Ruth Page Center for the Arts

A tidy dance concert by Cattywampus Dance does not live up to its name

By Joanna Furnans on April 1, 2018

CHICAGO — It’s been a while since I’ve seen a dance concert. Truthfully, I can’t remember the last time I saw a single company perform eight different pieces in an hour-long evening. Until Friday night, when I attended Coddiwomple, the Spring performance of Cattywampus Dance at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. The all-female […]

Winifred Haun & Dancers in "Your nearest exit may be behind you" by Winifred Haun. Photo credit: Matthew Gregory Hollis, lighting by Julie Ballard

A Mixed Bag at Winifred Haun’s ‘First Draft’

By Lauren Warnecke on February 29, 2016

CHICAGO — “You are really going to love this show,” said Winifred Haun onstage at the Ruth Page Center for the Performing Arts, “especially if you love chairs.” Indeed, chairs or some form thereof were coincidentally a part of all the dances on the program in First Draft, Haun’s two-day engagement featuring new-ish dances from five […]

Ruth Page Civic Ballet: 50 Years of Nutcracker (review)

By Lauren Warnecke on December 8, 2015

Most Chicagoans familiar with dance know the names Robert Joffrey and Ruth Page, but before the Joffrey Ballet relocated to Chicago in 1995, Ruth Page was one of the only professional gigs in town for a ballet dancer. Despite her name being most closely associated today with superior pre-professional dance training, during her lifetime Ruth Page […]

Andee Scott in the edge of it, Photo by Kirk Donaldson

At the Harvest Fest, Less is More (review)

By Lauren Warnecke on September 21, 2015

The 6th installment of the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival (HCCDF) is trying a new format, with two programs rather than three, spread out over two weekends. The result is fewer artists, more tech time for each artist, and an overall heightened sophistication to one of the few remaining small-scale festivals. The evening opened with a bang […]

RE|Dance celebrates five years with ‘The Long and Forgotten Winter’

By Lauren Warnecke on July 27, 2014

If you’re friends with Lucy Riner on Facebook, then you’ve heard about this show. With Riner and co-Artistic Director Michael Estanich at the helm, RE|Dance is taking an “all-in” approach in preparing for its five-year anniversary next weekend at the Ruth Page Center for the Performing Arts. With the help of a MetLife New Stages for […]

Thodos Celebrates 14 Years of New Dances

By Lauren Warnecke on July 11, 2014

Meeting Thodos Dance Chicago (TDC) company member Diana Winfree in the art room at the Menomonee Club for Boys and Girls, she apologized about the noisy kids in the hallway as we settled down for a chat. “I’m pretty familiar with noisy kids,” I said. It’s hard to separate a studio visit to TDC from […]

Deeply Rooted Dance Theater’s Emerging Choreographer / Artist Showcase (review)

By Lauren Warnecke on June 28, 2014

CHICAGO — There are plenty of dance companies who fuse Western and non-Western dance. Ballet is blended with modern, modern with African Diaspora, but rare is the dance company who creates such a delicious salad of dance forms as Deeply Rooted Dance Theater (DRDT). The influence of Horton, Graham, Classical Ballet and African dance are so […]

2014 Summer Intensive Auditions Approach

By Lauren Warnecke on January 9, 2014

Lots of auditions. Lots and lots of auditions. Ok, so it’s possible that my choice for waiting out the Chiberia polar vortex was to watch old reruns of the X-Files on Hulu…. but whether or not you picked up on the reference from Paper Clip, the beginning of every new year generally brings with it […]

Lizzie MacKenzie Pontarelli voted Chicago’s Top Dance Teacher!

By Lauren Warnecke on April 29, 2013

Happy National Dance Week! I have a big week planned on the blog in celebration of National Dance Week and the close of Chicago Dance Month. A few weeks ago I asked readers to tell me who your favorite dancer teachers are and why, and I was awesomely surprised to receive nearly 150 nominations! Of […]