Jonathan Fredrickson and Penny Saunders in "THREE TO MAX". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Last night at the Harris Theater, Hubbard Street not only offered a ground-breaking program, they created a tectonic plate shift in the floor of Chicago dance.  Presenting a HSDC premiere by Ohad Naharin and a world premiere by Sharon Eyal and Gaï Behar, the critically-acclaimed troupe demonstratively proved why they are the best.  Go. See. This. Show.

Naharin’s THREE TO MAX opened the show.  Clad in capri jeans and tank tops, the dancers showed their unique talents and personalities in what structurally seemed like a bizarre game of follow-the-leader.  Beginning with beautiful solo work by Benjamin Wardell, the piece wove together sections of individual improv (the before-mentioned follow-the-leader style), sensory-connected unison work (a sensual and strong female grouping) and an impressive add-on counting section where the soundtrack featured a man counting to ten in (I assume) Hebrew and the dancers ascribing a movement to each number, then adding on and starting over with new movement and adding on and on.  It seemed more mentally challenging for the dancers than physically.  Some of it worked for me – like a lovely moment in a duet with Penny Saunders and HSDC newcomer Jonathan Fredrickson (pictured above), and some didn’t – a strange tango-flavored male duet.  It definitely had a more free and fun vibe than their most recent Naharin piece, Tabula Rasa.

Dancer Jacqueline Burnett featured in "Too Beaucoup". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Aside from Wardell, the night belonged to the ladies.  Stands outs include Robyn Mineko Williams in Naharin’s piece, Jacqueline Burnett in Eyal’s Too Beaucoup, and Jessica Tong in both.  Eyal and Behar’s artistic partnership (along with DJ Ori Lichtik and, of course, the HSDC dancers) has created something amazingly unique.  With futuristic costumes of white seemingly painted on unitards, white make up, white wigs and white contacts, you lost sense of who was who and instead got lost in the energy of the movement and the music.  I frequently found myself smiling and shaking my head in awe of what was happening on the stage.  Notes from the program:  Too Beaucoup aims to manipulate and replicate precise and robotic movement that offers a sense of watching a 3-D video.   It felt like you were watching a human configuration of an extremely complex math equation.  I don’t like math, but I loved this.  You could almost feel the connection between the dancers.  As dancer Christian Broomhall put it, “We are all operating as one organism.”  And they were physically, mentally, aurally and spatially.  It was so freaking cool.

The company, joined by Eyal and Behar, received a long and robust round of applause at the final curtain and a partial (Seriously people, what will it take for you to get up out of your seats?) standing ovation.  And yes, I was included in the ones standing and cheering.  A huge congratulations to Glenn & Co!

Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP) announced today they are establishing a Collaborative Space for Sustainable Development (CSSD) – a shared facility for education, rehearsal and administration of local arts organizations.  With financial support secured to the tune of over $500,000 from a number of foundations, the CSSD will fulfill a dream and fortify the mission of CHRP and its found Lane Alexander.  The space will house smaller/mid-sized arts organizations and allow them to pursue family-centric programming and focus on education and tuition-based programming.

Funders include:  The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Boeing Company, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the James S. Kemper Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, as well as pro bono support from and Jenner & Block LLPProTen Realty Group.  Collaborating resident companies will include:  Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Kalapriya – Center for Indian Performing Arts, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Ping Pong Productions and River North Dance Chicago.

CSSD is a working title, so once the project gets underway this may change.  When RB spoke to Alexander last summer he mentioned a different name.  “The American Rhythm Center is our plan to develop the first cultural center in the US dedicated to American tap and contemporary percussive arts and affiliated percussive dance like Irish, African, Indian Kathak, flamenco”, he said.  “We have what may be the first phase of the center, which is sort the capacity-building phase where we open a school and develop a large student base which will generate a revenue base that allows us to also start a capitol campaign and move on to the cultural center idea.”  Alexander was also appointed last week to the Arts and Culture transition team for Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel.  He was the only person appointed from the Chicago dance world.

