The Joffrey Ballet had little time to get comfortable following some departures and the addition of 10 new company members at the end of August. Fresh faces peppered last night’s cast list, the majority of whom eventually appeared onstage with giddy excitement during last night’s 2015–2016 season opener at the Auditorium Theatre. Maybe it was a consequence of having arrived just prior to the company’s milestone 60th anniversary season. Whatever it was, the night beamed with so much new energy that it likely had many local dance fans anxiously anticipating the future.
It was serendipitous that last night’s short-lived program (only through Sunday), “Millennials,” employed a title that suggested a changing of the guard. The new guard did not disappoint. Each performer brought something extra to the table, proving that the company and its new members—six of whom hail from Korea, Brazil, Canada, Russia and Columbia—are ready to lead the way as artistic director Ashley Wheater forges ahead with plans to bring the company into the 21st century.
The Joffrey wasted no time introducing its new team, either, starting with a curated program that highlighted three notable contemporaries and featured lots of surprises, including two world premieres and a Chicago debut. Not too mention an appearance by the choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, director of Broadway’s smash hit “An American in Paris” and arguably the most talked about choreographer this side of the Atlantic.
Opening the program is the premiere of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Mammatus,” set to a dizzying score titled “Weather One” by composer Michael Gordon. “Mammatus,” made for 20 dancers, derives from Latin meaning “Mammary Cloud.” Ochoa, who continues to be a rising force in choreographic circles, takes her cues from the rumble and tumble of nature, an organic if not mischievous compilation of phrases as fierce as they are delicate. Adorned in black, skin-tight, long-sleeved shirts and bottoms, the cast is emblematic of kinetic energy, bounding and leaping amidst a white backdrop and an elegant construction of neon lights that hovers above the stage; fog engulfs this cumulus bunch as they ricochet from one sequence to the next, building and building until the energy can build no more. Ochoa’s musicality was impressive given the incessant score.
San Francisco Ballet’s Myles Thatcher was the evening’s most notable Millennial. Just 25-years-old, Thatcher is inquisitive if not ambitious in his approach. “The Passengers”—the program’s second world premiere and Thatcher’s first piece for a major ballet company outside of San Francisco Ballet—had the makings of a mercurial ’50s romance that occasionally left much to be desired. The dancers fill the cabins of a traveling train, indiscriminately interacting with each other, forming spontaneous relationships, a subtle nod to the concept of “people-watching”. Thatcher, who has been traveling extensively over the last year, seems bent on exploring the idea that strangers in close quarters are not, in fact, strangers at all. “Passengers” can be both suspenseful and mildly formulaic, but Thatcher's gifts are undeniable. He is on track to join the ranks of the Christopher Wheeldon’s of the world.
And speaking of Wheeldon: The final third of “Millennials” three-piece program is once again reason to anticipate the future. Wheeldon will soon bring a new Nutcracker to Chicago in 2016, but in the meantime, we’re left to marvel at “Fool’s Paradise,” a gorgeous medley of emotional highs and lows. Wheeldon has described “Fools Paradise,” which uses music by Joby Talbot, as a construction of moving statues. For nine dancers, the piece exudes the qualities of a lovely fable, as if traipsing through a palatial garden. Flower petals fall from the rafters as elegant formations frequently induced a slew of breathless expressions from the crowd, a testament to Wheeldon’s mass appeal. Getting to the point: “Millennials” is not to be missed.