Category: Dance
Review: danc(e)volve: New Works Festival (Hubbard Street Dance)
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danc(e)volve: New Works Directed by Taryn Kaschock Russell |
Review: Come Fly Away (Broadway in Chicago)
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Come Fly Away Conceived and Directed by Twyla Tharp |
Review: The Nutcracker (Joffrey Ballet)
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The Nutcracker Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky |
Review: Don Quixote (Joffrey Ballet Chicago)
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Don Quixote Choreographed by Yuri Possokhov Check for half-price tickets |
Review: Faust (TheMASSIVE at Stage 773)
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Faust Choreographed and Directed by Check for half-price tickets |
Review: War and Peace: A Dance Theater Short (Viaduct)
A scintillating evening of dance and theater
| Jim Manganello presents |
| War and Peace: A Dance Theater Short |
| Adapted and Directed by Jim Manganello Choreography by Amanda Timm and Sarah Fornace at Viaduct Theatre, 3111 N. Western Ave. (map) through May 22 | tickets: $15 | more info |
Reviewed by K.D. Hopkins
War and Peace: A Dance Theater Short is a collaboration of theater and dance companies. They are some of the best that Chicago and London across the pond offers. The result is a funny, relevant, and brilliant evening of theater. The artists and the support team hail from Redmoon, The London International School of the Performing Arts, Starkid, and Collaboraction.
Tolstoy’s novel of the aristocracy, patriotism, and Napoleonic aggression rings frighteningly true of today’s society and the conflicts the world over.
This adaptation strips the novel down to a stark set with meager props. The set is colored in by the actors and dancers in a frenzy of stage combat, graceful dance, satirical renderings of the aristocracy, and stark reminders of the cost of war.
The players in this piece are exceptional together and individually. The timing for satire is more crucial that what is needed for traditional comedy. The segment of Napoleon being bathed, fed, and dressed while in the midst of a tirade is visual poetry. Napoleon, played by Marc Frost, is rolled in on a table stuffed with his limbs out in a zinc washtub. His head is adorned with a gilded laurel crown. From there is a brilliant pantomime of scrub, rinse and powdering the mini tyrant. Frost’s nudity is covered by a perfectly timed placement of towels and bath accoutrement.
Lauren Lopez does a funny turn as an aristocratic lady mocking the advances of a suitor. The baseness and ludicrous mores of the upper crust in Napoleon’s reign is brought to glaring light. She seduces a guest with the prospect of canapés and biscuits. Ms. Lopez is one of the founding members of Starkid Theater Company and true to her bio, she prances about the stage in a sylph-like manner that is seductive and endearing.
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Blake Russell plays a patriotic young man off to war. This segment is a poignant sketch of how a family is affected by war. The youth are drawn in by an atavistic need for battle-the territorial imperative. The result is the same no matter the era when war takes its toll. Russell imparts the disillusionment and sadness of a generation whether it be 1812 or modern times.
Dustin Valenta of Redmoon among others has an impish appeal as the prologue narrator and others in the production. There is a mischievous twinkle in eye that bodes gleeful mayhem to come.
Rounding out this cast is Luke Couzens as the Russian Captain and others. He stands out in the opening combat segment after he is stabbed by Dustin Valenta‘s character. The action represents 1812 but his screaming, "You fucking stabbed me! No I’m not alright!" brings the action to present day. He is touching and funny with a young man lost appeal.
War and Peace: A Dance Theater Short is minimalist with the props, but when they are used it is for maximum impact. A hidden fan produces a funny moment and the gauze/linen draping is a wonderful representation for the frozen tundra of Russia. Look out for the table in all of its incarnations and you may reconsider your relationship with pasta after one segment.
