Tere O'Connor Dance Company Makes Chicago Debut

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago presents the Chicago debut of Bessie Award-winning choreographer Tere O'Connor's company, Tere O'Connor Dance. Performances areNovember 3-5, 2016 at the Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.

O'Connor brings a duet, Undersweet, created on and with company dancers Michael Ingle and Silas Riener, former member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In this dance, O'Connor proposes that formalism might result from repressed sexual desire. This choreographic meditation considers how this paradox finds its expression in dance, or perhaps generates it. The company also performs Transcendental Daughter in its second performance series following its world premiere in New York. The new trio bears the imprint of upheaval in our world and a sense of the loss of human traits such as compassion and reason, set to a score created by longtime collaborator James Baker.

Tere O'Connor
Tere O'Connor, artistic director of Tere O'Connor Dance, has created more than 40 works for his company, as well as numerous commissions for other companies, including Lyon Opera Ballet and White Oak Dance Project. Among his honors are a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2009 United States Artist Rockefeller Fellowship, a 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship and three New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies). An articulate and provocative educator, he has taught at festivals and universities around the globe for 25 years.

Residency activities
There will be a postperformance conversation with the artists Thursday, November 3 in the theater and a preperformance talk with Tere O'Connor Friday, November 4 at 6:30 p.m. at Sherwood Community Music School Recital Hall, 1312 S. Michigan Ave. (next door to the Dance Center), both free to ticket holders. Additional residency activities with community partners and Columbia College Chicago students take place throughout the week leading up to the performance weekend.

Funding
The Dance Center's presentation of Tere O'Connor Dance is funded, in part, by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the Crane Group, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Dance Center
The Dance Center's 2016-17 season begins with a performance by Tadashi Endo Sept. 17 and two Chicago companies, Lucky Plush Productions Sept. 29-Oct. 1 and The Seldoms Oct. 13-15. Prior to Tere O'Connor Dance, nora chipaumire performs Oct. 20-22; the season continues with Ballet de Lorraine on its first U.S. tour, a collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Feb. 18-19; Chicago Human Rhythm Project's ensemble BAM! Feb. 23-25; the Chicago debut of Malpaso Dance Company of Havana Mar. 9-11; and the Chicago debut of Liz Gerring Dance Company Apr. 6-8. The B-Series festivals celebrating hip hop and street dance forms take place Nov. 11-12 andApr. 14-15.

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago is the city's leading presenter of contemporary dance, showcasing artists of regional, national and international significance. The Dance Center has been named "Chicago's Best Dance Theatre" by Chicago magazine, "Best Dance Venue" by the Chicago Reader and Chicago's top dance venue in 2014 by Newcity, and Time Out Chicago cited it as "...consistently offering one of Chicago's strongest lineups of contemporary and experimental touring dance companies." Programs of the Dance Center are supported, in part, by the Alphawood Foundation; The MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince; The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; Illinois Arts Council Agency; Marcia E. Lazar Challenge Grant; The Irving Harris Foundation; Martha Struthers Farley and Donald C. Farley, Jr. Family Foundation, N.A., Trustee; the Arts Midwest Touring Fund; and the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to Friends of the Dance Center for their generous contributions to the work of the Dance Center.

Tickets and information
The Dance Center presents Tere O'Connor Dance November 3-5, Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m.at the Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan Ave. Single tickets are $30; subscriptions to three or more performances during the season offer a 25 percent savings. Groups of 10 or more receive a 25 percent discount. All programming is subject to change. The theatre is accessible to people with disabilities. For information and tickets, call 312-369-8330 and or visitcolum.edu/dancecenterpresents.

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