History

Founded in 1989 by four visionary dancer/choreographers, River North Chicago has grown into a professional ensemble that performs at home in Chicago, tours nationally, and offers a contract period for its dancers that averages 38 weeks per season. Today, eighteen years after its founding, its works are created by choreographers with national and international reputations for excellence and innovation in many disciplines of dance. The Company has created a varied, eclectic, and entertaining repertoire that features a core of works by Frank Chaves and Sherry Zunker and the works of such choreographers as Daniel Ezralow, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Ashley Roland, Randy Duncan, Harrison McEldowney, Kevin Iega Jeff, Sam Watson, Ginger Farley, Paul Christiano, and others. The works demonstrate depth and sophistication, yet what remains constant is the commitment to creating an accessible, enriching experience for audiences comprised of seasoned dance patrons as well as those having their first encounter with concert dance.

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1989-90
Founding Directors Mark Dow, Karen Frankel Jones, Ronna Kaye, and Julie Burman Kaplan establish River North Dance Company for the purpose of cultivating and promoting Chicago's wealth of jazz dance talent. On August 13, 1989, River North holds its first audition. The Company performs a three-month Saturday evening series at the Park West in Chicago.

1990-91
Sherry Zunker is named artistic director. River North develops a young audience program, Street Beat-Dance Through the Decades, that demonstrates the development of popular jazz dance from the 1920s to the present. The Company performs Street Beat-Dance Through the Decades in Chicago area schools as part of Urban Gateways' outreach program. River North presents its first full concert performance at the David Puszch studios featuring works by Mark Dow, Sherry Zunker, Julie Burman Kaplan, Ginger Farley, and Sam Watson.

1991-92
Frank Chaves creates his first piece, In the Still of the Night, for the Company. In November of 1991, River North self-produces at the University of Illinois at Chicago Fine Arts Series. The Company then self-produces in June of 1992 at the 380-seat Harold Washington Library Theatre in Chicago. Dance critic and historian Ann Barzel writes of River North's dancing that year: “(The Company) has literally burst upon the scene.  The dynamic company gave the audience a theatrical high.  The obvious enjoyment is contagious; the audience catches the joy.”

1992-93
Frank Chaves joins Sherry Zunker as associate artistic director. Sherry Zunker choreographs Reality of a Dreamer, one of River North’s signature pieces. River North is the subject of a half-hour television documentary also titled "Reality of a Dreamer," produced by HMS Media, Inc. "Reality of a Dreamer" goes on to win two Chicago Midwest Emmy Awards and a Silver Plaque from the Chicago International Film Festival.

1993-94
"Reality of a Dreamer" premieres in Chicago on WTTW Channel 11. The Company sells out two performances at the Harold Washington Library. On June 10, 1994, the Company self-produces at the Athenaeum Theatre, where the dancers "commanded the stage in number after number, each one electrifying in its own right" (Chicago Tribune). Cynthia Hanson of the Tribune declares that River North "keeps you on the edge of your seat from the moment the curtain goes up."

1994-95
River North offers its dancers thirty-eight week contracts and begins its first season of national touring with over thirty performances in twelve states. Dancer Stephanie Martinez is nominated for a Ruth Page Dance Achievement Award. Frank Chaves becomes co-artistic director and creates Charanga (originally titled Macarena) for the Company. Sid Smith of the Chicago Tribune describes Charanga as "a scarlet-colored Latin sizzler (that) sear(s) with a tango-like, romantic fizz."

1995-96
"Reality of a Dreamer" premieres nationally on PBS and is seen by audiences in over 320 cities across the country. River North is presented as part of the new Dance Chicago ’95 festival, drawing nearly one-third of the total attendance of the six-week series. Laura Molzahn’s review of the performance appears in Dance Magazine; she writes that "with dancers as wild and smooth as aged whiskey, River North is well on its way to being Chicago’s next big export."

1996-97
Dancer Sara Ayers wins a Ruth Page Dance Achievement Award. On November 1, 1996, River North performs at the prestigious DanceAspen Festival in Aspen, Colorado, billed as "the discovery company of the season." Sid Smith of the Chicago Tribune views Sherry Zunker’s Fosse-inspired, backward-titled ZIB WOHS and describes River North as "easily the best of the many Chicago companies determined to preserve Broadway."

1997-98
River North holds its first annual Summer Workshop, attended by eighty students, and establishes an apprentice program. Lucia Mauro of the Chicago Sun-Times proclaims that the Company "has evolved into one of the city’s most inventive jazz ensembles." She goes on to say that "this eight-year-old troupe exhibits a joyous musical theater thrust while stretching the limits of modern jazz vocabulary."

