South Chicago Dance Theatre Announces Five World Premieres Celebrating Five Year Anniversary

South Chicago Dance Theatre, a multicultural organization that fuses classical and contemporary dance styles while preserving historic dance work, has announced An Evening with the South Chicago Dance Theatre: Celebrating Five Years, featuring five world premieres by five dynamic choreographers- Ron De Jesús, Stephanie Martinez, Crystal Michelle, Wade Schaaf and Kia S. Smith (SCDT Founder and Executive Artistic Director).

This celebratory event marks SCDT's first-ever production at the historic Harris Theater for Music and Dance in downtown Chicago at 205 E. Randolph St. on May 20, 2022 at 7:30 pm. Single tickets start at $15 and are available for purchase online at harristheaterchicago.org.

"SCDT is committed to commissioning Chicago choreographers, and this celebratory production is no different," said Smith. "I can think of no better way to celebrate our first five years than by featuring the works of these five incredibly diverse choreographers whose movement styles range from ballet and jazz to afro modern."

The full 90-minute program begins with Schaaf's Coeurs Séparés, followed by Smiths' In Lieu of Flowers, and Martinez's On A Lark. Following a fifteen-minute intermission, Michelle's Lit-anies and De Jesús' HYbr:ID Line close the program.

All audience members over the age of five attending performances at Harris Theater will be required to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test prior to entering the facility, along with a government-issued photo ID. In addition, all audience members will be required to wear a mask while inside the venue.

About the Program

HYbr:ID Line by Ron De Jesús

Ron De Jesus' world premiere HYbr:ID Line features the full South Chicago Dance Theatre ensemble of 12 dancers and is inspired by the artwork "Unicolor" created by media artists Nibo and Carsten Nicolai. The ballet feels other-worldly as dancers fly through the air with daring lifts and leaps. The foundational music of German musician and visual artist Alva Noto broadens into the inclusion of the synthetic soundscape of electronic music artist Antye Greie, who constructs her poetry into electronic music with calligraphic, sound installations. HYbr:ID Line concludes with Travis Lake's "Cadence" to reverberate a sequence of patterns and sonic codes.

A Chicago native, De Jesús has danced with Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, Joseph Holmes Dance Theater, Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago where he was a leading dancer for 17 seasons. He was in the original cast of the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel musical Movin' Out, was part of the creative team of Tharp's Come Fly Away, and is a repetiteur for Twyla Tharp Productions. De Jesús has created works for film, theatre, television commercials, festivals, special events, and dance companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, HS2, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theatre, Sacramento Ballet, Momenta, and Thodos Dance Chicago, among many more. De Jesús has served as a guest teacher and choreographer at numerous major universities including Harvard, the State University of New York at Purchase, Point Park, Wayne State University, Western Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Pepperdine University.

De Jesús has received many awards including the New York Musical Theater Festival Award for Excellence for Best Choreography and the Chicago Music & Dance Alliance Award for Best Choreographer.

On A Lark by Stephanie Martinez

Stephanie Martinez's world premiere On A Lark is a contemporary piece that follows five dancers as they flow between the daily monotony of life and escapism provided by entertainment. As if they're stuck in a TV, the dancers move through decades of iconic film soundtracks: Hellzapoppin, Pinocchio, and Breakfast at Tiffany's, unaware of the grimmer realities of life. Cracks in the music break the fantasy, revealing a truth that contains both sorrow and joy.

Martinez is a Chicago-based, award-winning choreographer whose psychologically revelatory works challenge the viewer's notion of what's possible. She has created over 60 ballets on companies and collegiate programs across the country. Her work has been featured by Joffrey Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Charlotte Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Eugene Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Kansas City Ballet, and National Choreographers Initiative among others.

In 2015, Martinez was awarded Joffrey Ballet's "Winning Works: Choreographers of Color" commission and the Chicago 3Arts Award in recognition for her work as a female artist of color. More recently, Martinez was awarded an NEA grant for her premiere of Bliss! with Joffrey Ballet.

Martinez is the founder and artistic director of Chicago repertory company PARA.MAR Dance Theatre which was founded in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. PARA.MAR was created together, with, and for diversity and access to excellence in contemporary dance.

Lit-anies by Crystal Michelle

Crystal Michelle's world premiere Lit-anies is a contemporary work that explores rhythm, cadence and the Black American South perspective. "For me, this looks like the heat of Black communities pacing themselves through texture, touch, memory and ritual. Litan-ies explores that kind of freedom and being," said Michelle.

