For nearly three decades, Chicago’s professional dancers have come together in August, raising money and awareness for the AIDS epidemic, which greatly impacted the dance community in the 1980s and ’90s. On Saturday, the 28th edition of Dance for Life begins with a performance at the Auditorium Theatre, then processes down Michigan Avenue for a reception at the Hilton Grand Ballroom.
The primary beneficiaries of the annual fundraiser are the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Dancers’ Fund, an emergency stipend for dancers facing critical health issues, including HIV-AIDS. Several years ago, the Dancers’ Fund expanded its mission, providing financial assistance for industry members — which includes dancers, choreographers, teachers, accompanists and technicians — facing any health condition which creates a financial strain. The money is practically unrestricted, designed to cover short-term needs including housing, medical expenses, travel, insurance and utilities. Dance for Life and the Dancers’ Fund are managed by an umbrella organization called Chicago Dancers United, which recently named Kesha M. Pate as executive director following the departure of Phil Reynolds earlier this year.
One recipient of the Dancers’ Fund was Claire Bataille, a founding member of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and director of the Lou Conte Dance Studio, who died in late 2018 from pancreatic cancer. In a video shown at last year’s Dance for Life about the fund, Bataille said, “When you’re facing frightening times and uncertainty, to have one little peace of mind is crucial to recovery and health. … Getting that recognition that, yes, you deserve this, adds to that peace of mind. It adds to that feeling that I’m not alone in this.”
This year’s program honors Bataille, a beloved dancer, choreographer and teacher, with an excerpt from “Echo Mine,” a new work by decorated choreographer and Hubbard Street alumna Robyn Mineko Williams.
Williams began “Echo Mine” in early 2017. In an interview, Williams said, “It popped into my head to work with Claire, to choreograph on Claire, and to have an excuse to hang out with her and learn more about her experiences. Claire was so important to me in so many different ways.”
As a kid growing up in the Chicago area, Bataille was Williams’ idol. “I always compared her to Michael Jordan,” she said. “To be able to grow up and get to know that person has been an amazing gift for me.”
The project began as a solo for Bataille, rehearsed in an out-of-the-way studio at the Lou Conte Dance Studio with the window shades drawn. Bataille proposed that the work should be about loss, though she didn’t yet know she was sick. “She said loss has been consistent in her life,” said Williams. “She lost her mom when she was young. I think she was considering the loss of her dance career. Loss was a marker on her timeline. What was important to me was to make something about her in the present, because she still had this ‘thing,’ and it was magical.”
Anyone who saw Bataille dance knows exactly what Williams means by that “thing”; hers was a brilliance that no other dancer possessed. Williams said Bataille’s magic came out instantly in the studio, as if no time had passed since her 1992 retirement, when they started working together. As Bataille’s health began to decline, she encouraged Williams to finish the project, which is now a trio performed by three generations of Hubbard Street women: Williams, Meredith Dincolo and current company member Jacqueline Burnett.
“Echo Mine” includes projection design that incorporates archival video footage of Bataille compiled by CandyStations (Deborah Johnson), original music by Califone and lighting and costumes by Eric Southern and Hogan McLaughlin, respectively. The full work premieres Dec. 7 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.
In addition to “Echo Mine,” the Dance for Life program this year takes audience members on rangy emotional journey, but as always, the overall tone is upbeat and celebratory. The buoyant vibrancy which makes Dance for Life one of the year’s most-loved dance events will be felt in Giordano Dance Chicago’s “Soul,” which has these energetic dancers ponying through the aisles as Tina Turner belts “Proud Mary,” and even Hubbard Street’s excerpt from “Decadance/Chicago” is likely to spark joy. Though not exactly uplifting, it’s stunning — in the most famous section of this piece, the full company peels off boxy suits, dancing on, around, and over top of a semi-circle of folding chairs to an ominous recording of the Passover song “Echad Mi Yodea.” And Hubbard Street does it better than anyone else.
The Joffrey Ballet offers two duets performed by their original casts: Victoria Jaiani and Temur Suluashvili in the oft-seen pas de deux from Yuri Possokhov’s “Bells,” and Jeraldine Mendoza and Dylan Gutierrez in “Lorelei,” based on the German rocky cliff that inspired a popular legend. In the myth, Lorelei is a siren who lures fishermen to the cliff with her voice, leading their boats into peril. The pas de deux, choreographed by Joffrey ballet master Nicolas Blanc to original music by Jessica Rose Weiss, was first presented as a dance film directed by Christina Buchard and will have its first public performance at Dance for Life.
There’ll be freestyle hip-hop by Chicago Dance Crash, Chicago Human Rhythm Project in “Movement 11,” by outgoing artist-in-residence Dani Borak, and Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater dedicates its performance of Carlos Rodriguez’s “Mar de Fuego” to the company’s late founder Dame Libby Komaiko, who died in February. Per usual, Randy Duncan is creating new work for a community cast, bringing dancers from all of these companies together for what is typically a rousing closer worthy of a standing ovation.
Dance for Life takes place 6 p.m. Saturday at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, with a reception following the performance at the Hilton Grand Ballroom, 720 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets $15-$600 at 312-341-2300 and www.chicagodancersunited.org.
ALSO OF NOTE
Coming to the MCA: A pioneer in the genre of “hip-hop theater,” Los Angeles-based Dahlak Brathwaite blends gospel music, spoken word and Chicago-style steppin’ in his latest work, “Try/Step/Trip” at the MCA. The narrative is derived from Brathwaite’s personal encounters with the criminal justice system, but comments more broadly on what he calls a “cultural rite of passage” for young black men. 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; tickets $15 at www.mcachicago.org.
Lauren Warnecke is a freelance critic.
