PARA.MAR Dance Returns This Spring with “PIVOTAL”

The Chicago-based contemporary ballet company PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, returns for their third annual Spring Season Series “PIVOTAL” with three performances at the Epiphany Arts Center, 201 S. Ashland, 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 14 and 2 and 7:30 p.m. April 15.

With an impressive roster of past performances at the Auditorium Theatre, Navy Pier and Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park; and the coveted recognition of being named one of Dance Magazine’s 2022 “25 to Watch” – PARA.MAR Dance Theatre breaks the mold by offering a season of new, site-specific contemporary dance in contemporary spaces with a program that explores the theme of “pivotal change.”

For the upcoming “PIVOTAL performances PARA.MAR, chose the vast and spacious cathedral of the recently renovated Epiphany Hall, which has been preserved and adapted into an iconic cultural hub. Here, one large stage will be installed within the venue with seating placed in the round, but guests will be invited to roam around to experience the performance from alternative vantage points. 

Inspired in part by the city’s 2023 “Year of Chicago Healing” initiative and struck by the poetry and vulnerability of shedding one’s own leaves in a season’s change, PARA.MAR founder and director Stephanie Martinez commissioned two of the most sought-after choreographers in contemporary dance: Hélène Simoneau (2021 Guggenheim Fellow, NYCC Choreography Fellow) and Yin Yue (YYDC, Martha Graham, 2021 Harkness Promise Award) to join the company in delving into a process that confronts the bewilderment, tenderness, and strength that comes from loss – offering a season designed around vulnerability, healing, growth, and pivotal change.

In addition to “PIVOTAL,” other performances on the horizon for the company include an April 30 Chicago Humanities Festival pop-up performance; a May 6 all-day public arts festival (at Epiphany); and a choreographic residency at Ragdale through the Morrison Shearer Foundation and a collaboration with Oklahoma City Ballet in the fall of 2023. For more information about “PIVOTAL” or for tickets, visit paramardance.com.