Every November, dance aficionados head to Chicago for the city's month-long boogie festival, Dance Chicago to see everything from ballroom to ballet to clogging to hip-hop. This year marks the 15th anniversary of Dance Chicago, and while you can expect some good dancing, the fest is changing it up this year.

The biggest change is that the festival is leaving its home base of the Athenaeum Theatre and holding performances in venues all over the region, including the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, Theatre Building in Chicago and Music Institute of Chicago's Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston. Another difference is that there are fewer acts this year, though more than 130 companies will perform. Tickets cost $20 to $25. Here are our fest picks:

]]> Jennifer Kester 2009-10-27T14:17:15-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/17/182123/782

Austin is a town celebrated for its eccentricity, where everything seems to have an alternate flavor, and so you can probably guess that their favorite local dance troupe isn’t your run-of-the-mill ballet company.

Well if weird is what you want, this weekend’s performance from Austin’s Blue Lapis Light dance company shouldn’t disappoint. The show, Impermanence, is semi modern dance meets cirque de soleil meets parkour, and involves dancers who are hooked up to aerial harnesses, allowing them to fly through the air and leap all around the 150-foot tall J.J. Pickle Federal Building in Austin’s financial district.

The dance performance, or circus, or whatever it is, runs this Thursday to Sunday, and costs $20—but the final performance, on Sunday, is a pay-what-you-can show to let everyone have a bit of the unusual fun.

Related Stories:
· Blue Lapis Light [Official Site]
· Preview: Blue Lapis Light's Impermanence at JJ Pickle Fed Building [Austinist]
· Austin travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Blue Lapis Light] ]]> BS 2009-06-18T08:52:13-05:00 30.2696380 -97.738978 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/