Keep on rollin

Last week we had our last performance of the "season" for Renegade Dance Architects. We met at the Bean, warmed up, and then walked to State Street to hopefully perform in front of the Chicago Theatre, or the news room across the street. Our plans were shattered by the presence of the stationary police officer...and as a group we decided that it was a little too risky to perform right in front of him. So we moved down to about State and Washington, right by a bus stop, and just started dancing in the middle of everyone's commute.
People would step off the bus, a dozen at a time, just as we were about to grande jete in their direction. We weaved in and out of the crowd, and yet no one seemed to bat an eyelash. The general public is quite skilled at ignoring what makes them uncomfortable. I think it's become a challenge for us at Renegade: how far we can push to get people to snap out of their day-to-day trance? One of the dancers spent part of the piece leaning against the bus shelter, most of us followed pedestrians on their heels or cut in front of a businessman for a little glissade pas de chat. The only person that I recall actually paying attention to us was the security guard that peeked out of the door just as we finished dancing. "Good morning!" Ginger (Jensen, artistic director) chirped. "Have a great day!" as we snatched our belongings off the sidewalk and briskly walked down the street into the crowd.
It was a perfect period at the end of the RDA sentence. Except that now that period should be replaced with an exclamation point--our piece, "Forgiveness, Not Permission" was just accepted into Dance Chicago's New Moves program!

More exciting news, I get to see the studios of Northside Dance Theater today. We have a booth at the Glenwood Avenue Arts Festival, plus GI Alliance will be performing and the studio will be open for viewing. Anyone who signs up for classes today will received an exclusive NSDT t-shirt! I'm so excited to start teaching (and for those friends who have asked--I will be teaching an Int. Modern class!), and it's only a couple weeks until classes start.

One last update: Myself and about 8 of my friends were selected to choreograph short dances for Gatorade's So You Think You Can Dance-inspired marketing event. If you didn't already know, SYTYCD and Gatorade have partnered up, and now Gatorade is recognizing dance as a sport. Gatorade is based out of Chicago, and on Tuesday the marketing employees are competing in teams just like SYTYCD. They pull a genre out of a hat, and we have about 3 hours to teach a dance. I have ballet--so tough! It's going to be a truly awesome experience.

I'll tell you all about it later.

Filling in the blank spaces on my calendar

I can't believe it's already the middle of August. So much has happened over the last two weeks and I'm terribly exhausted, but I'll at least give you the quick recap with the hopes of going into more detail later.

First: the Renegade Dance Architects show "EXTRAordinary" was last weekend. We were at Voice of the City, which is an arts education/gallery space in Logan Square. The show ended up being such a wonderful experience and a really great (but short) show. Of course we performed the RDA piece "Forgiveness, not Permission," but there were also a few pieces from IDC to preview our upcoming show "Gods, Monsters and Heroes" (including a duet that I choreographed and danced), a piece from GI Alliance Dance Co. that I also performed, AND a few solos. Including one choroegraphed by and starring (duh) yours truly, entitled "In the Right Direction."
Don't be surprised if you see this solo or some incarnation of this solo again in the future, because I was really enjoying working on it.
Ginger, RDA's artistic director, asked me if I would perform a solo on Thursday at 5:30...our show opened Friday at 7! Luckily, I had thought of this general concept and some of the movement for an audition, but never had the chance to show the piece. But, honestly, over half of the dance was created Thursday before opening night. It was such a relief after performing the solo on Thursday and actually receiving positive feedback! Truly, there is no greater compliment than those from complete strangers.
"EXTRAordinary" closed on Sunday afternoon.

Then, Monday through Saturday I attended the Thodos Dance Chicago summer intensive. This program was by far the best summer intensive or workshop that I have experienced. The range of repertoire that we learned and the classes that we received was so well-rounded and diverse that I couldn't have asked for better. We started with an hour and a half of ballet every morning at 9:30, then an hour and a half of modern, then lunch with a guest speaker (all of whom were fantastically inspiring), then almost two hours of repertoire, followed by over an hour of composition and improvisation, and the day ended with different areas of "body wellness" such as Pilates, nutrition, partner massage...The entire week culminated with a showing of the rep that we learned and the material that we developed in comp/improv. Pretty full house too--I'd say there were about 30 friends and family in the studio.
I think of Thodos Dance Chicago as the "ultimate" right now. All of the dancers are expected to perform, choreograph and teach--all things that I am also passionate about. The repertoire is diverse, the dancers are excellent technicians and movers, and everyone is vibrant and enthusiastic. I can't wait until they have open company class again.

After the showing ended at 5, some dance buddies and I caravanned to the suburbs to perform in a wedding. My friend Mandy knew the bride from college, and she and her now-husband wanted to surprise their wedding guests with a choreographed "impromptu" dance battle during their first dance. It wasn't really impromptu, we rehearsed it, but the impression was that a group of party guests ripped the bride and groom apart during their slow dance and challenge each other to a dance face-off! Everyone was genuinely surprised, which was an excellent perk. Besides getting paid for this fun appearance, we also got to stay for the reception. Um, yum. It was an Indian wedding and the food was pretty amazing. Great music, beautiful decor, fun company, free booze...pretty much the best compensation for a dance gig ever.

And then today I started my last piece for IDC's show, and I'm crazy excited about it. Come on over to Theater Wit in October and see what it's all about. Don't worry. I'll give you all the details.

Oh yeah--and I guess I can announce now that I am going to be teaching starting in September at the brand new Northside Dance Theatre! We are going to have a booth at the Glenwood Avenue Arts Festival next weekend, so everyone should stop by and check it out. We're at the Morse red line stop in Rogers Park. And, I'll be performing with GI Alliance, so even more reason to visit. Oh boy!

Thanks for checking in. There's plenty more to come.