Displaying items by tag: Ballet Chicago

It was the flippant statement heard round the humanities. An errant comment, a sweeping generalization, and another dismissive remark towards the arts. While the internet might have lambasted the commentator, the commentary at its core is the erroneous belief or misunderstanding that the arts are a relic of a bygone era. Despite repeated talks of automating away human interaction and computers replacing all the creative elements of life, art, opera, ballet, and more thrive in Chicagoland. One cannot walk anywhere in Chicago without seeing works of art in all their forms, celebrated and muraled and inviting to visitors and locals alike. There is no truer testament to the lasting power of an art form than in its inclusive programs that empower the next generation, offering them time and space to captivate audiences of all generations. I can recommend no finer program than Winning Works, now playing at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Winning Works is a mission-driven, access-oriented initiative that upholds The Joffrey Ballet's core values of “Joffrey for All.” Performed by students and trainees of the Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet, the program provides opportunities for everyone, regardless of background, to experience, support, and participate in dance. The goal of the award is to recognize talented, emerging choreographers whose unique perspectives will inspire creativity in the form of original works of dance. Through Winning Works, the Joffrey aims to broaden access for artists who have been historically excluded from the art form and empower those who embody its values to shape the future of dance.

The Grainger Academy and Winning Works is the strongest example we have that ballet might change and grow and evolve with the times, but will never fade into obscurity. The performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art is itself an exhibit of movement, exploration, love, and light. Set against its contemporaries, Winning Works features incredible performances that leave you spellbound, each more unique than the last. Each performance features a brief introduction by the choreographer, detailing their reflection on the program and staging a performance offering a unique perspective only the artist themselves could give the audience. Audience members will love the contemporary movements of To Carry Our Own Names by DaYoung Jung, enjoy the whimsicality of Alexandra Schooling’s Hushed Power, shimmy and shake along with Daniel Ojeda’s Visitors, bask in the glow of the light and airy Eclat by Julia Feldman, and marvel at the uniqueness of Fran Diaz’s A Strange House We Must Keep. There is truly something for everyone, all performed by the incredibly talented young dancers who will no doubt grace the stages of the grandest theatres across the world.

For as many years as I have lived in Chicago, I have heard “the arts are dying,” that they are old-fashioned and outdated. Truth be told, it’s rarely heard from Chicagoans, mere projections from those who would never visit the city let alone entertain the arts. Like the many seasons (and false seasons) of this great city, the arts and humanities have their seasons of flourish and seasons of slumber. Like Spring itself, Winning Works ushers in the new season with new performances filled with light, love, and beauty. Commentators may come and go, but ballet and the arts will always stand the test of time.

Winning Works is performing for a limited run from March 13-15 and March 19-22 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago). Tickets are available at https://joffrey.org/. As a bonus, audience members can show their Winning Works program book to receive a free admission voucher to the MCA, proving that the arts are inescapably intertwined and will always win.

The ballet BUTTERFLY: HOPE IN THE TEREZIN GHETTO was inspired by the diary of Holocaust surviver Helga Weiss. The concept, choreography, and Lighting Design of BUTTERFLY are the work of Julianna Rubio Slager, Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer at BALLET 5-8. Two shorter ballets formed the first portion of the program: WIND, choreographed by Steve Rooks, and COUNTERPART, another creation of Julianna Rubio Slager, who was also Lighting Designer for all productions.

WIND is aptly named; dancers in flowing skirts partner with Alfonso Peduto’s music, and we see – even feel – the movement of spring leaves dancing delicately in the gentle breeze, and the furious barrage of a stormy gale. Dancers in the first and third movements included Miranda Rubio Opsal, Lorianne Robertson, Kayla Kowach, Libby Dennen, Natalie Chinn, Jenni Richards, Katrina Clarke, Ford Tackett, Christian English and Samuel Opsal. The second movement was a pas de trois with Jonathan Bostelman, Ford Tackett, and Christian English.

COUNTERPOINT explored partnership and the thrill of equality, a pas de deux performed by Samuel Opsal and Elizabeth Marlin to the music of genre-bending string trio Time for Three. I particularly liked Wardrobe Head Lorianne Robertson’s costumes: stark black lines forming geometrical shapes on pale peach leotards. As one might expect in a dance that celebrates equality, the male and female costumes were like but not identical.

To  return to BUTTERFLY:

The ballet takes place in various locations at Terezin, differentiated using props and, most of all, projections. The projections were created by Juliana Rubio Slager with the assistance of Annika Graham and Jeremy Slager, and each projection depicted the paintings and drawings Weiss created while imprisoned at Terezin. The fourteen cast members represent actual persons whom Helga Weiss knew in Terezin. Of these fourteen, nine perished, chiefly in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

A little historical background may be helpful here. Terezin was originally a holiday resort near Prague, reserved for Czech nobility. In 1940 the Gestapo turned the resort into a Jewish concentration camp and ghetto. Terezin was unique in that many of the detainees were scholars, artists, scientists, philosophers, and musicians. This  made Terezin a cultural camp unlike any others, earning it the sobriquet ‘Paradise Ghetto’.