Michelle is a choreographer and performer from Augusta, Georgia who lives and creates in Ohio. She is a resident choreographer at Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) where she spent nearly a decade touring abroad. She has performed the works of Donald Byrd and Dianne McIntyre and restaged masterworks by beloved African American choreographers. Her choreographic work has toured to Kazakhstan, Russia, Brazil, and across the United States.

Her pieces explore identity through African American movement dialects and black feminist practice in contemporary dance. She has served on faculty for the American Dance Festival and was chosen for the new American Dance Residency at Ballet Memphis. She has been commissioned by Ballet Memphis, South Chicago Dance Theatre, Dublin Arts Council, and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. She was a member of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals' inaugural class of Leadership Fellows and a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence award. Crystal continues her choreographic work and research as an Assistant Professor of Dance at The Ohio State University (OSU) where she teaches autoethnographic composition, dance repertory, and movement practice. She holds an MFA in Dance from OSU and a BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University.

Coeurs Séparés by Wade Schaaf

Wade Schaaf's world premiere Coeurs Séparés is "a very emotional piece that encapsulates the heaviness of heartbreak even in the midst of joy and new experiences," said Schaaf. The contemporary work is inspired by the tones and moods of three musical works by Bach: Andante from Bach's Organ Sonata No 4, Presto and Adagio from the Concerto in D minor. All three works are piano transcriptions of these compositions. Coeurs Séparés explores the arc from formal to playful, and ends with a trio.

Schaaf (they/them) hails from the Chicago area and graduated Cum Laude from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater arts (emphasis on dance performance). During their professional career, Schaaf danced for multiple companies including the Ohio Ballet, State Street Ballet Santa Barbara, The Omaha Theater Ballet, Thodos Dance Chicago, and River North Chicago Dance Company. Schaaf has worked with numerous choreographers including Septime Weber, Stephen Mills, Frank Chaves, Laurie Stallings, and Tony Award Winner Ann Reinking. Wade has danced such roles as Tybalt in Robin Welche's Romeo and Juliet, Snow King in Welche's The Nutcracker and Jonathan in Kennet Oberly's Dracula as well. Schaaf had the role of Mayor Carter Harrison created on them in the Thodos/Reinking collaboration, The White City.

After retiring from the stage, Schaaf founded Chicago Repertory Ballet (CRB) in November of 2011. Since then, CRB Wade has created such exceptional works as, Le Sacre de Printemps, The Four Seasons and their full-length ballet adaptation of Shakespeare's MACBETH. Schaaf continues to steer the company through its vision of challenging the concept of ballet both in form and structure to create dance that defies labels.

In Lieu of Flowers by Kia S. Smith

Kia Smith's world premiere In Lieu of Flowers is a contemporary work inspired by Smith's experiences with grief, sparked by the loss of her father-South Side jazz legend, Jimmy Ellis-who recently passed during the summer of 2021. This duet explores feelings of anger, despondence, yearning and memory.

A Chicago native, Kia is the founding Executive Artistic Director of the South Chicago Dance Theatre, the company's Resident Choreographer and the founder of its signature programs South Chicago Dance Festival, the Choreographic Diplomacy Program, Choreographic Fellowship and Arts Administration Fellowship.

In 2018, she received the inaugural Young and Ambitious Entrepreneurship Award from the Metropolitan Board of the Chicago Urban League and was chosen by the New York City based Stage Director's and Choreographers Foundation as a member of the national Observership class. In 2021 received a 3Arts Make A Wave award. She is currently an Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow at the renowned Jacobs Pillow, a 2022 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Awardee and a participant in the Artist in Residence ``AIR`` Program at the Cliff Dwellers Chicago.

Smith has worked with high profile brands and artists including HBO and Nike and has worked with actor Jack Black. Her works have been featured all over the world as well as her beloved city of Chicago through organizations and festivals including Chicago Opera Theatre; the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians; Chicago Fringe Opera; Chicago's Night Out in the Parks Concert Series; Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival; Englewood Jazz Festival; Sons D'Hiver Jazz Festival (Paris, France); Chicago Home Theater Festival; the Jacob Caruthers Center for Inner City Studies; and Logan Center for the Arts.

Smith's most recent choreographic work includes commissions for Madison Ballet (2021), Chicago Repertory Ballet (2022), Houston Contemporary Dance Company (2022), University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2022) and serving as choreographer for Chicago Opera Theater's world premiere of Quamino's Map (2022).

The South Chicago Dance Theatre creates artistic experiences for all people through its world-class repertory dance ensemble and innovative educational programming. Through the art of dance, the company develops global leaders to create a more connected, equitable, and empathetic world.

All programming is subject to change. For information, visit southchicagodancetheatre.com.

An Evening with the South Chicago dance Theatre: Celebrating Five Years, is presented by Athleta.

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