Discover a world of creativity and inspiration at Columbia Spotlight, your one- stop destination for exciting cultural events in the South Loop.
Columbia Spotlight offers something for everyone, providing a platform to connect with the arts, engage with the community, and celebrate the vibrant cultural life of Columbia College Chicago.
The Dance Center provides students with a superior contemporary dance education in the context of a world-class, nationally recognized dance performance season. Since its doors first opened in 1969, the Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago has presented hundreds of professional companies and choreographers.
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The Music Center presents more than 200 concerts each year, by professional and student performers alike. Located across from Grant Park on Michigan Avenue, this intimate 148-seat venue provides the perfect setting for students to experience the art of music performance up close.
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The Theatre Center offers a dynamic hub for live performance on campus and is a lively part of Chicago’s artistic scene. The Center’s four performance venues incorporate student talent in everything from acting to set design. Each season is directed by department faculty and professional guest artists.
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B-Series Festival: B-yond Borders February 27–March 1, 2024
Celebrate the kinships and global impact of Afrodiasporic street and social dances at B-yond Borders, co-curated by Daniel “BRAVEMONK” Haywood and Kelsa “K-Soul” Rieger-Haywood. This dynamic festival brings together guest artists, students, and community members for workshops, conversations, film screenings, and a dance jam featuring performances and battles. Highlights include Afro Dance pioneer Sarah Olaniran (Sayrah Chips) and influential local, regional, and student artists.
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago
1306 S. Michigan Ave
Admission: TBA
The Chicago Solo Spotlight Festival March 13-15, 7:30 p.m.
The Chicago Solo Spotlight Festival celebrates the transformative power of solo performance with two world premieres by acclaimed Chicago artists Jenn Freeman | Po’Chop and Nora Sharp. This series explores the evolving solo form through intimate storytelling, multimedia artistry, and experimental dance, featuring Freeman’s exploration of Black women’s history and agency in “THICK: a crumbling freak show” and Sharp’s sci-fi-inspired “Cosmic Docks”, a journey through queer identity and personal history.
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago
1306 S. Michigan Ave
Festival Pass: $50; single tickets: $30 (public), $10 (non-Columbia students)
Free for Columbia students
Kendrick Scott Residency Concerts November 14-16 | 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. November 17 | 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Kendrick Scott, a Houston native, began drumming at age 8 and studied at HSPVA before attending Berklee. He’s toured with prominent jazz musicians and released several albums on Blue Note, including “Corridors” with Walter Smith III and Reuben Rogers.
Jazz Showcase
806 S. Plymouth Court
From $20
Jonathan McReynolds
Residency Concert
February 28 | 7 p.m.
Chicago-born Christian music artist McReynolds is known for his soulful voice and inspirational lyrics. He’s collaborated with artists like Stevie Wonder and Justin Bieber and is a faculty member at Columbia College Chicago.
Music Center Concert Hall
1014 S. Michigan Ave
$15 Public
$5 for Columbia students
You on the Moors Now
March 5-7, 7:30 p.m.
March 8, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
March 12-13, 7:30 p.m.
March 14, 7:30 p.m.
March 15, 2 p.m.
Four literary heroines of the nineteenth century set conventionalism ablaze when they turn down marriage proposals from their equally famous gentlemen callers. What results is a confluence of love, anger, grief, and bloodshed, as the ensemble struggles to reconcile romantic ideologies of the past with their modern ideas of courtship. Everything you’ve learned about love from the pages of Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Little Women is turned upside down in this grand theatrical battle royale.
Columbia College Chicago Getz Theatre Center, Sheldon Patinkin Theatre
72 E. 11th St.
RENT
May 1, 7:30 p.m.
May 2, 7:30 p.m.
May 3, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
May 7, 7:30 p.m.
May 8, 7:30 p.m.
March 9, 7:30 p.m.
March 10, 2 p.m.
“RENT” follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
Columbia College Chicago Getz Theatre Center, Courtyard Theatre
72 E. 11th St.