Zephyr Dance (Chicago)
www.zephyrdance.com

Zephyr Dance creates movement landscapes that challenge and expand public ideas of dance. Known for its striking imagery and seamless choreography, a Zephyr dance unfolds, sculpting clear movement patterns that ebb and flow like waves. Intricate, distinct gestures, clear, strong lines and tight groupings and formations are set against seamless meditative movement that opens out to engulf space, then reforms elsewhere. Led by artistic director Michelle Kranicke, Zephyr Dance sifts through movement, distilling and refining qualities, textures and patterns.  The result is rich abstract dance layered with nuance, open to a myriad of ideas and interpretation.

A spirited, vibrant company of women, Zephyr Dance offers audiences an eclectic and thought-provoking repertoire. Zephyr’s work has been described as having “ a composer’s sense of form….dances that progress through episodes, rather like Bach fugues” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).   Zephyr’s dances build from an idea that resonates on many levels----physical, emotional and intellectual. Led by artistic director Michelle Kranicke, a Zephyr dance unfolds, sculpting clear movement patterns that ebb and flow like waves. Intricate, distinct gestures, strong lines and tight groupings and formations are set against seamless meditative movement that opens out to engulf space, then reforms elsewhere. For twenty years, Zephyr Dance has been recognized for creating unique programs that promote both artistic collaboration and audience engagement, and for developing an arts-integrated education model that has earned an international reputation as inspired and effective.  Whether examining human isolation, our cultural relationship to food, the geography of space or the irreversible forward march of time, Zephyr transposes contemplative atmosphere with powerful physicality creating lavish visual images and a visceral physical experience.

“Fascinating…you couldn't look away. What happened onstage, throughout the evening, was too authentic-looking and authoritative.“
- Jennifer Dunning, New York Times

Touring Programs

The Trace Of Her Is Barely Visible
Examines the idea of looking.  The piece places some viewers inside the dance space, converting what is traditionally a separated visual perspective into an experience embodying all the senses, challenging the viewer to explore multiple perceptions of the dance. One section of the work develops like a whisper, asking the viewer to lean in, as if listening to a soft-spoken speaker, in order to apprehend details.  Other sections pit the dancers against the audience as they whirl and swirl around their physical presence.  Choosing to watch one dancer relegates others to an aural existence rather than a physical one. The Trace of Her is Barely Visible contrasts moments of stillness, full of tension and possibility, with cascading dancers that in turn create a visceral experience for the audience. 


Just Left of Remote
Just Left of Remote explores the relationship between isolation, identity and aging, and the tension between the need for recognition and the impulse for seclusion.  Combining lyrical, geometric phrasing and pedestrian movement and gesture, Just Left of Remote juxtaposes arresting moments of stillness with bursts of frenetic athleticism.  A live video feed projects altered perspectives of the dancers onto a small screen behind which dancers appear and disappear.  The piece includes an original score by Chicago musician Michael Caskey with instrumentation that includes, cello, accordion, harmonium and sound bites of the dancers’ voices recorded during improvisations at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.   Sumptuous costumes designed by Heidi Dakter are set against Richard Norwood’s distinctive lighting design. Supported in part by a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist grant, Artistic Director Michelle Kranicke developed Just Left of Remote over a two year time period that included multiple trips to the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.
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Chewing
Using Laura Schenone’s book A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove as its point of departure, Chewing is an abstract meditation on the relationship between food and personal identity.  Hailed as “cheerfully bizarre,” after its New York premiere Jennifer Dunning wrote “…you couldn’t look away, what happened onstage was too authentic and authoritative” (New York Times).   Conceived as a meandering movement poem, the piece loosely touches on the “flavors” of labor, culture, custom, ritual, burden, glamour and eroticism as they relate to our experience of food.  Chewing combines tightly choreographed segments with sections of improvisation, purposefully leaving patches of vagueness so that the audience can join in the exploration of culture, ritual and human nature.