My now-husband and I used Chicago Dance for choreography for our first dance at our wedding. We met…read morewith Sam for our consultation and talked her through our experience level (limited), some constraints (my husband is deaf with cochlear implants), and our expectations for what we wanted to get out of the sessions. While Sam had her work cut out for her with us, she never let her cards show and was 100% patient and kind throughout ever lesson. We ended up purchasing 8 sessions leading up to the wedding and we HIGHLY recommend Chicago Dance and Sam, specifically! The options are endless: whether you want to just learn some different dance types and be able to use those lessons to freestyle or if you want 100% choreography... Chicago Dance is the way to go. A couple highlights. 1. Sam was energetic and excited to try all kinds of new steps / tricks and she made us willing participants. She also valued our feedback and ensured that we were confident in what we were doing. She incorporated more of the steps/moves we enjoyed and flexed if we were not comfortable with anything. We laughed a lot playing around with new successful and totally unsuccessful attempts at tricks. Given our experience level, I was so impressed with her ability to articulate feedback and say the right things to make anything "complicated" seem simple and feasible! 2. We started looking forward to our dance lessons. Considering this was still in the middle of COVID, aside from dinner dates, we had not really done much in the way of date nights. We ended up loving our lessons and looking forward to these "date nights" as we were having so much fun and felt like it was driving more connection. 3. We were torn about which song to dance to. For the first two lessons, we ended up learning waltz basics and started learning choreography to one song. We were practicing at home one day and decided to try with a different song, and fell in love. Sam quickly jumped into action helping us play with the different types of dance we can incorporate into the new song. She cut the music based on my suggestions seamlessly. No joke - she provided full service.

Great instructors. Welcoming and inclusive environment. Good variety of dance types. We took…read moreclasses for our wedding first dance and it was a very good experience. The space is clean with good mirrors and floors, and separate rooms so several classes can meet at the same time. Close to the CTA brown line as well! No free parking nearby but there is metered parking and a paid parking lot nearby.

We've enjoyed a number of performances over the years- I ask for HSD tickets for my birthday every…read moreyear- and we always have a blast. Every time! The choreography is so innovative and the dancers are incredibly strong, each with breathtaking range and immense depth of expression. A night at the Harris Theatre watching Hubbard Street dancers perform followed by dinner at nearby Acanto is my absolute favorite thing to do in Chicago!!

I love this place. It's great for adults, whether or not you have prior dance experience…read more Signing up for class is really easy, especially your first time. Just arrive early and sign up & pay with the person at the front desk. I've been to the Intermediate Modern and the Beginning Hip-Hop classes. In both, people are very accepting -- I have not gotten any judgmental vibes from other dancers, which is awesome! (Because growing up in the dance world, competition is all around you.) I have been driving here form the northern suburbs, and there is free street parking in the evenings. Just read the street signs & you should be fine!

I love this studio! The instructors spend time with each student during the class ensuring everyone…read morecontinues to excel. I've made many friends here as well. I appreciate the positive fun atmosphere.

This is a special place. Every instructor is talented & welcoming. If I had more time, I would be…read morehere almost every day. Big shout out to Jorge Alvarez who teaches super fun cha cha, salsa & shines classes that I look forward to every week!!

I really enjoyed the performance of Booms Day that I attended at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts…read more The performance itself was high-energy and the smaller size of the theatre meant there isn't a bad seat in the house. Seating is first-come, first-served; however, it was not difficult to nab seats that were close to the stage. I enjoyed looking at the nostalgia photos and some of the other artwork displayed around the space during the intermission as well.

I love this theater! It's small and quaint. The staff is so nice and the location is great -…read morelocated in the heart of the Gold Coast. This little neighborhood theater offers big performances. Because of the theater size, all seats are fantastic. Don't think you're just going to get little shows that no one cares about. I have seen big numbers and small. They have all been very impressive. I always look forward to an evening at The Ruth Page Center For The Arts!

Great teachers for the most part, but very little focus on technique. My girls had fun but didn't…read morelearn very much.