Congratulations to Lane, CHRP, CSSD and all the organizations involved!  This is an important step in securing Chicago’s place as a worldwide destination for arts education.

HSDC dancer Meredith Dincolo in Sharon Eyal's "Too Beaucoup". Photo by Rose Eichenbaum.

If you’ve ever wondered what the dancescape in Israel looks like, wonder no more.  Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is presenting the two most influential Israeli choreographers in an all-Israeli program at the Harris Theater this weekend.  Ohad Naharin, Artistic Director of Tel Aviv’s Batsheva Dance Company and Sharon Eyal, Batsheva’s House Choreographer will each premiere new works (or re-works) for eager Chicago audiences.  Naharin’s THREE TO MAX, an HSDC premiere, is a re-invented, mash-up of his previously choreographed pieces (Three and Max) and Eyal’s Too Beaucoup (“too too much”), a world premiere, is a sequel to Bill, a piece she created last year for Batsheva.  HSDC is also the ONLY American company to present Eyal’s work.  Too put is simply – this is HUGE!

HSDC worked with Naharin briefly last year while on tour in Tel Aviv to clean Tabula Rasa for the Winter Series.  Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton watched a rehearsal for the second company run by Eyal and was fascinated.   “I was intrigued by watching her rehearse,” he says.  “I thought she was really wonderful with the dancers in how she engaged them.  Ohad and I worked together a lot at NDT (Nederlands Dans Theater).  I left NDT in 2004, so I wasn’t really aware of his latest work…I thought it would be interesting to see a collage of his works.”  Lucky for us, Edgerton’s idea to combine both artists in one all-Israeli program came to fruition.  The evening will also switch up the format a bit.  Instead of the (what-has-become) normal lay out with three works and two intermissions, this show will house two longer works with only one intermission.

HSDC dancers in Eyal's "Too Beaucoup". Photo by Rose Eichenbaum.

RB had the chance to sit in on a couple of rehearsals back in February as the company was just starting to piece together the choreography.  Ms. Eyal and her partner (in life and work) Gaï Behar were watching the dancers memorizing a short section set to pulsing techno beats (part of a larger soundtrack by Israeli DJ Ori Lichtik).  Let’s call it the walking section.  The HSDC dancers were walking to the fast beats, switching directions, right hand up, look left…there seemed to be no pattern to the movement and when you add the fact that they will be wearing wigs and white contact lenses and are rehearsing with no mirrors*, I wondered how they were going to do it.  If you miss one count, you’re screwed.  And then I thought, it’s Hubbard Street, they can do anything.  They can, but from the looks of it, it wasn’t going to be easy.  Eyal giving notes:  “It’s not just you doing the steps.  It’s about something bigger than us…we experience something together in this moment.  You must connect in physicality all the time, from the beginning.”  This physical connection is cultivated by the dancers taking class in the Naharin-created Gaga technique**.  She teaches Gaga class, but then enters into her own aesthetic for rehearsals.  As I mentioned before, the dancers costumes (created by Behar) add to the mystique of this work.  Clad in nude unitards, adorning white bob cut wigs and wearing custom-made white contacts, the dancers look like freaky alien creatures dancing in a way we’ve never seen.  Like their postcard says:  THIS IS NOT YOUR MOTHER’S HUBBARD STREET.

I sat down with Edgerton (whose sparkling eyes and welcoming smile are now known as the face of HSDC) at their West Loop studios to talk about the upcoming, ground-breaking program.

RB:  This program sounds really exciting.  Has anybody in the US seen the works in Ohad collage – or is that all new to us?

GE:  Some of them might have been seen in some configuration of Batsheva’s rep, but what Ohad is so clever at and he’s really genius with is creating a whole new environment and a whole new piece. That’s the beauty of it.  It becomes something on its own and that is to Ohad’s credit…his ability to refashion work and make it its own entity.

RB:  Why is this important for HSDC to present?

