Since it is hot as *^%! outside today, why not cool off by dreaming of a wintery treat. Today only – until 7:00 pm – Joffrey Ballet is holding a Christmas in July event. Dance classes, merchandise and 50% off select tickets to The Nutcracker are available.
Link to ticket info here. Use promo code CIJ.
Crowd at Pritzker Pavillion for Paris Opéra Ballet's live simulcast of "Giselle". Photo by Robert Carl.
An estimated 14,000 people showed up at Millennium Park Wednesday evening to watch the live simulcast of the Paris Opéra Ballet‘s performance of Giselle. After a greeting from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) Commissioner, Michelle T. Boone and a few words from Brigitte Lefèvre, Paris Opéra Ballet’s Director, the audience fixed its collective gaze at a giant screen set up on the Pritzker Pavilion stage. The LED screen set up by Staging Solutions was 18′ x 32′ according to the City’s press release or 16.5′ x 32.5′ according to Hedy Weiss in the Chicago Sun Times – it was big! Hi-tech, LED, surround sound and arguably the most famous ballet company in the world performing my favorite ballet…for free. I love my city!
Chicagoans have been privy to this ballet before. Local fave Joffrey Ballet presented Giselle in October 2007 and American Ballet Theatre has performed it here numerous times, most recently in March. The ballet was created for the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1841, however, the current version was staged by Patrice Bart and Eugene Polyakov in 1991. The french version is pretty much the same as what we’ve seen before with one notable exception. The Americanized adaptations throw in more grandiose choreography. For instance, ABT’s version has Albrecht’s brisé diagonals and grand jumps in Act II, where Paris Opéra has him doing slow changements that grow into a crescendo of entrechat quatré and six (performed with great ballon by Nicolas Le Riche). Where ABT’s Myrta breezes back and forth across the stage and in and out of the wings in a bourré flurry, Paris Opéra’s Myrta’s doesn’t leave the stage, stopping and balancing in sous-sus before taking off again, an exercise in complete control (danced brilliantly by Nolwenn Daniel – she was scary!). Clairemarie Osta’s Giselle was a sweet, innocent take on young love, but her mad scene lacked the dramatic prowess of a Julie Kent. Rounding out Wednesday’s cast was hottie Vincent Chaillet as Hilarion and a stellar corps de ballet. Those Wilis were on!
Being outside had the effect of enhancing, yet separating you from the performance. The breeze made you feel like you were in the glen celebrating the wine festival and as the sun set and the sky became darker, you could imagine yourself in a wooded graveyard. The minimal downside was random fire engine sirens and the weekly fireworks exploding at nearby Navy Pier, but that made the experience uniquely Chicago. There was a disconnect not being in the theater. A twice-removed feeling: one, you’re not in the theater and two, you’re watching live dance being filmed on a screen. Nothing beats a live performance experience, but knowing it was being performed live a few hundred feet away (and below) was pretty cool. The actual filming was fantastic with close-up shots of the lead dancers, a peak into the orchestra pit, an angled shot that showed a hint of the entrances from one wing. It gave those of us in the cheap (free) seats a VIP feel.
Martha Graham Dance Co dancer Xiaochuan Xie on the Pritzker stage.
The Chicago Dancing Festival (CDF) hits Chicago stages for a week of free dance performances again this August. Now in its sixth year, CDF – the brainchild of Lar Lubovitch and Jay Franke – is expanding (again) to six days of events with new programs and a couple of commissioned world premieres to boot! RB will be part of CDF’s blogger initiative for the second year, bringing you sneak peeks, dancer/choreographer interviews, event coverage, reviews and wrap ups. I’ll also be live-Tweeting pre- and post-event coverage for the Fest complete with photos, behind-the-scenes happenings and audience quotes.
New to the fest this year is an all-Chicago program, Chicago Dancing, featuring local faves Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) and Joffrey Ballet and three CDF commissioned works. Giordano Dance Chicago (note the new name!) makes its CDF debut in a work by Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman. New York-based choreographer Nicholas Leichter will work with the After School Matters students to create a world premiere honoring the memory of Maggie Daley, former first lady of Chicago, who started the program in 1991. A two-week residency led by Larry Keigwin blends dancers and non-dancers from Chicago into a world premiere, Bolero Chicago. Keigwin’s new work, set to Ravel’s most famous score, will incorporate local movement traits for a uniquely Chicago piece. New groups performing at the fest this year include Pacific Northwest Ballet and Ballet Arizona, along with returning companies San Francisco Ballet, Houston Ballet, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company and Brian Brooks Moving Company.
