Joffrey’s ‘New Works’ in a New Location

The Joffrey Ballet caps its 20th anniversary season in Chicago with two weekends of  “New Works” at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. With the NFL draft taking place in Joffrey’s home at the Auditorium Theatre, the company relocated to the Palace for a spring series that, though called “New Works,” contained no world premieres. The program featured one from the rep alongside three company premieres (two of which are on loan from New York City Ballet (NYCB)).

When a piece has no affect or adornment, technique and precision are its stars. Sometimes dancers can hide behind lavish costumes and sets, but the quintessentially sparse style of most of the NYCB rep does not allow for mistakes; it simply has to be perfect. The Joffrey Ballet’s rendition of “In Creases,” Justin Peck’s first ballet for NYCB and recreated for Joffrey this spring, wasn’t quite perfect, but it was pretty darn close.

Joffrey’s highly anticipated premiere of it-boy Justin Peck’s “In Creases” mostly delivered, but at times the piece seemed unnecessarily hard, making it almost impossible to find the precision required to really shine. What a joy, though, to have Philip Glass’ “Four Movements for Two Pianos” performed live on stage by Grace Kim and James Lewis seated at the keyboards of head-to-head Steinways upstage. Though the work has few breaks, several of the dancers find moments of stillness framing the pianos – corps de ballet style.  Peck’s choreography, though clearly derived from Balanchine’s lineage, has an almost jazzy flare, and refreshing moments of levity, as when the dancers galumph downstage one by one in a sort of hopscotch over a pile of dancers.

Christopher Wheeldon’s “Liturgy” is, in some respects, cut from the same cloth. Originally set on NYCB’s Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto, “Liturgy” is beautiful. And hard. And long. The music, Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres” is a richly dramatic score that provides an arc that truly compliments this piece, but it’s a song that is heavily overplayed in dance (Forgivable, perhaps, when considering that this piece premiered in 2003).

Closing the program is “Incantations,” a long-winded whirling dervish of a dance chock full of bravura and athleticism, peppered with a few attempts at modernism. I’m not exactly sure what inspired choreographer Val Caniparoli to intersperse his otherwise traditional ballet with movement resembling that of Erick Hawkins, but at least it provides a diversion from the relentless drone of a dance that otherwise has one tone. The exception here is the ending duet originally designed for dancers Joanna Wozniak and Matthew Adamczyk for “Incantations’” 2012 premiere. With Adamczyk out due to an injury, Dylan Gutierrez filled in seamlessly for the absolutely stunning pas de deux. It just took too long to get to it.

The third work of four on the evening is “Evenfall,” a joyful jaunt, and the only piece on the program containing some sort of narrative. The Poet (danced by Rory Hohenstein) dreams up a couple and follows them through their lives. Anastacia Holden and Derrick Agnoletti play a young and energetic couple in love, and Victoria Jaiani and Fabrice Calmels as the seasoned, mature version of the same couple in its golden years. Emotional commitment and clear characterizations are further embellished by stage dressings that include a modern desk and computer, through which the contemporary Poet enters into an antiquated era through his imagination, and large frames through which each couple fades in and out of being. Choreographer Nicolas Blanc (who also happens to be Joffrey’s Ballet Master) created “Evenfall” on the five dancers for the Festival Danse en Place’s in Montauban, France, and the work speaks to these dancers’ strengths, if for no other reason than it was built on them. Although its placement in a program of storyless works deems it a teensy bit cliché, “Evenfall” and the Wozniak – Gutierrez duet in “Incantations” were exemplary moments in an otherwise “same-same but different” evening.  In other words, Joffrey is best when it does Joffrey. They needn’t try to be anyone else, certainly not NYCB. We like them just the way they are.

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