The Dance Center's Spring Series sees the return of two beloved companies, Doug Varone and Dancers in February and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in March; the world premiere of a new work by choreographer Molly Shanahan and her Chicago-based company, Molly Shanahan / MadShak, in late March; and new, literature-inspired dance works from the virtuosic Bebe Miller and her company in April. Subscribe to the Dance Center's Spring Series and experience some of the most vibrant and exciting work in contemporary dance.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SPRING SERIES

Doug Varone and Dancers

February 8, 9, and 10, 2018 at 7:30pm

“Many choreographers can create interesting movement; few can make it mean so much.”  —Chicago Tribune 

Celebrating their 30th anniversary year, Doug Varone and Dancers return to the Dance Center stage for the first time since 2001. The program features a revival of Varone classics; including Boats Leaving and Lux.  Nocturne(s), a solo work created and performed by Varone, pairs a new solo, Nocturne in E. Minor, Opus 72 #1, which premiered this summer at Jacob’s Pillow, with another solo created 30 years earlier, Nocturne in D Flat Major, Opus 27 #2. The company will also perform the duet folded from in the shelter of the fold, a cycle of episodic, stand-alone vignettes that explore the many forms of faith and belief, as well as the acts of coping, realization, choice and the expectations attached to it. The vignette folded, set to music by Julia Wolfe, examines the fragile and precarious nature of intimacy.

Buy single tickets

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

March 2 and 3, 2018 at 7:30pm 
Concept/Choreography, Lin Hwai-min

at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance

“When you're talking about Cloud Gate, magic is not too strong a word.” —Time Out  

In the 16th century, gazing out from the decks of ships off the coast of China, Portuguese sailors saw it: a great green mass, thick with mountains and trees, rising from the sea. “Formosa!” they exclaimed—“beautiful!”—anointing the verdant place that would come to be known as Taiwan. In this new work, choreographer Lin Hwai-min and his Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan take that appraisal as inspiration for their own work of abstract beauty born from land and lore.

Buy single tickets

Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak

March 29, 30, and 31, 2018 at 7:30pm

“There is no one (no one) who moves quite like Molly Shanahan, and that alone is worth the cost of admission.” —SeeChicagoDance.com 

Choreographer Molly Shanahan returns to the Dance Center for the world premiere of her new work, Of Whales, Time, and Your Last Attempt to Reach Me. This ensemble piece grapples with emotional ambivalence in a world of perception-altering technology and digitally-dependent relationships. Through Shanahan’s intricately crafted movement, the Mad Shak ensemble investigates and expresses the tension between the rigid materiality of the self, as reflected by the devices and media surrounding our lives, and the body’s invisible fluidity in response to those same influences. This work is set at the intersection of conflict, where constantly shifting input confirms identity in one moment and then throws it off-kilter the next.

Buy single tickets

Bebe Miller Company

April 5, 6, and 7, 2018 at 7:30pm

“Bebe Miller rearranges the spatial universe—with feeling.” —The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa  

In a Rhythm (initially titled Dancing in The Making Room) is a suite of new dance works based on the dynamics of adaptation and translation. Inspired by the writings of Gertrude Stein, Toni Morrison, and David Foster Wallace, whose voices capture diverse cultural relevancies through their structure of language, In a Rhythm looks at the syntax of movement—how we apprehend meaning through the juxtaposed dynamics of action and context in time and space. This work is being created within an overarching collaborative project as an investigation into innovative ways of sharing the creative process.  

Buy single tickets


BECOME A DANCE CENTER SUBSCRIBER

Choose three or more performances and dates and guarantee yourself the best seats at the best price. In addition to 25% off the price of regular tickets, subscribers get:

• Priority seating
• No ticketing fees
• Tax credit for unused tickets that you donate back
• Flexible, no-fee exchange policy
• 25% discount for add-on tickets throughout the season
• Flexible, no-fee exchange policy  

Order subscriptions online, or contact the Box Office at 312.369.8330 or at columbiatickets@colum.edu. Already a subscriber and want to bring a friend? Current subscribers can add discounted tickets to their subscription!

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SPRING SERIES
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Programs at the Dance Center are supported, in part, by the Alphawood Foundation, the MacArthur Fund for the Arts and Culture at Prince, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Irving Harris Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Illinois Arts Council and the Crane Group. Special thanks to Friends of the Dance Center for generously contributing to our work.

The Dance Center is a member of the American College Dance Association and Dance/USA. The Dance Center is a Founding Member of the Music and Dance Theater Chicago, Inc.

Athletico is the exclusive provider of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Sports Medicine, Athletic Training, Work Rehabilitation and Massage Therapy for the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago.