Dance performances can often be moving events but rarely do they hold the density, breadth and depth of emotions Giordano Dance Chicago’s (GDC) Spring engagement encompassed Friday night at the Harris Theater. Part tribute, part commemoration of a milestone, and a total celebration of life, Soaring: Life, Light and Legacy spanned the gamut of all the things that can be interpreted more eloquently through the beauty of the arts.
Nan Giordano, celebrating her 40th year at the helm of the dance company her father, Gus, created 62 years ago, lost her son and only child Keenan Giordano Casey suddenly and unexpectedly last year. Each of the six dances performed in the Spring lineup touched on, either directly or tangentially, an aspect relating to these two events. The skill in which GDC accomplished this feat makes the title given to the program a quiet touch of genius.
Opening with the first public performance of Sana, a work created from the verdant and sometimes ground shifting imagination of Al Blackstone, the dance centers on the notion of healing by striking notes reverberating with lightness and possibility. Strains of calypso could be detected in percussionist’s Stahv Danker’s animated original score. That same airiness and sense of optimism could also be found in the expectancy shining through the dancers’ movements and in the understated vibrancy of Devert Monet Hickman’s costume designs. They all coalesced to telegraph a message of hope. It’s not unusual for a work’s newness to expose areas that could benefit from a bit more honing. And it’s clear that once that sharpening occurs with Sana, its palliative message will ring with even greater resonance.
Some brand-new works though arrive in the world perfectly and 333 certainly counts as one of them. A solo piece designed specifically for GDC principal dancer Erina Ueda by Ms. Giordano and GDC Associate Artistic Director, Cesar G. Salinas, it is quite simply a mesmerizing tour de force. Dance can often be summed up as a combination of three parts. Music, choreographic design, and execution. Here they are in a ravishingly flawless balance.
The rawness of life is something we often prefer to deny, despite its centrality to our very being and existence. Representing angel numbers that connect Ms. Giordano, her son Keenan and her father together, 333 embraces it, glorifies it and opens itself to its power. Danced to the timeless and near magical appeal of Otis Redding’s signature rendition of Try a Little Tenderness, 333 simmers, explodes and stews in the vicissitudes of life. I can’t imagine anyone being a better vessel for translating the impact of its mysteries than Ueda, whose expressive range seems boundless and appears to expand with the arrival of each new season.
It also proved the ideal prelude to Soaring, the dance tribute created for her son by Giordano, Salinas and the GDC dancers themselves.
A film introducing the audience to who and the type of person Keenan Casey was, and exposing the respect and love mother and son shared, preceded the dance itself, creating an atmosphere of compassionate awe. Dancers in Nina G.’s costumes of wispy white then swept from both wings of the stage; ethereal and yet still grounded in the gravity of earthly cares. Solemnity and exaltation danced in harmony as the entire company was later joined by 25 Keebirds, friends of Giordano’s son, Keenan. Keebird was the sobriquet they used when referring to their fallen comrade. Also dressed in white, feet bare and carrying lighted symbols of renewal they walked through the aisles and up to the stage in stoic silence while Antonio Pinto’s music filled the hall. Striking, poignant and deeply touching, it symbolizes how wrenching great loss can be and how it can be willed into the spiritually restorative.
After a brief pause to absorb Soaring’s impact, lightning struck in the form of, what looked like to these eyes, a totally revamped version of Red and Black. Created last year by Ray Leeper, the sultry jazz-soaked wonder, already sizzling with energy in its original format, seemed even more kinetic, electrified and polished to a blinding gleam. Opening to an extended version of an obscure Eartha Kitt jewel, female dancers in clinging gowns with long slits let it be known it’s a woman’s world. One misstep and you’re likely to get scorched, bringing a whole new dimension to the term “deliciously provocative”. In a program that covered a range of dance styles, this was vintage Giordano in peak form. Confident, irrepressible, dazzling, athletic, brash. Bonji Duma’s musical expertise helped pump up the adrenalin to power it all. Along with Ms. Kitt’s vocal brilliance, the music of Moloko, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, Michael Bublé and Club De Belugas kept this rocket zooming.
Respite came with the visually enchanting Taal, an East Indian concept piece choreographed by Ms. Giordano in 2001. The name derives from the traditional rhythmic pattern found in classical Indian music, brought to life here with works from Anuradha, Suno A.R. Rahman and S. Jhaia. Asifa Imran’s graceful and culturally reflective costumes did their part to transport us to another place and time. An important part of classical Indian dance, hand gestures are used to express a wide range of emotions and were incorporated extensively within Taal. The effect was to fuse the identities of two dance cultures to create a unique artistic hybrid and something refreshingly new.
Following another short film shedding invaluable insight into what it takes to make a successful dance company thrive and the passion, talent and grit required to be a dancer within it; the program closed with Pyrokinesis. Living up to everything its name implies, this little stick of dynamite in the company’s repertoire, developed by Christopher Huggins in 2007, was a delight to see again. Dressed once again in red and black, this time sleekly styled by Branimira Ivanova, dancers showed what it means to be members of the most elite jazz dance company in the country, if not the world. The dynamism found in Ray Leeper’s earlier piece simply takes a different form here, but the infectiousness of its joy, verve and vitality were just as powerful, energizing and uplifting. A fitting close to a night commemorating life, light and transformational legacy.
Soaring: Life, Light and Legacy
Giordano Dance Chicago
April 4-5, 2025
Harris Theater for Music and Dance
205 E. Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60601
*This review can also be found at Theater in Chicago.