Fun class with Julia. Signed up for last minute Cardio +Tone class on Wed morning. I found street…read moreparking nearby. Studio is super clean, colorful and groovy. Once inside you have to walk up to the second floor. Dance studio for class was big and spacious. It was one of three different studios. This space is huge. Class started with warm-up which got your blood flowing. Warmup included pushups so grab floor mat if not keen on doing them on hard wooden floor. Dance class was tough. Prior dance experience is needed. You don't have to be a professional but need to be able to pick-up choreography quick. Sometimes you will learn (2) 8 counts together and then move on very quickly. The style of dance seemed like Jazz, Theater and Pop. I liked it but I usually dance hip-hop, latin or African. It was a change of pace but Julia made it super fun. With this particular routine there was a plank portion, I skipped it because I just didn feel like it. Julia prepared me that the routine did include this in an 8 count. I just added some bodyrolls and called it a day. Most of the people in class seemed to be regulars. Everyone was friendly. After 44 mins of dancing, we finished with some toning that included an arm song. After putting light weights down, Julia stretched us to the max. THANK GOODNESS I would come back and groove some more. I honestly just wanted to delay working on a memo so thats why I signed up on Class Pass at last minute.

This theatre is a welcome alternative to its larger-scale counterparts in the Loop. It is smaller…read moreand newer, so it has modern amenities, for whatever it lacks in old-school grandeur. Location is excellent, right next to/under Water Tower Place. Please be aware that parking underneath this building is feasible, but only a few doors are open at Water Tower Place after hours, and there are no signs or pieces of helpful info to alert you to this. It gets a bit crowded, nothing serious, but I think I went to a show on a night when few people had any spatial awareness...you say "excuse me" and nobody sees fit to move...weird! The bar lines seemed pretty long, but the bathroom lines were quick. There are multiple entrances to the women's bathroom, so it was a bit of an awkward "zipper merge" that we all laughed about, but this could've been planned better. None of that is enough to take stars away, because the overall experience is amazing. While watching Titanique (a hilarious, unhinged, brilliant parody-style musical), my friend and I found our seats comfortable and with easy sight lines. We are both very short, but our view was not blocked one bit! The stadium seating here is very intentionally done, so it's hard have a bad view. When you're short, it is rare to have this, so I really appreciated it. Also, the theatre is small enough, so even from "far away," you still feel close to the action!

Fabulous theatre we discovered quite by accident. We had a few hours to spare and discovered this…read moretheatre had a few seats for its showing of Titanique. This is not a huge theatre, but we found it the perfect size with all seats accessible and modern. The full bar up front and the welcoming staff here were also much appreciated. Highly recommend this theater for all.

I took a salsa class here with a friend & we loved it! It was a small group, but the perfect amount…read morefor the group and combo work we did throughout the hour. The instructor was so helpful throughout the class, and kept those good vibes going! I thoroughly enjoyed the pace of the class, and appreciated the amazing fellow students who were our leads throughout class - an incredible experience & workout - we will be back!

Super energetic instructor for the Hip Hop Choreo class I took, love that different levels can…read moreparticipate, intimate group setting, felt so comfortable. Learned new steps!

I've been a member of Life Time Fitness for several years now and I have to say this location is…read more.. interesting. Located on the 9th floor of the One Chicago building near Magnificent Mile. To gain access into the club you can either walk in from the main lobby floor of One Chicago and take the elevator up to the 9th floor and that's where the club entrance is. There's only two elevators, during rush hour times there is often a line just to go up or down. You could take the stairs but who wants to climb 9 levels? That alone is a workout! Once you're inside the club there's 2 floor levels. The first floor has the check-in lobby, cafe, bar, locker rooms, rooftop pool and spa. The second level has all the workout equipment, cardio, and studio rooms for workout classes. I wasn't a big fan of the layout, it's kind of all over the place. Got a chance to take a Warrior Sculpt class with Taylor and it was awesome! One of the best sculpt classes I've ever had. I've seen some reviews complain about issues with the staff being rude but I honestly did not encounter any of that. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Oh and one last thing! This Life Time is open 24 hours! That's something I've never seen before, not even in NYC. That's a major win.

