An old master in a new frame.

Chicago celebrated the Merce Cunningham company's fiftieth anniversary by opening a new dance theater. That's an overstatement, but only slightly: Two Cunningham concerts were the first full-length dance performances in the long-awaited, $52.7-million Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The Dance Center of Columbia College supplemented the concerts with the first American symposium on the choreographer's work in nearly fifteen years.

The theater opening was an event because proposals for a midsized downtown venue for music and dance companies, comparable to New York City's Joyce Theater, had been floated since the early 1990s. Scheme after scheme fell through, so before the Harris was built a number of potential renters had already made other arrangements: the Dance Center opened a new downtown space, while The Joffrey Ballet began seeking a home of its own. But both troupes remained affiliated with the project, as did Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ballet Chicago, and Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, and fine 1500-seat Harris opened November 7 with an all-company gala. Of the dance constituents, all but Ballet Chicago will perform there the first year, though most of the Joffrey season remains at the ranch larger Auditorium Theatre.

"A central place to play for these companies is really important from a fund-raising and audience development standpoint," says Joyce Moffatt, general manager of Music and Dance Theater Chicago Inc., who worked previously at San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and New York City Ballet. "It's the difference between City Ballet having a home at the State Theater, where they were identified with the place, and ABT playing the Met for eight weeks."

THE HARRIS is also open to nonmember companies; the inaugural season includes River North Dance Company and Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago.

The Polk Brothers Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust, which also sponsors Chicago's Dance Initiative for the development of new work, spearheaded the creation of Music and Dance Theater, Inc., the nonprofit charged with programming the space. Together, they sought music and dance companies as tenants, interested Joan and Irving Harris in giving the financial support--$15 million, plus a $24-million construction loan--that made the project possible, and secured a lease on the desirable site in the city's new lakefront Millennium Park. The Harris shares its high-profile location with a new band shell by Frank Gehry. Though not as eye-catching, the Harris boasts a dramatic glass front hung with a black-and-gold backdrop designed by Louise Nevelson.

While the lobby is unalluring, the steeply raked auditorium, occupying the three stories below, has spectacular sightlines and superb acoustics. To a presenter, the Harris provides flexibility as well as visibility. Bonnie Brooks, chairperson of the Dance Center, chose it for the Cunningham concerts because "Merce makes big work, with big drops." The two-evening program constituted an overview of the choreographer's work. "Conversations on Cunningham," which ran concurrently, included films of and discussions by scholars, collaborators, and current and former company members. The program also featured the first student-performed MinEvent, with Columbia College students prepared by Cunningham veterans Banu Ogan and Robert Swinston.