Rivno dancers Melanie Manale-Hortin and Michael Gross in Chavez's 2009 work "Sentir em Nos". Photo by Cheryl Mann.

This Saturday, April 16th, River North Dance Chicago (RNDC) hits the stage of The Auditorium Theatre for the very first time to join the city-wide celebration of what would be the 85th birthday year of legendary jazz musician Miles Davis.  This is also the Auditorium’s first commissioned work, and considering some of RNDC’s audience may have never heard Miles Davis, makes it a night of firsts.  “It’s huge really,” says RNDC Artistic Director Frank Chavez.  “I’ve performed at the Auditorium.  It’s one of my favorite theaters in the city.  From the audience, it’s just gorgeous and from the viewpoint of being on stage, it’s pretty outstanding.  I was terribly excited to think of the company, our dancers, our rep on that stge and them getting to experience that.”

When approached by Brett Batterson, Executive Director of The Auditorium Theatre, about this special collaboration, Chavez was exited, but also a little daunted.  Although a former musician himself (sax), he wasn’t very familiar with Davis’ music.  “I never owned one of his albums growing up or throughout my musical career,” he says.  “I quickly got immersed in Miles Davis.  It took me about six months to just plow through so much of his library of music.”  Over time, he found music for the 20-plus minute piece – Simply Miles, Simply Us – making its world premiere this weekend at the one-night-only show.  Along with the Miles tribute suite, the program features  a “best of” mix of six other RNDC audience favorites.  Former RNDC Artistic Director Sherry Zunker’s Evolution of a Dream, Ashley Roland’s Beat (performed by Christian Denice – yes!) and Robert Battle’s Train are joined by three other works by Chavez – At Last, Sentir em Nós and Habaneras (which has become the company’s signature piece).

RB talked with Chavez after the company’s recent Midwest tour.  Here is an excerpt of our conversation.

RB:  Tell me about getting to know Miles as a musician.

FC: It was a process.  He has such a vast library and I must say my ears were bleeding for a little while.  I just listened to so much music!  Jazz can be difficult and Miles is such a purist.  For the general public, if they don’t have an appreciation or a trained ear, it can be difficult to listen to.  It can often times sound all the same.  When you’re listening to hundreds of songs…it just gets overwhelming.  I certainly wanted to represent him as best I could in different facets of his music throughout his career.  At the same time, I strongly needed something that I could listen to that would make me see dance.  I narrowed it down to about 20 pieces and from there I really jumped into a whole new stratosphere of listening.

RB:  How long did that music selection take?

FC:  It was about an eight month to almost a year process of really listening to the music and getting acquainted with Mile and reading about him.  Once I started putting movement to music, I was a complete convert.  It’s not that I didn’t realize or notice before, but once I really was able to get into the music and really listen, then you really understand and realize the mastery that is Miles Davis.  He and his fellow musicians…what they were able to do with the instruments, the inflections and how they would literally speak with these horns is just amazing.

RB:   How did the dancers take to the music?  I assume it is pretty difficult to count.

FC:  Yes, it is.  Some found it more difficult than others.  Id’ say, listen to the base.  The base will always follow the rhythm.  So we had to find some different ways to count and what to count.  Dancers are so musical.  The movement becomes the music and the music becomes the movement.  It just gets integrated.  I think they’ve responded very well.  Maybe we are going to introduce Miles Davis to a lot of people that never thought of him, so a whole new generation is getting to experience Miles Davis, including my dancers.

RB:  Christian Denice and Ricky Ruiz served as Assistant Choreographers for the new Miles piece.  How did that work?

FC:  This (project) came about before I knew I was going to need some spinal surgery, which happened in July.  I ended up pushing back my creative time to Decembers.  I had a lot of issues and problems and my functionality was really compromised.  This was quite a daunting task…and I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed in terms of being able to pull this off by myself.  I’ve never used assistants in my life!  They’ve been with the company for a while and they’ve both done a lot of choreography, not necessarily at the professional level, but I very much like their material.  I thought it would be really great to bring them in and use them as much as I needed to, depending on what I could do and what I couldn’t do.  There are parts where they choreographed on their own and parts where I would teach them stuff or we would work the material and I would have them be my body, so to speak.  The dancers were terrific.  They were very patient and understanding.  It was difficult.  This was the first time where I had to create something without being able to move…having to verbally describe everything, instead of even minimally being able to demonstrate it.  It turned out to be great.  I think the piece turned out much better by me doing that.  It’s what it needed.   I couldn’t be happier about making that decision.

River North Dance Chicago premieres at The Auditorium Theatre

Saturday, April 16 at 8 pm

Tickets:  800.982.2787 or ticketmaster.com/auditorium

Dancers Gabrielle DeRe-Ashley and Joseph Caruana in "Hadyn". Photo by Matt Glavin.

Earth, wind and fire…and oh yes, water too.  Elements Contemporary Ballet incorporates themes of the natural elements in their classes and choreography.  Founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Mike Gosney, Elements builds on his unique movement and teaching structure to create a cohesive, yet organic unit.  This Saturday, April 9th, the company will present its sixth Chicago concert with four of Gosney’s works at the Anthanaeum Theatre.