GE:  Ohad has been quite a focus for modern-contemporary dance for a while.  He’s been important to HSDC over the years, having a lot of his pieces in the rep.  I think not a lot of people know the work of now…what Ohad is doing today.  They know Minus 16. That has become his signature piece for HSDC and for different companies around the country, but there’s more to Ohad.  I think to put the stable of these two Israeli choreographers on to the American stage…these are the most prominent Israeli choreographers known today.  It’s exciting for me…just to have this little idea that gets put into such major work. It’s fun to see people get excited about it.  That’s my payback.  I think it’s a cultural experience.  It’s totally a different feel of work that these two choreographers…it’s different than anything we have in the United States.   Nobody can be capered to that and I think the uniqueness, the individuality of this is exciting.  It’s infectious.  It’s like studying another culture.

RB:  Do you think it will shock the regular HSDC audience, specifically Sharon’s piece?

GE:  It is definitely a progressive program.  I think you will connect to it or you won’t.  Musically there’s techno music happening, there’s variations within the music that may resonate with some of the public and some not.   We were (on tour) in Irvine, CA…immediate standing ovation.  Without one person not standing.  That’s something.  Rather they get it or they don’t, they just feel the energy of what’s happening on stage …and the look of it is so unusual, that it’s fascinating.  If you really delve into the choreography, it’s incredibly complex.   It’s fascinating to realize…sometimes they’re dancing on the music, sometimes not on the music, sometimes in unison…and where does that come from?  There’s an intense energy connection between all of them that they are going to feel and know from one another that when one person twitches, they’re going to twitch.  That kind of intense concentration and energy is infectious.

RB:  Do you see a change in the way they dance together after doing something like this, because the connection is so strong?  Do you find that the dynamic in the company shifts?

GE:  Certainly.  With every piece, the company is enhanced and developed.  That’s my goal – to challenge them and they’re better for it the next time around for whatever else is put at them.  With each work, it’s my goal is that they come out of it with more knowledge of how to take on the next challenge and it will definitely build the level of the company as we go forward.

HSDC Spring Series at Harris Theater, March 17 – 20

Tickets:  hubbardstreetdance.com or 312.850.9744

*A note about the lack of mirrors:  the mirrors and windows had been covered up for class and rehearsal.  The dancers have immersed themselves in the Naharin-created **Gaga technique.  Naharin began developing this technique while recovering from a back injury.  It is sensory-based and uses structured improv to engage the dancers mentally and physically, so they become totally aware of their bodies and the energy around them.  It is definitely a unique way of moving.  Since I didn’t fully understand it, I went on a quest to find out as much as I could about Gaga. Here are some of the things I learned…

Glenn Edgerton, HSDC Artistic Director:  “It’s energy-based technique, where the dancers are feeling one another from a distance.  They’re feeling their space around them, they’re feeling the energy of the person next to them.  They move with the same intention, the same likeness, the same idea…but without a visual.  The mirrors are gone, so it’s about sensing.  It’s a sensory-perceptive-based technique.”

Zac Whittenberg, dance editor TimeOut Chicago:   “The movement comes from the direction.  You’re moving to accomplish a task.  For example, in class the direction could be to imagine that your body is a hollow envelop emptied out or a cartoon parade balloon.  Then the teacher can manipulate the image to create the desired movement, like…pretending you have sand in one limb, hot liquid in another, cold liquid in another…then pour all the ingredients together.  It’s not about where your eyes look.  The head is the fifth limb.”

HSDC dancer Benjamin Wardell:  “It’s not about how it looks.  It’s an approach to the body largely based on improv.  The goal is to raise awareness of every part.  It loosens your body up with different ways to learn your body…and get maximum range.”

More information on the Gaga technique can be found in HSDC’s Footnotes and on Batsheva’s web site.

Luna Negra Dance Theater‘s Saturday night performance at the Harris Theater exceeded my expectations.  I’d already seen two of the three pieces in rehearsal, but nothing beats the electricity and vibe of a live performance in front of a packed house.  This internationally-eclectic and extremely talented crew under the direction of Gustavo Ramírez Sansano create beautiful, fun, vibrant and intricate tableaus in everything they perform.

