On April 4-5, 2025, Giordano Dance Chicago put on a full evening’s dance concert entitled Soaring: Life, Light, and Legacy at The Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph Drive, Chicago. The program, including 2 world premieres, a Special Tribute and 3 works from Giordano’s repertoire, was both a celebration of Artistic Director Nan Giordano’s 40 years with the Company, and a tribute to her son, Keenan Giordano Casey, who passed away in 2024. Between the dances were films about the Company, it’s past, and the Giordano family; they were moving and inspiring. Sound design, including newly composed and original music, leaned (of course!) toward the jazzy and heartily percussive. Lighting design by Julie E. Ballard, Jacob Snodgrass and Kevin Dreyer was dusky, warm, and spot-lit. Costumes, by Devert Monet Hickman, Nina G., Asifa Iman, and Branimira Ivanova, were smooth, flowy, stunning in simplicity and style.
The first premiere, Sana, by Resident Choreographer Al Blackstone, danced by the full Main Company and 2 dancers from Giordano II, was a slow-to-tribal-beat infused beautifully uplifting big-shouldered piece brimming with emphatic, humorous intensity. “Sana” is Latin for “healing”, and the sensibility of the piece was set in strength- of the integrity of the Company as a whole, of their inclusivity and groundedness, set to the sounds of Stahv Danker.
333, the title meant to represent “angel numbers” connecting Company Founder Gus Giordano to his daughter Nan and grandson Keenan, choreographed by Nan Giordano and Associate Artistic Director Cesar G. Salinas, was a solo ballet. Danced by Erina Ueda, the epitome of muscular grace, it was a showpiece of turning, reaching, transformational self-expression, to the always-hot music of Otis Redding.
Soaring was a very special joyous and exhilarating piece, filling up the space with The Ensemble, and a flock of Keenan’s friends, known as The KeeBirds, dressed all in white. Choreographed by Nan Giordano, Cesar G. Salinas and the Dancers, to music by Antonio Pinto, the stage was lit by numerous hurricane glass encased candles, which also came carried down the aisles by dancers, were picked up and moved about by dancers, the whole entity elevating and aviating toward the enormous arch overhead.
Red and Black, 2024, by Ray Leeper, to a host of vibrant music chosen/designed by Music Consultant Bongi Duma to fit each of the unique 5 segments, featured the full Main Company and 2 dancers from Giordano II in sexy, seemingly seamless red/black Lycra. Commencing with the full-throated voice of Eartha Kitt, proceeding through Moloko, Postmodern Jukebox, Michael Bublé and Club De Belugas, it was an endlessly entertaining, wickedly witty work that showed off the jazzy emphasis and coordinated groupwork for which Giordano is justifiably famous.
Taal, (rhythm/sanity in Hindi- generally, a “beat cycle” in Indian music), 2001, by Nan Giordano, set to the thrilling sounds of Anuradha, Suno A.R.Rahman and S. Jhaia, showcased the Main Company dancers in a spectacle with long sari/scarf-like silk streamers depending onto the stage. Dancing in black leotards/trousers, the Ensemble moved languorously, sensuously, strategically.
Pyrokinesis is the name for a supposed psychic ability allowing a person to control fire with their mind. This dance, choreographed in 2007 by Christopher Huggins and performed by The Company to the strains of George Winston and United Future Organization, was as funky, catchy, and passionate as the music; involved and thrilling, moving and athletic. Here the flames were set and held by Giordano Dance Chicago.
For information and tickets to all their great shows, go to www.giordanodance.org
All photos by Anderson Photography
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