Last Dance for Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble
Chicago’s shrinking dance scene suffered another blow last week with the demise of the 11-year-old Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble. Members of the dance community responded to the news with regret. “I think it’s unfortunate,” says former member Timothy O’Slynne. “My heart goes out to the dancers in the company.”
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Along with artistic problems, the ensemble faced what its administrative staff considered unwinnable financial and marketing struggles. Reflecting on the company’s history while cleaning out its offices, founder and artistic director Tara Mitton said shutting down the company was the smart thing to do. “I don’t think we could have continued to do the quality work I wanted to do with the money we saw coming in for next season,” she explained, “so we are closing the books on the Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble with all our bills paid.”
Recently, though, Mitton and the company’s board of directors saw the purse strings tightening everywhere they looked. “Every time we would go to a corporation to ask for support,” says Mitton, “we would find that their guidelines for contributions had changed and that they were shifting their contributions from the arts to organizations dealing with social issues.”
More Musicals: Pegasus Announces a Singing Season
Music is in tile air at Pegasus Players. Lots of it. Three of next season’s five productions are musicals: You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow–A Stephen Sondheim Evening, the Gershwin opus Strike Up the Band, and a mounting of the Broadway hit Once on This Island, which will be coproduced with New York-based Big League Theatricals and sent on a national tour after its run here. Last season was no different; the company presented Barnum, Jump for Joy, and Buddy … The Buddy Holly Story, now running at Truman College’s O’Rourke Performing Arts Center.