The partner work in each duet or pairing seems impossibly natural and easy, which, of course, it isn’t.  These dancers are at the top of their game physically with exquisitely fluid technique and fine-tuned instincts.  There isn’t one weak link.  They are all dancing at their best and when combined with exciting and challenging new works (as they were again this past weekend), they are thriving.  The opening section of Solo una Vez (Luis Eduardo Sayago) had the three men (Nigel Campbell, Zoltán Katona and Diego Tortelli – pictured above) working with oranges.  Campbell as bartender, cut, squeezed and drank the fresh juice on stage and the men each tried to affix their half of an orange with another to recreate a whole.  Aside from making me want a mimosa, the cute and kitschy scene about the search for your other half utilized the props more than the dancers abilities.  Solo work by Tortelli and a duet with Stacey Aung and Nigel Campbell were stand outs.

Fernando Hernando Magadan’s Naked Ape was my favorite piece of the evening.  Katona’s role as emcee was added by Magadan recently and added an artsy twist to an already complex visual landscape.  Speaking in his native Hungarian (hat tip to Zac Whittenburg! – I didn’t know what language he was speaking), he narrated some movements and manipulated others, joining in  with his own interpretation.  Featuring Katona, Tortelli and Aung as well as Monica Cervantes and Eduardo Zuñiga, this avant garde take on human communication and technology felt a little NDT (the choreographer’s current company), a little Cirque du Soleil and a whole lot of trust, control and talent.  Ending with Sansano’s Flabbergast was a perfect (and fun!) conclusion to the evening.   With the entire company together on stage, it showed that they are ready, willing and able to entertain, challenge and surprise us at every turn.

One of the things that struck me was the individuality of the dancers.  Each person had a physically unique way of moving and this individuality came across even in the unison sections.  It was a wonderful blend of different tastes that made a delicious whole.  “They are not clones,” Sansano says.  “Each individual is an ingredient.”  RB likes what he’s cooking.

UPDATE:  Ahh, I forgot to mention the lovely ladies’ solos in Flabbergast by Veronica Guadalupe, Kirsten Shelton and Reneé Adams!

LNDT dancers Diego Tortelli, Monica Cervantes, Veronica Guadalupe. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

This Saturday, March 12th, for a one-night-only show, Luna Negra Dance Theater is presenting a trio of works at the Harris Theater: two North American premieres and a revival by Artistic Director Gustavo Ramírez Sansano.  Flabbergast, Sansano’s work, commissioned by former Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro in 2001, makes its way back to the company, with additions and changes, some ten years later.  A fun, upbeat romp with a Latin flair, Flabbergast has the dancers singing, acting and flirting, while joyfully dancing as they portray what it’s like to be in a new culture for the first time.  As the show closer, it pretty much guarantees the audience will leave the theater in a good mood.

Another upbeat piece by Venezuelan choreographer Luis Eduardo Sayago Alonso, about the search for the perfect mate and taking the plunge into marriage, makes a U.S. debut.  Complete with odd props including oranges, a juicer and a chalk board, Solo una Vez (which means “only one time”) offers a witty turn about matters of the heart.  The other North American premiere is Naked Ape by Spanish choreographer and NDT dancer Fernando Hernando Magadan.  Originally created in 2009 for the TODAYSART Festival, an outdoor art extravaganza at The Hague, Ape started with the concept of conflict and tackles the struggle we have between instinct and logic while living in a technologically enhanced world.  Magadan collaborated with multi-media artist Harmen Straatman, who created free-standing clothing sculptures equipped with light and sound sensors inside for the dancers to interact with throughout the piece.  “The stage is not just a place to put a dancer to move,” Magadan exlpains during a Meet the Artists event at Instituto Cervantes.  “It becomes a world out of itself, like Alice in Wonderland.”  He was also impressed with the Luna Negra dancers.  “It was a beautiful challenge to rework it with different dancers,” he says.  “They were so willing to contribute…so professional and devoted.”

