Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre (CRDT) is proud to announce its 2025-2026 season. In the coming year, this Chicago-based company will make work firmly grounded in the present moment, explored and shared in their signature style - through the lenses of empathy and common humanity including free performances of “The Heart of the Story,” August 15, September 12 and October 10 as part of the City of Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks; the return of their innovative Inside/Out series, August 21, February 2026 and March 22, 2026 at locations throughout the city, another free performance as part of Navy Pier’s Chicago Live!, Saturday, Sept. 20; the launch of the inaugural Latinx/e Contemporary Movement Festival, Saturday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. and the season concludes with Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre 2026 Spring Concert Series, April 30 - May 2. The full 2025-2026 season details are listed below with more information on the latest company updates and the 27th season at CerquaRivera.org or @CerquaRivera on social media.
“After reaching new heights in our 26th season - from completing our new works born from ‘Stories from the West Side’ to engaging with thousands of people across Chicagoland to celebrating our birthday in style at The Arts Club of Chicago - we proudly leap into our 27th season,” said Co-founder and Artistic Director Wilfredo Rivera. “This year, audiences will experience even deeper connections through Inside/Out and community engagements and a larger company that mirrors the beautiful diversity of our hometown.”
Rivera continued, “CRDT and its partners are fearless storytellers, melding artistic forms and styles to add their voices to the Chicago and national cultural conversation through art that transcends barriers as they have for almost three decades. CRDT opens new paths for empathy and understanding - whether one is experiencing a story that resonates or one that offers insight into something new.”
The 2025-2026 Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre season includes:
Night Out in the Parks: THE HEART OF THE STORY
Friday, Aug. 15 at 6 p.m.
Meyering Park, 7140 S. Martin Luther King Dr.
Friday, Sept. 12 at 6 p.m.
Austin Town Hall, 5610 W. Lake St.
Friday, Oct. 10 at 6 p.m.
FREE
“The Heart of the Story” is a semi-interactive concert dance program featuring dance & music artists from Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre performing several pieces from the company’s repertoire. Each performance will be customized based on the interests and identity of the community, tapping into Cerqua Rivera’s rich repertoire to celebrate the complexity of the human experience. This company brings people together with choreography that highlights the dualities found within each of us–confidence and doubt, strength and vulnerability, grace and intensity. Their energetic and interactive events will draw you in and fill your soul.
SEASON 27 OPENER
Inside/Out - Movement on Montrose
Thursday, Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Logan Foundation Studio, 2951 W. Montrose Ave.
*Limited seating, available by reservation only
Reserve tickets at CerquaRivera.org/schedule
Chicago's own Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre brings their innovative Inside/Out series to the Logan Foundation Studio for the first time to kickoff their 27th season. Open to all donors to the organization - including donors on-the-spot - this event will feature this year's dancers, including a new class of CRDT II; performance of excerpts from and behind the scenes info about this year's new works, and announcement of the full season schedule. An opportunity to meet returning and new dance company members in an intimate & unique atmosphere.
Chicago Live!
Saturday, Sept. 20 at 2:30pm
Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave.
FREE
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre is proud to participate in the Midwest’s largest free performing arts festival at Navy Pier again this year. The event welcomes more than 100 Chicago-grown performing groups in back-to-back performances across five stages on the Pier before thousands of enthusiastic fans.
NEW PROGRAM
Latinx/e Contemporary Movement Festival
Saturday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m.
The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N Dearborn
Tickets $38 (discounts available)
Purchase tickets at CerquaRivera.org/schedule
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre features Chicago’s premiere Latinx choreographers as well as the CRDT company in the debut of a celebration of Chicago’s Latinx dance artistry. The Latinx/e Dance Festival highlights socially conscious emerging Latinx artists with a line of inquiry that addresses immigration, colonialism, multinationalism, bi-racial and multi-generational identities.
