Our three picks for dance
Russian Masters
A choirboy turned choreographer
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The Rite of Spring, the Igor Stravinsky/Vaslav Nijinsky collaboration for Ballet Russe, was so shockingly, discordantly new when it premiered in Paris in 1913 that the audience rioted. After a handful of performances, Nijinsky’s deliberately awkward choreography—for a fertility ritual that ends in death by dance—disappeared. In 1987, historian Millicent Hodson pieced a version of it together for Robert Joffrey, who also commissioned reproductions of the original sets and costumes (ancient Russian, perhaps with a whiff of Native America), and made it part of his company’s repertoire. This special one-weekend, four-performance run celebrates the centennial of this seminal work of modern music and dance. It’s part of “Russian Masters,” a program that also includes George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and two contemporary pieces choreographed for Joffrey dancers by Yuri Possokhov, Bells and Adagio. —Deanna Isaacs
Ballet West may be located in the Wild West—Salt Lake City—but this 50-year-old company is no backwoods operation. Since 2007, under the direction of former Joffrey dancer Adam Sklute, it’s performed more than 20 world premieres. In 2012, it became the first ballet company featured in a reality show, the CW’s Breaking Pointe, thereby inciting controversy over whether it’s sullying the image of classical dance or just keeping up with the times. Also in 2012, perhaps in a case of art imitating life, Ballet West debuted a dance for 14 based on a short story at least as controversial: Shirley Jackson’s 1948 “The Lottery” inspired Val Caniparoli’s work of the same name.
Sat 11/16, 10 AM-5 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago, 312-280-2660, mcachicago.org, free with $12 museum admission.
