Buffalo Grove dancer brings her show home

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Lindsey Kelley (left), and Mindy Upin add humor to their dance performances. | Photo by David Brewer

‘The Ratio of Mindsey to
Kelpin’

Links Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield Ave., Suite 207, Chicago

8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10-Saturday, Feb. 11 and 7 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12

Seating is limited

$20, $12 for students and seniors

See www.eventbrite.com

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Updated: February 3, 2012 9:48AM

New York dancer and Buffalo Grove native Mindy Upin returns to Chicago next week to perform her very own show.

Described by friends as an electric dancer with a spontaneous and sometimes spicy style, Upin joins friend Lindsey Kelley for a performance of “The Ratio of Mindsey to Kelpin.”

The show is scheduled for 8 p.m. both Friday, Feb. 10 and Saturday, Feb. 11 and at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12 at Links Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield Ave., Suite 207, Chicago. Seating is limited.

“The show is a full evening of our work, solos and duets that we’ve choreographed,” Upin said. “Mainly, it’s a celebration of our friendship, our passion and good fortune to do what we love and share what we love.”

Currently the rehearsal director for the Steps on Broadway Ensemble in New York City, Upin, 28, also teaches weekly ballet classes to children at the McCarton Center for Developmental Pediatrics, does administrative work for the theatrical production company, Shotgun Productions, while babysitting weekly to support herself while living in Astoria, Queens, N.Y.

New York start

After graduating with a dance degree from the University of Illinois, Upin packed her suitcases and moved to New York City in search of new opportunity and maybe even fame. There, she studied dance with some of the nation’s finest choreographers, dabbled in musical theater, auditioned at a variety of off Broadway productions then discovered Steps on Broadway Repertoire where she met Kelley. Their friendship blossomed into what would later become an entire dance performance.

Upin describes the twosome as “goofy ladies” who find a way to use comedy and dance to make the audience laugh throughout the show.

“We enjoy humor but we remain tethered to the integrity and honesty in our movements,” Upin said, who discovered her passion for ballet at the tender age of 8 when her mother, a dancer herself, took her to see Hubbard Street Dance perform at Ravinia.

She went on to study ballet and modern dance for two decades, performing at Stevenson High School then college and now New York.

She shares her passion for dance with Kelley, who also trained in ballet in her native Florida before traveling to New York and now her new home in Asheville, N.C. The friends created the show that celebrates their friendship while enabling them to continue to dance together despite the distance.

Friends in dance

“It’s a tribute and reflection of the relationship,” Upin said of the show.

The two dancers have traveled throughout the U.S. teaching and now touring with their show. Their boyfriends, Upin’s a horticulturist, and Kelley’s, a chef, have been supportive, she said.

“My boyfriend said, ‘you’re kind of a Black Swan,’ because we take it so intensely, but this is our life,” Upin explained of the parallel to the recent movie. She remembers how she cried with the Black Swan during the movie, just as she did in high school when she was awarded a key dance role. “I called my mom, too, with such a feeling of pride. It still happens now. I’m really proud of myself.”

She’s been called a fierce powerhouse, she said, despite being barely 5’1, while Kelley is tall and long according to Upin, “moves like liquid and is wonderful to watch.”

With seven pieces in the performance, the show runs one hour with some dialogue woven into the modern dance routines.

“It’s a nice mix of humor, thoughtfulness, modern dancing to full out technical jazz,” Upin said.

For more information on the dancers, visit www.mindyupin.com or www.lindseykelley.com.