We’re not exactly provincial in Chicago; there’s a pretty hefty smorgasbord of dance here. Still, many classics of 20th century dance aren’t often seen on our stages, especially danced by the New York companies for which they were created.
Since 2006, the Chicago Dancing Festival has aimed to broaden Chicagoans’ experience of world dance old and new. But I don’t recall another program as chock-full of American choreographic masterpieces, and brilliant dancing, as this year’s opening night, Tuesday at the Auditorium Theatre. Two works by George Balanchine and one by Martha Graham celebrated female artistry, while the 21st century fourth piece was unisex.
Pennsylvania Ballet made its CDF debut in Balanchine’s 1940 “Concerto Barocco” (to be performed again Saturday). It’s not a big piece — a corps of eight women, two female principals and one man — yet it shimmers with the sense of a germinal world. Scrupulously symmetrical during the first movement of Bach’s Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, it feels restrained, formal, even a little airless, the formations and mirroring movements creating two facing groups, a vacant space in the middle.
Something is missing. As in Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” perfection isn’t perfect. And in the second movement, a male-female duet explodes symmetry. The couple’s loving care (exceptionally musical in the hands of Lillian Di Piazza and James Ihde) breeds a new kind of community, as the corps joins the man and woman in entwining loops — a vision of God’s complicated toy, driven by many gears and containing wheels within wheels. By the third movement of “Concerto Barocco,” there’s a jig with arms swinging.
That incipient freedom busts out for real in the cocky kicks and flashy finishes of Balanchine’s showbiz showcase, “Who Cares?” (1970), set to 16 George Gershwin tunes and performed here by the six dancers of Stars of American Ballet. All are members of New York City Ballet: Balanchine’s home troupe, which pretty much never tours. And the “Who Cares?” concert version performed here, consisting of the final eight numbers, proved a thrillingly intimate experience.
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“The Man I Love” duet set a benchmark for elegant passion, especially as danced by Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar. Later, Hyltin’s exuberant takes on the dizzying turns of the “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” solo wowed the crowd. To the complex “Who Cares?” tune, towering Teresa Reichlen and Ask la Cour epitomized flash, while Brittany Pollack and Daniel Ulbricht epitomized cute in “Embraceable You.” Great fun.
Another treat: Seeing the original danced context for Aaron Copland’s oft-heard score in Martha Graham Dance Company’s “Appalachian Spring” (1944). A vivid storyteller, Graham creates four characters and a group who personify faith in different forms: The Followers, slavishly devoted to the Preacher; the half-maniac, half-clown fire-and-brimstone Preacher himself; the Bride and Husbandman, whose buoyant faith grows out of youth and hope; and the oracular Pioneering Woman, tried in the fires of experience. More than 70 years old, the piece tests today’s attention spans. But exceptional performances — especially by Charlotte Landreau as the Bride — definitely repaid close attention.
Alexander Ekman’s 2011 “Episode 31,” which the Joffrey Ballet first performed at CDF in 2013, seems made for our short-attention age. A jolt of decidedly non-balletic energy, it both provided a change of pace and stood out on this program for its anonymity and formlessness. Dead-end short bits, set to an eclectic score, just fizzle out. Only the longest scene, a male duet, intrigues.
Laura Molzahn is a freelance critic.
Wednesday: 6 and 8 p.m. at Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.
Thursday: 7:30 p.m. at the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St.
Friday: 5 p.m. at Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave.
Saturday: 7:30 p.m. at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park
Tickets: Free; chicagodancingfestival.com