…and it isn’t over YET!

Wow! What a marathon of fall shows we have all been lucky to be a part of either dancing, designing, or watching!  The fall Chicago Dance Season has NOT disappointed and I am still not done! Since Sept 1st, I have travelled to South Africa and been fortunate to design 8 World Premier dances!! In that time, I have also remounted a show I designed in 2008 and have put up a show 3 times in 4 days in 2 different venues.

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I haven’t done it alone;  this season I have worked with some of the best in the business! My thanks to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance Local 2 Crew, The Loeb Playhouse Crew in Purdue,  Links Hall/Constellation , and our wonderful hosts down in South Africa, The Elizabeth Sneddon Crew

The Chicago Fall Dance Marathon is not for the faint at heart, that is for sure!  Up next (next week) is Paige Cunningham Caldarella‘s Chicago Dancemakers Forum performance Off Center, AND a guest spot on River North Dance Chicago’s dance card,  and then off to New York for a week to put up Deeply Rooted’s Generations at the Mark Morris Studios. NYC, I can’t wait to be in you!  Finishing my round robins of dance a re-mount of Kristina Isabelle’s The Floating City in Columbus, Ohio.

Many Thanks To:

Lauren Warnecke/Art Intercepts
Deeply Rooted Dance Theater
The Seldoms
Same Planet Different World
Peter Carpenter Performance Project
Kristina Isabelle Dance CompanyWinifred Haun and Dancers
Lizzie Leopold

A small shout out to my preferred vendor who deals with me almost on a daily basis of adding last minute things to my rental order Chicago Spotlight

On the Flip Side of Each Other

This week has brought me 2 different shows with 2 very satisfying results!

Tonight you can head over to Winifred Haun and Lizzie Leopold’s show at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, and tomorrow come see The Seldoms close out their hit return of Monument at Stage 773.

970526_10151779702223959_2109144865_nMonument holds a special place in my heart, as it is the first show I designed with Carrie Hanson and The Seldoms.  I have now been with the company for 6 years and traveled near and far (Siberia) with these amazingly talented dancers.  I was so happy to hear that we were bringing this piece back, because it is still a very BIG issue.  I hope you can come check it out tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

 

 

 

 

SmallDancer

If, Martha Graham is your favorite choreographer you should head over and see Vision, Faith, & Desire: dancemakers inspired by Martha Graham, over at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts.  I have been fortunate to also have been working with Winifred Haun for the last 5 years as well. Between her new piece, “Don’t Linger to Long” and Lizzie Leopold’s, “The Near Future”, it is a great evening of dance.

 

 

 

 

Go see some dance! I hope you enjoy watching these shows, as much as I enjoyed working on them!!!

Teaming Up…

Team Block (1)Next week finds me teaming up with some amazing folks!  First up on the week, I am glad to say that I am teaming up with Sarah Petty again! I am playing Master Electrician for Judas Redux play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day I start playing double duty with the above and stepping back into my Lighting Design shoes for Catherine Tiso and her show Diverge/Connect. I can’t be more excited to work with these wonderful folks!5317_511365652253375_1588943114_n

What’s happening this week…

Tango

I am incredibly lucky to be joining forces with Dance in the Parks again!  Katie McCann is a good friend of mine and has been for many years and she is so invested in this project that it makes others want to get involved.  There are many shows left over the next 2 weeks, come check them out. This years heavy hitters include:

  • Peter Carpenter, associate professor, Colombia College Chicago
  • Sinead Gildea, executive director of Impetus Dance Theater and staff choreographer at Lou Conte and Inaside Chicago Dance
  • Cait Jones, founding director, TranscenDance Studios
  • Stephanie Martinez, former 15-year dancer, River North Dance Chicago
  • Kalin Morrow, dancer, BodyTraffic and formerly Wideman/Davis Dance
  • Ahmad Simmons, dancer River North Dance Chicago and cofounder/artistic director, Pursuit Productions
  • Emily Stein, former 18-year dancer and associate artistic director, Zephyr Dance, and adjunct professor, Colombia College Chicago
  • Robyn Mineko Williams, former dancer, River North Dance Chicago and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

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Tomorrow also starts Produce Season 3, this time in collaboration with Signal Ensemble Theatre’s Ensemble Project!  Make sure to find time to come on by and pick up your Produce 🙂

Selected by Time Out Chicago as one of the top dance performances of 2012, PRODUCE is a multi-disciplinary lab for sound and movement artists to play with their work, and with the traditional audience format.

Selected artists are “mashed” together in various combinations and conditions over four consecutive performances. Throughout each performance and the series, the audience has an opportunity to provide real-time feedback, ask questions, figure out what experimental performance is and how it works, and help to inform the next phase of the performance (the substance of which is largely decided in the moment). Artists and audience alike witness the deconstruction and regeneration of existing works thrust into unforeseen territories as dictated by co-hosts Lauren Warnecke and Signal Ensemble Member Anthony Ingram.

This year’s line-up:

Country Death Trip
Mark Hardy / Celestial Architecture
Carol McCurdy and Michael Zerang
Philip Elson
The Nexus Project
crawlspace
Newman and Newman
hey girl hey omg girl real life (Heather Marie Vernon and Darling Shear)

Photo of Dance in the Parks: Eddie Eng

TeamStarkid

In my attempts to continue being all around “Jill-of-all-trades”, I have expanded one of my titles to Master Electrician, well at least for a few weeks.  I am really lucky to be working with Sarah Petty, sarahpettydesign.com  and TeamStarkid  www.teamstarkid.com/ on their new show “Twisted“!   It runs through July 28, hope you got your tickets!!!

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Inside/Out Hubbard Street Dance

I am fortunate next week to be spending a few days with some of  Hubbard Street Dance dancers.  I will be lighting 6 pieces for their choreographic workshop on July 6.

Inside/Out Choreographic Workshop: July 6, 2013
at the UIC Theater, 1044 West Harrison Street

$20 Regular Admission
$35 VIP Seating*

*VIP tickets offer general admission seating in the first three rows of the theater.  Regular tickets offer general admission seating from the fourth row back.

Tickets will be available online beginning June 4, 2013.

 

Robyn Mineko Williams in “Annunciation” by Jonathan Fredrickson. Photo by Todd Rosenberg
Robyn Mineko Williams in “Annunciation” by Jonathan Fredrickson. Photo by Todd Rosenberg

 

Backstage at PAW

This year I was fortunate to be a part of the 20th Anniversary of the Performing Arts Workshop (PAW) in Gillette, WY.  From casting to closing (only 3 weeks) I was here with 68 kids, 16 Alumni, and 20 staff as their Stage Manager.  For 10-12 hours a day these kids worked their tails off to make The Journey So Far… come to life.

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The company prepares for the finale with words of encouragement from Director Gary Abbott

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