Lauren Warnecke

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Lauren Warnecke

BOOM CRACK! Dance Company has not gotten the credit it deserves. To be sure, artistic director Trae Turner has made elegant strides in sending his distinct style — a blend of urban contemporary and commercial street dance — to the concert dance stage, and that’s garnered some high-profile appearances at festivals in Chicago and beyond over the company’s 16-year history.

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Lauren Warnecke

This is a rare summer dance guide, in that most selections are surprisingly indoors! To be clear, there are a lot of chances to see dance en plein air if you want to, including all Chicago Dance Month has to offer — not to mention the ever-popular SummerDance lessons in Grant Park (www.chicago.gov) and the stalwart Dance in the Parks series (danceintheparks.org) at Chicago Park District locations all over the city.

3 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | Lauren Warnecke

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s season finale coinciding with Beyoncé’s Chicago dates is perhaps just a happy accident. But as last night’s freaky dust storm tapered off and audiences settled into their seats at the Harris Theater, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon’s “Sweet Gwen Suite” was a most poetic opening to the evening. The third of this trio of juicy morsels created for 1960s television specials is “Mexican Breakfast,” which Beyoncé reimagined in her “Single Ladies” video.

3 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | Lauren Warnecke

The first time Mark Howard appeared on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” was in 1989. Howard had been coaching teams to victory at the world championships for Irish step dancing — the first Americans to take home that trophy — and Carson took notice. In Irish dance circles, Howard was most known for his figure dances, group pieces weaving 12-16 dancers through geometric jigsaw puzzles set to music of your choice, typically a reel, jig or hornpipe.

1 month ago | ourcommunitynow.com | Lauren Warnecke

Share Without giving itself to the Town of Normal, Illinois Art Station [IAS] founder Laura Berk said the arts nonprofit was likely to fold. Berk said there was hardly a board meeting in which funding woes did not come up. “The organization was experiencing serious financial challenges,” she said. “Those had been ongoing for a number of years.” Public documents filed by nonprofits indeed show Illinois Art Station was losing money.