What a relief—to write a blog post and not worry if I’m going to spill the beans on a program we haven’t officially announced yet. While our printed program guides won’t be mailed until August and our website will switch to “Festival mode” at about the same time—the cat is out of the bag! We are still putting the finishing touches on a few programs, but nearly all of the 100 or so programs we’ll do this fall are confirmed.
I’m especially excited that our Body theme lends itself to more dance. First a side-note: Since most of the programs we present in our Festival are one-off events, traditionally we have only been able to do a handful of performance programs each year. Why? Many of the venues we use are lecture halls or auditoriums that have little or no off-stage space, no dressing rooms, and only very general lighting capability. What’s more, many dance productions may have sets that require a lot of construction or require multiple rehearsals in the venue, which we are not always able to provide since our schedules in most venues during the Festival are very tight. This year, by pushing our production capability and selecting several really fascinating programs on dance that go beyond and behind the stage, we’re able to increase our dance offerings significantly. Hooray!
The Festival kicks off with Edward Villella. For many of you “of a certain age,” Villella’s name is instantly recognizable. For you youngsters out there, Villella danced for George Balanchine at the New York City Ballet for twenty years and was regarded as the pre-eminent male dancer born and bred in the US. Last year, Mr. Villella’s Miami City Ballet made its New York and Chicago debuts to much acclaim. His CHF program promises to be a gem. Mr. Villella is a delightful storyteller and he has as much to say about current approaches to ballet training and artistry as he does about his golden years with Mr. B at NYCB.
Performance-wise, we’ve got a lot going on. We’re delighted that two local companies, BAM! and Mordine & Co. Dance Theater, will be featured in the Festival. BAM! taps and stomps its way through an evening of body percussion pieces in one of our family-friendly programs. Mordine & Co. brings us Body Intelligence, a unique iteration of I Haven’t Gone There which just had a very successful run at Epiphany Church.
We also have two exciting partnerships that are enabling us to present two extraordinary performances from New York. With Access Living, we are pleased to host GIMP, a project of choreographer Heidi Latsky, that includes able-bodied and disabled dancers. GIMP asks audiences to (re)consider their notions of beauty and ability. Teaming up with the Museum of Contemporary Art, we are able to bring Big Dance Theater to the MCA stage for 3 shows. BDT presents their remarkable theatre piece Comme Toujours Here I Stand, built from the script of Agnes Varda’s film Cléo from 5 to 7.
Also flying in from New York will be members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, for a program with Kartemquin Films Artistic Director Gordon Quinn. Last fall, the Bill T. Jones Co. premiered Fondly Do We Hope . . . Fervently Do We Pray at Ravinia. Since the inception of the project, Kartemquin was on hand to document Mr. Jones’s creation of the piece, based in part on the life of Abraham Lincoln. This CHF program will give audiences a preview of the final film, scheduled to debut on PBS’s American Masters series in Spring 2011. It will also be an opportunity to hear about the mysterious connection between dancer and choreographer—to demystify what it means to put your body in service to another person’s artistic vision.
So the body is indeed part of the Body. And part of what’s exciting about working here at CHF is being challenged to consider our theme in literal ways and also from more tangential and conceptual perspectives. Over our next several blog posts, my colleague Matti Bunzl and I will be sharing more of the programs we’re most excited about—including more dance! — and we’ll turn the spotlight on some presenters that may not have big-name recognition but are amazing nonetheless.
Tags: The Body, dance, performance, choreography
