Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble (CDE) is pleased to announce its 2026 - 2027 season. CDE will open this artistic season with Copestic Vibrations: A Music Festival, Friday, Nov. 13 and Saturday, Nov. 14, followed by a fully staged production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Feburary 26 - March 13, 2027 and the season concludes with the return of the "Full Circle Festival," May 7 - 23, 2027. The 2026 - 2027 programming season includes "Passages," an intergenerational arts cohort, Sunday, Oct. 25; "Day of Healing," Sunday, Dec. 6 and the Playwrights Cohort & New Stage Play Development, led by Timothy David Rey, monthly from November 2026 through February 2027.
All performances and special events take place at Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble, 1650 W. Foster Ave. For additional information on this upcoming season and to purchase tickets, visit DanzTheatre.org.
"As Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble enters its 25th year of building commUNITY through the arts, our programming is centered around our slogan of 'one story, one voice, one person.' For Colored Girls will be reinvisioned for a new generation, our femme-focused playwrights cohort and Full Circle Festival will develop new performance works, while Copestic Vibrations will showcase the best of new talent. CDE really is the home of multidisciplinary performances and we hope that audiences will come and explore all that we offer and support our renters and their performances," shared CDE Founder and Artistic Director Ellyzabeth Adler.
The 2026 - 2027 Artistic Season Includes:
Copasetic Vibrations: A Music Festival
Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m.
Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble Auditorium, 1650 W. Foster Ave.
Tickets: $30 single-day pass | $50 Weekend pass
A music festival highlighting up-and-coming Chicagoland musicians:
GO79MAN, Bonatto, Kacie Brown & The Vision, Pisano, Shamik, Poor Thing,
Jamie Demeny's 4-Player Game, Pablo alto, Andy's Critical Hits!, Lakewaves Trio,
dicot, Bardware, Electric Mothership, and Sonic Healing
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf
Directed by Aja Singletary
February 26 - March 13, 2027
Performance Schedule: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble Auditorium, 1650 W. Foster Ave.
Tickets: $35-50
Capturing the brutal, tender and dramatic lives of contemporary Black women, For Colored Girls... offers a transformative, riveting evening of provocative dance, music and poetry.
About the Director
Aja Singletary is a director, choreographer, and actor originally from Philly. Her directing credits include: Primary Occupant by Ashley Neal (Bramble's Festival of Unfinished Works), Short Changed by Jordan Gleaves (Redtwist Playfest), White by James Ijames (Walk Up), Evil Perfect by Spencer Huffman (AD, Bramble), Remembrance by Ben F. Locke (Bramble's FOUW), The Whole Sheamus Thing by L.C Bernadine and Ben Auxier (Bramble's FOUW), and On the Greenbelt (AD, Strawdog).She has also worked at various theaters including Lyric Opera, Goodman, Writers, Steppenwolf and Timeline. Offstage, you'll catch Aja quoting Spongebob, singing Disney songs, taking a boxing class and liking food videos! She thanks CDE and the For Colored Girls team for their warm welcome and for the opportunity to direct a full length production! Training: Fordham College at Lincoln Center. Representation: Gray Talent Group
A Quote from the Director
"Shange's words carry lineage and power. They take you on a rollcoaster. I'm excited for the cast and myself to hear the music within Shange's play." Aja Singletary
Full Circle Festival
May 7 - 23, 2027
Performance Schedule: Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., 8 p.m., 9 p.m. Sundays at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble Auditorium, 1650 W. Foster Ave.
Tickets: $15-25
Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble has reimagined its annual Full Circle Festival, featuring physical, fringe and dance theater works between 30 and 60 minutes in length. For eight years, CDE had produced this eclectic festival for works under 15 minutes. Since reopening four years ago after being closed due to the pandemic, they have responded to the needs of the performance community even more and have found that there is a need to present longer works.
The 2026 - 2027 season special programming and events include:
Passages
Sunday, October 25 from 2 - 4 p.m.
Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble Auditorium, 1650 W Foster Ave
Tickets:
"Passages" is an intergenerational multidisciplinary arts cohort that has been working together during the summer months to build relationships between 20-25 and 65+ generations. Starting with the question of what is a rite of passage and how we grow as people, each pair has created a performance.
Day of Healing
Sunday, December 6 at 5 p.m.
Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble Auditorium, 1650 W Foster Ave
Tickets: suggested donation
How does one heal or move forward? This Day of Healing comes on the 30th anniversary of our founder's suicide attempt. For many years, she kept silent, ashamed of her choice and the domestic abuse relationship that brought her here. She healed in silence and only 10 years ago began talking about her journey. Now 30 years later, breaking the silence to help others know they are not alone, we will have a day of storytelling, meditation and music. Like-minded nonprofits and resources will be on display at the event.
Playwrights Cohort & New Stage Play Development
November 2026 - February 2027
Applications Due September 20
Staged Reading: March 7 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble Auditorium, 1650 W Foster Ave
Tickets: free
Led by Timothy David Rey, this year's cohort celebrates the bold, powerful voices of femme playwrights. Inspired by and connected to our production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, the cohort will explore storytelling, identity, and the transformative power of femme-centered narratives.
ABOUT CHICAGO DANZTHEATRE ENSEMBLE
Founded in 2001, Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble (CDE) is Chicago's only multidisciplinary arts organization dedicated to social justice and socially conscious work that builds community through the arts "one voice, one story, one person at a time." CDE's mission is to engage, inspire, and challenge the community, both onstage and in the classroom, through innovative and collaborative multidisciplinary storytelling to illuminate aspects of social issues. We do this in the genre of Tanztheatre, "which unites all art media to achieve an all-embracing, radical change in humankind." Through our school-based art and performance programs, CDE helps students in Chicago schools explore their own creativity, supporting their social and emotional learning. CDE provides a physical and emotional space where community conversation and cultural change can happen.
For our performance series, CDE is dedicated to creating performances that blend together dance, theatre and visual art to tell stories about the human condition. We give an artistic voice to those who are not always heard.
- Dedicated since our founding to diverse casting of age, body type and ethnicity
- Consistently listed as a "Top Theater and Dance Performance to See" by New City and Chicago Reader
- Unique collaborations with the Veterans Art Museum, Poetry Center Chicago, Cantigny Museum, Neighborhood Writing Alliance, Voice of the City and numerous dance and theater companies
- MacArthur Award Grantee for International Collaborations.
Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble (CDE) is pleased to announce its 2026 - 2027 season. CDE will open this artistic season with Copestic Vibrations: A Music Festival, Friday, Nov. 13 and Saturday, Nov. 14, followed by a fully staged production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Feburary 26 - March 13, 2027 and the season concludes with the return of the "Full Circle Festival," May 7 - 23, 2027. The 2026 - 2027 programming season includes "Passages," an intergenerational arts cohort, Sunday, Oct. 25; "Day of Healing," Sunday, Dec. 6 and the Playwrights Cohort & New Stage Play Development, led by Timothy David Rey, monthly from November 2026 through February 2027.
