WHEN:
October 15, 2025 - May 15, 2026
WHERE:
Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago
1306 S Michigan Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60605.
TICKETS:
For more information and tickets visit the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago website.
A spokesperson describes the event as follows:
“...Founder Shirley Mordine’s expansive embrace of dance practices is evident in the first 1974-75 dance presenting series of Kathak, Modern, Spanish, and Postmodern dance companies. Season 52 offers U.S., Benin, and India-based artists rooted in Ballet, Hip Hop, Jazz, Modern, Postmodern, multiple South Asian, Spanish, and West African dance lineages, and more. Championing the acclaimed artistic practices of Dance Center faculty is also a hallmark of Shirley Mordine’s legacy and Season 52 includes T. Ayo Alston's Ayodele Drum and Dance, Carrie Hanson’s The Seldoms, and Wilfredo Rivera and Joe Cerqua’s Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre..."
WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY? SYMPOSIUM (October 15-16, 2025)
Contemporary means distinctly different things in different dance contexts. Co-curated
by Dance faculty Keesha Beckford and Dardi McGinley Gallivan, the What Is
Contemporary? Symposium includes an opening showcase performance followed by a
day of sessions selected from an international call for proposals.
Tickets: Symposium Pass ($40); Showcase Ticket ($15); Session Ticket ($10); Free to
Columbia College Chicago students.
Wed, October 15, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
MOMENT + MOVEMENT Symposium Showcase
Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, Visceral Dance Chicago, and
Zachary Nicol
Thu, October 16, 2025 – 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
What Is Contemporary? Symposium Sessions
TBA
AYODELE DRUM AND DANCE (October 31-November 1, 2025)
Ayodele Drum and Dance debuts its first standalone concerts at the Dance Center with the company’s repertoire of masquerade works in honor of Halloween, a spoken word piece, and a new drum piece created by Ayodele’s Founding Executive/Artistic Director and Dance Center faculty T. Ayo Alston inspired by her training with Merveilles de Guinée based in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa.
"Thematically we are collecting our repertoire of masquerade pieces from different ethnic groups and countries in Africa,” says T. Ayo Alston. “I think seeing that variety and that kaleidoscope of perspectives is a way for us to continue to build community, continue to share with community, and continue to bridge gaps in understanding of African dance.”
Ayodele Drum & Dance exists to foster community from a feminine perspective through the study and performance of diasporic African drum and dance.
Tickets: General Admission ($30); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to
Columbia College Chicago students.
Fri, October 31, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Sat, November 1, 2025 – 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
FREE FALL: STUDENT PERFORMANCE NIGHT (November 13-14, 2025)
The coveted platform for student choreographers to share original, short works on the Dance Center’s stage where the audience is as dynamic as the performances. The Friday matinee will feature an opening performance by Realize program participants – Chicago Public High School students earning college credit at the Dance Center. Faculty Advisor: Kelsa Rieger-Haywood. Tickets: Free with reservation.
Thu, November 13, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
Fri, November 14, 2025 – 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
Fri, November 14, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
CHOREOGRAPHIC PROJECTS (November 20-21, December 4-5, 2025)
Each week’s distinct program is the culmination of 14 Dance majors’ journeys through the choreographic process: from creative impulse through auditions, rehearsals, outside eyes, and design decisions, to presenting their new works on the concert stage. Faculty
Advisor: Colleen Halloran.
Tickets: Free with reservation.
Thu, November 20, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Fri, November 21, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Thu, December 4, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Fri, December 5, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
SOUTH CHICAGO DANCE THEATRE’S LAMENTATIONS FOR PEACE (December 6-7, 2025)
The world premiere holiday show by Founder and Director of Vision and Strategy Kia S. Smith, Lamentations for Peace, is South Chicago Dance Theatre’s third evening length work by the 9-year-old company.
“I want families and audience members to feel like now you can get into the holiday season and when you leave the theater, you feel like you were laughing with the person next to you or the person on the other side was humming the same songs as you. I want people walking away from the Dance Center feeling more connected to each other,” says Kia S. Smith.
South Chicago Dance Theatre (SCDT) is a multicultural organization seamlessly fusing classical and contemporary dance styles as well as preserving historic dance work. With Choreographic DiplomacyTM at the heart of the organization, SCDT creates, performs, and teaches dance on a local, national, and international platform.