A partnership with Chicago SummerDance, the city’s outdoor dancing series, for Dancing Under the Stars and prolific local dance writer Zac Whittenburg leads a lecture demonstration, Chicago Now, with local companies at the MCA Stage. Programming for both of these event to be announced at a later date. A day of Dancing Movies also takes place at the MCA with films including PINA, All Is Not Lost, Two Seconds After the Laughter and Fanfare for Marching Band curated by local artist Sarah Best. The fest always ends with a Celebration of Dance at the outdoor Pritzker Pavilion stage in Millennium Park showcasing a number of artists that have performed throughout the week.
Tickets for all of the events are free, however, you do need to reserve seating for the indoor theaters in advance. These will “sell out” very fast! More information on tickets will be available the week of July 16th.
Joffrey Ballet's Jeraldine Mendoza & Mauro Villanueva in Edwaard Liang's "Age of Innocence". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.
It was announced last week that Joffrey Ballet dancer Jeraldine Mendoza has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowhsip Fund. Mendoza, 20, is the first performing artist in Chicago to receive this award. Originally from San Francisco, CA, she trained from an early age under the tutelage of Galina Alexandrova at the City Ballet School and was the first American female dancer to graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy (now the Moscow State Academy of Choreography).
Mendoza, in her first season with the Joffrey, made an impression with her break out performances in Wayne McGregor’s Infra and a duet in Edwaard Liang’s Age of Innocence. We chatted Friday evening via text as she was wrapping up rehearsals for Vaslav Nijinsky’s Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) and a world premiere by Stanton Welch at Joffrey Tower. It’s my first texterview!
Tell me how you got the award. Did you have to apply? Did someone nominate you?
CCC (Christoper Clinton Conway, Executive Director) and Ashley (Wheater, Artistic Director) nominated me and, I think, sent in a letter of recommendation, along with my application, which included a bio, photos, a video of me dancing and a three-page essay explaining how it would benefit my career and future goals.
What does wining this mean for you – for your career?
Winning this award is a true honor and I feel a great amount of flattery. To be given something like this by my first professional company and at a young age is amazing and I’m grateful! For my career? It will help me improve my dancing both in technique and expressiveness. There is still yet so much to more to learn and this grant will allow me to do so. Plus, it looks really great on my resume!
What are your career goals (companies, dream roles)?
My career goal is to soon be a lead in a prestigious classical or contemporary ballet. The Joffrey hopes to do “Romeo and Juliet” in the very near future and it would be amazing to be cast as Juliet. But my absolute dream, dream role is Kitri in “Don Quixote”, which was my first professional program here at the Joffrey and where I was also cast to do Queen of the Dryads…so, almost getting the lead! There’s something about that music and ballet that screams classics, and I love the classical ballet classics.
What are you going to do with $50K?
With this amazing grant, I plan on traveling this summer. I plan on going back to San Francisco for two weeks and take classes with my teacher Galina Alexandrova. Then, I plan on flying to Moscow/St. Petersburg to take some classes there and watch some performances, also try to find out more about possibly taking some courses of how to become a ballet teacher and achieve a teacher’s degree from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Then, I’ll head to London, where I will request from Freed to customize a pointe shoe for me. I can’t wait for my adventures!
Congratulations to Jeraldine for this well-deserved award. Perhaps there is a Juliet in her future?
Just a quick note – The RSVP list for tomorrow night’s Spring Desire Affinity Night at Joffrey Tower is full. However, Joffrey Ballet is generously willing to let you take advantage of the ticket discount offered to attendees.
For a 50% discount on Spring Desire performances this weekend at the Auditorium Theatre, click here and enter code DANCE.
[simple_slideshow]
All photography by Herbert Migdoll.
Joffrey Ballet‘s Spring Desire program, which opened Wednesday evening and runs through May 6th, lured the audience in with romantic notions, then turned up the heat with stunning displays of technical bravado and elite gracefulness. This talented group of dancers ends the season on a high note with an impressive, progressive rep tackled and another stellar world premiere, Val Caniparoli’s Incantations. This new work, set to music of the same title by Russian composer Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky, was a study in constant motion threading quick masterful feats (huge jumps, multiple turns and tricky partnering) with a zen-like through-line of lead couple Joanna Wozniak and Matthew Adamczyk. Their calmness in execution of difficult partnering differed from the frenetic energy surrounding them culminating in the ending pas de deux (gorgeous!) that consolidated light and energy directly on them in ever-shrinking revolving spirals. Caniparoli goes against the norm by ending the multi-sectioned work on a somber calming note. After the “shot-out-of-a-cannon” start, the audience lulled into a tantric swirl of beauty. He takes a common jete and inverts and arm or places a hand behind the head to make it seem new. Pirouettes ending with a swivel of the head add an edge and remind of Forsythe. Congrats to the entire cast, choreographer, sets/costume designer (Sandra Woodall) and lighting designer (Lucy Carter) are due.
