Theater & Shows in Oak Lawn

For more than 40 years, the professionally trained instructors at Celeste Dance Studio have helped students 12 and up learn to shuffle and twirl during ballroom-, Latin-, and contemporary-dance classes. Students land on their feet during tumbling classes, move to the beat during hip-hop sessions, and explore an ever-evolving art during modern-dance lessons. Ballet students don slippers and flutter through class with style and grace, while tap classes teach intrepid soft-shoers to communicate in Morse code. Specialized classes in ballet, tap, and acrobatics are also available for younger dancers ages two-and-a-half to six. Intricately choreographed dance routines are performed on stage at the studio's yearly recital. Check the schedule to see a full list of current class days and times.

Bursting with two fully equipped dance studios and a philosophy of noncompetitive learning, Dance Center of LaGrange brings skilled teachers and a miscellany of dance types to the feet of dancers both young and old. Tykes can twirl toward the 45–60 minute summer-session classes to introduce tentative toes to preballet and creative movement (ages 3–4), learning new moves and gaining confidence while composing a rhythmic symphony with their 10-toed orchestra. The Storycise class (ages 3–5) combines storytelling and exercise to produce a hybrid fitness adventure filled with heart-pumping moves and poses that spell entire novel chapters. Teens can hit up the modern/jazz class for a medley of Broadway-style shimmying, and grown-up steppers can twist into adult tap, lacing up specialty shoes to conquer rapid routines and drum out grocery lists onto the hardwood floor.

Chicago Elevated, run by effusive improv veteran Margaret Hicks, leads curious charges on eclectic group, private, and custom tours of the city. Jaunts lead natives and tourists alike through the city’s oft-overlooked nooks and crannies as Hicks’s jovial voice narrates every step, shedding light on secret areas and easily overlooked historic sites. Her pedway tour sojourns into Chicago’s tiled subterranean antecity, where retailers, restaurants, and mole people mingle. Tours explore sites of famous disasters, visit the ghostly red-light district that once stretched below what is now Printer’s Row, and gaze at downtown’s ornate architecture from the riverwalk.

Stationed in Wrigleyville after college, Hicks accrued the healthy sense of humor and comedic timing that pepper each tour at Second City, iO, and other theaters. Though she attempted a move to New York City, Hicks soon discovered she couldn’t stay away from Chicago’s majestic skyline or the skyscrapers’ subtly receding hairlines. A stint in the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s docent program, as well as acting as a tour guide for six years, arm her with insider’s knowledge that soon transfers to listeners’ brains.

The Chicago Actors Studio encourages imagination and emotional exploration as it educates aspiring thespians in the dramatic arts. With affiliates in New York and Los Angeles, the studio welcomes students of all ages and experience to hone their skills through practiced scene study and individual monologues. The 10-week Acting as a Craft class showers a broad curriculum of skills upon actors-in-training, teaching them the nuances of acting onstage, on camera, or on top of a speeding train. Classes cover cold readings, as well as the initial steps toward becoming a master manipulator of voice and movement. Students ready to share their skills can benefit from expert wisdom in the Audition Power class, where instructors teach the tiny tricks necessary to quickly build relationships with scene partners, handle callbacks, and dress appropriately for the role.

Inside Visceral Dance Center’s old brick warehouse on Elston Avenue, dancers prowl, leap, and pirouette their way to fitter frames and flawless technique. Founder and artistic director Nick Pupillo and his agile instructors lead students through steps in myriad dance styles⎯including ballet, contemporary jazz, hip-hop, modern, and movement and improvisation⎯teaching them to dance solo or perfect a waltz with their shadows. Each Visceral Dance Center instructor specializes in one or two methods of dance, and they impart their expertise to students ranging in age from 2.5 years to adulthood during weekly classes. The space also hosts performances by the training center’s progressive-house company, Visceral Dance Chicago, and the Visceral Studio Company, a group of 15 youth dancers from the greater Chicago area.

Guitar Chicago caters to music lovers of all ages by helping them achieve their melodic and rhythmic goals through relaxed, effective instrument instruction. Teachers schooled in myriad genres draw sound buckets from wells of music knowledge and performing experience in order to fortify the skills of both beginning musicians and experienced bards. Fledgling chord learners can take advantage of the school's in-house instruments for no additional charge, eliminating the risk of accidental busking when carting pianos on the bus. Ideal for hectic lifestyles, Guitar Chicago boasts flexible lesson times and easy online scheduling and is within walking distance of public transit.