Deeply Rooted Dance Theater

Deeply Rooted Dance Theater opens its 29th season with a highly anticipated evening of contemporary dance, based in American and African-American traditions in dance and storytelling. The one-night-only performance takes place Saturday, November 16 at 7:30 p.m. at The Auditorium, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, Chicago. Tickets are on sale at auditoriumtheatre.org/events-details/deeply-rooted-2024/.

The program features a range of repertory, including premieres and classics:

• Sacred Spaces, a world premiere by Deeply Rooted Artistic Director Nicole Clarke-Springer, is “a simply stunning work set to gospel music by Mahalia Jackson, Bobby McFerrin, and GMWA of Worship and dedicated to Clarke-Springer’s daughters and mother” (Chicago Tribune, responding to an excerpt Deeply Rooted performed with Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project earlier in 2024).
• Lifted (excerpt) is a work-in-progress created by Emmy-nominated director and choreographer Jeffrey Page, working with Deeply Rooted for the first time.
• Urban Folk Dance by Ulysses Dove, a company premiere, depicts two couples living side-by-side who search for connection as they engage in ferocious power struggles. Characterized by a seamless blend of expressive theatricality and heart-stopping athleticism, Dove’s choreography, set to music by Michael Torke, brilliantly captures the raw complexity of modern relationships. Deeply Rooted performed the company premiere of Dove’s Vespers in 2022.
• Flack (1984), choreographed by Co-Founder Kevin Iega Jeff to music by Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, and Quincy Jones, is a portrait of strife, despair, and ultimate triumph.
• Desire (1994), choreographed by Co-Founder Gary Abbott to music by Hans Zimmer, Geoff McCormack, and Simon Goldberg, explores three types of attraction: love at first sight, love of physical beauty, and young love. When the company dances together, it depicts the primal urge of attraction felt by all.