Leading the program was Edwaard Liang’s Age of Innocence originally choreographed for the company in 2008. The large group piece inspired by the novels of Jane Austen started off a big shaky with timing and formation being a bit off, but made up for it with some stellar dancing in the smaller sections. Jeraldine Mendoza showed that she can hold her own with the big guns in a fearless duet with Mauro Villanueva. (She was also a stand out in Wayne McGregor’s Infra earlier this season.) The men’s section – literally titled The Men – showed off the virtuoso talents of Raul Casasola, Aaron Rogers, Ricardo Santos and Temue Suluashvili in a spectacular game of one-upmanship. It should be no surprise that the pas de deux by Victoria Jaiani and Fabrice Calmels (a staple for galas) was a luscious lesson in stunning lifts and exquisite partnering. She flies across the stage at him and flings herself backward into his arms, open and vulnerable like a resting butterfly only to be pressed to the sky by her adonis of a partner. They make everything look simple. Simply beautiful.
Sandwiched between the two larger works was Jerome Robbins’ In The Night. Created in 1970, it features three couples in separate pas de deux representing differing stages of love. With live accompaniment by long-time Joffrey collaborator pianist Paul James Lewis, six of Joffrey’s top dancers transported the theater to a by-gone era. Christine Rocas and Villaneuva, along with Jaiani and Calmels offered soft, romantic duets with a more fiery pas in between danced by April Daly and Miguel Angel Blanco. This was Blanco’s first performance since an achilles injury took him out last season requiring two surgeries. It was great to see him back strong and handsome. While Robbins’ is a master (and West Side Story is my all-time favorite movie), compared to the other, more contemporary ballets on the program, In The Night seemed a bit boring.
For ticket and performance information call 800.982.2787 or visit joffrey.org/spring.
The time for RSVP-ing for the Spring Desire Affinity Night at Joffrey Tower is officially closed. Thank you to everyone that responded.
Joffrey Ballet was amazing at last night’s opening of the run. I’m really looking forward to the Affinity event. See you on Wednesday!
Choreographer Val Caniparoli.
RB sat in on a run-thru of Val Caniparoli’s world premiere for Joffrey Ballet this afternoon. Incantations is a whirlwind of movement from start to finish. As lead dancer Matthew Adamczyk* said, “It’s like being shot out of a cannon.” The full-costume run (men shirtless in nude tights w/ sanscrit verse, women in nude leotards with spirals and lines) showed off dancers still a week out from the premiere, but at the top of their game. This work is difficult and non-stop, yet some of the dancers were smiling as if they were delighted (or perhaps delirious) with performing it. Solo passes garnered applause from the dancers watching. Duets are dramatic and fast, with a few partnering moves reminiscent of Mr. A’s Light Rain and William Forsythe’s works. A brief male duet featuring Adamczyk and Rory Hohenstein is…hot! In fact, every dancer in the piece looks great – a tribute to the choreographer.
Caniparoli’s Incantations is joined by Edwaard Liang’s Age of Innocence and Jerome Robbins’ In the Night on the Spring Desire program. Fantastic news! RB also learned that Miguel Angel Blanco, who was sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury last season requiring two surgeries, will be performing a piece on opening night. Welcome back.
Joffrey Ballet Spring Desire runs April 25 – May 6 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy. Tickets: 800.982.2787 or visit ticketmaster.com.
*Click here to read my preview of Incantations in Windy City Times.
I’m excited to announce that three weeks from today, Wednesday, May 2nd, RB is partnering with the fabulous Catherine Tully of 4dancers and the Joffrey Ballet for an exclusive event at Joffrey Tower. Spring Desire Affinity Night is a chance for you to see live excerpts from the Spring Desire program, listen to a Q&A about the show with Joffrey Artistic Director Ashley Wheater and stay for FREE cocktails and hors d’ouervres. This is the perfect chance to get an insiders view of the beautiful studios and mingle with some of the finest artists in our city. Bring a friend that’s never seen ballet before and show them what they’ve been missing.