In all, I hope that there will be more collaboration of these talented actors, dancers, puppeteers, and acrobats. They work well together and their respect for the individual craft as well as the collective has produced something wonderful. This is a short run so get out this weekend to see War and Peace: A Dance Theater Short. The Viaduct is a great space. It is fun and artistic without airs of pretentiousness. It is literally located under a viaduct at 3111 N. Western Ave. There is a laid back lobby bar where you can chill before the performance. Go see it!
| Rating: ★★★½ |
Review: Alvin Ailey Dance – Revelations (Auditorium Theatre)
Annual visit visually majestic, exquisitely visionary
| Auditorium Theatre and Blackwell Global Consulting present |
| Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater |
| at Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress (map) thru May 22 | tickets: $30-$87 | more info |
Reviewed by Katy Walsh
This show is a celebration! Having first performed in Chicago in 1969, the Alvin Ailey dance company is commemorating its 140th performance on the Auditorium Theatre stage. In addition, the annual visit by the New York based troupe marks the final season of Artistic Director Judith Jamison’s leadership. The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University and Blackwell Global Consulting present Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The limited engagement will produce six Chicago premieres during the six performance and two student matinee run. Although each show will have a different program schedule, Revelations will be the consistent finale. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater uses a spectacular combination of elegant and primitive body movement to narrate vivid folk tales.
Anointed (2010, video), choreographed by Christopher L. Huggins, illustrates the leadership change at Alvin Ailey. It’s a beautiful memoriam to founder Alvin Ailey, a stunning tribute to Judith Jamison and an exciting preface to Robert Battle. Set to music by Moby and Sean Clements, the dancing starts as an intimate coupling. Linda Celeste Sims and Jamar Roberts intertwine in fluid connectivity. Dressed in simplistic black, they are mesmerizing in a poetic union. Sims exits and Roberts has a masterful and athletic solo before his departure. It’s an inspirational heartbreaker. Sims arrives back in fuchsia and the dance continues. The music shifts to salsa-funk and the ensemble showcases innovative feats of energetic expression. Roberts returns in white as divine intervention within the chorus. The piece powerfully ends with Sims and Roberts in a reconnecting duet. As the ensemble exits the stage, the last 
dancer turns around. He joins Sims and Roberts to make the ultimate trifecta. It’s a poignant demonstration to the timeless vision. WOW!
After an intermission, The Evolution of a Secured Feminine (2007, video), choreographed by Camille A. Brown, features Rachael McLaren. The sassy McLaren exercises her inner masculine side. She confidently struts and gyrates in player style. It’s an intriguing manly exhibition that is partially performed without any sound. The illusion is enhanced with a stylish peak-a-boo suit and fedora by costume designer Carolyn Meckha Cherry. Next, The Hunt (2001, video), choreographed by the Incoming Artistic Director Robert Battle, is male bonding to music. Six male dancers are clad in long skirts. Their exposed torsos are eye-gawking sculpted art. The number is tribal and primitive with pounding drums and ritualistic gestures. The primal movements generate definite heated sensuality. Ooh-la-la!
The finale is introduced with a short film. “Revelations at 50,” produced and directed by Judy Kinberg, is a wonderful introspective of the Alvin Ailey’s 50+ year history. The founder dances and speaks with passionate conviction. It’s a perfect preface for the three phased finale: Revelations (1960, video) choreographed by Alvin Ailey. The sequence initiates with dancers dressed in natural tones for the Pilgrimage of Sorrow. The movement has an earthy groundedness that contrasts beautifully to the next section’s fluid whimsy. Take Me to the Water uses white costumes and blue silks to emphasize the spiritual cleansing. The dancing becomes joyful and uninhibited. The concluding segment, Move, Members, Move, brings the company together for a sensational culmination. The visual is a majestic pageantry of African American history rooted in its own unique, community spirit. A timeless classic devised by the founder, Revelations is an Alvin Ailey force
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is always an annual riveting spectacle. This year’s show feels particular momentous as the resigning Artistic Director Judith Jamison says farewell to Chicago. It’s a goodbye party that shouldn’t be missed.
| Rating: ★★★★ |
Alvin Ailey’s Revelations continues through May 22nd, with performances May 19-20 at 7:30pm, May 21st at 2pm and 8pm, and May 22nd at 3pm. Running times vary – see below the fold for exact timeframes. Tickets are $30-$87, and can be purchased by phone (800-982-2787) or online here. For more information, go to the Alvin Ailey tour webpage. Complete repertoires for each performance are also listed below the fold and on Alvin Ailey website. See all Alvin Ailey dance videos here.
