CheekyChicago

For Monique Haley, dance has always been a gift.  In fact, her very first class came as a sixth birthday present from her mother, back home in Virginia.  “She just thought I had a lot of energy,” says Haley.  “You know, off the wall.  And she just thought, oh, there’s a dance studio near my job, let’s sign her up.  So it was a present, and I luckily happened to love it, of course, since the first day I stepped in there.”

24 years later, Haley celebrates her ninth and final season with Chicago’s world-renowned River North Chicago Dance Company, which performs its Valentine’s Weekend Engagement at Millennium Park’s Harris Theater of Music and Dance this weekend.   The program will include Haley’s own piece, “Uhuru” (Swahili for “Freedom”), which she choreographed and premiered at last year’s Valentine’s engagement.  The lively, festive dance, set to African beats, received glowing reviews and helped inspire Haley to explore more choreography opportunities when she says goodbye to River North this year.

Though she’s venturing more into choreography, Haley has no plans to stop dancing any time soon.  Dance has always been her life, from those first lessons in Alexandria, Virginia, to a competition troupe in Fairfax, to her high school dance team and cheerleading squad, to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where RNCDC director Frank Chaves discovered her in a master class.

Haley chatted with us from Pennsylvania, where the company has been on tour, about her career and this weekend’s must-see show.

Cheeky: How did you first get involved with RNCDC?

Monique Haley: I went to the University of the Arts, and River North had come two times to my college that I remember.  I auditioned my freshman year.  I did not make the company; I didn’t get anything, I didn’t get offered an apprenticeship, you know, I was so bummed.  And then my senior year I actually decided to skip modern class when Frank [Chaves], our director, ended up having a master class and I decided I want to take that master class.  Let me see how much better I’ve gotten.  I’ve grown, I’ve been here for four years, let me see.  And lo and behold, I told him I was going to the audition and he was interested in having me come to Chicago to attend their summer apprenticeship.  So that, of course, showed me that I had grown in the past four years, since the first time.  I thought, there’s something wrong if I don’t at least get something!  So that’s how it all began, with me and my career at River North.  I ended up taking a chance and moving to Chicago not really knowing anyone.

Cheeky: And you’ve been in Chicago ever since.

MH: Ever since, so it’s going on nine years now.

Cheeky: You grew up outside DC.  I spent time there as a kid too.  Did you ever see anything at the Kennedy Center that inspired you to go into dance?

MH: I saw the Broadway show Chicago there, when Jasmine Guy was in it.  Also for school we went and watched one of the ballets that had come there, I don’t recall which one.  Chicago definitely inspired me. I was like, ‘Oh, this is cool, because these people were making money performing, just like what I like to do.’  At that time, I was probably 11.  So I was definitely inspired by that.  I think it was just a blessing that I was able to be exposed to dance at a young age, through my mother thinking this would be a great pastime, but it was actually my passion.  Everything happens for a reason.

Cheeky: Now, nine years later, you’re retiring from River North.  Can you talk about that decision, and your plans?

MH: In the nine years there’s been a lot of growth, and artistic growth, and I want to explore what’s elsewhere, and just see where that will take me as a dancer.  Choreographically, it was a blessing to have been in River North, because my director has trusted me enough to give me the opportunity to choreograph.  Of course in college you have to do projects, so I did a little, but this was the biggest professional project I had ever done.  And, of course, it was good for me that I got to do it amongst my peers, and people who love me.  The process was really wonderful, because they’re not only patient but really hungry to do the dance, and to learn it, and to encourage me.  So I had a really good home ground for my first big project.  And I think I do want to pursue other aspects of myself as an artist, which includes the choreography and includes my artistic expression in a different way.

Cheeky:  If you had to look back on a favorite moment, or the most important lesson you can take away from your time with River North, what would it be?

MH: I think one thing that I learned at River North is that it is okay to be as expressive as you want to be on stage. We have a diverse repertoire of dance work that we do.  And they do try to have us bring the best out of that work as possible and also the best out of ourselves.  They do try to really feed that.  And then if they have to rein it in a little bit, because you just let that [expression] out so much, then okay.  But I think the best thing I’ve learned is to be the best artist that you can be, and to be as expressive and as pure on stage as you can be.  I think that’s what I’ve learned from being at River North.

