CHICAGO DANCING FESTIVAL's Opening Performance Set for Millennium Park Simulcast Tonight

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance, in partnership with Millennium Park and the City of Chicago, presents the opening night simulcast of the Chicago Dancing Festival tonight, August 20, at 7:30PM. In its eight-year history, the Chicago Dancing Festival has always been free and open to the public. With the addition of this simulcast, thousands of additional Chicagoans will have the ability to enjoy the opening night performance that is traditionally staged at Harris Theater.

The Harris Theater will broadcast the entire opening night performance onto an LED screen in the Pritzker Pavilion. Titled Classics and Creations, the program features works by The Julliard School, Martha Graham Dance Company, Stars of American Ballet, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in the world premiere of the Chicago Dancing Festival -- commissioned work Counterpoint, choreographed by Kyle Abraham.

The success of the Harris Theater's first simulcast presentation of Giselle by the Paris Opéra Ballet in 2012 -- a performance that drew more than 11,000 people to the Pritzker Pavilion -- has given rise to what will now be an annual tradition for the Theater. Promising two simulcast performances each season, this new simulcast series began this year with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's Summer Series performance on Friday, June 6.

Harris Theater for Music and Dance - The Harris Theater's mission is to partner with an array of Chicago's emerging and midsize performing arts organizations to help them build infrastructure and achieve artistic growth and long-term organizational sustainability. Opened on November 8, 2003, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance was the first multi-use performing arts venue to be built in the Chicago downtown area since 1929. Today the Theater continues to host the most diverse offerings of any venue in Chicago, featuring the city's world-renowned music and dance institutions and the Harris Theater Presents series of acclaimed national and international artists and ensembles.

To learn more about the Harris Theater, visit HarrisTheaterChicago.org or call the Box Office at 312.334.7777 to request a brochure or additional information. The Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Chicago's state-of-the art 1,525-seat performance venue, can also be found on Facebook facebook.com/harristheater and Twitter twitter.com/harristheater.

About the Chicago Dancing Festival - Established in 2006, the Chicago Dancing Festival was founded to elevate awareness of dance in Chicago, to increase accessibility to the art form, and to provide inspiration for local artists. Its mission is to present a wide variety of excellent dance, enrich the lives of the people of Chicago, and provide increased accessibility to the art form, thereby helping create a new audience. Its vision is to raise the national and international profile of dance in the city, furthering Chicago as the "dance capital of the world" (as Mayor Rahm Emanuel put it at the 2012 Chicago Dancing Festival).

Lar Lubovitch (Founder, Artistic Director) is one of America's most versatile and highly acclaimed choreographers and founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company 45 years ago. In the years since, he has choreographed more than 100 dances for his New York-based company, which has performed in nearly all 50 American states as well as in more than 30 foreign countries. Born in Chicago, Mr. Lubovitch was educated at the University of Iowa and the Juilliard School in New York.

Jay Franke (Founder, Artistic Director) began his formal training at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas. In 1993, he was selected as a Finalist for the Presidential Scholar in the Arts and accepted into the Juilliard School. Upon receiving his BFA in Dance from the Juilliard School, Mr. Franke went to work with the Twyla Tharp Dance Company, "THARP!" Mr. Franke has since danced with The 58 Group, Lyric Opera Ballet Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and was a leading dancer in the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company from 2005 to 2010.

For more information on the Chicago Dancing Festival, its history, and programs, visit www.chicagodancingfestival.com.