CHICAGO, December 5, 2016 – Thodos Dance Chicago is celebrating its Silver Anniversary season in 2017. So without question, a major 25th Anniversary gala is on tap to commemorate the company’s 25 years as an integral part of Chicago’s dance community.
On Saturday, February 4, 2017, hundreds of Thodos Dance Chicago friends, fans and supporters will gather at the beautiful Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark St., Chicago, for the Thodos Dance Chicago FULL CIRCLE Silver Anniversary gala.
Honorary Chair and Broadway legend Ann Reinking will host the cocktail reception, followed by a silent auction, a performance with excerpts celebrating 25 years featuring current members of the Thodos Dance ensemble, a delicious dinner, and dancing to the fabulous band Swing Assembly.
“What an honor to be a part of Chicago’s thriving dance community! The beautiful Chicago History Museum is the ideal venue to celebrate our very special ‘ride to 25’ with our top supporters, marking 25 passionate years of dance with creativity, innovation and celebration,” said company founder and artistic director Melissa Thodos.
The celebration begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $300; $2,500 for a table of 10. Recommended attire is cocktail attire. Purchase tickets at thodosdancechicago.org or call (312) 266-6255.
Honorary Chair of the event is Ann Reinking, the Broadway legend and longtime Thodos Dance Chicago creative collaborator. Gala Committee Co-Chairs are Michael Anderson, former dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and TDC creative collaborator, former Thodos Dance ensemble member Jeanette Gordon, now Dance Program Director at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, and Michael Nugent, longtime TDC supporter and president of The Nugent Network.
Proceeds from the FULL CIRCLE gala will support Thodos Dance Chicago’s popular New Dances in-house choreography series, building Chicago’s future choreographers and new works.
Always a highlight of Chicago’s summer dance scene, New Dances 2017 will showcase the company’s dancers’ own, self-created works, Saturday and Sunday, July 15 and 16, 2017 at Chicago’s Athenaeum Theatre.
More about Thodos Dance Chicago’s 25th
Anniversary Season
In addition to its summer New Dances series, Thodos Dance Chicago has not one, but two unforgettable “mainstage” performances on tap for Chicago contemporary dance enthusiasts in the first half of 2017.
First, Thodos Dance Chicago will officially celebrate its 25th Anniversary Season on stage Saturday, March 11, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at Chicago’s majestic Auditorium Theatre with FULL CIRCLE, an exhilarating evening of dance celebrating a quarter century of the company’s innovation and artistry.
Program highlights include the Chicago premiere of Nos Duraturi, a compelling and dramatic commentary on mankind’s ability to endure by the legendary Bella Lewitzky, “the Grand Dame of West Coast modern dance.” A thrilling new, full-company piece, Nos Duraturi is the fourth revival of a seminal work from the past to emerge as part of Thodos Dance Chicago’s American Dance Legacy Project, which is dedicated to keeping the creative voice of renowned American dance artists whose work is no long visible to the public, alive and moving on stage.
The program will also boast a triumphant new signature work by Melissa Thodos that promises to complete a trilogy when paired with two signature works from the company’s past. Note: this will be the only time this trilogy will be performed, ever.
Also on the program, among other works, is the Chicago premiere of Acid Reign by Brian Enos, in which he answers the question “what might a celebration look like on another planet in the future?”
Single tickets are $29-$68. To purchase, visit AuditoriumTheatre.org, call
(312) 341-2300 or buy in-person at Auditorium Theatre’s Box Office,
50 E Congress Parkway, Chicago.
Discounted tickets for groups of 10 or more are available at (312) 341-2300 or [email protected].
Thodos Dance Chicago’s second major concert is Timeless Motion, Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie. Highlights of this unique program include Changing Strangers, a world premiere work by Melissa Thodos boasting her singular fluid, kinetic style, the debut of a New Dances 2016 work into the company’s repertoire and the world premiere of Acid Reign by Brian Enos. Tickets are $28-$50. For tickets and information, call (847) 673-6300 or visit NorthShoreCenter.org.