Review: Rising Stars (Joffrey Ballet)
Joffrey Ballet sets sights forward with dream-centered showcase
| Joffrey Ballet presents |
| Rising Stars |
| By Julia Adam, Yuri Possokhov, and Edwaard Liang at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress (map) through May 15 | tickets: $25-$145 | more info |
Reviewed by Dan Jakes
By May, whatever sense of pride we Chicagoans feel for having endured another grueling, road-destroying, finger-blistering, mind-numbing winter begins to fade and 
is replaced by a mild delirium. The high season for introspective, cerebral work comes to a close–we can’t take it anymore. After the thaw, it’s time to play, not to think.
Just as nights along the lakefront are starting to become more balmy, the Joffrey Ballet presents this appropriately-timed spring offering, showcasing visceral and percussive variations on dreamscapes, sexual awakening and unbridled joy.
Works by choreographers Edwaard Liang, Julia Adam and Yuri Possokhov are prefaced with a short video introduction featuring interviews with the artists and rehearsal footage (see videos below). The stories and themes explored in their dances are pleasantly accessible and do not require blatant explanation–didacticism doesn’t appear to be the goal, though. It looks rather that artistic director Ashley C. Wheater and the Joffrey are making an attempt to enrich its audience and welcome them in to the process of a notoriously mystified art form. The effect is disarming. I found myself openly considering and accepting the individual pieces where I might otherwise have been drawn to decipher them.
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Marc Chagall’s vibrant, fantastical paintings are the inspiration for Adam’s “Night,” a so-called dance of flight. Matthew Pierce’s perceivably simple, sustained music composition adds to the piece’s sense of exploration and wonder, luring and enticing a young woman to drift, float and soar through her subconscious. Like its theme, the dance is tangential and flows delightfully from one impression-like image to the next. Dreams, literal and not, are a thread through each of the works. That idea is furthered and deepened in Liang’s grand “Woven Dreams,” set to Ravel and Michael Galasso, a large-scale work that considers and plays with the notions of malleable realities and shared-dreaming. Where Liang and Adam provide fantasy, Possokhov basks in drama. In “Bells,“ Rachmaninov underscores a series of unabashed, intensely-sexual duets (with enough conviction, apparently a thigh-slap can suddenly seem R-rated and ballet can look S&M) where relationships are born and die in the same firestorm.
| Rating: ★★★★ |
Additional videos HERE
Review: Changes (Chicago Tap Theatre)
It’s bizarre. It’s fun. It’s tap-opera!
| Chicago Tap Theatre presents |
| Changes |
| Choreographed by Mark Yonally at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont (map) through March 20 | tickets: $18-$30 | more info |
Reviewed by Barry Eitel
I’m not sure if there is a huge audience out there for “tap opera,” it’s an odd idea and it sometimes the ideas behind it conflict with each other. Chicago Tap Theatre claims to have pioneered/invented/discovered the art form, so each show, they seem to say is an experiment. To be honest, I never really thought of tap dance as a storytelling medium—it feels far better suited for the Lawrence Welk Show. But the talented dancers tapping their hearts out with CTT proved me wrong when I saw their Changes. It’s a non-verbal, all tap “opera” about alien genocide, set to the music of David Bowie. Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds.
Changes works far better than it should. A race of happy aliens is betrayed by one of their own to a race of angry, power hungry aliens. Major Tom, Bowie’s astronaut muse, rockets to the same planet, meets the afflicted inhabitants, and works on setting things straight. It’s safe to say it’s a pretty simple narrative, and one safe for children. But the innovative tap dancing adds layer and character—these folks are acting through their feet. And CTT chose a good mix of Bowie, including “Fame,” “The Man Who Sold the World” and “Starman.” The zonked-out lyrics and spacey melodies gel with the story being told. The songs actually construct and inform the story as much as the dancing. For the most part, everything fits together decently. Founders of the style, Chicago Tap knows what they’re doing.