Attendees will receive 50% off tickets* to the final weekend of Spring Desire at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.
*Offer not valid on previously purchased tickets. (Please note: attendees are NOT required to purchase tickets.)
Here are the deets:
Wednesday, May 2
5:45 pm Registration
6:00 pm Program and Q&A
7:00 pm Cocktails and Hors d’ouevres
Joffrey Tower
10 East Randolph Street, Chicago
World-class dancing on a week night, inside scoop on the creative process and don’t forget – this is a FREE event! Make your reservation now. I hope to see you there.
RSVP by Wednesday, April 25 – Please include your name and number of attendees. Email affinity@joffrey.org or call 312-784-4640
Joffrey dancers Christine Rocas & Rory Hohenstein in William Forsythe's "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.
In a pre-show video at opening night of Joffrey Ballet‘s Winter Fire program, artistic director Ashley Wheater says, “This company is eclectic and diverse, the repertory should reflect that”. The three works presented from international contemporary choreographic stars William Forsythe, Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor were eclectic, diverse and showed the current company of dancers in a new light. A big, hot spotlight. This show reminded me of the Joffrey I fell in love with years ago. A company that always pushed boundaries with challenging, interesting new works. A company that made you sit up and ask,”What is happening on stage?”…in a good way.
This program pushed the dancers to a new level, challenging technique and complacency. They rose to the challenge – they were hot! The hottest of them all was Rory Hohenstein. He hasn’t been featured much in his first season with the company (aside from a stand out solo at Dance For Life last August), but wow, keep your eyes on this one. Last night, he was on fire. A fierce presence in every piece, Hohenstein showed off his partnering skills, flexibility and attitude with every flick of his wrist, penché pitch and swing of his head. Paired with Victoria Jaiani in two of the three pieces, he held his own with the dancer that has become the unequivocal star of the company (“All stars/No stars”? I’m not so sure that’s the motto here anymore).
Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated featured these two in dazzling duets that were so intricate and hyper-extended you wondered how they got through them without being tied in a knot. Jaiani’s incredible capacity for extension and impossibly thin frame punctuated the dark, downlit stage. Similar in build and flexibility, Christine Rocas – let’s call them the bendy/flexy twins – showed her stuff alongside a strong cast. There were some extraordinary things happening on the sidelines, particularly with April Daly, Amber Neumann, Anastacia Holden and Ricardo Santos that unfortunately got lost with so many things going on at once. Also, the two lead females (Jaiani and Rocas) were supple and strong in the partnering, but seemed timid on their own. I spotted Chicago Dancing Festival‘s Jay Franke and David Herro in the audience, with Mayor Emanuel and family. Hint: this would look great on the Pritzker Pavilion stage in August! Yes for the Fest?
Joffrey dancer John Mark Giragosian in Wayne McGregor's "Infra". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.
The LED projections of figures walking displayed above the dancers in Wayne McGregor’s Infra was distracting at first, but became part of the movement theme happening below. Inspired in part by the 2005 London bombings, McGregor takes the every day action of going to and from work and turns into an emotionally charged romp set to a cyber techno beat by Max Richter. You could see a hint Forsythe’s influence at work here. Again, a strong ensemble cast featuring virtuoso turns by all. Amber Neumann showed her acting chops with a mental melt down center stage. A large cast of extras walked across the stage sweeping her off with them alluding to the fact that life goes on. Jaiani and Hohenstein end the work with another eye-popping duet.
Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain was the mid-show palette cleanser offering a softer break from the hard-hitting opening and closing numbers. The music, Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel (which can make me weepy within the first three notes), was brought to life with accompaniment by Paul James Lewis, Paul Zafer and Carol Lahti. A stellar cast of Jaiani, Hohenstein, Daly, Matthew Adamczyk, Fabrice Calmels and Valerie Robin added maturity and nuance to the work that was a company premiere in 2010.
Joffrey dancers Victoria Jaiani & Fabrice Calmels in Christopher Wheeldon's "After the Rain". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.
The duet by Jaiani and Calmels, which was stunning last season, was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen on stage (aside, perhaps, from the Act II pas in Giselle). What once had a breathtaking romantic feel, like how a young girl dreams her first time in love will be, evolved into a heartbreaking, lifelong love shifting in need. For me, it took on a she’s-dying-and-he’s-taking-care of-her/Dying Swan vibe. Whatever the impetus, it works. As the donor’s rose to their feet in ovation, you could sense the many wallets falling open asking simply “how much?”.