Inside/Out: BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER with Wilfredo Rivera & Joe Cerqua
February 2026
Old Town School of Folk Music
Tickets are $15-20
Tickets on sale at CerquaRivera.org/schedule
Chicago's own Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre returns to Old Town School of Folk Music with their innovative Inside/Out series and a brand new work in progress. This evening will unpack “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by company Co-founders Wilfredo Rivera and Joe Cerqua. At Inside/Out, audiences not only preview sections of the piece in advance of the Spring Concert Series, but will also be invited inside the creative process through improvisation, conversation and optional participatory activities.
Inside/Out: TROUBLE IN MIND with Monique Haley & Joe Cerqua
Sunday, March 22 at 3 p.m.
Epiphany Center for the Arts - The Sanctuary, 201 S. Ashland Ave.
Tickets are $ 15-20
Tickets on sale at CerquaRivera.org/schedule
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre returns to the Epiphany Center for the Arts with their innovative Inside/Out series. This evening will unpack Monique Haley and Joe Cerqua’s latest work, “Trouble in Mind.” At Inside/Out, audiences will not only preview sections of the piece in advance of the Spring Concert Series, but will also be invited inside the creative process through improvisation, conversation and optional participatory activities.
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre 2026 Spring Concert Series
Thursday, April 30; Friday, May 1, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 12 p.m.
Location TBA
Tickets on sale at a later date at CerquaRivera.org/schedule
Spring sees the return of the Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre Spring Concert Series with three world premieres and an audience favorite. CRDT’s award-winning art – called “blended magic” by See Chicago Dance and “immersive alchemy” by New City Stage – explores authentic personal stories at the crossroads of heritage, culture and identity. CRDT are the hometown “movers and shakers who dazzled audiences” (Chicago Tribune) and perform “outstanding choreography deftly executed by this technically superb troupe.” (Splash Magazine)
The Spring Concert program is scheduled to include:
- WORLD PREMIERE: “Immense World,” by Shannon Alvis (Hubbard Street Dance Chicago) and arrangements by Joe Cerqua (Columbia College), explores climate change and human/nature interdependence through a lens of decolonization and social justice
- WORLD PREMIERE: “Trouble in Mind,” choreographed by Monique Haley with original music and arrangements by Joe Cerqua, is inspired by the Sam Cooke song and Alice Childress play of the same name, exploring the loop of racism and sexism
- WORLD PREMIERE: “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” choreographed by Co-founder and Artistic Director Wilfredo Rivera with original music by Co-founder Joe Cerqua, is inspired by the Simon & Garfunkel classic and the common humanity that gets us through tough times
- “A Place Between Earth & Sky” (2018), choreographed by Shannon Alvis with original music by world-renowned, Grammy-nominated composer Clarice Assad, a lyrical, sensual work inspired by a Blackfeet legend and exploration of a family’s long-hidden Native heritage.
ABOUT CERQUA RIVERA DANCE THEATRE
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre was born to explore and celebrate the American identity. These artists are fearless storytellers who help people understand and engage with themselves and the world around them. Each piece the company makes centers around a specific experience and they use research and radical collaboration to convey that narrative through a diverse group of artists. Cerqua Rivera engages with its community through local and national touring, workshops, interactive previews of work in progress, and full concerts. See Chicago Dance says the company “possesses a blended magic that is difficult to come by” and “creates a deeper sense of commitment and intimacy.” New City Stage raves that Cerqua Rivera "speaks straight to the heart, feeding a hunger [you] may not even realize.”
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre is grateful to all the donors who make its art possible, including these organizations:
The Lester & Hope Abelson Fund for the Performing Arts at The Chicago Community Foundation; The Arts Work Fund; Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; The Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation Fund (a Donor Advised Fund at the DeKalb County Community Foundation); Anne E. Leibowitz Fund; Richard G. & Diane Weinberg Foundation; Chicago Park District and Chicago Cultural Treasures.
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
This project is partially supported by a grant from the Evanston Arts Council, a city agency supported by the City of Evanston, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency.
Night Out in the Parks is a program of the Chicago Park District