The Seldoms celebrate 10th anniversary with Harris Theatre debut

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Javier Marchan Ramos (front center) rehearses for “This is Not a Dance Show, featuring The Seldoms dance company, which is making its debut at Harris Theatre Feb. 4. The inventive show features audience participation. | Richard A. Chapman~Sun-Times PHOTO

The Seldoms — THIS IS NOT A DANCE
CONCERT

† 7 p.m., 8:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Feb. 4
† Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph

† Tickets, $20-$100

† (312) 334-7777;

harristheaterchicago.org

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Here’s what happens at most dance performances: Dancers leap and bound and twirl and glide on a stage while the audience watches from seats in an auditorium, an invisible but very real wall separating the two parties.

But Chicago troupe The Seldoms, led by artistic director Carrie Hanson, have turned that paradigm on its ear with an inventive and comical 10th anniversary extravaganza called, appropriately enough, “This is Not a Dance Concert.”

Featuring a lithe and limber cast and live accompaniment from a dozen musicians, it will be unveiled Feb. 4 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. Make that at and around. The “site-inspired” work incorporates benches, walls, coat racks and even hydraulic Genie lifts to create a unique and immersive experience for patrons watching from mere feet away — possibly while sipping libations from the bar.

“I felt like, if we can go into the Harris Theater but we can treat it in an untraditional way, then that’s what we have to do,” Hanson said of her group’s maiden voyage in the critically acclaimed venue.

Her creation also includes some funny and crisply enunciated dialogue based in part on Yelp! reviews, and self-consciously references other entertainment happenings (such as “Disney on Ice”) that are scheduled to take place on the same night around town.

So as to avoid utter chaos (as opposed to Hanson’s very controlled chaos), three separate performances — at 7, 8:15 and 9:30 p.m. — will unfold piecemeal in two lobbies, the backstage loading dock area and the house. A maximum of 200 patrons will be admitted to each show, split into four groups, stationed in different areas and corralled between rooms by guides. Each of the first four segments will last roughly eight minutes before everyone — patrons, performers and musicians — meets up onstage for a slightly longer finale.

At a rehearsal late last month — the first time music, dialogue, dance and the costumes of celebrity outfitter Maria Pinto had converged — Hanson sat on the rubberized floor of a large black room in a studio on Elston and watched the melding process. To her right, composer Tim Daisy manned his marimba and directed musicians on keyboard, cello, drums and other instruments.

“I haven’t been sleeping at night very much,” he later admitted with a laugh. Being unable to rehearse at the Harris until performance day was cause for some concern.

“We’re just going to have to put our trust in our musicianship,” Daisy said, noting his score leaves ample room for improvisation within specifically dictated parameters.

Daisy’s chief concerns are quality and quantity of sound — not having too much or too little, complementing the choreography, not stepping on the dancers’ lines. And getting it all just right is no easy task. The Harris’s concrete-and-glass lobbies, especially, are highly reverberant and “sound bleed” from one room to another is inevitable. When sound-absorbing bodies pile into each space, the acoustics will be further affected.

“I was thinking about this on one of my sleepless nights,” Daisy said. “I think it’s going to add a lot of interaction and fun to the work, because they’re right there in front of us. The dancers are there, the audience is there and this interaction’s going on. And I think it’ll create a really nice energy in the room.”

To Hanson’s left at the Elston rehearsal, Pinto adjusted funky ensembles she’d skillfully cobbled together from exotic finds at thrift stores and Salvation Army locations. Her meager budget was around $1200 and no piece remained in its original form. A crazy orange-print dress became leggings. A pair of leather pants morphed into something approximating boots and a garter. A man’s sequined vest made of knit material, fur and Mongolian lamb yielded a skirt.

“What’s cool about Carrie,” Pinto said, “is she really honors a variation on a theme in terms of dance style and body language.”

And in this instance, as per Hanson’s overall directive, both will ideally exude lightness and brightness. Daisy’s music, too, has been tweaked (fewer minor keys, more major ones) to conform to that vision.

“One of my goals with this event, in terms of mood and the general atmosphere,” Hanson said, “is that the whole thing feels really raucous and a little over the top.”

To that end, and to calm any lingering nerves, Hanson will be tucked away in the theater’s Donor Room “getting lit up!”

She’s only kidding.

“I’ll just have one glass of champagne.”

Though no one would begrudge her two.