Going Dutch Festival in Elgin returns, celebrating women in the arts

Side Street Studio Arts will be the hub for the 12th annual Going Dutch Festival, a celebration of the female voice in dance, music, theater, and the visual arts. The festival has begun and continues through June 25 with a variety of performances, interactive workshops, and a visual art exhibition featuring work created by female and nonbinary artists.

Festival passes are $10 online ahead of time and $15 at the door of each event. Festival passes grant admission to most festival events and are available at sidestreetstudioarts.org/goingdutch. Side Street is at 15 Ziegler Court, in the heart of downtown Elgin.

"Originally developed to address the underrepresentation of female choreographers in the dance world, GD grew into a multidisciplinary arts festival," said Going Dutch Festival founder and artistic director Erin Rehberg. "Now in its 12th year, sixth in downtown Elgin, we are thrilled to have our audiences up close to and sharing space with the artists. All events are held in smaller, more intimate spaces. No fourth wall. No pomp."

The festival features 29 artists from all over the United States and beyond, including featured visual artist Siyao Lu, who recently graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and hails from China.

"I am providing an angle of viewing ordinary people in my work," said Lu in her artist statement. "I use the word 'ordinary' not to mean that these people are indeed ordinary, but to express that they are undistinguished and silent in mundane criteria in China, such as daily workers, vegetable sellers, and retail clerks, rather than the successful, or conventionally good-looking people who socially capture more attention and commonly have higher secular values."

Performing artists include returning favorites Gina T'ai of Wisconsin and Thank You So Much For Coming of Michigan, as well as festival newcomers Kaleid Dance Collective of Maryland and Noelle Ruggieri and Abby Rosen of Nevada. Commissioned artists Ishti Collective, out of Chicago, return to the festival to present the premiere of a new work at a new Going Dutch venue, Still Life Meditation. The Collective's Prakriti II: We Are Here explores how the group, as individuals and as a collective, persist and move forward in the current polarized sociopolitical world.

Workshops include "Every Body is a Dancing Body" with South Elgin artist Francesca Baron to be held on Friday, June 3, at Side Street Studio Arts. Participants will be guided through improvisation and phrase building and are welcome to watch or participate in this community event. All workshops have limited capacity and are included in the $10 festival pass.

"We are also excited about a new partnership with the East Side Neighborhood Garden, located at the corner of Channing and Division streets," said Rehberg. "On Sunday, June 12, A Flor de Piel, featuring Grammy and Latin Grammy nominee Renato Ceron and front woman, author, teacher, musician, and entrepreneur Marisol Ceron, will perform a diverse repertoire reflecting its members' rich cultural heritage in a free concert for the whole family."

Masks will be required of all Going Dutch audiences in the festival's more intimate spaces, Still Life Meditation and Backspace at SSSA.

For information on the festival or any of Side Street Studio Arts programs, visit sidestreetstudioarts.org, call or text (847) 429-2276 or email info@sidestreetstudioarts.org.