River North Chicago Dance Company to perform at BGSU

Americans love watching dancing on screens small and large. "Dancing with the Stars" is a TV
hit and the dark ballet film "Black Swan" was a contender for the best picture Oscar.
That doesn’t necessarily translate into "putting butts into seats in theaters" for dance
programs, said Frank Chaves, the artistic director of the River North Chicago Dance Company.
"Dance is still a hard sell," he said, not that the company doesn’t do its best to offer
performances that appeal both to dance novices as well as aficionados.
River North Chicago Dance Company will perform April 7 at 8 p.m. in Kobacker Hall on the Moore Musical
Arts Center in a Festival Series performance. "There’s something for everyone on our program,"
Chaves said. Over the course of an eclectic program that can include as many as 10 pieces, the company
takes the audience through "the gamut of human emotions."
The company, founded in 1989 as a troupe devoted to jazz dancing, has expanded it range, Chaves said.
"Now we’re stylistically much more diverse, technically stronger … but it still has that high
energy base that showcases where we’re from."
The program includes "Evolution of a Dream" by the founding artistic director Sherry Zunker, a
tribute to those early days and a demonstration of the company’s development. It is a new vision of one
of the company’s signature works "Reality of a Dreamer," danced to the music of "Sweet
Dreams" by Annie Lennox and David Allan Stewart.
Chaves contributes "Simply Miles" to the program. It was commissioned for a festival in Chicago
this year, marking the 85th anniversary of the birth of jazz legend Miles Davis.

Chaves, who started out playing jazz, ranged throughout the prolific musician’s repertoire, from his
early bebop days through his explorations of electronics and rock beats. It was an "ear
bleeding" process, but he came away with it using a couple selections from the "Kind of Blue
" album, "So What" and "Blue in Green" and two other pieces spanning several
decades – "Half Nelson" first recorded in 1947 with Charlie Parker and a segment of the title
track of "Bitches Brew" from 1970.
"I wanted to represent him the best I could," Chaves said.
Of his process of choreographing, he said: "I’m so about the music. I listen and listen and listen.
My head just fills up with stuff – I can see it. … I’m just so excited to see it on stage."
Among the other works that will be presented at BGSU will be Robert Battle’s "Train," described
by Chaves as "a real powerhouse piece for five women" with a strong percussive score.
Then there will be Kevin Iega Jeff’s "Sky," which Chaves described "very lovely, very
spiritual, very enlightened" piece.
Hedy Weiss, of the Chicago Sun-Times, described it as "a beautifully abstract yet emotionally
intense vision."
Chaves said a suite of duets will explore "the physicality of a man and a woman together… It’s
really two people moving like a double helix all over the stage."
That "animalistic" drama, the sex appeal, is something audiences are sure to be able to relate
to.