Photo: Steven Caras
As the name professes, this all-male ensemble has street cred aplenty, especially on the major thoroughfares of Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard. Flashy moves and flawless technique have earned the Bad Boys accolades from across the high-profile entertainment spectrum, from competitive TV dance shows to Carnegie Hall, sharing bills with the likes of Lady Gaga and Elton John. Read the rest of this entry »
"Bells" rehearsal with Victoria Jaiani/Photo: Herbert Migdoll
RECOMMENDED
The Joffrey follows their winter narrative comedy of errors with a springtime plunge into the psyche. The rising stars in this case are Edwaard Liang, Julia Adam—both of whom have choreographed for the company before—and Yuri Possokhov, who makes his choreographic debut. By coincidence or design, both Liang and Adam explore the world of dreams, the former on a mass scale, the latter on the individual. Liang has been inspired by cultural consciousness before; his beautiful and strange 2008 “Age of Innocence” was about gender hierarchy and repression in the Victorian era. This piece, entitled “Woven Dreams,” is set to string pieces by Ravel, Britten, Galasso and Gorecki and abstractly pursues the collective consciousness. In “Night” Adam is content with following just one dreamer through her subconscious landscape, good and bad. Possokhov splits the dream worlds with “Bells,” a romantic, five-movement piece set to Rachmaninov’s 2nd. (Sharon Hoyer)
At the Auditorium Theatre, 50 East Congress, (800)982-2787. May 4-15, $25-145.
Here’s the press release from Joffrey Ballet:
THE JOFFREY BALLET ANNOUNCES ITS PREMIERE-PACKED 2011-2012 SEASON, NEW GENERATION
Season to feature the Joffrey Premiere of Possokhov’s Don Quixote; two mixed repertory programs, one showcasing a U.S. Premiere by McGregor and a Joffrey Premiere by Forsythe, the other featuring a World Premiere by Caniparoli; plus, the return of America’s #1 Nutcracker
CHICAGO —Ashley C. Wheater, Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet, is proud to announce the company’s 2011-2012 season, titled New Generation, which will launch with a Joffrey Premiere, the evening-length Don Quixote by Yuri Possokhov, October 12 – 23, 2011, followed by the timeless holiday classic, Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker, December 8 – 27, 2011. In the new year, The Joffrey will present two mixed repertory programs, first featuring the U.S. Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Infra along with the Joffrey Premiere of William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, February 15 – 26, 2012. The spring mixed rep program will feature a World Premiere by Val Caniparoli along with the return of Edwaard Liang’s Age of Innocence and Jerome Robbins’ In the Night, April 25 – May 6, 2012. Read the rest of this entry »
Ronald Hynd with Fabrice Calmels & Valerie Robin in rehearsal/Photo: Herbert Migdoll
The first time a ballet company rehearses in costume, particularly if those costumes are lavish, late-nineteenth-century evening dress, is a great day to be a fly on the studio wall. While tugging at bustiers, flourishing capes, flashing garters to the mirror and general horsing around with top hats and canes, the dancers begin to truly inhabit their characters. And character provides the fluttering heartbeat of the Joffrey’s current production: Ronald Hynd’s 1975 comic ballet “The Merry Widow.” It’s a company premiere for the Joffrey, who have had the fortune to work with John Meehan, the principal dancer in the original production, and now the 80-year-old Hynd in the week before opening night.
The story originated as a turn-of-the-century operetta by Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehar. The action, comprised of intertwining romances, flirtations, infidelities and jealousy-fueled fisticuffs seems as ripe for adaptation into theater or a Jean Renoir film as an evening-length ballet. I sat in on a rehearsal of Act III, when the multiple storylines established in the first two acts intersect at a grand ball and comedic chaos ensues. Hynd’s translation of comedy of manners into formal choreography is remarkably nimble and spirited; he carries on a witty physical conversation with the score (adapted from the original by John Lanchbery), so the dancers move directly to the whims and moods of the music, performing their lighthearted farce like marionettes. Read the rest of this entry »
As the economy slowly lifts us back to our feet and we look around, we see a remarkable sight: a performance industry in Chicago that survived the worst recession since the Great Depression wholly intact. Sure, we had a few brushes with death, and no doubt a few very small, very new theater companies threw in the towel, as they do even in good years, but unlike many other cities across the country, we’re in pretty good shape. How good? The League of Chicago Theatres issued a press release last week proclaiming our town as America’s theater leader, with more than 250 professional theaters, including four Regional Tony Award winners, and a combined annual budget of $250 million serving five million audience members. Add in our thriving dance community, a comedy scene that’s the envy of the nation and two world-class opera companies and you’d have to say we’re doing pretty damn good. But neither the economy nor any cultural organization is fully out of the water yet, and the dramatic uncertainty injected into the political sea by Mayor Daley’s decision to call it a day means Chicago’s performance community will need some steady hands at the wheel these next few years. Accordingly, for this edition of The Players, we’ve broadened our horizon and taken a closer-than-ever look at the individuals in charge of the financial fitness of our local institutions. Read the rest of this entry »
Krapp's Last Tape/Photo: Liz Lauren
Top 5 Shows
“The Brother/Sister Plays,” Steppenwolf
“August: Osage County,” Broadway In Chicago
“Hughie”/”Krapp’s Last Tape,” Goodman
“1001,” Collaboraction
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Steppenwolf
—Brian Hieggelke
Top 5 Play Revivals
“A Streetcar Named Desire,” Writers’ Theatre
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Steppenwolf
“To Kill a Mockingbird,” Steppenwolf Young Adult
“Private Lives,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater
“After the Fall,” Eclipse Theatre
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Performances
Brian Dennehy, “Hughie”/”Krapp’s Last Tape,” Goodman
Karen Janes Woditsch, “To Master the Art,” TimeLine
Tracy Letts, “American Buffalo,” Steppenwolf
Amy Morton, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Steppenwolf
Mary Beth Fisher, “Seagull,” Goodman
—Brian Hieggelke
Ricardo Santos/Photo: Herbert Migdoll
RECOMMENDED
The Tchaikovsky holiday confection is so gooey sweet that many dance cognoscente view it much the way theater aficionados view productions of “A Christmas Carol.” Thankfully, the late Robert Joffrey did not share that view. As a choreographer, Joffrey came to “The Nutcracker” rather late, offering the premiere of his “American” slant on the ballet for what turned out to be the last Christmas of his life, in 1987.
