, still so,
And own no other function.

(IV.iv.140-143) The Winter’s Tale

William Shakespeare

The White House is hosting a new dance series.  First up – a tribute to Judith Jamison, outgoing Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Thanks Mrs. O!

hat tip:  the ballet bag

Don’t forget to head down to Millennium Park tomorrow evening to see the Chicago Dancing Festival.  RB is really looking forward to seeing Trinity (Joffrey) and Serenade (Ballet West) on the Pritzker stage.  Add to that Alvin Ailey II, Battleworks, Royal Ballet and Mark Morris Dance Group and it is sure to be a night to remember.  Bummed to have missed Lar Lubovitch Dance Co (but they’ll be back in Sept!), the fabulous Miss Wendy Whelan and Kanji Segawa.

It’s so  exciting to have this much world-class dance right here!  Thanks to festival founders Lar Lubovitch, Jay Franke and David Herro for their wonderful contribution to our city.  The three will be recognized at a pre-show ceremony and receive the Ruth Page Award on Saturday.  Congrats on your well-deserved acknowledgement!

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Dancers: Jonathan Alsberry, Jay Franke, Attila Csiki. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

World-class dance hits Chicago this week!  Not that we don’t already have those bragging rights with our local plethora of top-notch dance companies, but this week the Chicago Dancing Festival brings together an eclectic group of artists from across the country and, for the first time in the festival’s history, an international presence represented by dancers from the Royal Ballet of London.  The festival kicks off its fourth year with a benefit performance on Wednesday and continues with free shows at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance (Thurs),  the Museum of Contemporary Art (Friday) and the Pritzker Pavillion at Millennium Park (Saturday).

With only one Chicago-based company performing this year (The Joffrey Ballet), founders Lar Lubovitch and Jay Franke recruited their dream cast with a specific goal in mind — to cultivate a new audience.  “There are people in the audience that are huge dance lovers and follow everything that happens in the city, but we’re programming more toward that new audience,” says Franke.  “We want them to have the best that’s out there.  We’ve utilized a lot of the Chicago companies in the past.  We start every year fresh and try to compose the best program.”  On the program this year is a giant range of styles.  The Modern Masters program includes choreography by Christopher Wheeldon, Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris and newly named Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (he takes over next July), Robert Battle, while the Celebration of Dance that closes the fest includes more classical works from Balanchine and Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

RB talked with Founder/Artistic Director Jay Franke, a former dancer with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Twyla Tharp and Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and Julliard grad, about the history of the festival and what he’s looking forward to seeing this week.

RB:  Why did you start the festival?  How did it come about?

JF: Lar (Lubovitch) and my partner, David (Herro) and I were out to dinner one night and were talking about what we felt was missing with dance in Chicago.  We really felt that Chicago was missing a large-scale dance festival.  We obviously knew there were smaller festivals here that were more geared toward the local dance companies, but we felt that if we could create a larger platform for dance in the city, we could grow a new audience, which was really our first goal.  There’s a new audience out there…or maybe the new audience is the Joffrey audience that is now going to see Hubbard Street or Melissa Thodos or Gus Giordano, so we’re kind of cross-pollinating the different company’s audiences.  Early on, the idea was a festival.  We felt in order to make it user-friendly, that it needed to be free.  As Lar often says he wanted everyone invited to the party.  If we’re going to create this festival and then charge $30 a ticket, it’s counterproductive.  We set our sights on Millennium Park early on.  I also felt that if we wanted to start this giant venture, we needed an artistic institution behind us.

RB:  Is that the Chicago Dancing Company?

JF:  We formed the Chicago Dancing Company first, then we searched and shopped for an artistic institution – and we weren’t necessarily looking for a dance institution – and came across Peter Taub and Greg Cameron at the MCA.  We told them about this idea we had to start a festival and they were immediately interested in it because one of the missions of the MCA was to grow outside of the museum walls and they felt that by them contributing to us, they could get us a meeting with Millennium Park to pitch the idea, which we did.  At that time, Helen Doria was running the programming.  The hope was to do this in 2008 and this was maybe January 2007.  Helen grabs the calendar and says, “We’ve been looking for a great dance opportunity – we’re doing it now!”  She gave us a Wednesday night in the middle of August and it was up to Lar and myself to come up with the programming.

The first year, we had our one night and we had over 8,000 people there.  It was the most frightening experience of my career.  It really was.  It was my first time to be on that side of the curtain.  It’s completely out of your control.  The weather was a threat that year.  We didn’t know how many people were going to be there.  We’d done all that we could as far as our funds could take us with publicity.  We had some great stories written in the papers, but didn’t really have the money to splash ads everywhere so, through some higher calling or higher being, it went off without a hitch.  It was exciting and electrifying for me to just be there and be in that moment for the first time.

