Cheap dance moves in Chicago | 2011 TOC Student Guide

You don’t have to remind us that price is of the essence in a student’s life. (Not that it’s much better for working journalists, but we digress.) Fortunately, Chicago’s increasingly world-class dance scene offers plenty of enjoyable options on the cheap.

Here are a few examples of what you can get for ten bones or less—plus a few free options, for when someone else beats you to the change underneath the couch cushions.

$10 or less
Experimental dance and performance at Links Hall, a short walk from Wrigley Field, is usually ten bucks for students and almost never more. There’s always something to see at this cozy, wood-floored studio theater, which gets booked about 50 weeks out of the year. Although less frequent, about once a month, series Dance Union in the Fasseas White Box Theatre in Lincoln Park—one of our fave new spaces for dance—offers a chance to see multiple artists and companies in a single evening. And keep an ear to the ground for shows at DEFIBRILLATOR in Wicker Park, where a hip crowd convenes to see performers from around the country, around the world, or just around the corner.

$5 or less
Dance Chance, a choreographers’ lottery held regularly at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, is short (one hour), sweet and only three dollars. Drop your name in the fishbowl and, if it gets drawn, you’ll have a month to create a short dance from scratch for the next installment, no experience necessary.

Free!
Whether you’re a poverty-stricken pupil or a contemptuous cheapskate, we’ve always got your back in the latest issue of Time Out Chicago. Browse the Dance Listings each week for free and suggested-donation events, such as the Chicago Dancing Festival’s late-summer smorgasbord of stars. On the second Friday of each month, get classy and cultured by heading down to Pilsen for flamenco showcases hosted by Clinard Dance Theatre and, once a season, take any class you like at the Lou Conte Dance Studio, the West Loop home of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

The loft-like OuterSpace Studio in Wicker Park (up two very long flights of stairs—don’t say we didn’t warn you) occasionally offers open rehearsals and parties hosted by its resident groups, including The Moving Architects and managing entity The Space/Movement Project. DanceWorks Chicago, a fierce sextet of young dancers who often move on to top positions in Chicago, Las Vegas and on Broadway, opens its studio doors or presents short concerts called Dance Bytes, usually weekdays during lunchtime in and around the Loop. The Chicago Cultural Center is good for free dance events on a regular basis—look for a quarterly program called DanceBridge and fall short-film festival Dance for the Camera.