Columbia announces Spring lineup for 49th Dance Presenting Series

The Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago announces its 2023 Spring Season, which includes performances from STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos, FLOCK, and Jumaane Taylor. 

Starting off the Spring season in February, STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos will perform CIRCLES: going in, a full-length work that layers dance, visual arts, and a live original score, with snapshots of popular culture through choreographer Staycee Pearl’s lens as a Black woman. Under the leadership of choreographer Staycee Pearl and sound designer Herman 'Soy Sos' Pearl, SPdp & SS produces dynamic dance performances and immersive soundscapes that center around compelling concepts driven by the full range of Black culture and socio-political world issues.

FLOCK, the co-choreography German/American dance company founded in 2017 by former Hubbard Street dance artists Florian Lochner and Alice Klock, takes place in March. Somewhere Between features FLOCK’s signature partnering, rich and complex movement, and heartfelt storytelling. This new work explores myths and childhood stories, unpacking how memory and imagination play into our reality and definitions of self. Klock and Lochner are joined by a stunning group of guest artists in a program that offers a vibrantly physical and multilayered look at the possibilities within human connection.

Finally, in April, Chicago native Jumaane Taylor returns to the Dance Center stage with Supreme Love, a tap dance production honoring John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and draws inspiration from the legendary Tree of Life. Tap dancers and a quartet of live musicians rediscover themselves and their art within improvisation to Coltrane’s compositions while sharing a progressive admiration for tradition in the name of the highest power, truth, and ancestral wisdom. 

CIRCLES: GOING IN (STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos)

Friday, February 10, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 1 hour)
Saturday, February 11, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 1 hour)

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN (FLOCK)

Thursday, March 23, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 1 hour)
Friday, March 24, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 1 hour)
Saturday, March 25, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 1 hour)

SUPREME LOVE (Jumaane Taylor)

Thursday, April 20, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 45 minutes)
Friday, April 21, 7:30 p.m. (Run time: 45 minutes)

General admission tickets are $30. Tickets for students with a current college ID are $10 and additional discounts are available for Columbia faculty, staff, and dance industry members.  

Single tickets go on sale January 23 and will be available online or by visiting the Dance Center box office at 1306 S. Michigan Ave. The box office can be reached at 312-369-8330 and is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4-10 pm, and Fridays from 2-10 pm, and for two hours before each performance.

Columbia continues to hold safety measures in place informed by guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, and consultations with epidemiology experts from Rush University and the University of Chicago. Additional health and safety protocols have been set in place, including a larger lobby, increased cleaning measures, and an upgraded air filtration system.