Life sometimes plays like a waltz, and sometimes it feels more like butoh. When things are really moving along, it’s always a tango, but behind it is the rhythms that infuse biology with spirit. That’s the dance, and when Chicago moves, there are multiple rhythms playing at once, and it takes a group like Mordine & Company Dance Theatre to track the speed of our lives.

It began in 1978 under the direction of Shirley Mordine, after she had earned degrees and pedigrees in San Francisco, Minnesota, and at Columbia. Her work in the field was already well-established, and she’s won a Ruth Page Award for artistic excellence in 1969. Ruth Page is another great leader in the Chicago dance scene, and is herself something of an icon in the city.

Today, the company under Mordine continues to work in many directions simultaneously, and it makes for some very exciting seasons every year. Their focus can’t be limited to one single form, but follows the tradition of most modern dance companies in applying multiple directions, based on their usefulness in expressing emotion and theme to the artistic material. The work is distinctive and engaging, reflecting a very discerning savvy on the part of the choreographers and the dancers. One of their most exciting areas of focus is in collaboration, with other dancers and other companies, to create work that interrogates the world as it is at the moment. The results are a fantastic vision of what’s happening in the city, as well as reflecting a global vision that gazes into the nature of the human spirit.

For visitors, there is a lot to see here, and the dance scene is still as thriving as it ever was. Fortunately, a 4 star hotel in Chicago can provide a great home base from which to see all the visions and rhythms that the city can offer.

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