- Giordano Dance Chicago is starting their 50th anniversary off with a bang: they’ve got a new home downtown at the Collaborative Space for Sustainable Development and a new name (they were previously in Evanston and known as Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago). At the opening last weekend, dancers could be heard marveling about how nice it was to be in the city proper, reports Matthew de la Peña. Of the quality of their work, he says, “The company repertoire becomes more eclectic with each passing season—jazz-based, though that’s not its only forte—and the dancers admittedly thrive off the energy that city-life provides.”

- Six and Four Articulations Collaborative Performance Company drops by the Defibillator on July 7. The company, which is from New York, says “Our repertoire rides a narrow line between performance art and ‘post’ post-modern dance while addressing topics of audience, gender, relationships, conversation, standardization, and emotion. The pieces collectively incorporate movement, clipped theatrics, and sculptural props to structure and abstract ideas and concepts into an idiosyncratic movement vocabulary.”

- Is this not the best press release ever?: “This summer, Chicago audiences will experience the magic of Viking warriors and fire-breathing dragons that soar through arena skies in DREAMWORKS HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON LIVE SPECTACULAR.” It sounds like there will be live dragons, but I know there will not be because those only exist in Game of Thrones so let’s not get our hopes too far up. It’s July 25 to 29 at the United Center and “A limited number of special premium Dragon Hot Seats, VIP and family packages are available.” 

- Paul Oakley Stovall was on Afternoon Shift yesterday. Of the production, host Steve Edwards wrote, “When I saw Paul Oakley Stovall’s play Immediate Family a few weeks ago at the Goodman Theater, I thought to myself, ‘This may be the timeliest play in Chicago right now.‘”

Questions? Tips? Email kdries@wbez.org.