The Dance Center

A Powerful Marriage of All the Things: LaTasha Barnes’ The Jazz Continuum Comes to Chicago

A Powerful Marriage of All the Things: LaTasha Barnes’ The Jazz Continuum Comes to 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….

Dance Center Leaders Chosen by New City Stage for its Players 50 2024: The Institutions

Dance Center Leaders Chosen by New City Stage for its Players 50 2024: The Institutions

We’re really honored that New City highlighted our Artistic and Producing Directors as part of its Players 2024: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago. Meredith Sutton and Roell Schmidt, in collaboration with dance department chair Lisa Gonzales, are experimenting with ways to erase that “and” by “moving away from the ‘gatekeeper’ model of dance presenting.”

Dance Theatre Etiquette and How It Shapes Our Experience as Viewers by Gabriela Marks

Dance Theatre Etiquette and How It Shapes Our Experience as Viewers by Gabriela Marks

“It successfully showed the audience a variety of dances but it also showed us different environments and the possibility of these coexisting on one stage and theatre by highlighting their differences and similarities and embracing them in one space.”

Review calls the Dance Center “arguably the best venue to see dance in Chicago!”

Review calls the Dance Center “arguably the best venue to see dance in Chicago!”

Recent praise for FLOCK & Artists’ Somewhere Between calls the Dance Center -- “arguably the best venue to see dance in Chicago!”:

Sometimes in duets, and most often as a six-dancer ensemble, Flock’s Somewhere Between continues to mesmerize with seamless transitions. We lose track of time. It’s not unlike the hypnotizing effect of a lava lamp. All is fluid. Transitions are so seamless we only realize they have happened in retrospect….

Announcing the fall lineup for our 49th Presenting Series!

Announcing the fall lineup for our 49th Presenting Series!

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago announces its 2022 Fall Season, which includes two performance series—Elevate Dance Chicago and B-Series B-All-Access: Celebrating Accessibility and Inclusion in Hip-Hop and Street Dance Culture featuring guest artist Bill Shannon. “At the Dance Center, we are honored to be able to hold the space for this work to take place, and for the coming together of community in celebration of the dancing body,” says Lisa Gonzales, Associate Professor and Chair of Dance at Columbia.

On the Ground

On the Ground

Expanding our blog to take the pulse on our dance communities

In 2021, through the support of The Walder Foundation, we were able to expand the On the Ground series on our blog. We checked in on the dance communities in our city and beyond by taking the pulse of the moment during the covid pandemic. On the Ground became an online dance journal-magazine that featured interviews with Chicago dance artists, shared work from virtual residencies that we hosted with choreographers, and took deep dives into our video archives.