Displaying items by tag: Harris Theatre

BALLET 5:8 is a female - and minority-led ballet company resident at Harris Theatre in Millenium Park. Under the leadership of co-founder, Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Julianna Rubio Slager the company is ‘dedicated to engaging communities in conversations of life and faith through innovative storytelling and breathtaking dance’.  Last February I saw BALLET 5:8 perform Butterfly, inspired by the diary of Helga Weiss. Each dancer depicted an actual person Helga had known during her years at the Nazi concentration camp Terezin, where Jews of special prominence and talent were sent. Helga made many paintings of the camp, which Rubio Slager projected onto the background as the terrible story evolved in dance.

I’m fascinated by Julianna Rubio Slager. She’s created more than 50 works in the past dozen years, each inspired by real people, real events, real situations that Rubio Slager feels compelled to chronicle and demonstrate, often so as to build public awareness of unknown circumstances and predicaments. Me, I’m a wordsmith –I record people and events that I see in writing; thus, my brain is always sifting words, formulating sentences as I walk through my day. One need not be a writer for this of course; I imagine many people see and experience the world around them with words, or see them as photographs, etc. But I have to wonder: what must it be like inside the brain of this woman who depicts the world around her as dance? Through BALLET 5:8 Rubio Slager gives us a glimpse of just what it’s like in there, and last Saturday night she revealed the most amazing things!

LOST WOMEN OF JUAREZ was accompanied by three additional compositions, Counterpart, Wind, and The Sea is Flat, and I’ll discuss them first.

I saw the premiere performance of Counterpart last February with Butterfly, and it was just as lovely this time. A pas de deux performed by Samuel Opsal and Elizabeth Marlin, Counterpoint explores partnership and equality to the music of genre-bending string trio Time for Three. As one might expect in a dance that celebrates the thrill of equality, Wardrobe Head Lorianne Robertson’s male and female costumes were not identical but definitely like. 

Natalie Chinn and Christian English in 'Counterpart'

WIND is aptly named; dancers in flowing skirts partner with Alfonso Peduto’s music, and we can see – can feel – the leaves dancing in the spring breeze, and whipped by the furious barrage of a stormy gale. Dancers in the first and third movements included Lorianne Robertson, Caedence Sajdowitz, Savannah Stach, Jonathan Bostelman, Ellington Nichols, Rachel Walker, Alessia Braggiato, Katrina Clarke, Ford Tackett, Christian English and Samuel Opsal. In the second movement Bostelman, Tackett, and English performed a pas de trois  [I do so love all-male pas de deux and trois!).

The Sea is Flat was an incredibly evocative piece, capturing the sea’s capricious nature while simultaneously depicting its tumultuous essence to the music of Ezio Bosso. One sees chaos and tranquility juxtaposed was the male dancers portray Poseidon, while the female principals bring peace, transformation, and faith, drawing the audience as well as dancers toward serene silence. The cast included Caedence Sajdowitz, Jonathan Bostelman, Ellington Nichols, Katrina Clarke, Valerie Linsner, Sarah Clarke, Libby Dennen, Elizabeth Marlin, Melanie Rodriguez, Lezlie Gray, Sophia Snider, Natalie Chinn, Kayla Kowach, Christian English, Sam Opsal, Jenni Richards, Maggie DeGroote, and John Szwast.

OK, now to LOST WOMEN OF JUÁREZ. Julianna would definitely want me to tell you the story behind the ballet:

El Paso is a factory town, and the factories maximize profit by hiring poor Mexican women for paltry pay.  As non-citizens – and, of course, as women – they have no leverage to demand fair wages and must take any work available to feed their families. These impoverished women live in Mexico, in Ciudad Juárez, and must take public transportation through rough areas to reach El Paso.  In the borderlands between and El Paso and home women are mysteriously disappearing, their corpses later found in the desert but never fully investigated. I’m reminded of MMIW and the thousands of Indigenous Women and girls who are Missing or Murdered yet never effectively investigated. MMIW Task Force attributes these grim matters to historical trauma, racism, and sexual objectification of women … and the same applies in Juárez. The ballet employs the music of Oscar Lopez, Vico C, Antonio Garcia Isaac, Stefan, and Cortando Troncos to tell the story tenderly and with compelling urgency, as this femicide must not continue! 

Change can’t begin until there is widespread awareness of the need for change. The Transtheoretical Stages of Change model describes the process of change beginning at the precontemplation stage, in which there is not yet an awareness that a problem and a need for change even exists. Obviously, with the public at large still unaware of the femicide in Juárez, there is scant impetus for change.  

