At first there was darkness, but as the lights slowly brightened the music grew to reveal dancers dressed in white dawning a star on their back representing the city of Chicago. The dancers were prepared to give the audiences a great show.
From 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday in the Stevens Building, the NIU School of Theatre and Dance hosted its second night of the Spring Dance Concert as the closing production of their 2024-2025 season.
Four different dances were performed during the concert: “Letters to CHI-IL,” “Gut Feeling,” “Humanity Interrupted (Part 1)” and “GLITCH III: Cozy Ghost II: Receiver I.”
Marc Macaranas, the dance program coordinator, said the theme of the Spring Dance Concert was community.
“We don’t always choose a theme, but a theme that emerged for this particular show was community and togetherness,” Marcaranas said. “And I think in the last couple of months, it’s been really top of mind for all the choreographers and the dancers. And so this is the work that sort of culminated from conversation and discussion and thinking about how powerful bodies can be, and that was sort of the genesis of the work.”
In a visual representation of this community, the dancers blended well together with the practiced chemistry and trust between them on full display whether the dancers were carrying one another on their shoulders, or performing perfectly synchronized dances.
The theme of the community and togetherness was plainly obvious throughout each of the four dances. In “Letters to CHI-IL,” the theme was shown through the celebration of Chicago with house music and the culture surrounding Chicago.
Melanie Houston, who came from Aurora, Illinois, to support her son Antonio Houston who was in the show, said that her favorite dance was “GLITCH III: Cozy Ghost II: Receiver I” because her son was featured.
“The energy of it. My son was featured and he really had a lot of energy,” Houston said. “I got a chance to see it from the bottom floor instead of the top floor yesterday, and I could see his facial expressions. And it was amazing, although I liked him in the first one as well.”
Max Weinberg, a resident of Evanston, Illinois, attended the show because his son recommended it to him.“My son is a theater major, and it was his birthday yesterday, so we came up to take him out for lunch, for dinner, and he wanted us to see the show. Some of his friends are in it,” Weinberg said.
Weinberg’s favorite dance from the concert was “Letters to CHI-IL” due to him being able to relate to it as a Chicagoan.
“I really like the first one,” Weinberg said. “So, I’m a Chicagoan and I love house music, so I really liked the first one. I thought it was great,” Weinberg said.
