May 4-6, 2018:

SECRET EXPERIMENTS IN BALLET #5: THE GODMOTHERS

Emily Stein has been dancing, teaching and making dances in Chicago and around the country for over 20 years. Her ongoing choreographic project is called Secret Experiments in Ballet, a series of dances playing in the intersection of improvisation and the ballet vocabulary.  Her interest lies in slamming together the vocabulary and images of classical ballet with the processes and philosophies of experimental dance.

Secret Experiments in Ballet #5: The Godmothers takes its inspiration from the fairy godmother solos from the classical ballet Sleeping Beauty, and brings to the stage unique, dynamic solos for six riveting women whose dance backgrounds include ballet, West African, hip-hop and modern dance. The dances freshly illuminate the gifts of the fairy godmothers – honesty, wit, passion, generosity, joy and wisdom – and each dancer brings personal magic to their performance, brightly costumed by designer Amanda Lee Franck. Michael Caskey’s original music subtly references the original score while involving a broad range of musical styles and textures.

Emily is also a sought after teacher, and currently teaches throughout the Chicago area, working with students from beginners to professionals. She is also training in the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education, which uses movement to develop awareness to improve function, whether that function is performing a pirouette, hitting a tennis ball or reaching for your morning coffee.