With the Joffrey Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago having their best year in recent memory, several midsize companies are meeting the moment, taking risks and betting on themselves by indulging in larger-than-ever venues and productions. It may seem like the pandemic is in the rearview, but many arts organizations are still scrambling to keep their heads above water. At the risk of making a trite “from adversity comes strength” metaphor, Chicago dance delivered, seeming to possess a renewed commitment to audiences by delivering on some of their best performances this decade.
Here are the greatest among them, in chronological order.
Anjal Chande’s “Next Cup of Tea” in March: A meditative musing blending the personal and political, “The Next Cup of Tea” was part of a protracted goodbye from multihyphenate Anjal Chande, who shuttered her long-running artist incubator Soham Dance Space this fall. Chande masterfully transformed Steppenwolf’s little black box theater, using colorful spatial design, dance, spoken word and music (the latter created and performed alongside musician Sharon Udoh) to capture some of life’s big complexities. It’s not a universal story, per se: Chande detailed her experience growing up in an Indian American household and navigating race, culture, relationships and the economic reality working artists face as adults, with her late grandfather as an anchor point. It’s her story, but “Cup of Tea” also veered into pithy, hyper-current territory, intersecting with 21st-century political movements on everyone’s minds: Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and the war in Gaza, to name a few.
New York City Ballet in March: The 18-year gap between New York City Ballet’s most recent visits to Chicago was worth the wait, particularly in an evening of old school classics by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. A second program profiled living choreographers: Pam Tanowitz, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck and Kyle Abraham. To be clear: I’m not a Balanchine fan girl. Ordinarily, I’d rail against a program that could have felt locked in antiquity. It didn’t. Even canonical works like “Serenade” and “The Four Temperaments” were living, breathing expressions of a particular moment in dance history — a chef’s kiss toasting the Harris Theater’s 20th anniversary season.
Giordano Dance Chicago’s “Unlimited” in April: Marking the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Giordano Dance Chicago recruited Emmy-winning choreographer Al Blackstone to create a one-act narrative work for their spring season closer — a first for the 60-plus-year-old jazz dance company. Blackstone’s deep study of the Giordano technique shines in “Gershwin in B,” a winding, coming-of-age story following ingénue Erina Ueda as she navigates life in the big city, uncovering a confident, sensual woman along the way. Giordano is no stranger to big, bodacious works. Case in point: Ray Leeper’s “Soul” and a revival of Davis Robertson’s electrifying “Entropy” appeared on the front half of the same evening. But “Gershwin in B” is simply gorgeous from top to tail, seeming to signal a new era for this indefatigable troupe. Fortunately, we’ll be seeing more of Blackstone; since “Gershwin’s” premiere, he’s been named the company’s first-ever resident choreographer.
Joffrey Ballet’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in April: I liked Alexander Ekman’s wild “Midsummer Night’s Dream” when the Joffrey Ballet first mounted it in 2018. But I loved last spring’s revival in the cavernous Lyric Opera House. On the surface, this “Midsummer” is a sarcastically silly ode to hedonism, with the pagan holiday honoring summer’s longest day as its backdrop. Look closer; repeat viewings reveal Ekman’s penchant for detail, with eye candy scattered literally everywhere. This season closer also celebrated four meaningful departures from the company’s ranks: Princess Reid, Brooke Linford, Graham Maverick and Christine Rocas, the latter retiring after almost 20 years on stage and now serving as one of Joffrey’s rehearsal directors. It wasn’t the most conventional send-off — final bows were taken in “Midsummer’s” signature trench coats with no pants — but in leaving a company of self-proclaimed “mavericks of dance,” it was pretty darn perfect.
