chicagoballetomane

I think the lack of coverage of the ABT season is a puzzling contrast to the constant coverage of Sara Mearns' every move.

Wow! Sarah is in on Thursday!

A few clips of Skylar Brandt dancing Medora during her time in ABT II, when she was a cast member of Dance 212:

Amazing video with Wendy - I got emotional listening to her talk!

What a wonderful performance! I loved the clean and unaffected style of her dancing - quite different from watching Ashley Boulder in the same role. Such a joyful performance!

They're fairly challenging, but 32 fouetté turns is much more difficult, in my experience. There's no excuse for a professional dancer, let alone an ABT principal, not to be able to perform either type of fouetté. If you can't do it, do something else or have someone else dance the role.

Right now Ashley Wheater is trying to make the company SFB 2.0/NYCB lite. I echo your wish for the Joffrey to harken back to its roots. Over the last several seasons, one of the best pieces that stood out to me was Arpino's Sea Shadow - absolutely breathtaking. I will admit that the Wheelson Swan Lake was delightful, so I don't disagree with Ashley's choices entirely, just most of them. I almost walked out of the most dreadful Bayadere imaginable when Joffrey staged Houston Ballet's appalling watered down trite.

I have seen this version of the ballet in Chicago, and I agree that it is difficult for the dancers to overcome the choreography. I so wish Wheater would bring back Cranko!

I saw this program as well and agree with your review. The dancers certainly made with best of the music and lighting in Infra. I was squinting to try to focus on the dancers. I too enjoyed Yosh's solo, despite the cracking static he was performing to. I hope the Joffrey retires this piece for a long time.

Does anyone know of Adrian D-W is injured?

I saw the ballet again today, and I only enjoyed it more on the second viewing. I agree that the music does not match the action of the opening scene in front of the fence, by the remainder is quite musical. I even found the grand pas more enjoyable this time around. The audience was totally engaged where I was sitting. I look forward to seeing this production for years to come!