RB:  Are you dancing in this year’s festival?

JF:  No.  I’m actually slowing down as a dancer.  I find myself less and less interested in dance as a dancer.  Things are starting to hurt now.  I always say to myself that I never want to be in that place where I’m going on stage and all I can think about is getting through the pain to get to what I love doing.  Let’s face it, dance is about being young and feeling good.  Plus, the festival occupies the bulk of my time.  It used to be just a couple of months in the summer, but now it’s more like a full-time job.

New York City Ballet artists Sebastien Marcovici and Wendy Whelan. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

RB: What’s it like working with Lar?

JF:  He’s great.  He’s a mentor to me.  You get to know someone artistically in a studio, but until you start working side-by-side with them and see why they make the choices they make…obviously Lar has so many great contacts in the dance world and has such a great reputation.  When the idea was first initiated, he was the one that called companies.  Now, we have companies calling us because they want to be a part of it.  It’s a very cool experience.  I’ve been in class in New York next to dancers that have danced on our stage and they thank me and say it was the most incredible experience.  Especially at the Pritzker, for them to dance for that amount of people on that architecturally beautiful stage…and the view from the stage is phenomenal.  You can see the Modern Wing and all of Michigan Avenue.

RB:  You never think about what the dancers are seeing.  What pieces are you most excited about this year?

JF:  I’m most excited about the largeness of the works we’re presenting.  The Mark Morris Dance Group, Serenade (Ballet West) is with 26 dancers…these are large pieces.  Every year we learn from what we’ve done.  Not that we make mistakes, because we feel like every year presents a different challenge for us.  I felt like last year we left thinking we did smaller pieces and that we should do larger-scale pieces.  Also, this year we’re doing something a little different with our format.  We’re presenting the same company twice.  The Mark Morris Dance Group will perform Thursday and Saturday doing two different works.  I think the idea of the larger-scale companies is what I’m most excited about…seeing those companies take the stage.  The Paul Taylor piece that Julliard (School Dance Ensemble) is doing – I’ve watched them in rehearsal, they’re just the most dynamic group of individuals – it’s a great opportunity for them to be on the same stage with Wendy Whelan (of the New York City Ballet).  It’s huge for them. There’s a lot of large opportunity for all of these companies this year and for the audience to experience the bigger companies.

RB:  You’ve had a pretty amazing career (Julliard, Twyla, Hubbard Street, Lar’s company)…did you start out taking ballet classes?

JF:  Tap.  I wanted to be Fred Astaire.  (Laughs.)  Then I switched to Gene Kelly and back to Fred Astaire.  I couldn’t make up my mind.  My Mom and Dad were so supportive from the beginning.  “You want to be a dancer?  Sure!”  My 90-year-old grandmother still thinks I’m a tap dancer.  When I dance for Twyla or whoever and she comes to see me she says, “That was the best tap dance I’ve ever seen!”  Yes, it was Nana.

Tickets to the MCA and Harris Theater shows sold out quickly, but you can still venture down to Millennium Park for Saturday’s Celebration of Dance.  The performance starts at 7:30 and is guaranteed to be some of the best dancing — non-tap — you’ve ever seen.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs&feature=player_embedded]

Thoughts?

It’s gala time!  For 19 years, Keith Elliott and Chicago Dancers United have produced the premier dance fundraising event, Dance for Life.  For one evening only — Saturday, August 21, dancers from some of Chicago’s top companies (Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theatre, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Joffrey Ballet, River North Chicago Dance Company and Thodos Dance Chicago) will perform at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance to raise money for HIV/AIDS care.

Back for the 19th year as well is audience-favorite Dean Richards (WGN-TV, WGN Radio, WGN America and NewsTalk 720, etc.) as Master of Ceremonies.  The up-for-anything entertainment critic has upped his own ante by performing hilarious opening skits in years past.  Switching things up this year though, is a top secret finale choreographed by local legend Harrison McEldowney, who often contributes his witty talents to the raffle portion of the show.  Randy Duncan, who has choreographed the finale since 1994, will be back next year with a grand finale to celebrate the 20th anniversary.

Beneficiaries of the nearly $4 million raised so far from Dance for Life are:  AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Brothers Health Collective, Chicago Child Care Society, Centro Romero, Dance for Life Fund, Tongabezi Trust School and the Young Women’s Empowerment Project.  “The school is a big deal,” says Elliott.  “We give them only $5000 a year.  They created a community AIDS Awareness Day.  They do education in the community.  It is just one school and there are hundreds, but they really made a big deal with the money…$5000 goes a long way.”  Also in the works is a documentary filming project.

RB caught up with the very busy and ever-jovial Keith Elliott to talk about the largest performance-based AIDS fundraising event in the Midwest.

RB:  Tell me how this all got started.

