UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:
JUNE 22 - 24 at LINKS HALL - Chicago, IL
RETURN
- Rachel Thorne Germond Dance & Friends
LINKS HALL
3435 N Sheffield Ave # 207 Chicago, IL 60657
Friday through Sunday June 22-24, 2012.
Friday & Saturday performances are at 8pm and Sunday is at 7pm.
Tickets are $12 General Admission/$10 Students & Seniors.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.linkshall.org.
For additional inquiries please contact Greer Dworman 708.228.8781.
Rachel Thorne Germond Dance & Friends (RTG Dance) return to Chicago June 22-24 to perform at Links Hall.
Purchase tickets in advance online: http://returnlh.eventbrite.com/
PREVIEWS ARE IN:
also a a new one by SID SMITH on the SEE CHICAGO DANCE WEBSITE : )
http://seechicagodance.com/reviews/
'Return' to play Links - SEE CHICAGO DANCE WEBSITE REVIEW By Sid Smith
By Sid Smith
Rachel Thorne Germond is a choreographer with a fine ability to slyly mix abstract dance and theatrical drama, a subtle practitioner of the art often called dance theater.
The conflicts, struggles and resolutions seem to spring from the muscles themselves, while her work draws you in, puzzles you and seduces. It was our loss when, two years ago, she understandably left to accompany her partner, who'd been given a medical fellowship in Norfolk, Va. Turns out that transfer may be more long-lasting: her partner has been invited to stay, and so will she.
"I thought for a time I might be moving back here after two years, but looks like we're staying in Norfolk," she said recently.
Still, her troupe, RTG Dance, remains a not-for-profit organization based in Illinois, and Germond loves Chicago and boasts lots of friends here. So, when she and her partner made plans to visit for this year's Gay Pride Parade, she contacted Links Hall, and thus "Return," a kind of reunion concert with some new faces, too, to play Friday through Sunday at Links, 3435 N. Sheffield Av.
A longtime follower of the Klein Technique, "I've been describing my work as dance theater," Germond said. "I think the theatrical part comes more intuitively to me. There's definitely an emotional content. And there's a desire to combine unlike elements and to juxtapose random elements. Some would say it's more absurdist theater, but it's rooted in movement and the craft of choreography."
In "Return," Germond will present two solos, "Under the Rainbow," from last year, performed by Megan Thompson, a faculty member at Norfolk's Old Dominion University, where Germond now works as an adjunct faculty member. Germond herself will perform a new solo, "Scarlett, I Dare Ya," its title referencing just who you'd think, "my way of grappling with living in Virginia," the choreographer puts it.
"It's new to me there--I grew up in New England and lived in New York and Chicago. 'Gone With the Wind' naturally comes to mind, and I grew interested in it because of its archetypal woman character and the themes underneath of a strong woman and unfulfilled desire."
The program will also host a revival of Germond's 1999 duet "Rejoinder." "It was a duet I made during my first year of graduate school at the University of Illinois, about the relationship between two women, about their break-up, but also their attempts to restore equanimity. There's a lot of dancing, and two pieces of wood get sawed in half." The sound of zippers are part of its eclectic score.
Thompson and Jen Stone, another colleague from back East, will perform it.
"Return" also features guests, including work from the Chicago-based Space Movement Project, Janet Schmid and Johannah Wininsky, and Madison, Wisc.-based Li Chiao Ping. The latter illustrates the small but intriguing interconnectedness of artists Germond has met along her way: Germond knew her during her own days back in New York City, before she moved to Chicago, while Thompson, who studied in Madison, knows Li as well.
"It's a bit of the RTG family, you could say," she notes of "Return" as a whole. "The dance community is a small but close knit one."
To which we reply: Welcome back, Rachel.
For tickets to "Return": 773-281-0824 or linkshall.org.
Reviewed by Sid Smith on 06/20/2012 at 11:05 AM
Featuring works by choreographer Rachel Thorne Germond (Chicago/NY/VA) and choreography by guest artists Li Chiao Ping (Wisconsin), Janet Schmid (Chicago), Jen Stone (Virginia) the Space Movement Project (Chicago) and Johannah Wininsky. Germond will present two recent solos: Scarlett, I Dare Ya danced by Germond is part of a longer work title Look at Me that explores images of women, gender, and sexuality. Germond moves sensually and daringly to music by Tommy James and the Shondelles, summoning the essence and paradox of desire. Under the Rainbow, a haunting solo danced by Megan Thompson evokes the sense of a specific place/memory. Critic Laura Molzahn of the Chicago Reader has described this solo as “a perfect balance of reserve and emotion”. Rejoinder (1999) is a passionate duet for two women who “caressingly plunge and aggressively soar throughout the space in crisp, clean movements that abound with energy and grace”. Other works on the program include duets and groups works by the invited guest artists listed.