Once the ballet company that bears Joffrey’s name made Chicago its home in 1995, it was inevitable that Joffrey’s particular conception of the work would make its way into the already crowded local “Nutcracker” marketplace. At that point in time, the Ruth Page “Nutcracker” had held sway here since 1965, but ceased in 1997, six years after Page’s death.
In the decade and a half that Joffrey’s “Nutcracker” has been presented in Chicago, however, it has emerged as the definitive version. For most of those years, Joffrey’s partner and company co-founder Gerald Arpino lovingly looked after Joffrey’s vision until his death in 2008, and the details and choreography of both Joffrey and Arpino are carefully preserved in the current production. Read the rest of this entry »
Stravinsky Violin Concerto rehearsal/Photo: Herbert Migdoll
A spacious, sun-lit studio in the Joffrey Tower hums with activity. A pianist hammers repeatedly through a few bars of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D, the solo violinist tuning and the musical director flipping through pages nearby. A few dancers do the same, lightly marking steps, eyes intent on their piece of mirror. The photographer from the Trib who rode up in the elevator with me situates himself near a visiting artist from Milwaukee who sits in a corner, sketching. Ashley Wheater, the artistic director, walks about, conferring with soloists and musicians, then draws everyone’s attention and rehearsal begins.
This morning, the company is working on George Balanchine’s “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” part of its Fall “All Stars” program—a tribute to New York City Ballet legends. The opening Toccata section of “Stravinsky” is vibrant and painterly: dancers enter and exit in groups of five, building to a grand ensemble finish to the movement, the shapes they trace through space giving a strikingly literal visual shape to the rigorous, intricate strokes in the score. Two duet sections follow, the first an angular, modernist pas de deux peppered with isolations and distorted motions accenting aural dissonances. The second is more lyrical, tender and danced by three different couples throughout the ten-performance run. Read the rest of this entry »
"Crossed"/Photo: Herbert Migdoll
RECOMMENDED
With such regular fare as “The Nutcracker” and “Cinderella,” it’s easy to forget that the Joffrey has built its reputation as a contemporary ballet company, one likely to lead audiences into reconsideration of the increasingly flimsy boundaries between dance’s genres. With “Eclectica,” a three-piece repertory now at the Auditorium, we can report that the conversation between ballet and contemporary dance is healthier than ever at Joffrey.
Opener “Reflections” is signature Joffrey work. This 40-year-old creation of co-founder Gerald Arpino (which, in a nice symmetry, had its world premiere in 1971 at this very same theater, though the company was then decades away from moving to Chicago) is stripped-down, simple beauty—dance at its essence. Just a cello and piano, playing Tchaikovsky’s beautiful “Variations on a Rococo Theme” for Violinocello and Orchestra, op. 33, and dancers conducting a master lesson in why ballet is such a beautiful art form.
But young choreographer Jessica Lang’s world premiere, “Crossed,” is the showstopper. Read the rest of this entry »
"Crossed" rehearsal/Photo: Herbert Migdoll
Choreographer Jessica Lang may be young, but she has created works for the most prominent ballet companies across the U.S., including American Ballet Theatre. This weekend, her new work “Crossed” opens alongside a world premiere by James Kudelka, former artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, and a revival of Gerald Arpino’s “Reflections” as part of the Joffrey’s spring program. This is her first commission from the Joffrey Ballet.
Can you tell me about your inspiration for “Crossed”?
Inspiration came from an idea for the set. I was drawing, thinking about what you could do in the theater space. I drew a vertical panel and a horizontal panel, forming the shape of a cross. It’s a very simple pattern; physically I can make that shape over and over again and be inventive with that idea of crossing. For music, I went with music that was written for the church: portions of Mozart’s Mass in C and some of des Prez and Handel’s music. Read the rest of this entry »
