Dance in the Parks is a performance company whose mission is to bring free, professional dance performances to new audiences in Chicago's most accessible venues: neighborhood parks. We hope to expose audiences unfamiliar with dance to the art form as well as to local performers and choreographers in a relaxed, casual atmosphere.
2020 is Dance in the Parks' 12th performance season - and our first digital one! In partnership with the Chicago Park District and as part of Night Out in the Parks, Dance in the Parks is USUALLY able to take professional concert dance out of the traditional theater setting and into neighborhoods that cannot support professional dance. Our 2020 season fo performances as pivoted - ONLINE. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, we can't perform outdoors in our communities, this year. To keep our audiences and our artists safe, we have created a "season" of digital dances for camera. Dancers and choreographers worked together via online meetings to create movement together. Then, dancers fimed themselves in their homes, or we filmed - appropriately distanced - in outdoor park spaces.
Our 2020 season choreographers are Ashley Deran & Emily Loar, Joe Musiel, Jackie Nowicki , Fernando Rodriguez, Michel Rodriguez Cintra, and Sarita Smith-Childs. The created works on dancers Erin Bates, Marco Clemente, Sam Crouch, Katy Fedrigon, Irina Goldman, Alex Goodreau, Felicity Nicholson, Timothy Tsang, and Natalie Tursi. All the works are based on choreographers' reactions to the global Covid crisis - from ideas of loss and grief to quarantine flights of imagination about childhood superheroes.
Our 2020 season premieres will be live on Facebook Live Premiere and IGTV (links below) on Friday, July 31 and Saturday, August 1 at 5:30 pm. After the premieres, the dance films will be available on our website.