After receiving a standing ovation for the outstanding program last fall, Ramírez Sansano has set high expectations.  Undaunted, he just wants to continue to show a new side to the company.  “There’s a lot of things I want to show to the city of Chicago,” he says.  So, how does a unique program like this come together?  “They have to call my attention,” he says from rehearsal and a run-through of part of the show.  “I have to see them in a place inside of the show.  For me they have to be good pieces by themselves, but somehow connect to each other.  I saw Solo una Vez, then I decided on Naked Ape because I thought it was a good contrast.  We start with a clean and more classical aesthetic and then you have…a more avant garde movement and concept. Then Flabbergast has the Latin flavor, like something that could’ve been from 40 years ago, but is contemporary.”  And what is his vision for the future of Luna Negra?  “I would dream that every time you come see Luna Negra that it’s a surprise.  Every kind of show has a different color.  You know that it’s dance.  You know that it’s Latin and Luna Nueva is more avant garde and Luna Niña is for kids and you can still go to all of them.  As an audience member, what do I want to see?  Unless it’s a great, great piece, you don’t want to see it every year.  You don’t want to repeat and repeat the same thing.  You want to search for more good.”

Harris Theater, Saturday, March 12 at 8:00 pm

Tickets:  312.334.7777 or harristheaterchicago.org

Artistic Director Joanna Rosenthal. Photo by William Frederking.

Same Planet Different World headed by Joanna Rosenthal is hitting the stage at The Dance Center this weekend for the first time.  The three-piece program featuring Rosenthal’s Grey Noise,  Black Label Movement Artistic Director, Carl Flink’s new work HIT, and Shapiro & Smith Dance‘s To Have and To Hold and will showcase the 11-member company’s strength, athleticism and emotional range.

Grey Noise, a finalist the last year’s The A.W.A.R.D. Show!, is Rosenthal’s 32-minute thesis work that was inspired by ’40s and ’50s film noir.  The company has toured the piece, but this is the first time they are presenting it in Chicago.  Commissioned by SPDW in 2008, To Have and To Hold may be familiar to local audiences.  Incorporating three, seven-foot-long benches, the dancers lean, flip, slide and rest on them while telling of the fragility of life.

The world premiere on the program is Flink’s HIT.  The movement was developed with the SPDW dancers and his own BLM dancers in Minnesota and is extremely physical.  “It’s pretty intense,” says the petite Rosenthal on a brutally cold February morning, when RB stopped by to watch rehearsal at Links Hall.  “We’ve had some cracked teeth, split lips, sprained ankles…it’s daredevil stuff.  It’s not about feeling good in your body.  It’s about that moment of being hit and what that moment does.”  As the title suggests, collision is the goal.  The four dancers tasked with this piece are not faint of heart.  They did a full-out run to a random piece of music (the original score by Greg Borsofske wasn’t finished yet) of the 19-minute piece and I was exhausted just watching them.  “He’s (Flink) always pushing the limits physically,” says Rosenthal.  “I was interested in that, because I relate to his hunger for eating space with athleticism and movement.”  The hits are real, hard and loud – and the ladies take hits and give it back equally to the men.  When asked which part hurts the most, they laughed, but all had different answers.  The main concern was to be present and to make it as pain-free as possible.

This is a high-energy, eager and appreciative group of dancers made up of alums from University of Iowa, Northwestern and Point Park.  “I am super lucky to have amazing dancers,” Rosenthal says.  “I have a ton of respect and gratitude for them.”

The Dance Center at Columbia College, March 10 – 12 @ 8 pm

Tickets:  $26 – 30, call 312.369.8330 or column.edu/dancecenter

Twyla Tharp in the studio. Photo by Marc von Borstel.

Twyla Tharp is coming back to Hubbard Street!  It has been 15 years since she set her last piece on the company (I Remember Clifford) and was highlighted in their repertory with six other pieces.  Ms. Tharp is known worldwide for her contributions in dance on the stage, Broadway and in film.  In 2002, her award-winning dance musical Movin’ Out had its pre-Broadway run here in Chicago at the Shubert Theatre featuring former HSDC dancers Ron De Jesus and David Gomez.

