Sid Smith

"The Nutcracker" naturally dominates programming this time of year, but it's a testament to the growing strength of Chicago's dance scene and its cultural diversity that there are other family...

Forget Black Friday--for some of us, the holidays don't begin in earnest until the Joffrey Ballet's "The Nutcracker" graces the Auditorium Theatre with its warm, lavish tribute to fantasy, family...

Though lean in decor, Mats Ek's "Casi-Casa" is, in its way, a lavish wonderland, though a somber one probing some dark psychic corners of domesticity. But for all its ominous...

Prompted by a photographer, Swedish choreographer Mats Ek and his wife, the spellbinding dancer Ana Laguna, cuddle up together to pose for a double portrait. Mischievously, Laguna holds up two...

Choreographer Trey McIntyre found his recent experience with cultural exchange a subtle, complex affair--something that will surprise no one familiar with his imaginative, offbeat approach to dance making. McIntyre's works...

The Vancouver-based group ScrapArtsMusic consists of only five performers who nevertheless manage a feverish percussion spectacle, playing on instruments co-artistic director Gregory Kozak invented and fashioned from salvage material. It...

River North Dance Chicago pretty much artistically belongs to Frank Chaves, who's now celebrating 20 years with the troupe. Though launched by four others, though he ran it jointly for...

Dance in our time regularly embraces a kind of silent theater, a commingling with other arts --both Pilobolus and Mummenschanz virtually make a mission of it. So does Adam Barruch,...

Attending a Jump Rhythm Jazz Project concert is like no other cultural event--artistic head Billy Siegenfeld has pretty much invented his own brand of entertainment with this troupe. It's dance,...

"Moulin Rouge — the Ballet" nicely transports the viewer back in time to a seductive locale steamy with earthy, Bohemian pleasure co-existing with great art. That art of late 19th...