Ten off-the-radar Dance moments of 2008

1. Butoh artist Diego Piñón and his students did a fantastic, free post-workshop performance in the Japanese garden in Hyde Park on September 1. The little wooden pavilion in the park became a transformative shrine.

2. One local choreographer almost named a work “Digital Fondling,” but she changed her mind. Thank goodness.

3. Ensemble Español, the Spanish dance company in residence at Northeastern Illinois University, traveled to Shenyang, China, on a cultural exchange tour for two weeks in the fall. Flamenco in China by way of Chicago? This is the world today.

4. Dance artists Christian and Celia Bambara hosted Souleymane Badolo to teach two little-publicized workshops in November. Badolo, choreographer for the National Ballet of Burkina Faso and African contemporary company Kongo Ba Teria, appears in the award-winning film Movement (R)evolution Africa. Those in the know got wonderful insight in to the new fusion of African and European sensibility that is the cutting edge of contemporary dance.

5. After seeing a stunningly inventive dance performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art Theater, an audience member asked why the performers didn’t use more of the vertical space, i.e., climb scaffolds or swing from ropes. Why didn’t this audience member buy a ticket for the circus instead?

6. At a Chicago Dancemaker’s Forum event in February, NYC choreographer Ann Carlson screened a video in which she danced with a real live cow to classical music. Delightfully odd.

7. Dancers in Peter Carpenter’s work at the Other Dance Festival in October wore Reagan masks. Scary.

8. Due to budget cuts at the Department of Cultural Affairs, director of program development Cynthia Quick was let go. This is sad news. Among her many successes as a proponent of dance, Quick organized the citywide dance phenomenon “The Millie” in 2000, in which Chicagoans learned a special boogie to ring in the millennium. She also was instrumental in starting the DanceBridge, About Dance and Dance Intersections programs at the Cultural Center.

9. In October, the Dance Center of Columbia College presented a student restaging of Set and Reset/Reset, a variation on Set and Reset, the masterpiece that solidified Trisha Brown’s international reputation as a leader in abstract choreography. Lucky kids!

10. Nancy Stark Smith, the preeminent teacher of Contact Improvisation, taught a two-day workshop at the Dance Center in April, and she had participants gaze at each other as if they were looking at a flower. Lovely.

For more of the best of 2008, visit timeoutchicago.com/2008lists.