Tharp will create a brand new work on the company with a world premiere in the Fall Series at the Harris Theater next October (13-16).  Tharp’s quote from the press release: “I look forward to working with the new dancers and creating, what I believe, will be a very special dance – one that will challenge me as well as them.”  It will be interesting to see a new generation of HSDC dancers take on her personality and movement.

HSDC is also honoring Tharp with a Spotlight Award to be presented at the Spotlight Ball on June 2nd by HSDC founder Lou Conte.  RB spoke to Conte this morning from his rural property in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois to ask him how it felt to hear the news that she was coming back.  “It feels good,” he said.  “She’s a part of Hubbard Street’s history.  We had a good relationship for ten years.  We were the first small company she worked with.”  While denying that he had anything to do with her returning (“that would be meddling”), the fact that Tharp did so much work with the company in the 90’s was in no small part because of him.  And the fact that she will be creating a piece specifically for the HSDC dancers?  Conte says, “It’s significant.”

Today’s Groupon special is $25 for $50 worth of merchandise from Cafe Press.

Click here to go to the Rogue Ballerina merchandise page and get yourself something sassy at a discount!

TDC dancers in the Opening Day section of The White City. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

This Friday, March 4th at the Harris Theater, Thodos Dance Chicago brings the world premiere of The White City: Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, a multi-media, theatrical period piece about the city-changing World’s Fair.  Featuring video projections (by Chris Olsen), architectural sets, live music, period costumes and accurate historical characters, White City is an original dance drama created by TDC Artistic Director Melissa Thodos and Broadway legend and Tony-award winner Ann Reinking.  This is the fourth time the friends (who met while their husbands were playing tennis) have worked together.  Adding to the artistic collaboration is Reinking’s Broadway colleague and former Joffrey dancer Gary Chyst who is serving as dramatic coach helping the dancers with character development and the choreographers with fleshing out the storyline.

This 45-minute slice of history has a little bit of everything —  love, architecture, politics, death, ghosts and murder — all set to the music Songs Without Words by composer Bruce Wolosoff and performed live by the Carpe Diem String Quartet.  RB sat in on rehearsals a few weeks ago, watching the group work out some blocking issues and do a partial run-through.  After a dancer jumped a little too close to the sound system, it went into “protect mode” and without missing a beat, Ms. Reinking quipped, “I wish I had something like that.  It would’ve saved me a lot of grief!”  Her quick wit and infectious laugh, as well as the obvious friendship and affection with Thodos (and Chyst), were on full display when we sat down to talk after rehearsal.

Choreographers and gal pals Thodos and Reinking.

RB:  How did this project come about?

AR:  About two plus years ago my girlfriend said, “you’ve got to hear this music”.  I listened to it and just was wonderful.  I called Melissa and said, “this music is perfect for your company…perfect”.  I was thinking lovely little dances to beautiful music.  Melissa said, “I have this idea and I’m so excited about it.”  She sent me…several books on the Exposition, The Devil in the White City, lots of dvds and videos…really remarkable research.  I thought this was a story ballet.  I wrote an adaption.  You can’t dance about everything in these books.

MT:  It would be a 24-hour show and the dancers would be dead.

AR:  So which stories do we want to tell?  There was a lot of drama and a lot of joy.  Several stories that exuded that…we sort of pooled them together and then used that as the basic thing to spin off of and we’ve been spinning ever since…hopefully in the right direction.

RB:  What made you want to do a piece about this?

AR:  She loves Chicago! Anything Chicago!

MT:  I do.  It’s part of our history that is not known enough.  People don’t know that this changed the face of Chicago.

RB:  How was the collaboration?  How did you divide the choreography?

MT:  We’ll never work together again.

AR:  (Laughing) We don’t like each other any more.  Basically, it kind of wound up that I got most of the sinister pieces.  It’s true!  The only joyful thing I’m doing is the Mayor’s thing.  All of the dark stuff was mine.

RB:  On purpose?