Visceral Dance Chicago’s “Carmen.maquia” in June: Since bursting onto the scene over a decade ago, this contemporary company has lately flown under the radar, keeping to their Avondale studio theater while building a catalog that mostly leans toward a second-gen Gaga aesthetic. (Gaga is a technique developed by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin during his tenure as the director of Batsheva Dance Company.) Just this year, Visceral dove headfirst into Gustavo Ramirez Sansano’s opus, marking their Museum of Contemporary Art debut with Sansano’s tour de force, “Carmen.maquia,” first set on the now-defunct Luna Negra Dance Theater in 2012. It was a stretch for Visceral’s gorgeous but young roster of dancers — nearly all in just their first or second seasons as professionals. To our benefit, they admirably rose to the challenge, returning an extraordinary ballet to its home city at last.
Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Rhythm World in July: Everything Jumaane Taylor’s feet touch turns to gold, including the stage of the Black Legislators’ Auditorium at the DuSable Black History Museum, where this year’s Rhythm World kicked off with a preview of Taylor’s long-in-progress “Ugly Flavors.” In his homage to two cross-genre masters, Ornette Coleman and Igor Stravinsky, Taylor picked apart rhythmically complex pieces and put them back together again as a tap dance. It’s not quite done — so Taylor says. But the bones of it are teeing up something exceptionally special, unmatched by anything since “Supreme Love” came out almost a decade ago.
Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project’s “Divination” in August: This summer, Sundays in Millennium Park had the added benefit of an idyllic Chicago evening, the type where one of those perfect sunsets dipped behind the skyline and not-too-hot temperatures put everyone in a good mood. Those smiles lasted even throughout the procession to the parking lot; “Divination” felt that good. In the final celebration of Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project’s second cohort, 10 troupes performed ballet, jazz, contemporary, footwork, tap and traditional African dance — a joy-filled, polylithic expression of Black dance for all to enjoy.
Joffrey Ballet’s “Atonement” in September: It’s not that Cathy Marston’s latest literary ballet surprised me, exactly. But I didn’t expect it to stay with me this long. Ian McEwan’s marvelous novel “Atonement” inspired the ballet about how a single mistake can have a ripple effect over decades. Yumi Kanazawa shined as the main character, Briony Tallis, a role which asks a single dancer to evolve from a naïve, entitled young girl to a despairing, guilt-ridden grown-up — without losing her creativity and imagination along the way. Kanazawa does not carry the ballet alone. Impassioned performances by Amanda Assucena and Alberto Velazquez as ill-fated lovers Cecilia Tallis and Robbie Turner, plus a fully-invested ensemble bringing this sweeping, cinematic tale to life in one of Joffrey’s most beautiful productions — yeah, that sticks with you.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at Steppenwolf in November: Hubbard Street waited until mid-November to kick off their season in a new venue, reviving works by Kyle Abraham, Lar Lubovitch and Aszure Barton on Steppenwolf’s mainstage. It was a perfect fit for the main event: a trio of works by musical theater legends Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon umbrellaed under the title “Sweet Gwen Suite.” With this joint venture with Nicole Fosse of the Verdon Fosse Legacy — performed masterfully by Cyrie Topete, Dominick Brown and Aaron Choate — one wonders what cards artistic director Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell has left to play. But seeing Fosse and Barton share a single stage together made surprising sense as it was happening, a dazzling reminder to trust the new captain of Hubbard Street’s re-energized ship.
Deeply Rooted Dance Theater at the Auditorium in November: It feels cruel and unusual that this terrific program got just one night in front of audiences after months of preparation. That is likely a consequence of this contemporary troupe trying to make a go of it in the big, beautiful Auditorium Theatre — the first Chicago dance company in recent memory to self-produce there. And here’s the thing: it’s working. The main floor and balcony were nearly filled. After decades in the middle, Deeply Rooted has boldly asserted itself as one to watch, targeting a higher echelon with bold repertoire for its always extraordinary dancers and lots of changes under the hood to strengthen the organization. That’s hard work, but it shows, no clearer than in a rousing program closer, “Lifted.” The choreographer, Jeffrey Page, is just one degree of separation from the Queen Bey herself — it doesn’t get much bolder than that.
Lauren Warnecke is a freelance critic.