There are several leaks in CTT’s ship. None completely derail the production, but I wouldn’t call Changes the epitome of “tap opera.” But it sure is a great experiment.
Mark Yonally’s choreography matches up with the music well most of the time, but there are several moments where the thunderous tapping overpowers Bowie’s more subtle tunes. Maybe I’m biased, but I see tap as a happy enterprise. Yonally and the dancers stretch to find dramatic weight in their tapping, and some more serious moments don’t fly. However, CTT is able to make tap far more expressive than I thought possible. Again, they’re still discovering the form.
Another problem with the show is that dancers give up their characters whenever the stepping stops. When a song fades out, they devolve into amateurish pantomimes, usually involving a lot of pointing and smiling. I know I shouldn’t expect Steppenwolf-quality acting from a show about aliens and David Bowie. But the singers don’t stop acting after their arias in real operas, why should tap opera be any different? Call me nitpicky, but having some consistency would make a big difference.
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Still, Changes is two tons of fun. It’s flashy, accessible, and short. Yet, there is some serious talent at Stage 773. Richard Ashworth’s Major Tom, especially, has some serious moves. His jerky, rolling spacewalk to “Space Oddity” is one of the best moments of the show. The simple yet effective set contains a few surprises, too.
One reason to go to Changes is just so you can say you witnessed a tap opera. I don’t know if it is the future of tap or opera. It may not be a sustainable genre, but CTT sure tries their hardest to put it out there. There’s something valiant about that. These people have a story to tell and a fascinating way to tell it—one that doesn’t rely on heavily produced projections. Instead, they use their bodies and their feet. Then there’s Bowie, who’s weird enough to glue everything together. It’s so bizarre, which is maybe why it works so well.
| Rating: ★★★ |
CTT Dancers: Christina Merrill, Jenna Deidel, Jennifer Pfaff, Kendra Jorstad, Kirsten Williams, Laura Chiuve, Molly Stoltz, Phil Brooks, Richard Ashworth, Stacy Milam
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Review: BWAAD: But What About Asian Dudes? (TheMASSIVE)
Pile-driving premiere fills stage with jubilant motion
| TheMASSIVE presents |
| BWAAD? |
| But What About Asian Dudes?: A Black Man’s Quest for Answers |
| Created and Directed by Kyle Vincent Terry at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont (map) through March 6 | tickets: $25 | more info |
Reviewed by Lawrence Bommer
More performance piece than play, this 65-minute inaugural offering by TheMASSIVE (whatever that means) is an impressive outpouring of mainly unprocessed energy and unearned emotion. Dancing up a tempest and emphatically earnest, the seven dancers in Kyle Terry’s debut show kinetically pursue a vaguely political credo of “movements through movement.” The result is some pretty contagious passion.
Their musical inspiration, pumped in as they pump up, comes from Kanye West, Selda, David Holmes, Sam Cooke, Keith Papworth, Mos Def, Flying Lotus and Gil Scott Heron. Between the driven dance pieces are snippets from interviews about racial identity and how much labels determine legitimacy in love and work. (Sometimes these unfounded and unsourced generalizations about Asian men and white women sound gratuitous and, worse, glib.) The overlapping sound makes the text occasionally hard to hear but the frenzy on stage is eloquence itself. “BWAAD?” is about true and false expectations based on skin and often anchored in ignorance or hope.