After teaching extensively for 20 years, Gosney has developed his own style.  Early on, while also studying astrology, he used the elemental energies to organize his classes.  Intrigued, I asked him to give examples of how the elements are woven into a ballet class structure.  “Air is the element surrounding thought, line and balance,” he explains.  “In this class much time is spent on understanding extension and organization/alignment of the bones.  Earth is the element surrounding hard work repetition and patience.  In this class we build and stretch muscle, very much like Yoga and Pilates.  Water is the element of mystery, spirituality and sexuality.  In a water class, the lights are dimmed, music never stops and the dancers are guided through structured improvisation.  Fire is the element for passions, performance and energy.  In this class my dancers attain endurance, speed and learn a lot about themselves as reliable performers.”

His approach led naturally to choreography.  This weekend’s one-night-only performance will showcase four powerful works:  Haydn – a neoclassical tribute to the composer set to Cello Concerto No. 1 in C, Curiosity – where the dancers physically embody questions, Grey – set to choral Tchaikovsky music, is a spirtually-inspired reflection on the color, and Great and Small – which uses the full company with apprentices to comment on nature and what earth might be like without man.

These four pieces represent the natural elements and the Elements dancers.  “It has been a gradual process gathering a group of dancers that appreciate classical line, but are willing to experiment with them the way I do,” says Gosney.  “With these dancers, I am able to show Chicago where this company is going.”  If you are interested in seeing where Elements will take you, go see the show this weekend.  I am.  Tickets are still available.

Elements Contemporary Ballet -Saturday, April 9th at 8 pm

The Anthenaem Theatre, 2936 N Southport

Tickets:  800.982.2787 or Ticketmaster.com

Photo by Cheryl Mann.

Concert Dance Inc (CDI) is celebrating its 30th anniversary season.  Lead by the indefatigable Venetia Stifler – Founder of CDI, Artistic and Executive Director of The Ruth Page Foundation, Coordinator of Dance at Northeastern Illinois University, Emmy-nominated choreographer, teacher, dancer and closet singer – CDI pulls together a group of collaborating artists to create a one-of-a-kind dance experience.  It is their choreographic process that makes them unique and perhaps why they have lasted for 30 years.  This weekend’s performance will feature three CDI works:  Controlled Chaos – a world premiere about CDI’s process, The Rope – a commissioned work about the labor movement and the history of Pennsylvania coal miners, and Meetings Along The Edge – exploring what happens when you bump up against another culture.

RB sat down with Ms. Stifler over lunch in Edgewater to talk about her career and what it means for CDI to be hitting 30.

RB:  30 years is pretty huge for a choreographer and for the company.  Tell me about your background and how you got started.

VS:  My grandparents were opera singers.  When I was born, apparently I destroyed my playpen because I was jumping around, leaping and hopping, so my grandfather decided I would be the dancer in the family.  When I was old enough he found a conservatory for me.  It was at 218 S. Wabash.  My grandfather would take me there for my lessons.  He died suddenly when I was about 12 or 13.  We weren’t really in the position to pay for ballet classes at the time.  I woke up on the next Saturday and said, “I have to go to class”.  I got on the bus with no money and told the bus driver that I had to go to my class.  I went to class and said, “I don’t have any money”, so they gave me a scholarship.  They were so kind to me.  That’s how I got started.

RB:  How/why did you start the company?

VS:  I went to the University of Illinois here in Chicago, majored in theater, still took dance and worked.  I would go to NY and study with Merce Cunningham and go to the Limon studio.  I made some friends there.  I was part of a group that was dancing and performing, so I’d bring people back from New York to come train with us.  Why I thought I needed to start a company at twenty-something…That was ridiculous, but it’s what you did.  I knew that I wanted to keep working, I wanted to keep learning, so I got a space, got some dancers together and we started working.  The company started as a repertory company.  It went on like that for a long time.  We were pretty successful.

RB:  Was it always called CDI?

VS:   Early on it was Movement Afoot.  I forget why we changed it.

RB:  When did you switch from studying ballet to modern?

VS:  Right after college.  It was a really hard transition.  That whole concept of codified movement as opposed to the creative uncodified movement physically came hard.  Intellectually, I think I got it right away.  I was interested in it, but that transfer from the codified elegance of ballet and the correct position and the right form to do to the mindset of all movement is good, you just have to find the appropriate movement to use in the piece…that appealed to me.  The body didn’t come along quite so easily.  Now I’m very happy that I had both lives.  When I teach at Northeastern or Ruth Page or wherever I’m teaching, I run across both types of students.  I understand where they’re coming from and I can help them.

RB:  Tell me about CDI and the upcoming concert.