Taking the first step towards change is the same for an individual or a society: advancement from precontemplation to contemplation requires education. This is what Julianna Rubio Slager is doing with LOST WOMEN OF JUÁREZ – she is instructing the world of this issue to bring justice for the dead women, to alert other women of their peril and, most crucially, to enlighten the public that there is indeed a problem – a calamity! – that urgently needs to be changed.  And she does all this through the medium of dance. Wow.

Rubio Slager lost a family member, Yolanda Soto Rubio, to this mass murder, and Rubio Slager writes herself into the production, danced by Valerie Lisner; Elizabeth Marlin dances the part of the murdered Yolanda Soto Rubio. The dancers represent real women, the dead and the mourners: Lily Alejandra Garcia (Sarah Clarke), Luz Angelica Mena Flores (Libby Dennen), Jessica Ivone Padilla Cuellar (Melanie Rodriguez), Maria Guadalupe Perez Montes (Lezlie Gray), Gabriella Espinoza Ibarra (Jenni Richards), Esmerelda Castillo Rincon (Natalie Chinn), Ingrid Escamilla (Sophia Snider), Adriana Sarmiento Enríquez (Rachel Walker), Griselda Murua Lopez (Kayla Kowach), and Danna Jaqueline Reyes Lopez (Darissy Matias). The LOST WOMEN OF JUÁREZ trace patterns of grief across the stage, against background projections showing glimpses of Juárez and fields of crosses scattered over the desert sands. The slain women have become one with the sand, and their devastated family and friends bring grains of sand to their mouths to incorporate and embrace their lost loved ones.

Lighting, designed by Julianna Rubio Slager and Mike Goebel, was vital to every performance. Rubio Slager has a long-standing interest in stage design, evident in every piece. Lorianne Robertson designed all costumes to be eloquent while remaining as simple as possible.

BALLET 5:8 habitually follows the production with Talkback, where Rubio Slager and a selection of the dancers are available to discuss their experiences of the dances and answer questions. The dancers are gallantly open and frank about how they embody their roles and how that embodiment affects and changes them, while Julianna Rubio Slager candidly reveals her motivations and processes. In a touching coda Rubio Slager announced the promotion of Jonathan Bostelman and Lezlie Gray from Company Artists to Soloists.

A spectator remarked that the cast of LOST WOMEN OF JUÁREZ is all female, which Rubio Slager acknowledged was a conscious decision: the work is about the victims, and she has no inclination to give attention and salience to the villains. Another attender asked about the music, which Rubio Slager admitted was a complex issue – for every composition she must acquire consent to use the piece. Luckily, she adores music and listens to it constantly; if she finds a piece intriguing, she may seek proprietary rights even before knowing exactly where or how she will employ it.

The entire program is performed with intense passion and fervor, depicting ecstasy and anguish, fury and tranquility, with such intensity and authenticity that the cast undertakes but a single performance of each production. Very sad!! But I strongly recommend you join BALLET 5:8’s emailing list so you won’t miss the next production of a Julianna Rubio Slager’s masterpiece!

Giordano Dance Chicago (GDC) has been an integral part of Chicago’s performing arts community for 60 years – more than a half century of bringing groundbreaking commissions, instruction, outreach and (most of all) performances to Chicago and audiences worldwide. This year they are celebrating that 60^th anniversary with Season 60: Catch the Light, Feel the Radiance, Celebrate Giordano, a series of four performances over 2022/2023. This second work in the series was performed March 31 and April 1 at the Harris Theatre. In October 2022 I reviewed the initial production; it was absolutely spectacular. To my amazement, this second program was as good if not better!  

The company of dancers in GDC is extensive so I won’t name them – a full directory with bios is available on the website.

The organization of this production was ingenious, filling the ‘dead time’ between performances with videos where GDC directors and choreographers discuss the preparations for Season 60: Celebrate Giordano.  The first video, “The Magic of Giordano at 60”, introduced the performance of Sing, Sing, Sing. As in the October program, this first piece was one originally choreographed by Gus Giordano (1983) and refreshed by Nan Giordano for the occasion. 