With the credo that “we steal from each other,” Terry and his troupe launch into a gleeful frenzy of inspired borrowing, illustrated by pull-down illustrations. Jarrett Kelly incarnates longing in his solo to Cooke’s “Laughin’ and Clownin,” while the ensemble spoof the vacuity of white folks with the vapid “Sunshowers” from Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band. Cavorting with back and front flips, some wizard aerobic movement, and some well-coordinated breakout jubilation, this company is combustible. They may not mean all that much but, if motion were argument, they’d win all sixteen of these dance dialogues.
| Rating: ★★★ |
- Kathryn Burrows-Big Rapids, MI
- Erin Clyne-Jacksonville, FL
- Jessica Deahr-Arlington Heights, IL
- Ricky Jamie-Miami, FL
- Jarrett Kelly-Chicago, IL
- Katy Kempen-Port Edward, WI
- Jennifer Zyrkowski-Schaumburg, IL
- Jesus Contreras
Assistant Director - Nicholas Matonich
Lighting Designer - Kyle Vincent Terry
Sound Design, Video Editing - Brittney Ortiz
Costume Design
Creator/Director Kyle Vincent Terry
Review: The Merry Widow (Joffrey Ballet Chicago)
Parisian elan, Austrian elegance, Pontevedran panache
| Joffrey Ballet presents |
| The Merry Widow |
| Written by Franz Lehar, adapted by John Lanchberry Choreographed by Ronald Hynd Conducted by Scott Speck at Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress (map) through Feb 27 | tickets: $24-$145 | more info |
Reviewed by Lawrence Bommer
70 years after Franz Lehar’s beloved operetta debuted in 1905, Ronald Hynd transformed the popular gem into an energetic ballet. Now, 36 years later, the 80-year-old choreographer has brought this polyglot divertissement to Chicago in a sumptuous, two-hour fantasy that takes the Joffrey Ballet into wonderful new waters.
Though the original vaudevillian and rhapsodic tunes get mixed up among the three acts and the subplot involving an incriminating fan has been mercifully dropped, the story mirrors the original in all that matters. Cultural contrast was always the fuel for the fun. Here it’s the fact that the Pontevedran embassy in Paris needs to hold onto the fortune of the title character, if only to preserve its quaint customs and Balkan folk dances in the midst of the world’s most cosmopolitan center.
Three styles keep both operetta and ballet fascinating throughout. The Embassy ball in the first act harks back to the classic waltzes of Vienna. The Second, set in the villa of the fabulously wealthy Hannah Glawari, delights in pseudo-Pontevedran Polonaises and ethnic novelty numbers. Finally, Lehar drenches the third act in French frivolity as the action moves to Maxim’s, with its can-can grizettes and dapper Parisian dandies straight out of Toulouse-Lautrec.
Since this is ballet, the story, compressed and created by Sir Robert Helpmann, is second to the steps. Unlike the operetta, there’s never any doubt that Hanna will return to her rakish former lover, Count Danilo. (We don’t need to burden our pretty little heads with silly doubts.) There’s little more suspense over the illicit courtship between Valencienne, the Ambassador’s flirtatious French wife, and the handsome French attaché Camille de Rousillon, a nightingale indeed.
The duets between these couples echo the musical styles. Victoria Jaiani’s Hana and Miguel Angel Blanco’s Danilo turn the first act waltzes into surprisingly vertical affairs, with lifts that defy the horizontal swirl of the sweeping melodies. Likewise, Yumelia Garcia’s capricious Valencienne, with her sensuous twirls and bodice-bending dips, finds a perfect partner in Graham Maverick’s quicksiliver, gravity-defying Rousillon. Both blend in beautifully with the galloping gaiety of Maxim’s in full fluorescence.
Hynd has given the ensemble glorious moments, whether as gallant members of the Pontevedran entourage or hellbent, high-kicking, skirt-tossing soubrettes making plays for the gentry. They’re impeccably costumed by Italian designer Roberta Guidi di Bagno, while the stenciled facades and imitation marble pillars of the first act, wisteria-laden garden of the second, and monumental cabaret setting of the third act, are also the gorgeous work of the exquisitely talented Di Bagno.
It lasts no longer than it should, since a fantasy should never be pushed beyond its initial allure. As the English say, you should never let daylight shine on magic.
| Rating: ★★★★ |
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All photos by Herbert Migdoll.
