Dance maestra Nan Giordano

Indefatigable after 40 years at the helm of Giordano Dance Chicago, Nan Giordano continues to advance the legacy of her father, jazz-dance pioneer Gus Giordano.

Nan Giordano says she’s blessed with a high level of energy — energy that enables her to dance, mentor dancers and produce performances, but also to run the business side of an arts organization and manage its budget.

As the artistic director and leader of nonprofit dance company Giordano Dance Chicago, she’s continuing the legacy of her late father, Gus Giordano. Known across the country among dancers and dance fans for developing the Giordano jazz-dance technique, he popularized jazz dance and led a critically acclaimed dance company. Nan Giordano is continuing that legacy while adding her own dynamism.

The company celebrated 40 years of her tenure as artistic director of Giordano Dance Chicago when its new season opened July 1. While the “artistic director” title suggests freedom to focus on creativity, she says the job encompasses much more.

“I do it all, from speaking with funders, working with our day of giving, talking to agents, planning performances, and my own teaching schedule,” Giordano says.

Those efforts come to fruition when an audience is sitting in a darkened theater, the beat of jazzy music starts, the curtain goes up and an array of lights in bright colors beams on Giordano company members as they glide, leap and turn with joyous energy: solo, in pairs and in a complete ensemble, having so much fun that audiene members find yourself beaming.

“I want people to leave exhilarated,” she says. “I don’t care if they know how much work it took, but I want them to feel wonderful.”

The main dance company has 10 dancers, who go on tour; the second company, Giordano II, has six, for a total of 16 dancers. They perform two shows a year at Chicago’s Harris Theater and this year will also be at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, the Gorton Center in Lake Forest and other venues.

The company members have toured in 28 countries. They teach classes in the Chicago Public Schools, do outreach activities and strive continuously to improve their dance skills.

On top of that, Giordano, along with associate artistic director Cesar Salinas, runs the Nan Giordano Certification Program, which certifies dance teachers, whether at universities or dance studios, in the Giordano technique.

Giordano codified her father’s technique on paper with dance notation so that Giordano Dance Chicago could teach it in the certification program, which has five levels. Those who take it can choose how many they wish to get certified in.

“It’s giving teachers tools to integrate into their programs,” she says.

She describes the Giordano technique as radiating from the core and pelvis outward. It’s grounded, with knees bent so they’re lower to the floor. From the waist up, however, the body is elongated. “It’s an interesting contrast — a grounded bottom half and elongated torso. It’s very regal from the waist up,” Giordano says. “It’s very athletic and very strong, and emotion is crucial. Athletic and sensual, those are kind of the key components.”

Salinas, who started as a dancer with the company under Gus Giordano at age 19, recently turned 40 and is still with the company, though now as associate artistic director.

“Nan pushes the envelope of dance,” he says. “She’s a creator of energy. She’s an educator, she has fostered the careers and lives of so many young dancers, and she continues to bring exciting choreographers to the stage. She has curated so many different voices in dance.”

And, he says, she still teaches.

“When she’s teaching, she’s very ‘on’ and gives 110%,” Salinas says. “She has a beautiful way of transmitting information from student to student and from her to student. She’s got so much style and presence.”

Giordano’s father had a lot to do with that. A child of Italian immigrants, he got a college education and became a much-admired leader and innovator in the world of dance and arts.

After Giordano’s grandparents came to the United States from Palermo and her grandfather opened a tavern on “The Hill,” an Italian area in St. Louis, their younger son, August Thomas “Gus” Giordano III, was born in 1923. He served in World War II and then went to the University of Missouri on the GI Bill, majoring in English and dance.

“He had a cousin in New Orleans that happened to be a dancer, so he went there, was introduced to jazz-music energy and saw dancers on the street. So, it was the influence of New Orleans,” Giordano says.

“My grandparents were very, perhaps, lower middle class, they spoke broken English, and my dad, I don’t really know how, he was very different than everyone else,” she muses.

Gus won a film camera in a contest when he was a teen, and started making silent films that were very creative, so he was “kind of the golden boy.”

“He was just very different than the rest of the family and they embraced it,” she says. “He was a visionary.”

She speculates that because Gus sold popcorn at the movie theater next door to his father’s tavern on The Hill, he was able to see the production-extravaganza movies of that era, with their big dance numbers.

“My father was a humble man who dedicated his life to elevating jazz dance as an art form,” she says.

Gus married Peg, who was mostly of Irish heritage with a touch of German, and they had two sons, followed by Nan and then another daughter.

“My dad and I were extremely close,” she reminisces. “We did so much together. I got to go out with my dad while he did master teaching. We were in Germany; we toured when I was a young dancer. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Giordano’s next move is to create a permanent home for the dance company. A generous donor bought them a former church building, Hermon Baptist Church on Clark Street in Lincoln Park, but with its sanctuary and raked floors, it’s not suitable for dancing.

She intends to have it torn down and build a new studio, rehearsal rooms and office space for Giordano Dance on the site. The city of Chicago has provided a grant and the company is in the midst of a capital campaign.

“We deserve a home,” she asserts, noting an architect and builder have designed “something not so extravagant so it can actually get done.”

In the meantime, the company continues rehearsing out of Ruth Page Center for the Arts on the Near North Side.

Giordano has been involved in running the dance company for 40 years, and though she acknowledges it’s a lot of work, she plans to continue.

“I’m very inspired, and I have no plan of retiring anytime soon,” she says. “I’ll always be involved somewhere in the dance world.”

The above appears in the August 2024 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.