”Dances from the Heart” is a Valentine to Love Through Movement

By Flo Mano with Wes Hessel

The Saturday night before Valentine’s Day at The Atheneum, Dance Chicago celebrated their 30th season of ”Dances from the Heart” with a full house of young talent from many dance companies. Spanning an extensive breadth of movement types: ballet (of multiple sub-forms), classical Indian, comedy dance, flamenco, hip-hop, Irish, jazz, musical theater, tap, urban fusion – just to name a few, this epic collection is of pieces centered around love and romance, with something for everyone, almost literally.

Two of the troupes are likely known to P&P readers – Ballet 5:8, featured in previous reviews of their stunning work in these pages, performed a piece set to Vivaldi’s “Winter” by Max Richter, and the always exquisite, ever-popular Trinity Irish Dance Ensemble brought their Celtic chops to bear again. The rest of the groups (in alphabetical order) performing were no less enthralling:

Beyond Words/Kate Jablonski – The all-girl dynamos…

Comedy Dance Chicago – Hilarious!

Tre Dumas – A tap work set to Count Basie.

Elevations Studio Company – Oh, oh, oh…

Footprints Tap Ensemble – “More”.

Forum Dance Theatre – “Prelude”.

Gus Giordano Company – Original Gus Giordano Dance School.

Hip Hop ConnXion – “Apologies” (premiere).

Kalakriti School of Dance with Ramya Ravi

On Broadway Dancers – (senior company) “Lights”.

Sophia Sanchez Flamenco – “Golpes” (premiere).

Vaughan Dance Academy – “Sol”.

Visceral Studio Company with SOMOS Nick Pupillo

Wheatland Dance Theater

Aleah Zucchi – Martha World premiere.

This exposition likely will remain a great V-Day tradition for the next 30 years, so keep an eye out for this and other Dance Chicago programs at www.dancechicago.com.

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