Tickets: General Admission ($30); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to
Columbia College Chicago students.
Sat, December 6, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Sun, December 7, 2025 – 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
AMANDLA: REPERTORY PERFORMANCE WORKS (December 11-12, 2025)
Translated as “power” from the Nguni languages Xhosa and Zulu, these culminating concerts of 2025 at the Dance Center feature works by visiting choreographer Monique Haley and faculty Bevara Anderson and Kelsa Rieger-Haywood set on students in one of the most popular Dance courses: Repertory Performance Workshop. Originally created by Dance Center founder Shirley Mordine, the course introduces students to the professional dancer’s experience of embodying multiple choreographic perspectives and languages on the same performance program.
Tickets: Free with reservation.
Thu, December 11 – 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Fri, December 12, 2025 – 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
KATKATHA PUPPET ARTS TRUST’S ABOUT RAM BY ANURUPA ROY (January 29- 31, 2026)
The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival returns to the Dance Center with the U.S. premiere of a work from India. Drawing on the Rama myth in Bhavabhuti’s ‘Uttararamacharita’ and combining Bunraku puppetry with Kathakali and Chau dance and projected animation, About Ram focuses more on what Ram thinks and feels than on what he does. According to Director Anurupa Roy, she was inspired “to re-look at this
ancient epic and find a new way of telling it.”
Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust is a Delhi, India based puppet theatre company which began in 1998 to bring new puppet works to festivals across India and the world and to train the next generation of professional puppeteers, create a discourse around puppetry, and build a network of puppeteers.
Tickets: Through Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival Box Office (TBA)
Thu, January 29, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Fri, January 30, 2026 – 1 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. and 6 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Sat, January 31, 2026 – 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
MUSICAL THEATRE DANCE CONCERT (February 19-20, 2026)
The 3rd annual student produced, directed, choreographed and performed revue featuring Acting, Dance, Design, and Musical Theatre majors bringing their take on musical theatre dance numbers.
Tickets: Free with reservation.
Thu, February 20, 2026 - 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Fri, February 21, 2026 - 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
2026 B-SERIES FESTIVAL: B-PRESENT (February 28, 2026)
The 2026 celebration of Hip Hop & Street Dance Culture co-curated by faculty Daniel BRAVEMONK Haywood and Kelsa K-SOUL Rieger-Haywood centers on the theme B- PRESENT: a call to gather and move—physically, soulfully, and energetically—with awareness, intention, and deep connection to the sounds, the space, the culture, the legacies, our inner selves, and one another.
Tickets: Free with reservation through the B-Series Festival: B-PRESENT website (TBA).
Sat, February 28, 2026 – 1:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
B-PRESENT Battle & Jam
Headliners and Judges TBA
THE SELDOMS’ FLOE (March 12-13, 2026)
The Chicago premiere of Floe fits into a set of The Seldoms’ repertory about environmental issues and that the new normal is change. Research in the creation of the work included learning from locals affected by the Wisconsin floods of 2018, the sea ice changes at the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea Lagoon, and Houston’s Hurricane Harvey, revealing that the body itself is the center of gravity in this human-caused climate crisis. The Seldoms creates multimedia performance charged by bold, exacting physicality and the belief dance can ignite thinking about critical social issues. Each project is fueled by
an appetite for research and incubated with partners from fields including history and science. Founded in 2001 and based in Chicago, The Seldoms has performed in twenty US cities, and toured in Russia, Canada, Taiwan, and Scotland.
Tickets: General Admission ($30); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to Columbia College Chicago students.
Thu, March 12, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
Fri, March 13, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
NATYA DANCE THEATRE’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY (March 19-21, 2026)
For its 50th anniversary season, Natya Dance Theatre (NDT) continues to share important milestones in NDT’s rich history at the Dance Center. In 2001, NDT made its Dance Center debut and celebrated its 25th anniversary with a 3-day international conference, Bharatanatyam in the Diaspora, convening scholars and artists from India, Europe, and North America. Subsequent NDT engagements at the Dance Center featured the world premieres of Alakshaya: The Invisible Veil (2007), Varna - Colors of White (2015 – NDT’s 40th anniversary season), and INAI - The Connection (2019).