About Thodos Dance Chicago
Twenty five years ago, in 1992, Melissa Thodos, a young Evanston-born, Chicago-based dancer and choreographer, was frustrated with the lack of opportunities for dancers to work in what in her mind was the obvious environment for a well-rounded dance professional: A place to perform. A place to create. And a place to educate.
Fast-forward 25 years, and Thodos is the only Chicago-based female choreographer and director to have helmed her own mid-sized, contemporary dance company with this unique mission for a quarter century.
True to her original idea, Thodos Dance Chicago has been performing, creating and teaching dance in Chicago, across the country in 27 states, and around the world on six continents ever since. The company’s unique mission of inspiring expression through dance education, dance creation and dance performance has established Thodos Dance Chicago as an innovative, internationally known presence in American contemporary dance.
Today, Thodos Dance Chicago (TDC) is an ensemble of 14 versatile dance artists with a captivating style that uses a variety of dance forms. In addition to performing works by Melissa Thodos, TDC performs works created by guest and other renowned choreographers.
Notably, Melissa Thodos has collaborated on several new works with Broadway legend Ann Reinking, resulting in some of the company’s most high-profile, critically acclaimed, full-length “story ballets” including The White City: Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 (“Best dance of 2011” – Chicago Sun-Times), and their equally acclaimed A Light in the Dark: The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan in 2013.
Through its American Dance Legacy Project, dedicated to keeping the creative voice on stage of renowned American dance artists no long visible to the public, Thodos Dance Chicago has presented Fosse Trilogy, a trio of rarely performed works by Bob Fosse, a suite of choreography originally created by iconic modern dance legend Sybil Shearer, last season’s highly successful Sono’s Journey, a tribute to legendary Japanese-American dance artist, Sono Osato, conceived and choreographed by Melissa Thodos, and this season’s Nos Dururati by West Coast modern dance legend Bella Lewitzky, premiering March 11, 2017 at the Auditorium Theatre.
Numerous guest choreographers from the national dance landscape have set works on the company as well, including Ann Reinking, Lar Lubovitch, Shapiro & Smith, Jon Lehrer, Garfield Lemonius, Zachary Whittenburg, Lucas Crandall, Brian Enos, Amy Ernst, Ron De Jesús, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, Ahmad Simmons, KT Nelson, Robyn Mineko Williams and Kevin Iega Jeff.
TDC’s ensemble for the current 25th Anniversary season, who each teach, choreograph and perform for the company, include: John Cartwright, Abby Ellison, Marchetta Genis, Alex Gordon, Hattie Haggard, Thomas Jacobson, Jessica Miller Tomlinson, Shelby Moran, Melissa Panetta, Richard Peña, Brennen Renteria, Briana Robinson and Luis Vasquez, plus performing trainee Tyler Ring.
In addition to performing the work of others, these talented young dancers have the opportunity to create their own works via the company’s annual New Dances initiative.
Ensemble dancers also teach a full roster of dance classes for adults and children year round at the company’s rehearsal home, the Drucker Center Menomonee Club in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Thodos Dance also teaches after school dance classes for 50 at-risk youth at the Barreto Club in Humboldt Park and Club One in Pilsen. Both are branches of the Union League Boys and Girls Club improving the lives of children in underserved Chicago neighborhoods.
Thodos Dance Chicago continues to expand its artistic and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Founder and Artistic Director Melissa Thodos, Executive Director Gail Ford, Booking Director Rick Johnston, Artistic Associate Laura Gates, Resident Lighting Designer Nathan Tomlinson, Education Outreach and Operations Manager Kate Weatherly, Board President Sharon Lear, a dedicated board of directors and the support of thousands of contemporary dance enthusiasts both in Chicago and nationwide.
The company is supported by The Sono and Victor Elmaleh Foundation, The Garden of the Phoenix Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council-a state agency, Target, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Arts Work Fund, The Morrison-Shearer Foundation, The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Service Club of Chicago, Project 120, The Garden of the Phoenix Foundation, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events and many individual and corporate sponsors.
For more information, visit thodosdancechicago.org.
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