The house of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance was well filled-in last weekend for Day of the Gypsy, a collaboration between RPM Productions and legendary gypsy jazz composer John Jorgenson. Led by former Grand Rapids Ballet Artistic Director Gordon Pierce Schmidt, Pacific Northwest Ballet star Laura Berman, and Joseph Jefferson Award winner Jeff Bauer, RPM Productions’ debut performance in Chicago featured an all-star cast of dancers and Jorgenson’s phenomenal quintet – Jorgenson, a Grammy Award-winner, with guitarist Jeffrey Radaich, violinist Jason Anick, percussion by Rick Reed and Simon Planting on upright bass – performing live.
Gordon Pierce Schmidt has for decades been nurturing a love for gypsy jazz, a unique style of music first made famous by Jean "Django" Reinhardt in the 1930s. Day of the Gypsy is a full-length ballet realizing Schmidt’s passion for fusing jazz music and contemporary ballet. The combination of ballet and jazz is not new, and nothing about Day of the Gypsy felt particularly ground breaking or edgy. Yet, Schmidt and Jorgenson’s flavors of the genres, presented together, felt different and drew in a unique audience. In Chicago, we don’t have too many choices for professional ballet, and if nothing else, Gordon Pierce Schmidt brings something to the table that is distinctly his.
In the ballet, gypsy girl Yumelia, danced by former Joffrey Ballet dancer Yumelia Garcia, plucks a magical scarf from the moon. Her companion Django (Randy Herrera) steals the scarf and conjures an “Average Joe," danced by former Ballet West star Tom Mattingly. Mattingly ascends the stage from the front row of the audience, and he and Yumelia fall in love. There’s some back and forth about who loves whom and he-said, she-said, particularly with featured former Joffrey dancers Jennifer Goodman and Teanna Zarro, but that’s pretty much the extent of the story.
The plot of this ballet is, in truth, almost non-existent, and that’s actually ok. Schmidt’s choreography allows the music and the dancers to be the true stars of the show. Listening to the score, it’s easy to understand Schmidt’s deep affection for the genre. The music evolves throughout the evening to truly explore the versatility of gypsy jazz, with the first act evoking images of a European cafe and the second act reminding of the raucous Squirrel Nut Zippers. The expert design team (lighting from Hubbard Street’s Jason Brown and Julie Ballard and scenic design by RPM’s Jeff Bauer) beautifully compliments the shifts in mood and helps to give the loose plot a through-line.
While Day of the Gypsy features a truly impressive all-star cast of seasoned performers, it's a mish mosh of freelance dancers who shine more as individuals than as an ensemble. Schmidt’s challenging choreography is surprisingly classical; juxtaposed with cool, roisterous gypsy jazz it was difficult to tell if the dancers’ upright postures and sometimes stiff execution were by design, or perhaps due to unfamiliarity with the movement or a slippery stage. In the second act the dancers took a bit more liberty to lighten up and let their bodies respond naturally to the music. With time, this ballet will gel and is likely to become something truly magnificent; it's a shame it couldn’t have enjoyed a longer run of performances.