The video “The Magic of Community” preceded the world premiere of Luminescence, specially commissioned in honor of Homer Hans Bryant and choreographed by the inimitable Kia Smith. This may have been my favorite of the night: the music was by U2 and Coldplay, two of my favorite bands; the costumes were totally stunning, and the dance very illustrative of the “Magic of Community”. GDC was joined by dancers from South Chicago Dance, each company enhancing the other. Every dancer’s movement was balanced and integrated with every other dancer: it was very much a company piece, headlining every dancer by spotlighting none.

The video “The Magic of Possibility” introduced La Belleza de Cuba, (The Beauty of Cuba), choreographed in 2013 by Liz Imperio and Whitney Anne Bezzant and danced by the entire GDC Company. The Latin music and costumes provided an intriguing foil to the other numbers.

At Intermission I spoke with several children – kids’ comments are always engaging and often very perceptive.  In addition to various iterations of “I wanna do that someday!” one little girl critiqued the format, saying “The movies were OK I guess, but I liked the other stuff better” – ‘other stuff’ presumably referring to the dancing.

The next number, Prey, is reputedly a favorite of the dancers. Choreographed in 2003 by Ron de Jesus, who also designed the costumes and sound, Prey is technically difficult but gratifying in that the dancers must place a great deal of trust in one another. Much of the movement involves dancers in groups of two, three, or more performing gymnastic stunts, from simply lifting and toting each other about the stage to complex aerobatics involving the entire company – a superb combination of floor exercise and Giordano dance. The powerful Giordano Technique of Jazz Dance is particularly compelling in combination with individual and collective gymnastic maneuvers. The Technique employs rhythmic complexity and precision and the consistent use of core while moving each part of the body in isolation. Stylistically, the dancers are regal and elegant but perform with kinetic urgency and vibrancy.  

The final number portrayed “The Magic of Our Dancers” with Randy Duncan’s 1997 Can’t Take That Away, featuring the Bourné family: Lisa (Mom), Elizabeth, Christina, Katherine, Paul, Timothy, Rebekah, Ehron, and John. Personally, I don’t much cotton to gospel music, but the Bournés are not gospel singers: their delivery of what from any other throats would be gospel transcends the genre – it eclipses music itself. The soaring sopranos seemed to lift the dancers ever higher in a primordial and sublime combination of music and motion.   

This finale, incorporating several gospel numbers and concluding with the title song, was dedicated as a farewell to Ashley Downes and Katie Rafferty, GDC dancers for over a decade. The company’s affection was evident in the esprit de corps the dancers brought to this final dance. Their jubilation spilled over the footlights and into the audience, bringing us to our feet. Finally, the dancers themselves cascaded from the stage to dance in the aisles with the audience, laughing and flinging droplets of sweat as the gamboled. I must admit I’m partial to a performance where I’m spritzed with the performers’ body fluids.

And the best part is that there will be two more performances of Season 60; Celebrate Giordano! I’ll definitely be there, and highly recommend that you check it out as well.

Nan Giordano, Giordano Dance Chicago’s Artistic Director and daughter of founder Gus Giordano, credits its devoted Board of Directors for GDC’s survival through ‘the dark years’ of the pandemic: “Beauty, Energy, Unity and Community are abundant.” Lockdown lifted just in time for the company’s 60^th anniversary show, fittingly named CATCH THE LIGHT.

The show begins with “Giordano Moves”, originally choreographed in 2005 by Gus Giordano and reconstructed in 2022 by Nan Giordano and Cesar G. Salinas. I’m intrigued by the use of 13 dancers – an odd number, yet the stage and action are perfectly balanced throughout. “Giordano Moves” features the essence of the classic Giordano technique, energized by active pelvis and precise, unconventional shoulder placement, with powerful jumps and turns.  The dance acts as a translation from the language of jazz music into the lexicon of the human body.

“commonthread”, choreographed in 2009 by Autumn Eckman, has a ritualistic feel to it, enhanced by Kam Hobb’s masterful light design. “commonthread” begins with five dancers huddled about a pulsating red light, like aboriginals crouching around a fire. As the music evolves the dancers unspool yet retain the primitive undercurrent. My companion (who studied dance growing up in Siberia) envisioned druids performing ancient rites in a primeval forest.

“Impulse”, created in 2006 by Tony Powell and reconstructed 2022 by Cesar G. Salinas, is a stirring yet unsettling experience. The dancers appear to be naked in flesh-colored leotards. Their angular and acrobatic movements are complemented by the music, which includes Ethos Percussion Group and Kodo Drummers of Japan. My mind kept conjuring words like abrasive, harsh, dehumanizing, even gruesome.  A performance that invokes such descriptors yet remains totally captivating is rare indeed.  