Last night I attended the premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s new Nutcracker for the Joffrey Ballet! The show was sold-out on a cold snowy night in Chicago , and the energy in the Auditorium Theatre was electric with anticipation! The show opened with remarks from Ashley Wheater and Greg Cameron about how proud they were to begin this new Nutcracker tradition at the Joffrey. The premise of the ballet differs from the traditional version – the ballet does not open to a grand party at the Stahlbaum mansion, but rather opens with Marie and other children milling around the grounds of the Chicago world’s fair in December 1892, five months before the fair began. Marie and her brother Fitz are children of a single mother of a migrant worker at the fair, who appears to be a sculptor who creates a “queen of the fair” statue. The opening lays the foundation of the story to come – rats run around on a fence, and a vagrant rat catcher grabs them before they can accost the children. The opening scene also shows the discrepancy between the haves (well-dressed children) and have-nots (Marie and other children of migrant workers). Eventually, Marie and Fitz return home to their mother, who is preparing for a party with other migrant workers. The party begins with great character dancing of different countries, an homage to the homelands of the various workers. The Great Impresario of the Fair arrives at the party (apparently to the surprise of Marie and her mother) with gifts for the children and a Christmas tree. His apprentice, Peter, also attends. Much of the plot unfolds the usual way from there – the Great Impresario gives Marie a Nutcracker doll, it unfortunately breaks and is repaired, and Marie is smitten with Peter. There was a fantastic shadow show with a small model of the fair behind a sheet lighting up as a full-sized moving fair, including a Farris wheel. After the party, Marie and Fitz go to bed on the floor of the living room. She awakes to rats coming into the house, and they drag Fitz away. Fortunately, the Great Impresario and Peter arrive to battle the rats. Although the battle plot line follows familiar lines, the stagecraft and lighting in these scene were absolutely spectacular. The tree growing through a series of scrim movements and lighting design absolutely took my breath away. In fact, I was not 100% paying attention to the dancing because I was so taken with the stagecraft. When the snow scene began, I could actually hear the snow hitting the stage. The snow costumes for both the men and the women were absolutely beautiful, and the lighting again added so much to the scene. The choreography was a bit unusual in some places – the women and men were moving their arms in an angled fashion, perhaps to evoke the angles of a snow flake. To my delight, there were very young girls (approximately 6 years old) in the snow scene, which added to the vibrancy of the scene with approximately 30 people on stage. At one point, the dancers formed two concentric circles, which was a visually pleasing and interesting formation. As the curtain fell after the first act, I wondered whether I had ever enjoyed Act I of the Nutcracker so much, as I usually feel that the party and the battle are drudgery to endure to get to the “real dancing” in the snow scene and Act II. As Act II opens, Marie, the Grand Impresario, and Peter arrive on the fairground in summertime. Marie’s mother appears in a beautiful gold dress as the queen of the fair. As with the Balanchine version, Wheeldon moves the Sugarplum Fairy variation to the beginning of Act II. He does not retain any of the traditional choreography for this variation, but I still enjoyed it. I will need to see it again next weekend before I can remark on any of the particulars of the choreography. There were a lot of attitude derriere poses with the downstage arm raised, but I can’t recall much else about it. The various divertissements were hit and miss. The Spanish dance was a solid, if not particularly remarkable start. The Arabian dance, with two of my favorite dancers Christine Rocas and Fabrice Calmels, was absolutely fantastic! The choreography was very sensual, and because Fabrice is 6’6”, Christine had to be at least 10’ in the air when he carried her on to the stage. At the end of the variation, he carried her out on the back of his neck with no hands, which was quite remarkable. They absolutely brought the house down! The high of the Arabian dance made the low of the Chinese dance all the lower. Only a single male dancer performed, with various pirouettes and entrechat six, accompanied by two sets of puppeteers with two large dragon puppets. I really thought the number needed a bit more bravura action – perhaps a toe-touch, or just a couple more dancers to add some more energy to the number. The Russian/candy cane dance followed as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Buffalo Bill appeared with three women and also performed some impressive batterie, but again did not have particularly flashy bravura moves. He did however perform some very impressive rope tricks. The audience seemed pleased at the end – perhaps I am being to harsh and simply need to see it again. I just didn’t live up to the music for me. It did not help that the dancer portraying Buffalo Bill, Dylan Gutierrez, is my least favorite dancer in the company due to his poor acting skills and his repeated disparagement of Chicagoans on his now-deactivated Twitter account. I enjoyed the Venetian Masked Dancers (Marzipan/Mirlitons) who followed. Nothing about the choreography stood out to me on the first viewing, but overall I found it pleasing. The Mother Nutcracker dance that followed was particularly creative. The dance began with eight children dressed as enormous walnuts who opened and closed their shells and a small army of nutcrackers who emerged from the Mother Nutcracker house attempted to capture them. There was lots of laughter from the audience during this number! The Waltz of the Flowers was performed by glamorously dressed fair visitors, with plenty of gorgeous, fluid dancing by Marie and Peter. I thoroughly enjoyed this number, although again, nothing about the chorography stuck with me in particular after the first viewing. Finally, Marie’s mother and the Great Impresario performed the grand pas de deux. I generally enjoyed it, although I found it somewhat unmusical at times. For example, towards the end of the pas de deux where the music really builds before the cymbals crash, Marie’s mother and the Great Impressario were simply boureeing across the stage, without taking advantage of the drama of the music. I need to see this again, but overall, the choreography left something to be desired on the first viewing. The epilogue was lovely, with Marie waking up to her brother safe and sound and her mother making breakfast. To her delight, the Great Impresario arrives to return the Nutcracker, adding some magic because she had clearly fell asleep with it in her arms the night before. Her mother invites him to stay for breakfast, and he happily obliges. The ballet ends with a complete family sharing a meal together, which was the object of Marie’s dream. Overall, the production was absolutely delightful. Well-tailored to Chicago, and definitely interesting enough to merit several additional viewings. A word about the lead dancers. Victoria Jaiani is my favorite dancer in the company with her incredible flexibility and musicality. I have met her at open ballet classes at the Joffrey and on the public street, and she is just a kind and friendly person. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance as Marie’s mother, which was technically clean and musically fluid. I also enjoyed Miguel Angel Blanco as the Great Impresario – he doesn’t always get leading roles, but here he showed his capacity to carry a ballet, and he should certainly be given additional opportunities in the future. Alberto Velazquez, formerly of the ABT Studio Company, was a capable and confident Peter, who supported Marie in every way and was a strong partner. Last and best of all was Amanda Assucena as Marie – her excellent acting, incredibly pliant back, and high arabesques made the evening an absolute delight. The audience viewed the wonders of the fair through her eyes, and I can’t imagine a better Marie to carry the ballet. I believe this is her third season at the Joffrey, and I look forward to watching her career grow here. I have also met her in open class at the Joffrey, and she is absolutely jaw-dropping in the studio. I give the ballet 3.5 stars out of 4 – with perhaps an extra ½ star to be awarded on further viewing.

Long time lurker, first time poster. I signed up to post a review of the premiere of the Joffrey Ballet's new Nutcracker by Christopher Wheeldon, but this seems to be the only place I can post! Hopefully I will eventually be able to post the rest of the site so I can add my review!