expo/sd

On July 24th and 25th at 7:00 pm, Chicago Dance Crash will present expo/sd, a world premiere concert at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts.

The upcoming concert will feature “Six Ways to Fall”, a world premiere by choreographer Annie Franklin that explores vulnerability as a spectrum of human experience. Through six interconnected sections, physical, emotional, social, relational, identity, and existential, the work examines the many ways we surrender ourselves to the world and to one another. Blending street dance, contemporary movement, improvisation, and partnering, the dancers navigate moments of exposure, trust, isolation, connection, and acceptance. Rather than seeking perfection, the work embraces uncertainty, intimacy, and the courage of being seen, revealing vulnerability as both deeply personal and profoundly universal. Performed to an original score by local music producer e j e c t, this work was made possible by the support of the Chicago Cultural Center and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

The concert will also feature a new repertory work, “4 Bar Loop”, by choreographer and Crash alum Elijah Motley. This dynamic piece explores identity, drawing from Motley’s personal experience as a Black man raised in the South. Growing up surrounded by reminders of the Jim Crow era and stories of racial discrimination shared by his grandparents, Motley reflects on the tangible progress made in civil rights, its regressions, and ultimately asks: “Are we any different now?”

Choreographer Cameron McKinney will also premiere a new duet “NOBLE CAUSE”. Inspired by the ideological conflict between a glory-obsessed sailor and a nihilistic boy in Yukio Mishima's novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, NOBLE CAUSE transforms Mishima’s stark imagery of lost ambition into a visceral meditation on disillusionment and self-authored purpose.

Seating will be very limited for this weekend-only showing and, as with all freestyle-driven productions, both performances will be entirely different. Join Chicago Dance Crash in July as we celebrate three world-premiere works in expo/sd.