PRESS CONTACT:
Greer Dworman
greer.dworman@gmail.com
708.228.8781
or Rachel Thorne Germond
rtg@rtgdance.com
RACHEL THORNE GERMOND has been dancing, choreographing and presenting work (primarily in New York City and Chicago) since 1990. In New York City she has presented work at such venues as the Joyce Soho, 92nd St. Y, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, Movement Research at Judson Church, WAX, Chashama, The Merce Cunningham Studio, HERE, the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dixon Place and in Chicago (2001-2010) primarily at Links Hall, but also in performances with the Girlie Q Variety Hour, the Chicago Kings and in festivals such as the Other Dance Festival, Full Circle, Around the Coyote, Looptopia!, and Estrogen Festival. Most recently Ms. Germond performed at the 92nd St Y Sundays at Three with Barbara Mahler, taught and performed at DUOC in Santiago, Chile and at UDLAP – Cholula, Mexico in Performatica 2012. Ms. Germond is a graduate of Cornell University and achieved an MFA in dance and choreography at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Her training includes intensive study of Klein technique with Barbara Mahler and with such notable teachers as Mary Anthony, Anna Sokolow, Pedro Alejandro, Tere O'Connor, and Nancy Topf. She formed her Chicago-based dance company, RTG Dance in 2004 and is currently on faculty at Christopher Newport University and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. See www.rtgdance.com for more information.
"Modest, like much of her work, evolving quickly, changing every moment, it was rarely less than intriguing. Our arts scene needs more, not less, like Germond. So, we implore her, hurry back."
-Sid Smith, See Chicago Dance Website Review (2010)
INVITED GUEST CHOREOGRAPHERS:
FOR MORE DETAIL ON THESE ARTISTS CLICK THIS LINK (RTG DANCE COLLABORATORS)
LI CHIAO-PING, named by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 to watch”, is the Artistic Director of Li Chiao-Ping Dance and Chair of the UW-Madison Dance Department. Her choreography has been shown throughout the world and prominent festivals— Jacob’s Pillow, Bates Dance Festival, The Yard, International Festival of Video andDance (Argentina), and American Dance Festival. JENNIFER CLARK STONE has danced with choreographers and improvisers at work today including Steve Paxton, David Dorfman, Maida Withers, Amy Pivar, David Zambrano, Daniel Burkholder, Joy Kellman, and Phffft Dance Theatre Co. Her own improvisationally charged choreography and master classes have been presented throughout Washington DC and in collaboration with 5th Adventure Dance. JANET SCHMID has presented her work in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Links Hall, Defibrillator Gallery, the Elastic Arts Foundation, the Spareroom, Happy Dog Gallery, and the Chicago Cultural Center, as well as in vacant lots, park district buildings, nightclubs, apartments, parked cars, and loft spaces throughout Chicago. She has been called "an outsider artist (with) a naive sophistication,” “refreshingly off the map," and "simultaneously intense and ludicrous.” The Chicago-based dance company the SPACE MOVEMENT PROJECT (TS/MP) was founded as a means to nurture artistic growth through shared financial resouces. TS/MP includes Allyson Esposito, Larisa Eastman, Anne Kasdorf, Chloe Nisbett, Leah Raffanti, Megan Schneeberger and Stacy Wolfson challenges the traditional model in which a single artistic director presides over the development of a work. JOHANNAH WININSKY danced for Ms. Germond/RTG DANCE in Chicago from 2004 – 2010. She is the honored recipient of the Vannie L. Shiery Award for excellence in choreography and performance at UIUC. In 2003, she created her company Thread Meddle Outfit with co-founder, Christine Betsill. She has also worked with the Pennsylvania Dance Theatre as Artistic Director/choreographer and has danced for James Hansen’s Dance Assemblage (NYC) and Dance Alloy, Pittsburgh PA.
