Event Details
On July 24th and 25th at 7:00 pm, Chicago Dance Crash will present expo/sd, a world premiere concert at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts.
The upcoming performance will feature a new work by choreographer Annie Franklin that investigates how traditional street and contemporary dance forms can exist in conversation with one another while pushing dancers to embrace the visceral, the intimate, and the imperfect in performance—work that is unsettling, raw, and emotionally charged rather than conventionally beautiful. Rooted in themes of voyeurism and intimacy, the piece will ask what it means for audiences to witness moments they are “not supposed” to see, reflecting the deeply personal practice of freestyle movement and the vulnerability of exploration.
The concert will also feature a new repertory work, “A 4 Bar Loop”, by choreographer and Crash alum Elijah Motley. This dynamic piece explores identity, drawing from Motley’s personal experience as a Black man raised in the South. Growing up surrounded by reminders and stories of racial discrimination shared by his grandparents, Motley reflects on the tangible progress made in civil rights, its regressions, and ultimately asks: “Are we any different now?”
Finally, choreographer Cameron McKinney will premiere a new duet “Fall From Grace”. Rooted in hyperphysicality, McKinney explores how the body can be pushed to (and beyond) its limits, and how that physical threshold becomes a gateway to raw honesty. This work operates in a space of “meditative exhaustion”: a state where the energy we normally spend maintaining our facades is stripped away, leaving only the truth of self in the moment.
Seating will be very limited for this weekend-only showing and, as with all freestyle-driven productions, both performances will be entirely different. Join Chicago Dance Crash in July as we celebrate three world-premiere works in expo/sd.