Dancing with the Chicago skyline as my backdrop

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As a first year Chicagoan, I still get excited every day when I ride the train downtown and see the breathtaking beauty of the skyline. When I’m downtown, I feel dwarfed by the towering buildings. The architecture can be overwhelmingly powerful. I  love the feeling of being part of something so much bigger than myself.  

So it is a thrill for me that The Dance COLEctive’s spring concert will use the city’s actual skyline as our backdrop. When we perform at Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion stage in April, the audience will face the opposite way from its usual summer perspective when concertgoers gather on the lawn of the park. Instead, the unconventional orientation will have the audience facing the lawn and the back “wall” of the space will be a large glass panel that looks out onto Millennium Park, with the city skyline as our backdrop. The space itself will be intimate, but with the glass wall, it has the capacity to seem endless. This perspective should add an interesting layer for the audience as well as for the dancers.  

The chance to perform “Moving Stories” in this space is especially powerful for me. Moving to Chicago has been the biggest move of my life and was a huge leap of faith for me. Dancing with the city as my backdrop is the perfect metaphor. The audience will see the dancers in the foreground, framed by the architecture. Our movement and bodies will be enclosed by shapes and lights outside the stage. We will be the focus, dancing within the city’s overwhelming mass and power. This encompasses my moving story. 

The Dance COLEctive’s spring performances at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion are April 12 – 14 are part of the official flight of FlySpace.  FlySpace is a resource-sharing consortium, conceived and launched by Jan Bartoszek (Hedwig Dances), Margi Cole (The Dance COLEctive), Michelle Kranicke (Zephyr Dance) and Joanna Rosenthal (Same Planet Different World).  The venture supports creative independence and institutional growth by combining and coordinating offstage work and cutting-edge technology to grow audiences.  FlySpace’s commitment to new forms of cooperation shares each director’s passion for content-driven contemporary dance, discovering fresh aesthetics in live performance, and engaging its audiences. Working together on new tools for audience development, all four organizations ascend together.  You can find out more about FlySpace by reading this article http://www.dancecolective.com/crain.html.

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For tickets visit http://flyspacechicago.brownpapertickets.com/.

Submitted by TDC Apprentice Molly Kirkpatrick on Monday, February 25, 2013. 

           

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I may have lost a hen yesterday but I have eggs for tomorrow.

Post Show Blues....

Post performance week for me is generally a challenge...  I am wrought with pride over the work the company has done and inspired to try again.  Relieved it is over and just plain worn out.  (This time I landed a pretty good cold that had me down till Friday.)  I am already making lists about clean up and next steps.  Sending thank yous, washing and putting away costumes, re-stowing gadgets, glow tapes, first aid kits and sewing props. 

Ultimately, I am looking at box office receipts and ticket numbers and asking myself, "What do I need to do in order to get more butts in the seats?".

TDC was particularly well received this time.  We had 4 outstanding reviews and some lovely previews.  Our loyal followers and family came to support us in our new venue!  The feedback was positive and real!  The word was out and the weather was not 40 below.... So, what gives?  Was it because of President's Day weekend, because school was not in session?  Location?  People are just plain not interested?  I find myself constantly trying to figure out the formula for full houses and sadly it just does not compute.  This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night....  Not only is it disappointing for me as an artistic director and administrator it is disappointing for the dancers, and that makes me unsettled.

But, as a friend said, "Do not dwell.  Use this as a learning experience and move on."  Trouble is, I am just not sure what I have learned from it yet.   Sometimes I think there has just got to be a better way to do all this but I am just not sure what it is. Until I figure that out I am just going to continue to put my best foot forward, no pun intended.  I know I continue to do this for all the right reasons.  I am passionate about it, this is what I love and I have a group of dancers, board members and friends who are dedicated to my vision.  The pay off is big!  It is not financial, but it is more than worth it!

This is the nature of the beast!

Now!  On to our next performances on the Jay Pritzker Pavilion Stage in April, the launch of FlySpace, the Wellness Jam and the musings of our next Social Media Diva! 

Submitted by TDC Artistic Director Margi Cole on Wednesday, January 27, 2013.