JOFFREY SEASON SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE.

JOFFREY SEASON SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE

JOFFREY BALLET OF CHICAGO AUDITORIUM THEATRE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MARCH 15-25, 2001

Critic Clive Barnes once opined that Gerald Arpino must be a syndicate of several choreographers. And diversity did characterize the spring season at the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, where Arpino serves as artistic director.

The season opened with The Taming of the Shrew, the full-length ballet John Cranko adapted from Shakespeare's tale of a lady with a bad temper. Shakespeare wrote a darned good play and Cranko, keeping close to the text, turned it into a terrific ballet. Staged by the Stuttgart Ballet's Georgette Tsinguirides, the Joffrey dancers were peerless, and left the audience cheering.

Maia Wilkins, as the rambunctious Katherine, and Davis Robertson as Petruchio, her swaggering bridegroom, gave stellar performances in this ballet, which has been praised since its 1969 debut. Their alternates, Taryn Kaschock and Willy Shives, performed well but were overshadowed by the stars. Tracy Julias, as the gentle Bianca, and Samuel Pergande, her handsome suitor, contributed notably, as did the long list of dancers in demanding roles. That the once-beleaguered Joffrey could stage an intricate, full-length ballet so well sealed the company's status as a Chicago treasure.

The spring season's second week highlighted twentieth-century masterpieces: Antony Tudor's Lilac Garden, Leonide Massine's Les Presages, and Arpino's Viva Vivaldi. The Joffrey clearly portrayed the private woes and intimacies of Lilac Garden, showing a comprehension of Tudor's choreographic innovations, which had made so strong an impact at the ballet's 1940 American debut. The dancers mastered the psychologically motivated movements, which were couched in classical vocabulary. Wilkins and Julias alternated as Caroline, the young lady being forced into a marriage of convenience.

Les Presages, Massine's prophecy of doom set to Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, is a work whose grandeur clearly emerged in the Joffrey's performance. Massine's intricate mass movements were muddled in the early performances by those overworked Ballets Russes companies. In the Joffrey's disciplined dancing, designs emerged. Wilkins brought an excitement to the pseudo-modern dance movements of the opening scene, identified as Action, and Guoping Wang made the few moments assigned to Fate important.

Arpino's choreography has often been taken for granted, as was true of Viva Vivaldi, created when the company sorely needed works to fill a sparse repertoire. But this spring's performances revealed Viva Vivaldi as a truly masterful ballet that held its own against such blockbusters as Lilac Garden and Les Presages. The choreographer packed the one-act piece with lovely classical movements. Twelve corps women dancing in unison multiplied the simple steps of one passage into a climactic event. Calvin Kitten and Randy Herrera danced the bravura passages of the finale, capping the ballet thrillingly.

Wilkins, a star in every type of role, from the combatant in The Taming of the Shrew to the gentle lover in Secret Places, has emerged as a prima ballerina. And special credit should go to Joffrey alumni Mark Goldweber, Charthel Arthur, Cameron Basden, and Adam Sklute, who coached the company to perfection.