More than 150,000 Jews were detained at Terezin for months or years before being sent “East”, to Treblinka, Majdanak, and Auschwitz extermination camps. 90,000 Terezin detainees were deported; 33,000 died in Terezin itself and, of 15,000 children, less than 150 survived.

Terezin was heavily propagandized by the Nazis. BUTTERFLY depicts the most notorious disinformation campaign, the “Great Beautification” of 1944, in response to Danish King Christian’s demand for a Red Cross inspection of Terezin.

The Nazis transformed Terezin for the inspection, planting gardens and renovating barracks, building shops, cafes, and playgrounds. Social and cultural events were staged for the visiting dignitaries, and the delegation was led along a painstakingly groomed route through the camp. The Red Cross reported to King Christian that Terezin was indeed quite pleasant, its inmates happy and healthy.

King Christian actively resisted Nazi deportation of Danish Jews; stating “one Dane is like another”, and wearing the yellow star symbol himself. However, Good King Christian also volunteered his own army to assist the Gestapo in rounding up gay Danes; their badge was a pink triangle and they received the same treatment at concentration camps as did Jews.

Just sayin’.

At the risk of sounding repetitious, back to BUTTERFLY.

The props were minimal but eloquent and the projections were magnificent – depicting scenes painted by Helga in Terezin, showing stone walls and concertina wire, horribly crowded bunks, piles of suitcases. Each scene of the ballet corresponded to a date in Helga’s diary, with quotations from the diary in our programs. Helga was twelve (young Helga danced by Ellington Nichols) when she arrived at Terezin in October 1941 and met her mentor Friedl Dicker-Brandeisˢ (Valerie Linsner). Again, each dancer depicted an actual historical person: teacher Irma Lauscherˢ (Lorianna Robertson), musician/conductor Rafael Schachter (Samuel Opsal), Jewish leader Heinrich Veit Simmons (Melanie Rodriguez), Pavel and Malvina Brandeisova (Christian English and Lezlie Gray); Mr. Kˢ, survivor of Nazi medical experimentation (Jonathan Bostelman), Helga’s father Otto Weisˢ (Ford Tackett) and mother Irena Fuschsovaˢ (Caedence Sajdowitz), while Miranda Rubio Opsal danced the part of Helga as an adult. The cast included four children: Zuzana Winterova (Libby Dennen), Eva Bulova (Sarah Clarke), Honza Trechlinger (John Szwast), Petr Ginz (Kayla Kowach), and Hannah Messingerˢ (Sophia Snider), the sole surviving child.

[NOTE: the symbol ˢ depicts those who survived Terezin.]

It must have been difficult dancing the parts of the so-easily duped Red Cross Delegates: Maurice Rossel (Analiese Hunter), Agnes Detlefsen (Rachel Walker) and Cecilie Kaas (Marissa Woo). Even more difficult but brilliantly performed were the four Nazi soldiers: Oberaufseherin Hildegard Neumann (Elizabeth Marlin), Oberaufseherin Elisabeth Schmidt (Katrina Clarke), Frau Gretel (Natalie Chinn) and Frau Marie [inspired by Caecilia Rojko] (Jenni Richards).

Helga was sustained by the heroic work of Friedl-Dicker Brandeis and Irma Lauscher; her story and artwork bear witness to the horror of the Nazi regime.  Even more so, BUTTERFLY celebrates Helga’s work as metaphor, a symbol of how the Jews of Terezin endured unimaginable brutality and atrocious privation through ART.

The music of BUTTERFLY includes sections composed by Terezin residents Gideon Klein and Hans Krasa, (both perished at Auschwitz); also works by Lorne Balfe, Thomas Oboe Lee, Clare Reitz, Alexander Shonert, Bedrich Smetana and Giuseppe Verde. The ballet’s name, BUTTERFLY, memorializes a poem by that name written in 1942 by Pavel Friedmann, who perished at Auschwitz September 29 1944.

One is aghast at the art that was irretrievably lost in the Holocaust. Rafael Schachter composed Defiant Requiem; its haunting performance for the Red Cross representatives was of course unrecorded and now will never be heard; Schachter perished in the 1945 Death March.

And what of all the genius extinguished before it could even be manifest? How many unrealized Rafael Schachters, Rosalind Franklins, Ignaz Semmelweis’, Howard Shores, Alexander Flemings, Emma Lazarus’, Marc Chagals, Marcel Prousts, Fritz Habers, Albert Einsteins, Leonard Bernsteins, Herman Wouks, Camille Pissarros, Gertrude Steins, Gustav Mahlers…

[I could go on for many pages before running out of Jewish geniuses, even if I only list those that are household names.]

BUTTERFLY is testament to the strength and resilience people in dire straits can derive from Art.

Similar strength and resilience were demonstrated after the performance in “The TALKBACK”, a special Ballet 5:8 tradition occurring directly after the performance, wherein Artistic Director Juliana Rubio Slager and Artists of the Company hold an open panel discussion. Each panel member described a particular scene or event that spoke to them personally. Most of the artists were in tears, as were many in the audience. Audiences were invited to ask questions; most revealed themselves as descendants of Holocaust. The panel was fully as moving as the performance.

There was but a single performance and it was poorly attended.

I don’t want to know the sort of people who missed BUTTERFLY in favor of the Superbowl.