Winter season offers a variety of styles, stories
Winter used to be a rather dormant time for dance, but in 2019 the colder months bring some of the most exciting dance events of the year.
Winter is typically a time when touring companies roll through town, with spring reserved for the locals. But two home-town companies will present world premieres in February. Two extraordinary Indian dance companies, both based in Minneapolis, pay a visit this season, and two companies who’ve not been here in decades join a crowded dance calendar with another celebrating a milestone 50 years of Chicago tours.
Ragamala Dance: Hindu mythology, 12th century Sufi texts and an ancient version of Chutes and Ladders were the inspiration for “Written in Water,” a full-length contemporary Bharatanatyam work navigating good and evil. Mother/daughter choreographers Aparna and Ranee Ramaswamy celebrate 25 years since this Twin Cities-based company’s founding. Jan. 11 at the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph Drive; tickets $35-$135 at 312-334-7777 and www. harristheaterchicago.org
The Dance Center of Columbia College has a great spring season lined up, beginning with Spectrum Dance Theater Jan. 31-Feb. 2. Director Donald Byrd visits Chicago for the first time in more than 20 years, bringing work inspired by the national debate on immigration. Anaya Dance Theatre performs “Shyamali,” a Bharatanatyam work by dance legend Ananya Chatterjea Feb. 14-16, and Urban Bush Women return to the Dance Center for “Hair & Other Stories,” a dance about economic disparities between races and genders. At the Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 S. Michigan Ave.; www.dance.colum.edu Trinity Irish Dance Company gives its first full evening at home in over a decade, a one-night-only performance which boasts two world premieres. From the beginning, artistic director Mark Howard has been pushing a modern, progressive image of Irish dance which put the form on the map years before “Riverdance" fever took hold. Themes for this exciting evening center around female empowerment. Feb 2 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets $29-$78 at 312-3412300 and www.auditoriumtheatre.org
Joffrey Ballet of Chicago’s winter mixed-rep moves to April this year, to make way for a world premiere full-length ballet based on Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece about looking for love in all the wrong places, “Anna Karenina.” The collaborative effort between Joffrey and The Australian Ballet features choreography by Yuri Possokhov, whose rep for Joffrey includes “Bells” and “The Miraculous Mandarin,” and original music by Ilya Demutsky. Feb 13-24 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets $35-$176 at 312-3868905 and www.joffrey.org
English National Ballet: Akram Khan’s first fulllength ballet was a smash hit, a reimagination of the iconic “Giselle” combining ballet and kathak, a form of classical Indian dance. Composer Vincenzo Lamagna’s score plays off the original by Adolphe Adams, performed live by the Chicago Philharmonic in this stunning North American premiere, the company’s first tour to the U.S. in more than three decades. Feb. 28 to March 2 at Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph Drive; tickets $35-$145 at www. harristheaterchicago.org
Malpaso Dance Company with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Choreography by Chicago local Robyn Mineko Williams and Osnel Delgado, artistic director of the Havana-based Malpaso, headline this exciting international collaboration bringing these two beautiful companies together for the first time. Malpaso delighted audiences with their 2017 Chicago debut at the Dance Center; seeing them perform with the silky-smooth dancers of Hubbard Street will likely yield an evening to remember. March 2-3 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets $29$110 at 312-341-2300 and www.auditoriumtheatre.org
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates its 60th anniversary with the company’s first two-act work, “Lazarus,” created by hip-hop icon Rennie Harris and inspired by the life of founder Alvin Ailey. Two other programs complete the company’s 50th consecutive year at the Auditorium, with a contemporary program featuring works by Wayne McGregor and Jessica Lang, and a third compiling more than a dozen Ailey classics. Given these choices, I’m thinking you might as well see all three programs. March 6-10 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets $34-$120 at 312-3412300 and www.auditoriumtheatre.org