The historic Unity Temple in Oak Park will be the setting for joyous dance concerts on Feb. 26. Winifred Haun & Dancers will present two performances of “The Light Returns.”
Winifred Haun described the setting as “inspiring and uplifting. I think that was Frank Lloyd Wright’s original intention for the space.”
Haun added that she called the dance concert “The Light Returns” because of the building.
“It feels like being in that space opens up the light and the possibilities,” she explained. “The space is very square and symmetrical and the human body is not so it’s really lovely to see both of those things right next to each other.”
The title is also fitting because these concerts mark the first performances of the company in two years due to the pandemic.
Performances will take place in three spaces — Unity House, the entranceway, and the sanctuary. A limit of 30 people will watch performances in the first two spaces — to keep everyone safe. The entire audience will be seated in the sanctuary for the concluding dances.
Haun choreographed the performance that will be in Unity House, which is a community space.
“There’s two balconies on either side of it,” Haun related. “I have the dancers up there with silks doing patterns. The audience will have to look up a little bit.”
Elysia Banks choreographed a solo piece for the entranceway space.
“My work tends to be pretty autobiographical. I choreograph what my reality looks like — what I’m going through,” Banks said. “At the present moment, I feel like there’s so much that I have to do and there’s not enough time.”
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That’s because Banks teaches at three Chicago Public Schools, runs a dance program at Ruth Page Center for the Arts, runs Banks Performance Project, and has a 6-year-old son.
The solo work features Elijah Guardiola, a member of Banks’ company since 2019, who will perform at the entranceway. Although Banks doesn’t generally use props in her choreography, the dance will utilize one of Unity Temple’s tables and one of its chairs.
“There will be moments where Eli will sit in the chair which for me kind of signifies how tired I am. I feel like I exist in a potential state of exhaustion,” Banks related. “The table represents all the things that I have on my plate.”
Banks noted that she will be using words in the choreography for the first time. “If I’m feeling overwhelmed or I need to have a cry,” the choreographer said, “to calm down, I will repeat ‘It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine.'” Those are the two words that Guardiola will repeat at times during his performance. To suit the mood of the piece, the background sound will be a metronome, rather than music.
The sanctuary will be the setting for a reprise of “Light in Winter,” a 2020 collaboration between Haun and composer Renee Baker. The piece is undergoing some changes.
“An artist’s work is never really done,” Haun said. “I’ve made a couple of different choices. Also, we have one more dancer than we did last time so there’s some restaging.”
Baker noted that the changes reflect the fact that “without direct reference to quarantined performances and COVID this and pandemic that, we’ve been impacted in a way that none of us in our lifetimes have ever experienced. Hopefully, ‘Light in Winter’ now represents hope, represents light, we hope, at the end of a tunnel. That’s what I’m taking as my impetus as far as providing the music.”
Baker’s musicians will also perform a short original piece of hers before intermission.
There will also be a short performance by the Young Dancers Project, a workshop and performance program for dancers ages 10-18. “We will be incorporating some of the young artists’ choreography,” Haun said. “It will be another one of the works made for the space.”
“The Light Returns” is part of a new Unity Dance Series, which is a partnership between Winifred Haun & Dancers and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation. It opened in October with performances by Muntu Dance Theatre and Vernon Gooden. It will continue on May 7 with performances by Movement Revolution Dance Crew and Silvita Diaz Brown.
‘The Light Returns’
When: 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Feb. 26
Where: Winifred Haun & Dancers at Unity Temple, 875 Lake St., Oak Park
Tickets: $20-$39
Information: 708-260-6661; winifredhaun.org/event/the-light-returns
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.