Dance Center Presents Light Moves

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago opens its spring 2012 season with the return of the San Francisco Bay Area's Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in the Midwest premiere of Light Moves, Jenkins' most recent collaborative work. Performances are February 9–11 at 8 p.m. at The Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.

For Light Moves, which premiered in November in San Francisco, Jenkins collaborates for the first time with multimedia artist Naomie Kremer, noted for her animated paintings combining the painted canvas and light projections. Jenkins also reunites with longtime collaborators Paul Dresher, an internationally recognized composer, and Wallace Stevens Award-winning poet Michael Palmer. Kremer's video imagery interweaves with eight dancers, using several projectors and projection surfaces to focus attention on the architecture of the theater while challenging notions of foreground and background, visible and hidden. Inspired by the natural cycles of light, Light Moves takes the audience on a journey of shifting emotional character, physical velocity and the stories that lie within these cycles.

RESIDENCY ACTIVITIES
As part of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company's residency, there will be a post-performance conversation with the artists on Thursday, February 9, and Jenkins will give a pre-performance talk at 7 p.m. before the Friday, February 10 performance, both free and open to ticket holders. Jenkins also will lead a DanceMasters class Tuesday, February 7 at 6 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave. (theater entrance). DanceMasters is a series of community master classes presented by The Dance Center's division of Community Outreach and Education (COE), in partnership with the Lou Conte Dance Studio at the Hubbard Street Dance Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Classes are for dancers at the intermediate level or higher.

MARGARET JENKINS DANCE COMPANY
In 1973 in San Francisco, Margaret Jenkins founded the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, dedicated to making and touring new work, international exchange and programs that support process, choreographic mentorship and performance opportunities. The company's artistic philosophy has its origins in the radical developments in all the arts in 1960s New York, when Jenkins was exposed to the collaborative work of Merce Cunningham, with whom she studied. Her goal was less to create a choreographic entity in the traditional sense than to fashion a fluid site for exploratory, collaborative interaction among all the arts, a place of "company" in its deepest meaning.

FUNDING
The Dance Center's presentation of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company is funded, in part, by the Sara Lee Foundation.

THE DANCE CENTER
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago is the city's leading presenter of contemporary dance, showcasing artists of regional, national and international significance. Programs of The Dance Center are supported, in part, by the Alphawood Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince, the Sara Lee Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Irving Harris Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts and Arts Midwest. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. Special thanks to Athletico, the Official Provider of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy for The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, and the Friends of The Dance Center.

The Dance Center's 2011–12 season continues with Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak (February 23–25), The Space/Movement Project with Rachel Damon/Synapse Arts and with Erica Mott (March 8–10) and Ballet Hispanico (March 22–24).

TICKET INFORMATION
Margaret Jenkins Dance Company performs Thursday–Saturday, February 9–11 at 8 p.m. at The Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan Ave. Single tickets are $26–30; subscribers who order tickets to three or more performances from the 2011–12 season save 20%. The DanceMasters class with Jenkins Tuesday, February 7 at 6 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave. (theater entrance) is $15, $10 for students; space is limited. All programming is subject to change. The theatre is accessible to people with disabilities. For more information, call 312-369-8330 or visit colum.edu/dancecenter.