photo: Todd Rosenberg Photo courtesy of Chicago Dancers United

South Chicago Dance Theatre had a wonderful evening on August 19, 2023 as a part of the annual Dance For Life fundraising event for Chicago Dancers United. It’s always such a privilege to be a part of this event and its amazing roster of companies from the Chicago dance scene. What a night of dance, fun, celebration, and community.

This year, we performed our collaborative piece with Giordano Dance Company titled Luminescence choreographed by our own Artistic Director, Kia S. Smith. The piece features over 20 dancers combined from both companies and was a World Premiere at Giordano’s 60th Anniversary celebration show this past Spring 2023. What a fitting piece for Dance for Life as we celebrated the union of our two companies, partnering, dancing, and learning from one another. We’ve learned so much from each other and have developed many new friendships due to our process together.

If you’ve never been to a Dance For Life, mark your calendars for next years’! It’s a night full of dance you do not want to miss. It always features a variety of companies and genres of dance. You really get to see it all in one night and the proceeds go towards the Dancers’ Fund which assists dancers in receiving access to health care. The Chicago Dance Community shows up and it’s the best to see everyone’s smiling faces!

On the flip side of things, we as performers get to sit backstage and enjoy the evening of dance from the wings! If you’ve never been backstage before, it’s not the roomiest area ever, but all stage staff allows us to cram ourselves backstage and support one another as that is what the night is all about. The feeling of cheering one another on while backstage is unlike any other. The dance industry can feel competitive at times, so to engage in an event like this and see how truly supportive everyone is of one another is beautiful.

Until next year, we hope to be back at Dance for Life’s for years to come! Whether watching, performing, donating, and everything in between!