VS:  We’ve evolved from a repertory company to a group of people who are a collaborative all looking for that special moment, that interesting moment, the moment of reality, the moment of uniqueness, the moment of something where you go “that’s different, I would have never thought of doing that”.  That’s really in a nutshell, I think, where the company has evolved to.  A lot of our work is commissioned.  My theory is you can dance about anything, you just have to handle it.  I never counted on coal miners being my topic (The Rope).  As it turned out, it was a challenge, but had a great following.  The folks up in mining country love it and we’re going to do it in our concert.  It’s a narrative. It’s got live music.  It’s a highly emotional piece.  We call on a lot of physical, textural relationships with one another to make it work.  That’s one style we work in.  The other is a piece that we made right after we had a big shift in the company.  We were kind of starting over and getting new focus.  It’s called Meetings Along the Edge.  (Video excerpt on CDI site).  It’s quite the opposite.  It’s not narrative – it’s highly kinetic, fast, difficult.  It came out of improvisational work that we all did together.  The last piece is vaguely about our process.  It is the most improvisational that we’ve ever been.  It really all comes out of exploration.  We decided we wanted to explore “what is this process?”  I think it’s refreshing.  The three dances are so different, but we like to go everywhere.  Because it’s collaborative, because we don’t have outside choreographers  We’re all choreographers.  I’m kind of editor-in-chief.  I work with some really talented, creative people.

RB:  How did you decide you wanted to do a piece about the process?

VS:  Because it was the 30^th year, I thought we shouldn’t do a commissioned work.  We ought to do something that’s just us.  So we just got up and starting working with no pre-conceived notions.  When interesting things happened, we’d stop.  We just wanted to explore who we are and what do we do and what could each dancer bring to the mix. We don’t have auditions, because the personality mix is as important as the artistic mix.  There’s no 5, 6, 7, 8’s here. Ours is an ever-evolving work.  We present finished pieces, but they are only finished for that concert.  I love that!  A whole examination happens all over again.  It’s very exciting to me.  It keeps the piece alive and fresh and new and it keeps the dancers interested and involved.  If things really get rough, then I’m editor-in-chief.  I like that they’re all teachers and choreographers in their own right.  They have their own point of view.  I like the uniqueness of it.  I don’t ask everybody to look the same.  I like that they all look different. The way that we get there is different.  I’m committed to that right now.  I think it gets us to a unique place.  We really work on things that we hope communicate.  We’re not dancing for ourselves, we really want to communicate to the audience, while maintaining this creative, intellectual approach.

RB:   What are some of your career highlights, favorite works?

VS:  Getting your name in the New York Times isn’t a bad thing.  Having (dance critic) Jennifer Dunning call you a “magnetic presence” ain’t bad.  The MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund and being picked to go to China.  The first time we performed at Ravinia.  What pieces?  German Songs, Dvorak Suite, Meetings Along the Edge and oh, Billy Sunday and being nominated for an Emmy!  I think just being able to do it.  Only someone young and stupid would start a company in their 20s.

RB:  I have a number of friends that started companies in their 20s that are still going strong.  That’s partially because of you.

VS:  Well, I hope so.  I would say to everyone that’s doing it, if you can stand it, keep doing it.  I know more now because I kept going.  The opportunity to learn, to absorb new ideas, to be sensitive to what the body can say grows with every year.  There is a little bit of reinventing the wheel, but if you do it long enough, you can tell what came before and you can produce things that are interesting or at least attempt to do things that are mature and interesting and can be part of the artistic conversation.

Controlled Chaos – April 1 & 2 @ 8 pm

Northeastern Illinois University Auditorium

Fine Arts Bldg FA – 158 (3701 W Bryn Mawr)

Tickets: 773.442.4636 or www.boxoffice.neiu.edu

Coming off the tail end of Women’s History Month, Chicago is celebrating a number of female choreographers throughout the month of April. This weekend – April 1 & 2, 8 pm –  at the Ruth Page Center, Core Project presents Going Dutch: An Eventing of Female Voices.  The night will feature 17 female artists presenting choreography, performance and installation art.  (Shout out to Laura Chiaramonte and Joanna Rosenthal!)

Also this weekend – April 1 & 2 – at Northeastern University Auditorium, Concert Dance Inc, lead by Artistic Director Venetia Stifler, celebrates 30 years of dancemaking.  (Look for an interview with Stifler coming shortly.)

April 15-17, Trisha Brown brings her company and post-modern twist to the MCA.  Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the troupe will perform four pieces including the Chicago premiere of Pygmalion.

Later in the month – April 22 & 23, 28 – 30 –  Chicago Dancemakers Forum lab artist Julia Rae Antonich premieres the last installment of her Duologue project at Curtis Hall in the Fine Arts Building.  The work explores duality in movement forms and what it means to be a duet artist and is titled Commissura.

Also on April 29 & 30, Mordine & Co, now in its 42nd season, perform at the Ruth Page Center.  Lead by Shirley Mordine, NEXT 2011 will feature a world premiere from Mordine, as well as a new work from Alitra Cartman, Mordine & Co’s 2011 Emerging Artist.

Merde to all the artists!  Let’s keep supporting the ladies in Chicago’s dance community.