PROGRAM:
The show will run about an hour and 45 minutes- each piece will be approximately 10 minutes in length
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RECENT CHICAGO PRESS for RTG DANCE
May 24 2010
See Chicago Dance Website review by Tribune critic
Sid Smith:
RTG Dance A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far
By Sid Smith
http://seechicagodance.com/company/261#reviews
Turns
out that the RTG Dance performance over the weekend
at the Drucker Center will be the troupe's last for
a whileÐartistic head Rachel Thorne Germond will be
moving to Virginia for the next two years, joining
her partner, whoÕs earned a fellowship. Good for them,
bad for us. The modest, threadbare presentation over
the weekend, dubbed "A Wild Patience Has Taken
Me This Far," ably demonstrated GermondÕs inimitable
talents and appeal. She is a stern, unfancy, intellectually
enticing artist, tough in her aesthetic, though in
a more muted way than, say, Atalee Judy or Jonathan
Meyer. "Dance theater" is a buzz phrase
of the past couple of decades, but, at SundayÕs performance,
I kept thinking instead of "dance drama,"
in that Germond works in a purely abstract realm and
yet mines subtle conflicts and animosities inherent
in movement and ensemble configuration. She doesnÕt
tell stories, but she explores battles, alliances,
break-ups and betrayals, rarely relying on the traditional
beauties of flowing contemporary dance. Who her dancers
are touching at any given momentÐand whyÐare questions
that keep recurring, just as the ever-changing patterns
concern human will, control, isolation and even doom
much more than aesthetic confection. One compliment
a writer can pay her: While the viewer remains most
of the time compelled, wondering whatÕs next, her
work is very difficult to put into words. The four
dancers in "A Wild Patience," the only ensemble
piece on last weekendÕs fare, constantly change poses,
arrangements and affinities. They begin in two separate
pairs. Johannah Wininsky stands beside Celia Weiss
Bambara and repeatedly thwarts her ill-fated efforts
to move forward. At the other side of the stage, Becky
O'Connell watches ominously as Christopher Knowlton
threatens to crash himself into the brick wall. Escape,
whether real or suicidal, is only ineffectually restrained.
Much later, Germond crafts a nifty sequence in which,
one by one, each of the foursome gets isolated, one
at a time, so that formations of three vs. one keep
forming and changing in make-upÐeach, in his or her
turn, is outsider. ThatÕs the type of imagistic drama
that inhabits "Patience," which quickly
melds from set-up to set-up, from mini-drama to mini-drama,
with relentless propulsion. Rarely do these dancers
indulge in smooth, sweeping dance, though, when they
do, itÕs a relief akin to an oasis in a desert. ItÕs
not an overstatement to labe Germond uncompromising.
Her quartet in "Patience" is a motley crew,
by no means an assortment of gorgeous or dainty creatures.
In one of two solos on this same program, "Framed,"
Germond employs her own solid, earthy looks for a
kind of "No Exit"-like tone poem involving
a woman both partnering with and maybe trapped by
an empty picture frame. Here, Germond never utilizes
one of her own most appealing aspects, her vulnerable,
inviting mien and facial warmth. Instead, her face
remains rigid, even defiant, and "Framed,"
one component of what's intended to be a full-length
piece in the future, is austere, vogue-like in its
striking poses. She reclines along a diagonal line
with the frame at one point, at another she poses
with her hand on one hip, executing a brief series
of plies. Modest, like much of her work, evolving
quickly, changing every moment, it was rarely less
than intriguing. Our arts scene needs more, not less,
like Germond. So, we implore her, hurry back. Meanwhile,
God speed.
Reviewed
by Sid Smith on 05/24/2010 at 10:38 AM
photo
by Dan Merlo
Previews:
CriticÕs
Choice in the Chicago Reader
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/Event?oid=1836667
It's "the end of an era,"
says RTG artistic director Rachel Thorne Germond,
who's about to leave town for Virginia after nearly
a decade here. But it's also the start of a new one:
Germond has drawn on her experience teaching movement
to kindergartners to teach herself that simple moves
and a patient approach to choreography could pay off
for audiences. Two of the three works in "A Wild
Patience Has Taken Me This Far,"inspired by the
poetry of Adrienne Rich, are often plain and either
still or slow moving. TheyÕre also highly evocative.
GermondÕs 40-minute quartet, A Wild Patience, was
spun off from Fantastic Folk DanceÐa work-in-progress
begun in the fall of 2009Ðand carries over its approach
in pared down, almost ritualistic movement. Phrases
repeat, gather force, and gain new meaning, partly
through GermondÕs eclectic pastiche of recorded sound
and music, which veers from birdsong to experimental
electronic to mainstream techno. Allyson Esposito
dances GermondÕs solo This Is Where I Came From with
a perfect balance of reserve and emotion. I didnÕt
see Germond's solo Framed, which she performs herself,
but she describes it as having a "warrior feel."
ÐLaura Molzahn
Time Out Chicago CriticÕs Choice and Preview Article
by Zachary Whittenberg
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/dance/85713/wild-patience-rachel-thorne-germond
Lucia Mauro -NPR Ôs 848
on WBEZ radio & spot on Examiner.com
http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=42087