KE:  It all started…really 20 years ago, I was dancing for Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater and we started getting laid off for the summer and didn’t want to have a bunch of down time, so I started creating a concept of a concert to raise money.

RB:  Did you already know what you wanted to raise money for?

KE:  No.  It was just an idea that I wanted to raise money.  It felt natural to do it for AIDS, because there really wasn’t anything at the time that the dance community was doing.

RB:  Was Joseph still alive?

KE:  No, he had died by that time.  I got a hold of Todd Kiech and said, “I can’t do this by myself!”  Todd came aboard and we thought we’d just put on our own choreography so we’d have a show.  Then I reached out to Harriet Ross, who was the Assoc Dir of Joseph Holmes at the time.  I knew she had a lot of good ideas and connections and I said, “here’s my idea…what do you think?”  She said, “Well, the choreography sucks!” in her nicest, Jewish way.  “You should call up the big guys if you want to do a fundraiser.”  I didn’t know I could do that.  So she said, “Let’s go!”  We went into her office and started calling.  Everyone said yes, yes, yes!  We found a date that worked and it sold out.

RB:  You have a Spanish dance company that is performing this year.  How do you decide who gets to perform?

KE:  We’ve streamlined a little bit, so we have four anchor companies now.  (Joffrey, River North, Gus Giordano and Hubbard Street).  What we tried to do was create an opening slot for ethnic-type companies…this year we bring in Ensemble Español.

RB:  Do you have a competition?

KE:  It’s an adjudication process. They submit a tape of the piece that they want and I compile them on a dvd and send it out to three dance critics in the city.  They know all the other companies, so we just ask them to look at the piece that is being submitted and really create a flow for the evening.

RB:  Tell me about the documentary.

KE:  It’s in the infancy stages.  Right now we’re just trying to find out if we can get the money.  We’re going to have to depend on a lot of angels real fast, because if it happens…Scott Silberstein from HMS Media, of course they are an Emmy Award-winning media firm…we’re working with them to make it happen pretty quickly.

RB:  You would do it this year?

KE:  Yes, film now for next year, then piece it together do all of the interviews.  It’ll kick off probably in March next year (whenever sweeps are not) and then we’ll be able to air it to kick off our 20^th year.  We’ve already met with WTTW to try and get several airing dates.  What we’d like to do is throw a viewing party to help raise money.  The biggest thing about Dance for Life is that it needs to outreach more, because you need to make more and more people aware of the cause and the necessity for money.  We have a couple of youth programs and we thought, why don’t we set up viewing parties at local schools.  They pay a dollar, they get to view the tape and we send out somebody from Joffrey or Hubbard Street, dancers that would be proactive and feel good about the cause and what we’re trying to do.  They could maybe teach a master class for 30 minutes.  We’re trying to devise something to get them out there to heighten awareness on AIDS support and raise a little money.  If the kids pay a dollar, it makes them feel philanthropic and they learn how to give.  So, we’re working on that too.  It will all be based around the documentary.

RB:  What have been some of your favorite memories…either from the shows or behind the scenes?

KE:  The first memory was “oh my…it’s going to be a lot of work!”  We went in to the Organic Theater, and not being technically savvy, we brought aboard a girl from Barat College, she did all the tech stuff up there…we got to the theater the day of the show and all of the cords for all the lights were just in a pile.  We spent hours just undoing the cords, then we had to plug in the lights, etc.  At that point, I saw how you really have to prep every little thing.  That was a learning curve that went real fast!  The light at the end of this tunnel was when I opened the door and looked around the block and screamed “Sold Out!”, everybody was booing, but in a good way and saying,  “we’ll be back next year!”

My favorite memory from the shows is just seeing everybody back stage…how they mingle and mix, when normally they wouldn’t or wouldn’t have the opportunity to.  Everybody’s really cool, they’re there for the same purpose and I love, love, love the fact that they get it…that they’re donating their time to help raise money.  A lot of them don’t realize we’re funding the school in Africa and its AIDS programs, we’re supporting yearly four health organizations here in the city — the main one being the AIDS Foundation.

Ticket are still available.  For more information, please call 312.922.5812 or visit www.danceforlifechicago.com.

Suzanne Farrell, most commonly known as George Balachine’s muse, turns 65 today!

Former ballet superstar of ABT, NYCB and the Royal Ballet, Gelsey Kirkland and her husband, Michael Chernov are opening a new ballet school in NYC!  Read the WSJ article here.

The Sadler Wells Theatre in London has released the shortlist of contestants for their Global Dance Contest.  Click here to watch the videos and vote for your favorite.

You only get one vote, so vote your heart.  RB‘s heart is with friend and former Joffrey dancer Matthew Prescott’s This Heart (video title is incorrect on site).  Love it!