See Chicago Dance’s Tristan Bruns picks our upcoming presentations of the midwest premiere of Didę by Marcel Gbeffa and Sarah Trouche and our upcoming performances by Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre coming for the first time to our stage:
Didę by Marcel Gbeffa and Sarah Trouche
Inspired by the Guèlèdè traditions whose ceremonies and masks pay homage to Ìyá Nlá, the Yoruba primordial spirit of all creation, Didę is an evening-length work for five dancers and 21 mahogany masks. Didę invites us into a sincere and frank encounter with the place where the intimate and the political are entangled, where feelings are expressed and oppressions are incorporated, in whose folds lodge social conditions, confrontations between traditions, identity divisions, and emancipation—the human body.
Founder and artistic director of the Multicorps Choreographic Center in Cotonou, Benin, Marcel Gbeffa campaigns for the accessibility and circulation of contemporary dance in Africa.
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre premieres three new works: ‘Immense World’ by Shannon Alvis, ‘Trouble in Mind’ by Monique Haley, and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ by CRDT Co-Founder and Artistic Director Wilfredo Rivera with arrangements and original music by CRDT Co-Founder Joe Cerqua and the remount of Shannon Alvis’ ‘A Place Between Earth & Sky’ (2018) with original music by Clarice Assad.
