On a recent afternoon at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, a dozen dancers in earth-toned streetwear filled the stage with stomping feet and spiraling arms—then dropped into a hard-hitting hip-hop break that sent applause rippling through the house. The performers were La Mecca Dance, appearing as part of See Chicago Dance, the city's annual showcase dedicated to putting its homegrown dance companies in the spotlight.
See Chicago Dance, now in its third year, is a nonprofit initiative that partners with major venues to present free and low-cost performances from Chicago's independent dance scene. For 2024, the program expanded to three weekends across the Loop and South Shore, with La Mecca Dance anchoring the downtown slate. WGN's Midday Fix crew filmed the full set at the Harris Theater on September 14.
Founded in 2019 by choreographer Darius Johnson, La Mecca Dance has built a reputation for work that refuses to sit in one genre. The company pulls from contemporary floorwork, West African polyrhythms, and Chicago-born footwork and hip-hop—often within the same eight-count. Their See Chicago Dance piece, "Southside Summers," opened with the ensemble moving in tight unison to a live drummer, then fractured into solos and small groups as a DJ layered house music over the beat.
"We're not interested in separating these forms," Johnson said in a backstage interview with WGN. "In Chicago, you walk down the block and hear gospel, drill, house, Afrobeat—all of it belongs to the same sidewalk. We want our work to sound like that walk."
The performance made good on that mission. Midway through, dancer Aaliyah Williams broke from the group for a solo that started in Senegalese sabar technique and pivoted, without warning, into a sequence of popping and locking that drew shouts from the first row. By the final section, the full company was circling the stage in a cypher formation, pulling audience members to their feet.
See Chicago Dance was created in part to address a gap in visibility for Chicago's mid-size dance companies, which often struggle to secure mainstream media coverage and consistent venue access. The initiative has since presented 18 companies to audiences of more than 12,000, according to organizers. For La Mecca Dance, the platform arrived at a pivotal moment: the company is preparing a full evening debut at the Auditorium Theatre in spring 2025.
The full performance from the Harris Theater streams above. For tickets and information about La Mecca Dance's upcoming season, visit their website below.
Watch the full performance: [insert video link]
Learn more about La Mecca Dance: [insert website link]
See the full See Chicago Dance 2024 schedule: [insert website link]
