Melissa Thodos and company have had several fruitful collaborations over the years, most recently with celebrated Broadway director Ann Reinking. Their winter concert reprises their most recent project together, the warmly received dance-theater piece based on the relationship between Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan, entitled “A Light in the Dark.” Thodos has worked extensively to make this performance accessible to hearing- and vision-impaired communities with discounted tickets, live audio descriptions of the show and Braille programs. The centerpiece of the program features a new collaborator, one outside the world of the performing arts. Enter architect Jeanne Gang, who, in partnership with physicist Sidney Nagel at the University of Chicago, created vacuum-supported set structures that will respond to the movements of the dancers, in a piece that seeks the intersections between science and dance. Two more pieces round out the program: “Tsuru,” a full company piece by Hubbard Street Rehearsal Director Lucas Crandall and “Panem Nostrum Quoditianum” (“Our Daily Bread”) by River North Dance company member Ahmad Simmons. (Sharon Hoyer)
At the Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph, (312)334-7777. Saturday, March 8 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 9 at 2pm. $20-$60.
