Ballet Theater of Chicago
Ballet is hard. In every sense. As I sat down to watch Ballet Theater of Chicago at the Athenaeum–in a solid performance peppered with brilliance–I was desperately trying to suspend the disbeliever in me, the part that has trouble reconciling the pretense, the artificiality, and the majesty and fantasy of ballet with the fact that most of us need more than a proscenium stage, dramatic lighting, and shimmering costumes to “escape.” The disbeliever asks, “Why are the dancers smiling so much?” and “Into what unreachable land are they gazing?” I want reality, not pretense. I want edge, not fantasy. I want real people onstage, not heroes, fairies, or princes. I want to be moved, not awed. I want to be reminded of joy, not handed it on a platter.
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The piece calls for a proud demeanor, but perhaps the dancers are also proud of their tenacious young company, propelled by the vision of artistic directors Mario de la Nuez and Meridith Benson. The dancers’ faces belie the anxiety produced by small audiences, an uncertain future in a difficult funding climate, and a city whose heart seems big enough to embrace only a few major dance companies. The BTC dancers must be tough. And at the beginning of Majisimo, that toughness seemed to affect their performance: it was solid but a little stiff and overdone. However, as the piece progressed into the male quartet and through the end, the fire behind these dancers’ resolve began to shine through, and they offered their talents with unapologetic passion. The payoff for ballet dancers, who spend years reshaping their muscles and bones, comes during performance, when they become the means by which an audience is transfixed–however fleetingly–in wonder.
The second and third preludes find the pair intertwined among patches of light, liquidly embracing in a series of virtuosic but repetitive lifts. While the latter sections of Three Preludes also showcase Benson’s astonishing range, the choreography loses its emotional impact. At this point I wanted to know more about the couple’s relationship, which dissipates given the length of Rachmaninoff’s pieces. I was awed by the dancing, but not moved.
