Lucy Riner is nervous about the newest RE|Dance production. The creative partner of Wisconsin-based Michael Estanich, Riner is accustomed to Estanich taking the creative lead on a new dance. And this, her first full-length work, is a very personal one. “I would be remiss to not mention that this comes when I’m turning forty-two,” she says, “and have a need to feel sexy.” Riner’s inspiration for “What Brings Me to This Place” was her return to the club scene that immersed her high school and college days, be it at the Metro or dancing at hip-hop clubs on the South Side. “The clubs are where people let loose and be themselves. It’s when you see people at their most vulnerable.” The score is a mix of dancehall and club music by various DJs—particularly female ones, who are notoriously overlooked in not only the electronic music scene. Six women dance in the piece, including Riner, who shift between free form, communal trance-dance moments, modern dancier sections and journaling on large pieces of paper spread out across the floor. “I asked them to write about their fears,” Riner says. “I used as example my fears of being a bad teacher, a bad mother, a divorced woman.” “What Brings Me” is still in progress and Riner hopes Hamlin Park won’t be its only venue. “I’d like to see it performed on a larger scale and in a space like Salvage One.” (Sharon Hoyer)
RE|Dance at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse, 3035 North Hoyne. Thursday-Friday, March 24-25 and Thursday-Friday, March 31-April 1 at 7:30pm. $20, $15 in advance at brownpapertickets.com.
