Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre in “American Catracho”/Photo: William Frederking
“We’re here to satisfy a particular artistic appetite for both audiences and artists,” says Wilfredo Rivera, founder and artistic director of Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre. “This model serves a very particular purpose. It feels good.” Rivera’s company has been quietly carving out a particular, uncrowded niche in Chicago’s live-arts universe for a quarter-century. The company has a unique structure, pairing choreographers with jazz composers to develop pieces over a long period—often years—and inspired by the personal stories of the artists and their communities. The result, performed by Cerqua Rivera’s eight-member dance ensemble and nine-piece jazz orchestra, unfailingly speaks straight to the heart, feeding a hunger the viewer may not even realize they suffer.
Rivera credits this phenomenon to a yearslong research and development process. “The choreographers are given space to explore deeper layers of how to interpret a narrative,” he says. “Like a painter or composer, the first pass won’t be the end product. That’s a process a lot of dance companies our size or bigger don’t have the capacity to provide to choreographers. With an expansive period to develop the work you can create such an intimate vocabulary; the gestures, the structure of the spine, the dynamic energy between the dancers can convey a lot.”
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre jazz ensemble, Joe Cerqua, center/Photo: William Frederking
Audiences can experience the company’s immersive brand of storytelling, at once energetically expansive and emotionally intimate at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, May 17-19. The concert is the culmination of the company’s twenty-fifth anniversary season and features mostly recent works. Act one is the first half of Rivera’s “American Catracho,” inspired by the stories of dozens of immigrants and, in part, his own life—he moved from Honduras to the United States with his family when he was young and, since the 2019 premiere of “Catracho,” has become a U.S. citizen. “My journey from being an undocumented artist making a living as a dancer and choreographer to being a resident with a green card to recently becoming a U.S. citizen. And the immigration crisis that’s happening right now. It felt appropriate to revisit the ‘American Catracho’ suite,” he says.
The second half is from a new suite, still in development, which delves into the life and times of the Humboldt Park neighborhood. “Stories from the West Side” is a collaboration between Cerqua Rivera violinist James Sanders, the Chicago Jazz Institute and the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center. “We went into the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, we went into a few schools and talked with people about the cultural shifts in the neighborhood, even going back to stories from the 1950s and sixties, and celebrating those narratives.”
Three choreographers contribute pieces to the “Stories” suite, all set to Sanders’ compositions: company alum Katlin Bourgeois, whose “Tether” is a dedication to teacher-student relationships; Hubbard Street alum Shannon Alvis who takes inspiration from her grandfather’s love letters in “The Sea”; and Ballet Hispánico dance school director Michelle Manzanales who, in “The Island,” tells the story of two women who find refuge from a troubled home on the island in the Humboldt Park lagoon.
Throughout our conversation, Rivera repeatedly refers to Cerqua Rivera as a home. A home for emerging choreographers who want to immerse themselves in research, collaborate within and beyond the bounds of an ensemble, and really let a project percolate. This nurturing environment has been a stepping stone to new projects and higher profile positions. In 2022, Katlin Bourgeois, a longtime company member and choreographer, was appointed head of the Joffrey Ballet’s contemporary ballet trainee program. “[Katlin and I] have had great conversations about how the resources we’ve provided have helped them jump-start the next phase of their career,” Rivera says. “Those realized examples of professional growth are really rewarding.”
Cerqua Rivera is also a home for early- and mid-career dancers who hunger to train in technique and develop their craft in a setting that respects and celebrates their individuality. Because the company is committed to personal storytelling, care and attentiveness to the individual experience is in their DNA. “We’re really pulling from the Black experience, from the Asian experience, from the Latino experience, from the Polish immigrant experience,” Rivera says. “It’s a very specific, individualized, culturally based experience we’re elevating. It asks you to be vulnerable in the way an actor needs to unpack the character. That can be intimidating for a dancer, but it can be rewarding and fulfilling. If you’re excited about peeling the onion that is yourself with others in community this is a good environment for you.”
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre’s twenty-fifth-anniversary concert series is at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 North Dearborn, Friday-Saturday, May 17-18 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 19 at 3pm. $40-$60. Tickets at cerquarivera.org.
