Review – The Final $tage
“The Final $tage” marks not just a return to live productions for these home-town hip-hop heroes but a revival of sorts. In imagining a reality TV show in which dancers are implanted with microchips run by corporate capitalist overlords, Crash resuscitates its ever-popular story format. Unlike the company’s previous cinematic summer blockbusters (like “Tron: End of Line,” “Bricklayers of Oz” or “Lil Pine Nut”), however, this hour-ish of nearly non-stop dancing harkens back to shows such as “Immediate Gratification,” leaning on a unique brand of hip-hop-infused contemporary dance developed by a company fast approaching its 20th anniversary.
A perpetual strength of Chicago Dance Crash is their ability to look cool while addressing societal hot topics under the auspices of ridiculous tricks, intricate partnering and what looks to me like spectacular break dancing. They do this not only by recruiting serious dance chops—Monternez Rezell, KC Bevis, Kelsey Reiter and Logan Howell have emerged as the ensemble’s leaders with newcomers Diamond Burdine, Imani Williams and Anna Goetz adding pepper to this well-seasoned pot. The other key to their success, not to be understated, is the consistently brilliant choreographic minds of artistic director Jessica Deahr, Jackie Nowicki, Monyett Crump, James Morrow and Walter Maybell with contributions from Bevis.