This evening, acclaimed performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes and Violeta Luna of the ensemble La Pocha Nostra cap off a weeklong residency at Columbia College with a free public performance of Corpo/Ilicito: The Post-Human Society #69. I talked yesterday with Gómez-Peña, the recipient of a 1991 MacArthur “genius grant” and a longtime explorer of cultural and psychological border territory, about the new work.

Time Out Chicago: You’ve described Corpo/Ilicito as responding to the challenge of the end of the Bush regime. How does Obama’s election alter the position of the oppositional artist?

Guillermo Gómez-Peña: We’re exploring philosophically the transition from a legacy of cultural fear, the demonization of the body of the Other: the Latino immigrant, the queer body, the female body. This legacy is still with us, parasitic, like a lingering fog in the streets and in the institutions. How is it affecting us? How are we self-censoring?

And then how does this fit with an institutionalized culture of hope? We’re trying to compare notes from our own project of hope. Are we in sync with them? Is Obama willing to listen to artists and intellectuals?

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I first met Sansano when I was hanging out at Lou Conte Dance Studio, teaching modern dance classes and sneaking in to company class in the mornings with the Hubbard Street dancers. One of the company dancers under Jim Vincent, Gustavo created a zone of easy grace and calm around himself, and it was always an inspiration to be in class with him and see the nonchalance with which he approached even the most technically difficult material.

Now Sansano, 31, is bringing his unmistakable hipness and grace back to Chicago, where he’s been named artistic director of Luna Negra Dance Theater, filling the capable shoes of founder Eduardo Vilaro, who went to lead Ballet Hispanico in NYC. Sansano had already made a couple of lovely works for Luna before leaving Hubbard and heading to his homeland in Spain to pursue his choreographic career; he’s definitely new-school, imaginatively unformulaic and exuberant.

In a city that tends to be conservative about leadership changes, Sansano’s appointment at Luna is one of the most fresh and exciting things that has happened in Chicago dance in a long time. It’s obvious that as an organization, Luna is just as vibrant in the boardroom as it is onstage. Bravo.

The Seldoms, the modern dance company headed by choreographer Carrie Hanson, is having a big year. Not only is it debuting in the prestigious MCA Performances series in March, the ensemble is traveling to Isadora, the International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Krasnoyarsk, Russia in April to perform, teach and choreograph. The company web site has a great page with more info that allows you to donate to your favorite dancer. So far, the Seldoms have raised $3,500 of the $15,000 they need to make the jaunt, so dig deep dance lovers.

Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo, in orange, rehearsed with Hubbard Street dancers in preparation for the premiere of his work, Bitter Suite, that took place October 1 at the Harris Theater.

Photos by Cheryl Mann

Ever-hip, dance-theater company The Seldoms know how to throw an artful and stylish party. After an in-gallery performance of works inspired by the current “Back to the Future” show up at the Loyola University Museum of Art (820 North Michigan Ave),  the company offers a soiree with cocktails sponsored by the Violet Hour, perhaps the most tasteful cocktail bar this side of the 1930’s.

The whole event, which starts at 6pm, also includes a post-performance discussion plus a chance to make your own painting. Tickets are $30, more info at theseldoms.org.

Zimbabwean choreographer Nora Chipaumire and filmmaker Danièle Wilmouth introduce the film NORA at the Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E Chicago Ave) TONIGHT (Tue 29) at 6pm. The screening and discussion take place in the MCA’s  ground-floor Kanter Meeting Center. The event is free with museum admission, which is $12, students or seniors  with ID $7.

NORA (by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton, 2008, 35 minutes) blends documentary realism with poetic dance images. Wilmouth and Chipaumire introduce the film and discuss how art and history interact from personal experience, exploring Chipaumire’s early years in Zimbabwe after the Chimurenga Chechipiri (or second war of liberation), to her present life as an artist working in New York.

With her tundra-white hair and friendly eyes, Maggie Kast is an easy-to-recognize and welcome presence in the audience at many modern-dance events. Active for more than 30 years in the city’s dance-scape as a dancer, choreographer, artistic director and teacher for many years, she turned her attention to writing about 14 years ago.

This Thursday 24 at 7:30pm, Kast looks back on her life in the arts as she reads from The Crack Between the Worlds, her just-published memoir of dance, family life and loss at Women & Children First bookshop, 5233 N Clark St. A reception follows.

Mark your calendar: The Irish American Heritage Center hosts a free celebration with live music and dance on Sunday 20 at 2pm for Kathleen M. Flanagan to launch her book, Steps in Time: The History of Irish Dance in Chicago (Macater Press).

We’re told: “In this first detailed history of Irish dance in the diaspora, Flanagan gives a fascinating account of the art form in one of its most important urban centers of practice: Chicago. Beginning with its appearance at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 to the emergence of world-renowned Chicago performers/choreographers such as Michael Flatley and Mark Howard, she describes the teachers, schools and performances that contributed to making the city an international center of Irish dance.”

Flanagan, an associate professor of theater and dance at St. Mary’s University in Minnesota, is a Chicagoland native and registered Irish dance teacher (T.C.R.G.) with the Irish Dancing Commission, Dublin. She’ll read from her book, discuss Irish dance in Chicago and sign copies of her book.

The Irish American Heritage Center is located near Wilson Avenue and the Edens Expressway at 4626 North Knox. For more information, call 773-282-7035, or visit irish-american.org.

For the last few years, perhaps, it could be said that Redmoon Theatre was dabbling in narrative. The company that built its reputation in the mid-to-late-’90s on community-based spectacles, notably its annual All Hallows’ Eve events in Logan Square and its movable Winter Pageants, took up residence a while back in a West Town industrial space dubbed Redmoon Central, where it applied its movement-based, puppet-infused, found-materials steampunk aesthetic to metatheatrical but story-centered works like The Cabinet, Hunchback and Boneyard Prayer, while its site-specific installations seemed to take a backseat.

Redmoon’s presence in unexpected places has been ramping back up over the last year, starting with a revamped Winter Pageant last year and continuing through multiple appearances of its “Momentary Opera” over the summer. But the company’s outdoor spectacle is back in a big way with Last of My Species: The Fearless Songs of Laarna Cortaan, which opened last night on Belmont Harbor and continues through next Sunday.

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If you wanna live forever…if you wanna learn how to fly HIGH, it’s time to brush up your act, whether it’s singing, dancing, acting or xylophone-playing (well, maybe not xylophone-playing…). As part of the promotional campaign for the upcoming remake of Fame, MGM is holding a national talent search. The contest lands at Six Flags Great America this weekend. Registration is Saturday from 9am until noon. And if your baton-twirling is unusually fabulous, be ready to go back Sunday for the semi-finals. Get all the details at generationfame.com.