Thodos Dance Chicago Celebrates 21st Birthday at 21 Club Gala Benefit Tonight

Fans, friends and supporters of Thodos Dance Chicago, the contemporary dance company founded by Melissa Thodos, will kick up their heels at Thodos Dance Chicago's 21st Anniversary Gala 21 Club, tonight, February 2, 2013 at 6pm at the Chicago Cultural Center, Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

Kim Vatis, news anchor at Chicago's NBC5, longtime supporter of Thodos Dance Chicago, and Chair of the 21 Club Host Committee is already planning an evening themed to New York's historic restaurant and prohibition-era speakeasy, the 21 Club. Honorary Co-Chairs for the evening are Ann Reinking, the Tony Award-winning Broadway star, and frequent Thodos Dance Chicago guest artist, Gary Chryst.

Suggested dress for the evening is Black and White Cocktail. Tickets to 21 Club are $275; tables of 10 are $2,500. Purchase tickets at thodosdancechicago.org or call Thodos Dance Chicago, (312) 266-6255.

Fans of New York's 21 Club will recall that during prohibition, only insiders armed with a secret password could gain entry to the restaurant and its secret underground wine cellar. Guests will enjoy the same private privilege as they enter TDC's modern-day 21 Club, where they will encounter an exciting evening including cocktails, dinner, a silent auction, a wine roulette wheel, plus dancing late into the night to the music of Swing Assembly.

The evening will be capped with a performance by the Thodos Dance Chicago Youth Ensemble, and an exclusive sneak peek of Ann Reinking and Melissa Thodos's newest collaboration, A Light in the Dark: the Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, an intimate dance/theater piece about the extraordinary woman who was deaf and blind yet went on to become a world-famous writer, political activist and inspiration to all. A Light in the Dark- an equally powerful yet more intimate follow-up to their smash hit The White City: Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893 - will debut to the public on February 16 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, and March 2 and 3 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in downtown Chicago.