Variety highlighted in Elgin Ties Dance Festival
A variety of dance forms and performers will be featured at the second annual Elgin Ties Dance Festival, which opens Thursday, April 24, and runs through Sunday, April 27 at the Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St.
The festival will feature four professional concerts and two Kids Only!, family-friendly performances made up of works created for and by kids.
New to the Festival this year is Sunday evening's Elgin TAPS!, an all tap-dance performance curated by Tristran Bruns of Tapman Productions.
The lineup of performers includes:
• Thursday, April 24, 7:30 p.m.: Core Project (Chicago), Annabella Gonzalez Dance Theater (New York), Integrity School of Dance (Elgin), Tiffany Lawson Dance (Chicago), Liquid Skin (Australia), Project606 Dance (Chicago), Chartamia (Shay) Turner (Chicago), Veritydance (Elgin), Toby Walters (Wisconsin).
• Friday, April 25, 7:30 p.m.: Core Project, Dance COLEctive (Chicago), Christine Hands (Chicago), JKing Dance Company (New York), Liquid Skin, Veritydance, Toby Walters.
• Saturday, April 26, 3 p.m. Kids Only!: Core Project, Core Project KIDS!, DLD Dance Company (Downers Grove), JKing Dance, MC Soul Steppers (Indiana), Tapman Productions (Chicago), Veritydance, Core Project - Community Moves students from Washington Elementary School (Elgin).
• Saturday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.: J. Lindsay Brown (Chicago), Core Project, DLD Dance Company, Christine Hands, JKing Dance, Liquid Skin, MC Soul Steppers, Renegade Dance Architects (Chicago), Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre (Wisconsin), Undefined Movers (Chicago), Veritydance, Toby Walters.
• Sunday, April 27, 3 p.m. Kids Only!: Core Project, Core Project KIDS!, Tapman Productions, Veritydance, Core Project - Community Moves students from Washington Elementary School.
• Sunday, April 27, 7:30 p.m. Elgin TAPS!: featuring Audible Odyssey (Chicago), Jors TAP (Chicago), Jus' LiSTeN (Chicago), MADD Rhythms (Chicago), The Tapmen.
Tickets for the evening performances are $10 in advance, $12 at the door; and $8 for students and seniors.
Kids Only! tickets are $5.
Elgin TAPS! tickets are $8 ahead of time or with the purchase of another ETDF ticket, or $10 at the door. Purchase tickets at www.SideStreetStudioArts.org.
How it started
The Elgin Ties Dance Festival was founded in 2013 by Elgin natives Sara Krikau, artistic director of Veritydance; and Erin Rehberg, artistic director of Core Project Chicago Erin Rehberg.
Krikau and Rehberg met in 2012 through Sylvia Grady, former coordinator of the Elgin Arts Showcase. Both had recently returned to Elgin after years living and touring elsewhere as dancers, educators, arts administrators, and choreographers and felt an immediate need to build the professional dance community in Elgin, a city that has exported numerous dance professionals through its studios and schools.
Since their first meeting, Krikau and Rehberg have worked together to curate and publicize Elgin Ties Dance Festival with goals to not only show their personal work to a hometown audience, but to bring a variety of dance forms and viewpoints to Elgin audiences.
"The dance scene in Chicago is exciting and thriving, we want the work shown in Elgin to be a direct reflection of that," Rehberg said. "We want people to witness the great art that is happening everywhere, including just outside their doorstep."
This year's festival is being produced by Side Street Studio Arts, and is supported in part by a grant from the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission.
For information on Elgin Ties Dance Festival or any of SSSA's programs, email sidestreetstudioarts@gmail.com or call (847) 429-2276.