Rooted in tradition, shaped by vision, and guided by rasa, Natya Dance Theatre celebrates 50 years of preserving and perpetuating bharata natyam in all its classical rigor, and moving the art form in innovative directions to foster cultural exchange through dance. NDT’s contemporary interpretations incorporate dynamic body movement, rhythmic footwork, hand gestures and facial expressions to convey meaning and emotion that create rasa, aesthetic experiences that spiritually transform audiences worldwide.
Tickets: General Admission ($30); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to Columbia College Chicago students.
Thu, March 19, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Fri, March 20, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Sat, March 21, 2026 – 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
FESTIVAL OF DANCE CLUBS (March 31 – April 3, 2026)
This inaugural festival showcases four of the student run organizations dedicated to dance and open to all majors at Columbia College Chicago: C2K, Columbia Ballet Club, Columbia Renegades Dance Team, and Renegades Hip Hop Dance Crew.
Tickets: Free with reservation.
Tue, March 31, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. – Columbia Ballet Club (Ballet)
Wed, April 1, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. - Renegades Hip Hop Dance Crew (Hip Hop)
Thu, April 2, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. - Columbia Renegades Dance Team (Mixed Styles)
Fri, April 3, 2026 – 7:30 p.m - 8:30 p.m. - C2K (K-pop)
SPRING FORWARD: STUDENT PERFORMANCE NIGHT (April 9-11, 2026)
Embrace the energetic lift of early Spring in original, brand new, short works by student choreographers selected from an open application process. These eagerly anticipated concerts feature audiences as electric as the performers.
Tickets: Free with reservation.
Thu, April 9, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
Fri, April 10, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
Sat, April 11, 2027 – 12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
BREAK/THROUGH (April 16-18, 2026)
The Dance Center’s renowned professional dance faculty and alumni choreograph new works performed by students.
Tickets: Free with reservation.
Thu, April 16, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
Fri, April 17, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
Sat, April 18, 2026 – 12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
DIDĘ BY MARCEL GBEFFA (April 24, 2026) – ONE NIGHT ONLY
The Dance Center is proud to present the Midwest premiere of Didę by Marcel Gbeffa (Benin) and Sarah Trouche (France). Inspired by the Guèlèdè traditions whose ceremonies and masks pay homage to Ìyá Nlá, the Yoruba primordial spirit of all creation, Didę is an evening-length work for five dancers and 21 mahogany masks. Didę invites us into a sincere and frank encounter with the place where the intimate and the political are entangled, where feelings are expressed and oppressions are incorporated, in whose folds lodge social conditions, confrontations between traditions, identity divisions, and emancipation—the human body. Founder and artistic director of the Multicorps Choreographic Center in Cotonou, Benin, Marcel Gbeffa campaigns for the accessibility and circulation of contemporary dance in Africa.
Tickets: General Admission ($30); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to Columbia College Chicago students.
Fri, April 24, 20256 – 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
CERQUA RIVERA DANCE THEATRE 2026 SPRING CONCERT SERIES (April 30 – May 2, 2026)
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre premieres three new works: “Immense World” by Shannon Alvis, “Trouble in Mind” by Monique Haley, and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by CRDT Co-Founder and Artistic Director Wilfredo Rivera with arrangements and original music by CRDT Co-Founder Joe Cerqua and the remount of Shannon Alvis’ “A Place Between Earth & Sky” (2018) with original music by Clarice Assad. "One of the enduring and whimsical and uplifting qualities of the company is the fusion of dance and live music—the integration is vital. For the audience perspective, live music transforms the room – that rumbling underneath your feet because of the percussion or the voices of the vocalist simmering in the air – it bathes your auditory system. It affects you from the inside out.” - Wilfredo Rivera
Tickets: General Admission ($30); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to Columbia College Chicago students.
Thu, April 30, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Fri, May 1, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Sat, May 2, 2026 - 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
PRISMATIC: BFA CAPSTONE CONCERT (May 14-15, 2026)
Columbia College Chicago’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance class of 2026: Grace Butt, Violet Czerwinski, Erica Jones, Shannon Lane, Sophia Peck, Autumn Risbrook, Devon Saxman, and CJ Triche share new works dedicated to their years of connecting, witnessing, researching, experimenting, practicing, imagining and growing as dance artists.
Tickets: Free with reservation.
Thu, May 14, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Fri, May 15, 2026 – 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