1998-99
Dancer Harrison McEldowney receives a Ruth Page Dance Achievement Award and Jeffery Hancock receives a nomination. River North’s national touring increases to over sixty performances in fifteen states including the Company’s debut in Long Beach, California, Dallas, Texas and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Dallas Morning News praises River North, declaring that "the Chicago troupe worked its way into the bloodstream…in about four seconds flat."

1999-00
Celebrating its tenth anniversary season, River North Dance Company changes its name to River North Chicago Dance Company. Sherry Zunker and Frank Chaves collaborate for the first time; the two win a Ruth Page Dance Achievement Award for their choreography of Mission, a full-company piece that reflects their shared artistic vision. The Company teams once again with HMS Media, Inc. to create a second television special entitled "River North Rising," an hour-long documentary that takes a day-to-day look at the Company. "River North Rising" has its debut airing on November 3, 1999 on WTTW Channel 11.

2000-01
River North Chicago premieres the "visually stunning" (Denver Rocky Mountain News) Pulse, a work created for the Company by Daniel Ezralow, “one of the best young American dancer-choreographers now working on an international scale" (Richard Christiansen of the Chicago Tribune). Frank Chaves creates the Company's first all men's piece, The Two Sides of Tes - And Then Some, "...a showcase for River North's elastic, rock-solid men" (Lucia Mauro, Chicago Tribune).  At the end of the season, Frank Chaves assumes sole artistic directorship as Co-Artistic Director Sherry Zunker resigns to pursue other creative avenues.

2001-02
River North Chicago opens its twelfth season with a return to the Aspen Dance Festival. Co-Artistic Director Emerita Sherry Zunker continues her work with the Company by creating A Mi Manera, a collaborative piece with Kevin Iega Jeff of Deeply Rooted Productions and Ginger Farley of The 58 Group. Frank Chaves creates Love Will Follow, an elegant ballroom piece and a romantic new opener for the Company, and Ashley Roland returns to set her second work, Beat, on River North Chicago.

2002-03
River North Chicago receives its debut at the prestigious Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, IL. Kevin Iega Jeff returns to River North Chicago to create Naeemah’s Room, a stirring work about his sister’s struggle with depression. Frank Chaves and Sherry Zunker team up to create The Sweetest Sounds. The piece is a tribute to Richard Rodgers, commissioned by Philadelphia’s Dance Celebration and co-presented by Dance Affiliates and Penn Presents. The Sweetest Sounds premieres at the company’s Philadelphia engagement, April 10-12, 2003, at the Annenberg Center.

2003-04
The Company welcomes back choreographer and River North Chicago alumnus Harrison McEldowney to set 5 Easy Lessons, set to the music of Sarah Vaughan, on the full company. River North Chicago ends the season with its first-ever spring engagement in Chicago at the city’s newest and most anticipated arts venue, the Joan W. Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance.

2004-05
River North Chicago celebrates 15 years of theatrical, engaging contemporary dance with two new works choreographed by the directors who shaped the Company into the artistic success of today. Sherry Zunker returns to River North Chicago with Grace, an original work for the company women.  Frank Chaves presents Habaneras, the Music of Cuba (commissioned by the Wharton Center at Michigan State University), a tribute to his native country and a vibrant celebration of its legacy of music and dance.  The Company continues its celebration with a return to Chicago’s Joan W. Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance for its 15th anniversary home engagement. 

2005-06
Frank Chaves invites Tony-nominated choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett, best known for her work in Broadway’s “Swing!” and “Titanic,” to set her first piece on River North Chicago.  BLOWN AWAY – Images of the Dust Bowl premieres to rave reviews at the Company’s March 2006 engagement at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.  Also premiering to rave reviews at the Harris Theater are Sky, choreographed by Kevin Iega Jeff in his third time working with River North Chicago, and ahimsa, created by emerging choreographer Lauri Stallings.  In her Chicago Sun-Times review of River North Chicago’s March 2006 performances, Hedy Weiss proclaims that “…River North Chicago demonstrated that it is now right up there in the very top ranks of this city's dance elite.”

2006-07
Frank Chaves creates Underground Movements, his most significant work to date.  The piece is a collaborative work with choreography by Chaves, an original score by Philadelphia-based composer Evan Solot, and live vocals by members of the Chicago Children’s Choir.  The piece premieres to a standing ovation and overwhelming accolades at the Company’s annual benefit celebration on November 16, 2006 and receives the same reaction and acclaim during River North Chicago’s spring 2007 engagement at Chicago’s Harris Theater.  It is declared by to be “so innovative, it sings” and “a complex, striking spectacle, both a plunge into fresh waters and a dense, dreamy performance piece...” (Chicago Tribune)