By Lauren Warnecke
Why Aspen Santa Fe? It’s a catchy name that I thought might have some deep meaning, but it’s simpler than I thought. They’re from Aspen - and Santa Fe. For a moment I thought, “That’s weird,” and then in the next, “Oh, that’s kind of brilliant!”
It’s hard enough to maintain an elite dance company in New York or Chicago, but regional companies must find it particularly challenging to reach an audience big enough to sustain themselves. I still thought the selection of these particular cities for a split residency was kind of weird, but then I looked up Santa Fe on Google maps and realized I don’t know my geography that well. The two cities, separated by only 300 miles, are close enough to justify dual citizenship, but couldn’t be more different in landscape or culture. What a fascinating process it must be to be surrounded by the majestic Rocky Mountains one week and by the flat, red, American Southwest the next. It sounds like a win-win to me.
In its first visit to Chicago in two years, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet returns next weekend to grace the stage in an exciting one-night-only engagement. The company is bringing its technical prowess to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance along with three works specifically commissioned for ASFB. In its 16-year history, the company has only seen one Artistic Director, and, not being a choreographer himself, Todd Mossbrucker (once a principle dancer with The Joffrey Ballet) seeks out the best of the best to set work on his excellent dancers. Namely, Finland’s Jorma Elo, Spanish choreographer Cayetano Soto, and Chicago’s Alejandro Cerrudo (resident choreographer for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago) are featured on this program of never-before-seen-in-Chicago dances. We know Cerrudo’s work well by now, but this will mark the first time Chicago has seen his work set on another company.
In watching excerpts from next Saturday’s concert, I found ASFB’s repertory to be a display of bravura akin to our big home companies. While similar in some ways (perhaps, if for no other reason, because of our familiarity with Cerrudo’s work), Aspen Santa Fe is a company with an aesthetic all its own. For example, Jorma Elo’s Over Glow places challenging contemporary ballet choreography accompanied by Mendelssohn and Beethoven in front of a bright cyclorama that mimics a Southwestern sunset. The self-proclaimed “jewel of a dance company in the American West and beyond” embodies the places they call home through unique work that epitomizes their mission of presenting “top global choreographers, distinctive groundbreaking works, and virtuoso dancers.”
--Aspen Santa Fe Ballet performs October 5, 7:30pm, in a one-night engagement at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance (205 W. Randolph). Tickets are $25-75 available at the Harris Box Office, by phone (312-334-7777) or online at harristheaterchicago.org