Rtg Dance Nfp

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Nonprofit Overview

Causes: Arts & Culture, Dance, Performing Arts

Mission: In its commitment to bringing an original and contemporary vision to the public and to building appreciation for the performing arts, RTG Dance is dedicated to high standards of innovation in dancing and dance-making.It is our goal to convey through movement, text, and multi-media elements, a world-on-stage that is not dissimilar to everyday life, but which addresses aspects of fantasy, imagination, and memory within the context of the contemporary culture. RTG Dance NFP creates and performs dance work and performance events to educate and share with the public (both individuals and other organizations) rich and innovative aesthetic and emotional experiences. RTG Dance has educated the visual and performance art community in Chicago by presenting work in public performance venues such as Links Hall.

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1 Story from Volunteers, Donors & Supporters

rtg dance Professional with expertise in this field

Rating: 5

07/24/2011



May 24 2010
See Chicago Dance Website
review by Tribune critic Sid Smith:
RTG Dance A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far
By Sid Smith
http://seechicagodance.com/company/261#reviews

Turns out that the RTG Dance performance over the weekend at the Drucker Center will be the troupe's last for a while - artistic head Rachel Thorne Germond will be moving to Virginia for the next two years, joining her partner, who's earned a fellowship. Good for them, bad for us. The modest, threadbare presentation over the weekend, dubbed "A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far," ably demonstrated Germond's inimitable talents and appeal. She is a stern, unfancy, intellectually enticing artist, tough in her aesthetic, though in a more muted way than, say, Atalee Judy or Jonathan Meyer. "Dance theater" is a buzz phrase of the past couple of decades, but, at SundayÕs performance, I kept thinking instead of "dance drama," in that Germond works in a purely abstract realm and yet mines subtle conflicts and animosities inherent in movement and ensemble configuration. She doesn't tell stories, but she explores battles, alliances, break-ups and betrayals, rarely relying on the traditional beauties of flowing contemporary dance. Who her dancers are touching at any given moment and why are questions that keep recurring, just as the ever-changing patterns concern human will, control, isolation and even doom much more than aesthetic confection. One compliment a writer can pay her: While the viewer remains most of the time compelled, wondering whatÕs next, her work is very difficult to put into words. The four dancers in "A Wild Patience," the only ensemble piece on last weekend's fare, constantly change poses, arrangements and affinities. They begin in two separate pairs. Johannah Wininsky stands beside Celia Weiss Bambara and repeatedly thwarts her ill-fated efforts to move forward. At the other side of the stage, Becky O'Connell watches ominously as Christopher Knowlton threatens to crash himself into the brick wall. Escape, whether real or suicidal, is only ineffectually restrained. Much later, Germond crafts a nifty sequence in which, one by one, each of the foursome gets isolated, one at a time, so that formations of three vs. one keep forming and changing in make-upÐeach, in his or her turn, is outsider. That's the type of imagistic drama that inhabits "Patience," which quickly melds from set-up to set-up, from mini-drama to mini-drama, with relentless propulsion. Rarely do these dancers indulge in smooth, sweeping dance, though, when they do, it's a relief akin to an oasis in a desert. It's not an overstatement to labe Germond uncompromising. Her quartet in "Patience" is a motley crew, by no means an assortment of gorgeous or dainty creatures. In one of two solos on this same program, "Framed," Germond employs her own solid, earthy looks for a kind of "No Exit"-like tone poem involving a woman both partnering with and maybe trapped by an empty picture frame. Here, Germond never utilizes one of her own most appealing aspects, her vulnerable, inviting mien and facial warmth. Instead, her face remains rigid, even defiant, and "Framed," one component of what's intended to be a full-length piece in the future, is austere, vogue-like in its striking poses. She reclines along a diagonal line with the frame at one point, at another she poses with her hand on one hip, executing a brief series of plies. Modest, like much of her work, evolving quickly, changing every moment, it was rarely less than intriguing. Our arts scene needs more, not less, like Germond. So, we implore her, hurry back. Meanwhile, God speed.

Reviewed by Sid Smith on 05/24/2010 at 10:38 AM

Review from Guidestar

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