New CIty Stage’s Sharon Hoyer previews LaTaasha Barnes’s The Jazz Continuum as it lands in Chicago:
In the audio series portion of “The 1619 Project,” New York Times cultural critic Wesley Morris says that when he hears American pop music—jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, even yacht rock—he hears Blackness. Likewise (and inseparably) is American social Black dance, emerging and evolving alongside these genres: bodies unstoppably moved by syncopation and harmony, shot through with ripples of delight only a perfectly landed improvisation can provide. But improvisation lives in the new. And as Black artists push forms and culture forward, older styles can get left behind…
“The Jazz Continuum” comes to the Dance Center of Columbia College in March. The visit includes a residency period to connect with Chicago artists. Barnes says she hopes time will allow for visits to the Warehouse, the former factory that became a nexus for Chicago’s house scene, a style close to Barnes’ heart. “I’m beautifully overwhelmed to come because Chicago is the birthplace of one of the traditions I’m most honored to carry,” she says.
Creative exchange in the local scenes will inform the Chicago iteration—or, as Barnes refers to the event, offering—at the Dance Center March 7-9. “[The Jazz Continuum] is more about gathering resources and people I always wanted to have meet each other, teach each other, inspire each other,” she says. “Connecting each other’s whys and then having the space to scaffold it into a collective offering.”
Read the whole preview ahead of this exciting Chicago premiere.