At the interval I asked a little girl (8 or 9, perhaps?) for her thoughts; she said, “They don’t have words like a play does, but they speak to us.”

“Groove, in formed” was created in 2019 by Peter Chu. Mr. Chu says, “[music & dance] connects humans at a profound level … rhythms can heal and bring communities together during times of sadness, grief, love, and joy”. The dance begins with a saxophone keening as half the dancers lug the others about: inanimate objects, to be positioned and postured like marionettes until a syncopated percussion returns them to life. “Groove, in formed” includes an exquisite male/male pas de deux. I’m partial to male/male pairings in art and performance – I wish the Olympic figure skating included male/male partner skaters: only imagine how fabulous if both skaters could perform lifts and throws! 

Or maybe I just like seeing boys with boys. Any road ….

We are treated to a world premiere of “lub-dub”, choreographed by Cesar G. Salinas, former GDC dancer and newly appointed Associate Artistic Director. The artist conceived the dance as representative of ‘the normal rhythms of the heart on auscultation’, which was my immediate association as well. The spectacular lighting illuminates the swirling skirts of the dancer’s red waistcoats – like the traffic of red corpuscles, unifying through the driving rhythms.

The final piece, “Soul”, was choreographed in 2018 by Ray Leeper in honor of Chicago philanthropist Candace Jordan. Always a crowd-pleaser, three well-known and beloved songs make for a spectacular ending. Imagination, by Gladys Knight and the Pips, features dancers in abbreviated black formalwear with sapphire bowties on the males and cummerbunds on the girls. At the end of the song the dancers all seem to drop to the ground, which I interpret as homage to the shooting deaths that are wreaking such havoc. In Al Green’s Can’t Get Next to You, various one duos play mating games onstage. And the finale, Tina Turner singing Proud Mary, brought the entire house to its feet. The standing ovation persisted through one curtain call after another; when the ensemble finally left the stage it was only to reappear dancing through the aisles. What a celebration!

Giordano Dance Chicago has done far more than simply survive the pandemic – it has used “the dark years” as a springboard, returning to the stage with all its elegance and vitality not simply revived but enriched.

Nan Giordano Artistic Director   

Michael McSraw Executive Director

ENSEMBLE: Brittany Brown, Joseph Cyranski, Ashley Downs, Ryan Galloway, Rosario Guillen, Amanda Hickey, Adam Houston, Emma Kempson, Sasha Lazarus, Zachary Morris, Skyler Newcom, Katie Rafferty, Fernando Rodriguez, Eduardo Zambrana

Set on a simple stage with deep techno music, A Glimpse Inside a Shared Story by Yin Yue is a powerful and controlled showing from all of the dancers. The fabric that makes up the costumes is muted and fluid, only showcasing the smooth movement even more.  At times, when the group was onstage, is seemed a bit out of sync, but the solo performances left little to be desired. The ease in which the dancers made the complicated, strong and controlled movement is incredible as it is almost unnoticed.  The entire ballet felt like anticipation; like the music was building up to something more, though it never quite go to that point. 

Robyn Mineko Williams returns with 2014's Waxing Moon and the trio of Andrew Murdock, Jacqueline Burnett, and Jason Hortin prove their talent in the emotionally charged piece. A man is battling the demons within his own mind, struggling with the good and the bad, the positive and negative thoughts that we all face. At times he succumbs to the dark thoughts only to later be slowly coaxed back with hope and lights. The piece relates to anyone who has found dark corners in their mind and had to fight their way out. 

Out of Keeping by Penny Saunders is a bright and exciting ballet, reminiscent of a watercolor painting. Pairs of dancers in bright colors come to the stage, at times seemingly battling for the attention of the audience, other times reveling in their own space on the canvas. It is an uplifting and fast paced ballet that is enjoyable and well danced by all. 

By far the most moving piece of the series Solo Echo by Crystal Pite utilizes the whole stage, bringing snow indoors for the performance. The dancers don cargo pants and vests, and seem to be grieving old memories of friends or family. At times watching the memories fade away and then trying to bring them back one last time. The dancers exude energy and emotion throughout the whole piece, making it exhilarating to watch, and almost exhausting at the end. 

The Hubbard Street Winter Series is a compelling ballet from the company playing at Harris Theatre through Sunday. At times there is room for some polish, but overall the works are well rounded and compelling.