Thodos Dance Chicago’s 2009 Fall Concert is being presented at two venues, and the first performance, at The North Shore Center For The Performing Arts was a don’t-miss performance. The Centre East main theatre was packed for an exceptionally well-presented show, and the second installment, at the Harris Theatre for Music and Dance, is Saturday, November 28 at 8:00 PM. For tickets, phone the Harris Theater at 312 334-777 or go to www.harristheaterchicago.org.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to what you can expect:

Once in a while a piece of technology comes along that I feel was specifically made for me. It makes everything it's supposed to do easier and faster, and that usually means better and cheaper as well. But I don't think I've ever had that happen to me twice by the same product until now. A few years ago I purchased Logic Pro 7 which completely changed the way I wrote music. It allowed me to focus on the sounds and rhythms not the knobs and buttons. It was such a revolutionary change that I can't remember the last time I wrote something down on staff paper.

In my last article I covered some of the techniques I used to get a decent live recording of the Chicago based band Bomba Deer. The lush soundscape they executed so well was in sharp contrast with the second group performing that night. The Dust Bunnies employ a much simpler orchestration with guitar, Farfisa organ, lightly played drums, and male and female dual vocals. Click their name to get to their myspace where you can hear some of the tracks. Continue after the break for further details on the recording.

One of the most "fly by the seat of your pants" gigs a recording engineer can pick up is that of recording a live show. Even if you know the band, the venue, and the folks running the production there are always unexpected circumstances that can pop up. This can be both supremely frustrating and supremely satisfying to deal with. Either way it is always interesting. Whether you are looking to do live multitrack recording, or just trying to record your set at the open mic, if you stick to a few simple rules (check after the break) you'll end up with a decent product.

The Garage in San Francisco is literally just that a...garage...turned black box theater committed to presenting emerging artists in the bay area. The RAW program offers artists 12 weeks of free rehearsal space which culminates in 2 evening performances. I am thrilled to use this opportunity to further develop "Sleeping Palms" into an evening-length piece. In earlier incarnations it was performed as a solo with video, and as a solo with students of Moving Arts Dance Center.

On the last Saturday of every month metal head's gather in north Roger's Park at the Redline Tap. Metal Up Your Tap is booked and organized by Trevor Fisher, who also writes up the metal scene for the Illinois Entertainer.

Producing Music can happen in many different ways, because music can be so many different things. If a band has a song that they’ve played live a hundred times, producing a record of that song is mostly a question of getting a good recording of a good performance by the band. Mixing and mastering are still important challenges, and the band may find new arrangement choices in the studio -- additional solos, background vocals, more complex instrumentation -- but the basic idea is to record the song that they already play.

Producing original music has evolved to include a lot of different approaches though, and much of what is recorded today is composed part by part in music production software, often with no reference to a live performance. Later, the artist may find ways to recreate the production in live shows, like when an act writes beats for a track and then has a drummer play them live later, but all of the decisions about what to leave in and what to leave out are made according to what makes the song -- and the production -- work the best.

Only recently has this approach really become practical with respect to classical instrumentation, and a lot of that is thanks to a truly amazing group of people in Vienna Austria called the Vienna Symphonic Library (www.vsl.co.at).

“Time Now” is ‘Ohana’s original score for Lizzie MacKenzie’s newest choreographic work “Time Now”, which she is currently rehearsing with Extensions Dance Company in Chicago. The eight minute score is actually a collage of two new ‘ohana tracks. The first and third sections of the work are from the track “Time Now”, and the middle section is a collaboration between ‘ohana producers Dan Agosto and Johnny Nevin called “Some Time”. This is Section I, a two-minute-thirty-second arrangement in 3/4 time for two grand pianos and string orchestra.

Composing original music for dance is always an exciting challenge; it requires a complex collaboration between two different artistic visions -- that of the choreographer and that of the composer --- and those visions are not always easy to communicate. The choreographer may have an idea of general direction and mood, or she may have a more specific sense of a work she can visualize. But to communicate that to someone who is not a dancer is a start-and-stop process requiring as much courage as patience. The composer may have an idea of tempo, arrangement, and mood, or he may already have the beginning of a musical idea. But to communicate that to someone who is not a musician is a stop-and-start process requiring as much open-mindedness as optimism. (more)

The most revealing line in Chicago choreographer Lizzie MacKenzie’s biography as Artistic Director of Extensions Dance Company may be this one: “Lizzie spends most of her free time teaching and choreographing." The realization that this is what Lizzie MacKenzie would describe as “free time” does a lot to explain her astonishingly broad range of accomplishments.

Many successful choreographers have had accomplished careers as dancers, and many company artistic directors are also accomplished choreographers. Lizzie MacKenzie, however, is at least unusual, and may be unique, in that she continues to be a successful and highly-respected dancer with one of Chicago’s leading companies (River North Chicago Dance Company), while also working as a leading choreographer. In 2008, she won the prestigious Choreographer of the Year award from Dance Chicago, presented by the Cliff Dwellers Foundation, to follow up on her 2006 New Voice Outstanding Choreographer award.

Her choreography is always graceful and fluid, and one of its most compelling attributes is a remarkable sense of dynamic architecture. In fact, whenever possible, it’s good to see her works at least once from a balcony, because there is a moving structure to what she does that becomes really apparent when seen with a full view of the stage.

Interestingly, this ability to master overall structure may be more the result of a focus on detail than on preconceived design; her designs actually seem to result from the careful composition of individual movements. Watching her in rehearsal with Extensions Dance Company, I heard her make an observation that does a lot to explain the coherence, but also the fullness, of her choreography. “Everything has a reason.” And when you add all of those reasons together, the result is inspired choreography.

Lizzie MacKenzie’s newest piece, “Time Now” is an eight-minute piece set to an original composition by Chicago group ‘ohana. It’s currently in rehearsal with her own Extensions Dance Company, and will premiere this fall.

I spent a really enjoyable -- and enlightening -- Sunday afternoon at Extensions Dance Company, getting to know the company who will be performing Lizzie MacKenzie’s new work TIME NOW, set to the original ‘ohana score that she and Dan Agosto and I have been working on for the past few months. (http://extensionsdance.com/index.html)

Extensions is a remarkable company; I walked in about fifteen minutes early, and that gave me the chance to watch Lizzie working with the dancers on the first section of “Time Now”. It was an impressive display of focus and commitment; Lizzie MacKenzie’s choreography is passionate in its detail, and these are fast-paced, dynamic details, uncompromising in their demand for technique and co-operation. So it wasn’t surprising to see a company that Lizzie founded displaying the same intense focus that she herself is known for. It also wasn’t surprising because I’ve seen Extensions perform several times, and their performances always have a graceful fire that I find unique.