Cheeky: What do you think is something audience members, or potential audiences, should know about dance that they don’t?

MH: I think what I would tell your average audience member, who didn’t know what to expect from a dance concert, is that no matter what type of day you’ve had, you can go there and there’s something you can learn from dance.  It can be a live experience.  We tell stories through movement, and they might actually relate to someone who’s having hardships or going through a really loving, happy time.  The audience can actually visually see someone portraying that and can relate to it as human beings.  They’re not as disconnected as they may think, because it’s not an art form that they actually physically do.  But through the emotional aspects, they can probably learn a lot and be able to relate.

Cheeky: So tell us about the Valentine’s Weekend Engagement coming up.

MH: This will be, for me, kind of like an anniversary because this is when my piece [Uhuru] debuted last year.

Cheeky: And will that be performed again this weekend?

MH: Yes, it will.  So it’s been nice to see the piece actually grow, and it will be nice to bring it back to the Harris and, hopefully, if you’ve seen it before, it will look a lot more seasoned because we’ve been able to perform it a lot more.

Also, we have a lot of new works by two choreographers that we’ve had in our rep before.  One is Robert Battle. He’s done two pieces, a solo called “Ella” and a trio called “Three,” for three men, which is a really wonderful trio.  It’s nice to be able to see the men expose themselves like that.  It’s very, to say the least, aggressive and action-packed.  And then Frank will be [remounting] his new work, “Forbidden Boundaries,” also.

Cheeky: Can you talk about the Harris Theatre – how is it performing in that space?

MH: Well, this is a behind-the-scenes thing, but I love that we all have really nice dressing rooms. As a dancer, you don’t always get that.  Sometimes you’re jam-packed into one.  With this, we’re able to spread out and have, like, two of us each in separate rooms.  And it’s a nice, wonderful dance floor.  The floor’s really springy.  And it’s huge.  It’s great.  Actually on our little tour right now, we’re not always getting the biggest of spaces to dance in, and we work around it, but you like to be able to dance as big as you can.  The Harris definitely allows us to do that.  Also, it’s a place where a lot of our friends get to come and see us, especially a lot of our dancer friends.  They can come to the Harris and we’re able to see each other dance when we go to that venue.  It’s just right downtown.  It’s accessible.

Cheeky:  Yes, and I think it’s cultivating more dance fans in the Chicago arts scene.

MH: I agree.  It really is.  And it’s just a beautiful theater.

Cheeky:  It is gorgeous. I love how kind of mod it is, with the neon, and it’s beautiful from the outside too, at night.   So, we like to ask everyone one final question: What is the cheekiest thing you did this week?  We define Cheeky as “definitively bold, impudent, or saucy.”

MH: I do a lot of bold things.  I’m a pretty straightforward person.  I think right now, not that I’m an overly confident person, but in order to love yourself, and to really truly believe in yourself, you have to be confident.  I feel that in my time here at River North, I’ve built up a pretty good relationship with my boss.  And I feel I’m able to speak to him and honestly tell him how I feel about something, without it being a bad situation.

So I think the most recent thing was my being able to say, in terms of a piece of work, “I know I could add this, because I know who I am.”  I think that was the boldest thing that I’ve done, but it was the truth.  To be able to say, “I know who I am, and what type of artist I am, and it would have been cool to be able to express that.”  I think that’s a kind of bold thing; some people are unsure of what they could add to something.

Cheeky: That’s great, Monique.  And we really look forward to your show this weekend.

MH: You guys are really gonna enjoy it. It’s a diverse program this time around – not to say it hasn’t been.  But it’s really exciting.  The new works will definitely be enjoyed.  I feel the audiences have received them pretty well leading up to the Harris.  We’ve had a couple of standing ovations.

Cheeky:  Fabulous.  We can’t wait for you to come home, and to see what you do next.

Valentine’s Weekend Engagement

Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13 at 8 pm

Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park

Tickets $30 – $65

www.harristheaterchicago.org