I don't write reviews lightly, especially negative ones, but this location deserves honest…read morefeedback. I've been a Life Time member on and off since I was a kid, starting in the suburbs of Houston. I've belonged in multiple cities, used LifeWork spaces, spent thousands per year on personal training, and countless dollars on spa services. By any definition, I'm a high-utilization, loyal customer and a genuine fan of the brand. The Chicago River North location is the biggest disappointment I've had with Life Time. From the start, the experience was poor. When I first toured before relocating to Chicago, the front desk manager rushed me through the building as if it were on fire--no real explanation, no attempt to sell the experience, no hospitality. That should have been a warning sign. Within my first two visits, I had two items stolen: A $370 pair of Sony in-ear headphones (gone after stepping away for under five minutes to get water) A $225 Canada Goose toque, taken from a bench while I briefly stepped on the scale These were not misplaced--they were stolen. That speaks volumes about the environment and lack of oversight. Beyond that, the club is consistently overcrowded, dirty, and disorganized, and staff interactions are largely unhelpful. For a gym positioned as a premium urban location, it simply does not meet the standard Life Time sets elsewhere. The spa experience is especially underwhelming. At Houston locations like Green Street and The Woodlands, you're greeted, given robes and slippers, sometimes offered a beverage, and allowed to change in a calm, elevated environment. River North offers none of that. It feels far closer to a Massage Envy than the resort-style experience Life Time markets and charges for. The final straw: when I called to cancel and asked to speak with the General Manager to share feedback, my membership was canceled before anyone reached out, asked what went wrong, or attempted to retain me. For a brand built on experience and loyalty, that was shocking. I've now joined Equinox--something I didn't want to do, as it's not a full-service gym--but this location left me no choice. Life Time is a great brand. This location is not. If you're considering River North, manage your expectations--or look elsewhere.

Even though I knew this Nutcracker ballet version had been revised to occur in the 1930s Chicago…read moreworld fair, I was unprepared for the lack of fantasy and beauty and elegance that is central to the theme of Nutcracker. The entire set was cheap card tables and chipped furniture, a nutcracker doll that was barely visible and with little explanation as to why it changed hands among the performers- who danced in raggedy clothing, maybe one actual tutu for five minutes(?). There was very little actual ballet that I could ascertain, leaving me with impression that a lot of the performers were on holiday. It's really unfortunate that something so beautiful could be made into a somewhat depressing and largely incoherent show. So many people who come to see this I'm sure would normally be inspired to come back for a different show, but this performance so much missed the mark for what should be an upbeat holiday, I'm not inclined to take the risk

We saw Midsummer Night's Dream by the Joffrey Ballet at the Lyric Opera and, no, this is not a…read moreversion of the William Shakespeare play, but choreographed by Alexander Ekman. We also saw this when it premiered in 2018. It is a celebration of the summer solstice and Scandinavian traditions. In my opinion it is a mashup of Midsommar and Cirque du Soleil if you substitute the acrobats and contortionists with dancers and Swedish elders being pushed off a cliff with lifelike mannequins thrown from a floating table. It opens with a man in bed being woken by his alarm on Friday, June 21 and a woman greets him with hay? straw? And they join into a crazy scene of people throwing hay? straw? with the hay soaring in graceful arcs across the stage. There are frenzied dances, a large dining table that soars into the sky, and comedic bits. After intermission things get wild, with fish falling from the sky, people falling from the sky, a naked chef and more frenzied dancing, with an echo back to the hay throwing. There is a beautiful singer, Anna von Hausswolff, with a soaring, haunting voice, is she dressed like Elsa from Frozen or hair like cousin It? The singer and the wonderful music by Mikael Karlsson and the wonderful musicians make this an otherworldly fable. And the clock fast forwards to June 21 of the next year and it begins again. Is this a dream? Unfortunately this was the final performance of this run.

I've attended drop in salsa classes for the past 3 weeks and I LOVE IT. The energy is amazing…read more Micheal Angelo (the instructor) breaks it down in a way that's very easy to understand. Great classes for people of all levels.

I love going in i love the energy you feel and all the people you get to meet they teach you step…read moreby step