Sabrina Visits Chicago!

This spring both Michel's sister, Sabrina, and my brother, Ben, are graduating from college, and for their graduation presents, we invited both of them to come visit us for a long weekend in Chicago.  Sabrina came to visit this past weekend, the first weekend of both her and Michel's spring breaks.  We visited some favorite restaurants, toured downtown and Lincoln Square, and she and Michel went to the art museum and Half Acre on Monday and Tuesday.  The big event of the weekend, though, was the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater performance at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University.

 Lobby of Auditorium Theatre

 It's gorgeous and beautifully preserved.

 

The theatre was open to the staircases, creating a really cool space.

 

 Michel thought he was buying tickets in the upper right balcony.  Instead he bought front row box seats for a fantastic price.  It was pretty awesome.

 

Happy graduation, Sabrina!

Elizabeth: The show was absolutely phenomenal.  I had never seen an Alvin Ailey performance before, and I was glad to be correcting that.  The first act consisted of two pieces performed to music by Duke Ellington called Night Creatures and Pas de Duke...very cool!  The second act was a multi-movement piece called The River, which was probably my favorite, and the third act was a multi-movement piece performed to arrangements of American spirituals called Revelations, one of the landmark pieces choreographed by Alvin Ailey that launched the company to national recognition.  

Michel:  It was really wonderful except for the baffling occurrence of people clapping at moments when absolutely nothing was happening on the stage.  

Elizabeth:  It seemed like audience members were clapping for specific moves they thought were cool rather than looking at it as a whole piece of art, so that was irritating and distracting.  But that had nothing to do with the dancers themselves.

Michel:  I never said that it did!  I was merely pointing to the audience ettiquette.

Elizabeth:  I know, I was agreeing with you.  

Michel:  Ok.  I liked the large group numbers, but my favorites tended to be the pieces with two to four dancers.  The dancers in the smaller numbers were given more opportunities to be impressive.

Elizabeth:  It was really amazing, and if you have the chance to see an Alvin Ailey performance, you won't be disappointed.

On the train platform after the performance, we met (or, more accurately, were cornered by) a failed comic-turned-carney who regaled us with his entire, terrible stand-up act.  

Michel: Anyone looking to hear a five minute chunk on being cold should seek this guy out.  

Elizabeth: Though nice, he was rather aggressive and unrelenting in his presentation, and after a while I extricated us by looking through my purse and announcing that I had lost my phone.  My delivery was believable enough that our new friend believed me, and we were able to wait for the train downstairs.  Finally, it arrived, and we headed to Fountainhead for dinner, eschewing our new friend's suggestion of checking out the wrestling themed restaurant in Wicker Park.

A nice surprise of Sabrina's visit was discovering the American stained glass exhibit behind the chocolate department at the State Street Macy's.  (Yes, they have a chocolate department, and it is glorious.)

Michel:  Amidst these piece of stained glass was a trashcan that smelled as though only moments earlier someone had urinated directly into it.

Elizabeth:  This being Chicago, this is not an unreasonable assumption.  However, the stained glass was gorgeous and worth the smell.

Other highlights of the weekend included Sabrina's first visit to Tiffany's, at her request.  We had the nicest salesman who let Sabrina and me try on several rings and a pendant, and it was really fun.  And, of course, now that we have established Ghirardelli's supremacy in the realm of hot chocolate, we had to test their ice cream this time around: all agreed it was delicious!  It was a great weekend, and we're looking forward to Ben's visit later this spring!