Giordano Dance Chicago roars back
From the brink of closure, company returns for 60th season celebration at the Harris Theater
Gus Giordano launched his dance company in 1963. It was called Dance Incorporated Chicago; three years later, the company rebranded as the Giordano Dance Company. Hubbed at Giordano’s storied studios at 614 Davis Street in Evanston, Giordano Dance Company steadily climbed to become one of the best — indeed, one of the only — dance companies wholly committed to preserving and promoting theatrical jazz dance. They’d change their name thrice more, becoming Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago on July 1, 1975, before shortening it to Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago in 2004. In June 2012, they dropped the word “jazz” and are hereafter known as Giordano Dance Chicago.
Whatever you call it, this great American dance company celebrates its 60th anniversary this season. Giordano Dance Chicago’s fall program at the Harris Theater is specifically curated to highlight works from the past two decades — with a bit of nostalgia baked in.
The six works on the bill include a fresh, fullcompany restaging of Nan Giordano’s “Giordano Moves” and Ray Leeper’s crowd-pleasing “Soul” set to music by Gladys Knight and the Pips, Al Green and Tina Turner (complete with a shortskirted, big-haired romp to “Proud Mary” that closes the show). Tony Powell’s 2006 breathtaking work “Impulse” is unearthed from the vault for the first time in 13 years. Works by Autumn Eckman and Peter Chu come back into rotation. And a world premiere by newly appointed associate artistic director Cesar Salinas caps the program. The piece, a quintet called “Lub Dub,” is based on the rhythmic pulse of the heart and pulls from the AfroCaribbean sounds in Travis Lake and Medwyn Goodall’s music.
“It’s a retrospective of how the organization has
grown,” said operations manager Joshua Blake Carter. “You can see the vision of the last 22 years in this show.” He also points to variations in footwear as indicative of recent evolutions in jazz dance. Throughout the program, dancers alternate between jazz oxfords, character heels, ballet slippers, bare feet and socks.
For veteran dancers Katie Rafferty, Adam Houston and Ashley Downs, it’s like a walk down memory lane. Each has been in the company for at least a decade, but they are still inspired to come to work every day.
“A decade is a really long time for a dancer,” said Rafferty, “but in the grand scheme of things, it’s really
short.” It took her three years to get promoted to the main company, a journey she describes as having “ups and downs.” She cites Lindsey Leduc and Salinas, who danced in the company from 2006-2011, as key mentors.
“What I love is the athleticism of the company,” Houston said. “Being here for 10 seasons now, I feel like I’m pushing myself in this show to a limit that I’ve never pushed. It drives me to be better, and I feel like I’m dancing better than I ever have.”
Sixty years is not a milestone most dance companies see. Rarer still is the fact that the company has had just two directors, both named Giordano. Gus’ daughter Nan assumed artistic leadership in 1985 (though she didn’t get the title of artistic director until the early ’90s).
Though currency pulses through the program, legacy looms large in Giordano’s ethos. Despite never having met Gus Giordano, each of the company’s 16 dancers has learned his technique through generations of former dancers
now teaching at studios and universities.
“The dance world’s so small,” said Skyler Newcom, a University of Arizona graduate in his first season as a GDC main company member. “In college, three of my professors danced in the company. Those throughlines challenge me and pull more out of me because you remember that you’re a bigger part of this than you realize.”
With Nan Giordano having kept a breakneck pace for more than 30 years, Salinas is being primed to eventually lead the company. Giordano said she’s not going to step down any time soon but eventually wants to slow down and focus more on teaching.
“I’m not ready to do that, but this is a lot of pressure,” she said. “Everything has to be a home run.”
As GDC tees up the next generation of leaders, the core team (Giordano, Salinas, Carter and Executive Director Michael McStraw) is acutely aware of how fragile and fleeting a dance company can be. They made the difficult decision to cut staff during the pandemic, prioritizing dancer pay. Their financial reserves were quickly wiped out, and the staff had serious conversations about closing their doors.
“We were counting pennies,” Giordano said. Without the Paycheck Protection Program and extra support from the board of directors, she said, they wouldn’t be here.
Since returning to live performances last fall, GDC has been able to recover and restructure additional support staff. Now in residence at Ruth Page Center for the Arts, a capital campaign to convert Hermon Baptist Church in Lincoln Park into a new dance center, is underway again after being stalled by the pandemic. Giordano II, a feeder company of paid apprentices, has upped its capacity. They formed a diversity, equity and inclusion committee with dancer feedback that resulted in a new employee handbook. And while Giordano said operations include some “big financial risks” this season, the company relies on the hard work of very few people to make the whole thing run.
“We’ve always been thrifty. That’s why we’re still here,” Giordano said. “If I’ve learned anything from my father, you make something great out of nothing.”
Future goals are both pragmatic — like giving dancers higher pay, opening the dance center in Lincoln Park and more touring opportunities — and existential.
“We’re pushing for more visibility,” she said. “What we do is unique. It is our time — for us and our art form to have higher recognition.”
Giordano Dance Chicago’s Fall Series, “Catch the Light,” takes place Oct. 21-22 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets are $20-$90 at 312-334-7777 and www.giordanodance. org