Dance in a Blink
The Isthmus Dance Collective along with the Morrison Shearer Foundation is piloting a regional network, an Arts Vitality Project, to support small to mid-size dance groups in regional tours that bring the excellence of Great Lakes area dance to a wider audience, building regional community and dialogue.
Special, effervescent performances that are as fleeting as dance itself aim to build stronger regional connections and community through the arts, with that in mind, Dance in a BLINK is free and open to the public, with additional opportunities for Madison dance artists to create relationships with dance artists within driving distance.
featuring House of DOV’s
Circle of Apathy
with Family Junket
Sunday Sep. 6th, 6pm
Wirth Court Park, Madison, WI
Performance Run Time: 90 min without intermission
Circle of Apathy:
a firmament
a fantasia
“In the beginning there was nothing. Then there was everything.”
In Circle of Apathy, the new dance project from House of DOV with live music from Family Junket, the ensemble explores the cycles of growth and disintegration intrinsic to nature, and works together to build physical structures which increase in precarity as the group strives toward expansion. “Through creative process, we’ve sought to understand our own place within the greater ecology of our landscape, and to experience the human body as a metaphor and microcosm of the natural world,” says Drew Lewis, creative director of House of DOV.
Family Junket’s five musicians blare dense soul with moments of ambience: voices wail, altered by a vocal pedal; saxophone, flute and violin harmonize over precomposed loops; djembe, drum kit and percussion punctuate echoing acoustic piano. House of DOV’s seven dancers push against seemingly immovable forces, find new hand and footholds, and creep forward like a vine up a brick wall. A woman walks through an increasingly dense wood until the brush closes around her entirely. When all paths disappear from sight, a figure steps blindly forward, trusting that there will be a stepping stone beneath their foot.
Wednesday September 2nd:
House of DOV Community Class 6:30-8pm
Friday September 4th:
Open Rehearsal 4pm
Happy Hour Talkback 5pm
Other House of DOV Activities!
About Family Junket:
Family Junket is the collective voice of Chicago-based musicians who are also social workers, teachers, farmers, dancers, writers, painters, photographers, and performance artists coming together to create healing spaces, community, and parties. As a band, they play lush, unpredictable compositions featuring horns, strings, percussion, vocal interplay, and an improvisational spirit. Their debut album, Did you tell the bees?, released May 2025 with features in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and City Cast Chicago (WBEZ).
About House of DOV:
House of DOV is a movement-based performance ensemble from Chicago, IL, led by Drew Lewis. Our namesake is Benjamin Dov Lebowitz, Drew’s ancestor who immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900’s, escaping pogroms. The ensemble exists as a vehicle to explore Drew’s own creative work and heritage, and to provide talented yet under-represented Chicago dancers with opportunities for paid work in performance and practice. Our vision is of a dance field that celebrates diversity of genre, body-type, race and gender, and our mission is to be a changemaker in the local dance conversation while engaging with global discourse through touring. Since our inaugural performance at the Adler Planetarium (Finalist for the Chicago Reader’s Best of 2021) House of DOV has performed throughout Chicago including at Fulton Street Collective, Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble, and Navy Pier (among many more venues). We’ve received commissions for original works from The Steppenwolf Theatre and The Arts Club of Chicago, and we’ve been in residence at Chicago Cultural Center, Ragdale, The Schoolhouse, and The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. For more, visit www.houseofdov.com.
Ensemble:
Drew Lewis - Creative Director, Choreographer
Rahila Coats - Assistant Director, Vocalist
Max Lazarus - Music Director, Keyboard, Saxophone, Flute, Guitar, Synth
Adeline Else - Dancer
Isabella Limosnero - Dancer
Hannah Marcus - Dancer
Mya McClellan - Dancer
Charles Pierson - Dancer
Milo Sachse-Hofheimer - Dancer
Isabelle Taylor - Dancer
Hasani Cannon - Percussion
Scott Daniel - Violin
Jonah Lazarus - Percussion
About Drew Lewis
Drew Lewis is a performer, choreographer and educator originally from Oak Park, IL. He graduated magna cum laude from Cornish College of the Arts in 2016. Drew has performed extensively with Sidra Bell Dance New York, Little House Dance, C-LS, Project 44, Attack Theatre, The Joel Hall Dancers, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, and in projects by Lucy Riner and Erin Kilmurray. As a choreographer, Drew has created works for DanceWorks Chicago, Common Conservatory, Loyola University, Skidmore College, Hyde Park School of Dance and many others. He has served on faculty at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA and at Common Conservatory in Chicago, IL. Most recently, Drew was awarded a two-year Fellowship by the Arts Club of Chicago for 2025-2026, marking the first time in history a dance artist has received this role.