AR:  No, it just worked out this way.  I’m doom and gloom and she’s light and glory!  We did the architect’s dance together and the funeral quartet and the last day together.

MT:  And the new section.  We took separate sections, but what’s nice is Gary and Ann, both, in my sections are giving feedback for opportunities for changes or growth, so it’s all very structured, but also open in communication with three creative minds working together (to) support the entire work.  It’s very collaborative in that way and wonderful.

AR:  We were joking the other day that it’s brought us closer together.  It has been a wonderful experience.  Somebody asked Melissa, “why are you doing this?” She said, “We need to grow.  We need to explore outside our comfort zone and develop artistically.”

MT:  The mission of the company is based on the development of the artists.

RB:  Did you find that they had a hard time doing it?

AR:  He (Gary) was very good at coaching them.  But don’t you think their instincts were good?

MT:  Their intuition is very good and they’re being stretched in a way that’s…it’s not that they’re getting uncomfortable, but they’re seeing past what they know.  So, they’re taking their intuition and are being validated to go past that.  The theatricality of all of this has been a wonderful process for them and an important one.  I want our artists to be able to do it all

The second half of the program will feature a mixed rep with four pieces.  Another world premiere from Thodos, Getting There, featuring a wheel and some creative acrobatic moves, a world premiere by Ron De Jesus (yes, that Ron De Jesus of Hubbard Street and Broadway fame) titled Shift, as well as two audience favorites from last year’s New Dances 2010, Quieting the Clock by Stephanie Martinez Bennitt and Francisco Avina and a solo from TDC dancer Wade Schaaf, Dancer, Net.

Tickets for the 8 pm show ranging from $20 – $60 are still available:  312.334-7777 or harristheaterchicago.org

Another weekend of dance! For the last weekend in February, RB took in the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Harris and went back for seconds with Joffrey‘s The Merry Widow.  One reaffirmed my roots and love of a good story ballet, the other challenged, but left me wanting something more.

Yumelia Garcia and Graham Maverick in the opening act. Photo by Herbert Migdoll.

Joffrey’s Widow, upon a second viewing, was just as delightful as the first time.  The dancers and Chicago Sinfonietta delivered a fun romp to a packed house and a standing ovation.  Although I was set to see the same cast from opening night, a few changes were made and Fabrice Calmels was dancing the role of Count Danilo with Victoria Jaiani instead of Miguel Angel Blanco.  I’m not sure why the change was made, but I was delighted to see Calmels in this comedic role after his dramatic turn last season in Othello.  The pairing of these two is an exquisite combination that keeps evolving with every performance.  (There was a moment in the last act when Calmels enters and crosses to Jaiani and touches her shoulders as he puts her wrap on.  Her reaction as she realizes that it is the Count and that he loves her is heartmeltingly beautiful).  A mishap in the first act lead to the replacement of Yumelia Garcia and Graham Maverick with April Daly and Mauro Vilanueva.  After a few moments to readjust, the audience got back into the story and was treated to a lovely performance by both.  Shout outs are due to Aaron Rogers and John Mark Giragosian for their gravity-defying jumps and precision tours – and Jaiani’s flexibility and her to-die-for extensions.  A speedy recovery to all the injured dancers!

RB‘s experience with Mark Morris was a bit different.  I don’t know if it was disappointment that they didn’t perform Romeo and Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare (I was really looking forward to it) as originally scheduled, or if it was simply over my head artistically, but the program did not engage me and, quite frankly, left me bored.  The dancers moved well, but I didn’t see anything I hadn’t seen before.  I’m not sure what I expected from Morris’ more recent works.  There were things to like about each of the three pieces (two of the taller  female dancers, the humor in The Muir, the movement of the flowing dresses in Petrichor, the set in Socrates and the gorgeous voice of tenor Michael Kelly), but overall it just didn’t work for me.  The death sequence in Socrates was the most visually stunning scene of the evening, but even this had my colleague begging, “please die faster”.  I admit I was excited to see the Mark Morris in person when he bowed and admire him for his contributions to the dance community for 30 years…even if I don’t “get it”.