"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 »

The Joffrey Ballet’s return of Sir Frederick Ashton’s “Cinderella” is well danced but lacks magic. First performed by the company in 2006, this retelling of the classic never gets as dark as the original source material and never gets as frothy and bright as more modern adaptations. The talents of the stepsisters are much appreciated exceptions: hilarious brawling divas so specific in their detail that the fact they are played by men becomes secondary to their comedic ability. Thankfully they dominate a bulk of the ballet. It isn’t until the end of the first act that Joffrey’s female corps takes the stage as fairies and stars and the audience gets a real taste of the magic this company is capable of. When a dozen or so of these remarkable women perfectly execute the quick, intricate formations the power is breathtaking. In act two, the men get a chance to show off their virtuosity at the ball. But these moments aren’t enough to keep the ballet from dragging, and the spectacle (like the rest of the production) is not nearly as exciting as the anticipation it evokes. (William Scott)

At the Auditorium Theater, 50 E. Congress Pkwy, (312)902-1500. Through February 28. $25-$145.

Mauro Villanueva and Victoria Jaiani/Photo: Herbert Migdoll

RECOMMENDED

The Joffrey Ballet stays true to Sir Frederick Ashton’s definitive version of the world’s best-known fairy tale with plenty of frills and spectacle, including a life-sized pumpkin coach. The wicked stepsisters, played by men, lend a slapstick edge to the saccharine tale. Wendy Ellis Somes, a former dancer with the Royal Ballet, staged this production for the Joffrey, ensuring the piece, already familiar to the Joffrey, resonates with the grace and charm of the original, first produced in 1948, restaged in ‘65. Score by Prokofiev, splendorous sets—this one is for lovers of the classics. (Sharon Hoyer)

At the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E Congress Pkwy, (800)982-2787. February 17-28, $25-145.

Top 5 Shows
“Desire Under the Elms,” Goodman
“Blackbird,” Victory Gardens
“South Pacific,” Lincoln Center Theater
“The Tempest,” Steppenwolf
“Spring Awakening,” Broadway In Chicago 
—Brian Hieggelke

Top 5 Shows
“The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,” Victory Gardens/Teatro Vista
“An Apology For the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening,” Theater Oobleck
“The Pillowman,” Redtwist
“Frat,” The New Colony
“Red Noses,” Strawdog
—Nina Metz Read the rest of this entry »

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's "Extremely Close"/Photo: Todd Rosenberg

By Brian Hieggelke

Dance exploded in the zeroes, fueled on by successful transitions at major establishments and the opening of significant new venues. Any consideration of dance in Chicago starts with our world-renowned homegrown company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC), which commenced the decade with the transition in its artistic leadership from Lou Conte, who’d founded the group in 1977 and built it into one of the city’s leading cultural exports, to Jim Vincent. Vincent didn’t miss a beat, building on Conte’s foundation, and greatly expanding the company’s formerly rather limited performance presence in its hometown by expanding to quarterly Chicago engagements, thanks in part to the opening of the perfectly sized Harris Theater for Music and Dance in November 2003. By 2008, HSDC had grown to a seven-million-dollar operating budget and Vincent himself was moving on, returning to the Nederlands Dans Theater, where he’d spent much of his career as a performer, passing the artistic reins at HSDC to his former associate, Glenn Edgerton.

Meanwhile, Chicago’s national reputation as a dance center was being augmented by its resuscitation of the esteemed Joffrey Ballet, which, in a state of financial crisis in the mid-nineties, had thrown something of a Hail Mary pass by departing the nation’s cultural capital of New York to see if it could make it in Chicago (it had long been extremely successful here on its tours, a tradition mirrored today by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which sold a whopping 14,416 tickets to its annual engagement at the Auditorium Theatre in 2009). Make it here it did, and by the dawn of this decade, it had established itself as a pillar of Chicago’s cultural community, even becoming the subject of a Robert Altman film, “The Company,” in 2003. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Herbert Migdoll

RECOMMENDED

The first snowfall descends on Chicago, bringing with it the reality of the approaching holiday season and a hearty craving for diversions, rich foods and elaborate sweets. Enter the Joffrey’s annual sugar-encrusted treat, a Baroque construction of eye candy replete with children’s choruses, puppetry, the Chicago Sinfonietta, an immense Christmas tree on hydraulics, well over 100 young dancers and the entire Joffrey company dripping with frosting and lace. Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino’s vision of the European holiday standard injects Tchaikovsky’s most famous work with some good old-fashioned twentieth-century American athleticism. The divertissement is a mounting parade of jaw-dropping feats of flexibility and acrobatics—a healthy balance to the many hours of equally impressive physicality presented by the NFL you’re sure to gape at in the coming weeks. (Sharon Hoyer)

At the Auditorium Theater, 50 E Congress Parkway, (312)739-0120. December 11-27. $25-$100.

