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Thursday, February 13


dirac

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A review of the Joffrey Ballet by Joseph Houseal for Bachtrack.

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The evening closed with Tony Award winning, New York City Ballet choreographer Justin Peck’s ‘ballet-in-sneakers’, The Times are Racing. The sneakers are a gimmick – that really brought people into the theater – but somewhat conceal what an expertly vibrant and creative ballet it really is. Where Wheeldon desires to match Balanchine, Peck does it by not only borrowing structural and contrapuntal devices Balanchine favored, but also by being truly surprising, and above all, the whole ballet is composed to build excitement. At once, bubbly and darkly psychedelic, The Times Are Racing, incorporating tap and hip-hop, barrels along to pumping electronic music by Dan Deacon. The ballet is such theatrical fun, it is easy to overlook how masterfully it is crafted.

Kyle McMillan reviews the company for The Chicago Sun-Times.

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Mixed-repertory programs need variety to succeed, and Joffrey’s artistic director, Ashley Wheater provides just that, balancing high-flying ensemble works with two ballet miniatures and making sure there are a few laughs along the way.

Lauren Warnecke's review in The Chicago Tribune.

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The Galili pieces sandwiched between “Commedia” and “Bliss!” give a sense of this great choreographer’s range; it’s the first of what I hope will be many chances to see his work in Chicago. A pas de deux called “Mono Lisa” is the better of the two — “The Sofa,” a 1995 trio set to music Tom Waits, is fun, but perhaps a bit dated. The stunning opening look of “Mono Lisa” (Galili designed the lights and, with Thomas Hofs, composed the music on a typewriter) is one that stuck with me through the whole night. Colorless, exposed lighting instruments swinging slightly on their pipes began at knee height and ascended into the air as dancers Victoria Jaiani and Stefan Goncalvez bent their bodies to the very edges of even their tremendous ranges of motion.....

 

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A review of San Francisco Ballet by Jaime Robles for Bachtrack.

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The three short ballets after the first intermission contrasted bravely. Val Caniparoli’s Foreshadow opened. In a narrative love triangle, the dancers are named Anna Karenina (Jennifer Stahl), Count Vronsky (Tiit Helimets) and Kitty (Elizabeth Powell), but the trio bears little resemblance to Tolstoy’s novel and the ballet bears even less. Nonetheless, it’s elegantly staged, set to the driving “Choros” by Einaudi, heated and unrelenting, the music built on a repeating phrase, with violins growing fervent alongside the innovative percussion. The ballet moves from solo to duet and back, with the dancers exalting frantic emotion as their steps shifted in and out of sync.

 

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Q&A with Kevin O'Hare in The Harvard Crimson.

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Kevin O’Hare: I hate to think about it, but I’ve now been connected with the Royal Ballet for 42 years.

I think some things that haven’t changed are our commitment to telling stories, to really bringing the audience along in whatever that story is.........

What has changed is the collaboration with so many different artists, which is really fantastic. I would say the physicality of the dancers is quite something. When I look at what they do now on stage, I think, gosh, I can’t even imagine myself doing that when I was dancing. They’re constantly pushing their body to its limits and really exploring what you can do within classical ballet. We’ve learned so much about how to use our bodies, and how to look after them. There are great dancers of the past [who] could give as much as the dancers of today, but it’s just a very different way of movement quality.

 

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