RECOMMENDED

It has been quite some time since Joffrey Ballet gave Chicago a full-length narrative ballet, but the company opens its new season with the premiere of  Lar Lubovitch’s “Othello.” The story of the ill-fated Venetian general dates back well before Shakespeare’s telling to Giraldo Cintio’s original legend published in 1566.  Lubovitch’s adaptation uses strong moving images to paint an impression of the classic tale with a definite modern brush. This rendering of these characters gives the Joffrey dancers the opportunity to  show exactly why they are known for elegance, grace, power, strength and athleticism. Desdemona is light and lovely and heartbreakingly tragic in her final moments as danced by April Daly. Fabrice Calmel’s Othello is a masculine presence commanding the stage. Though Lubovitch’s choreography  infuses a contemporary aesthetic into the classical, I must admit that at times the modern movement feels forced when he works with a single dancer or a group.  However, none of that matters when he turns his attention to amazingly crafted duets. Dance after dance, when Lubovitch works with two dancers magic happens; he creates movement that flows from a deeply rooted tradition and wakes it up. Iago (Matthew Adamczyk) and his wife Emilia (Valerie Robin) embody this meeting of styles in angular and angry moments of dance that transcend everything else in this already powerful ballet.  (William Scott)

At the Auditorium Theater, 50 E. Congress Pkwy, (312)902-1500. Through October 25. $25-$145.

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company/Photo: Todd Rosenberg

RECOMMENDED

No matter how endlessly dismal the winters, you’ve really gotta love Chicago in the summertime; it seems like every band, dance company and arts organization in town plays the Pritzker Pavilion at least once, sometimes two or three times, gratis. Wander past that bandshell resembling a giant space insect sprung from the mind of Frank Gehry any time of any day and you’ll either catch a show or see the setup and rehearsal for a show to come. Even the Harris Theater has joined in the populist sentiment, hosting free “ticketed” performances of music and dance throughout the season. The mood is vibrant; Millennium Park has become the omphalos of the city’s summertime cultural programming and a remarkably successful use of downtown public space.

Next week, the park hosts the third annual Chicago Dancing Festival—four all-you-can-eat days of free performances by sixteen companies from across the United States. Tuesday at the Harris, catch River North, the Oregon Ballet Theatre, Aszure Barton & Artists and the Joffrey Ballet performing newish works by young, emerging choreographers. If you favor time-tested choreography, hold out till Thursday and see some phenomenal companies brandish the precious gems of their repertory in “Modern Masters”: Aspen Santa Fe Ballet do Forsythe, New York City Ballet do Wheeldon and Luna Negra, Limón. Read the rest of this entry »

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, whose current artistic director Jim Vincent is leaving to take the helm at Nederlands Dans Theater, has appointed Glenn Edgerton, a former artistic director of the same Dutch company to take his place. And if you’re wondering what’s so great about about NDT, it just so happens that they’re performing in Chicago next week at Auditorium Theatre.

Here’s the press release from Hubbard Street:

GLENN EDGERTON APPOINTED AS THE THIRD ARTISTIC DIRECTOR IN HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO’S 32-YEAR HISTORY

Nation’s Foremost Contemporary Dance Repertory Company to be led by Former Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans Theater I

CHICAGO – June 10, 2009 – Today, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) announced the appointment of internationally renowned artistic leader and dancer, Glenn Edgerton, to the role of artistic director.  Edgerton’s appointment results from an international search conducted by the board during the last several months following the announcement of the departure this summer of Jim Vincent, HSDC’s artistic director of nine years.

Edgerton, 49, brings over 30 years of experience working with the great dance institutions of the world including the Nederlands Dans Theater, The Colburn School of Performing Arts and The Joffrey Ballet. Read the rest of this entry »

Victoria Jaiani and Fabrice Calmels/Photo: Cheryl Mann

RECOMMENDED

As the winds grow warmer and trees burst into flower, the Joffrey season closes on an appropriately romantic note; the Spring Program is comprised of four works about love—a theme broad enough to leave room for a diverse program and one I hope will exploit the versatility of the Joffrey dancers as successfully as their previous performance (in which the company seamlessly shifted between a minimalist acrobatic pas de trois based on Calder mobiles, the reconstruction of Nijinsky’s riot-inducing “Le Sacre du Printemps” and a blithe, lighthearted number by Gerald Arpino, former artistic director of the Joffrey). The tribute to Arpino—who passed away last year—continues with an uncharacteristically somber piece: “Ronde d’Anges,” about the parting of lovers at death. The celebration of the Ballet Russe centennial concludes with “Les Noces,” an ensemble piece choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, Vaslav Nijinsky’s sister. Also on the program is “Valses Poeticos,” a tender duet originally choreographed by Helgi Tomasson (AD of the phenomenal San Francisco Ballet) for Ashley Wheater, Arpino’s capable successor. The headlining piece is the Joffrey premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s work set to the score of the musical “Carousel.” (Sharon Hoyer)

At the Auditorium Theater, 50 E. Congress Pkwy, (312)902-1500. May 1-3 and 8-10. $25-$145.