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May 22--The great George Balanchine will be on our minds a lot in coming months, as we wait for the long-overdue return of the New York City Ballet this fall.
As a warm-up, Ballet Chicago, one of only a handful of U.S. ballet schools permitted to perform his works, presented its spring repertory program over the weekend at the Athenaeum Theatre, including a rare local rendition of the grand George Gershwin tribute "Who Cares?"
The 1970 spectacular is set to a dozen Gershwin classics, lovingly orchestrated by Hershey Kay and colored by Balanchine's lighthearted, frolicsome mischief. It's a testament to his genius that he could graft Broadway pizazz, even hints here and there of Astaire and Rogers, onto a work that remains confidently balletic, even explosively so. Balanchine uses just about every trick and gesture in the movement handbook, sometimes furiously, and the result is an homage all but implying Gershwin composed with ballet in mind.
It's always a revelation to watch an essentially student company tackle Balanchine's limitless challenges. (There were a few professional guest artists on hand as well.) Though timing and synchronicity are never perfect, the performances suggest that Balanchine is more flexible and adaptable than one might suppose, his poetry and delight shining through even less-than-flawless enactments.
And that's not to suggest that these kids aren't all right. In fact, they're sometimes sensational.
None more so than the exquisite Alicia Fabry, who's off to the Carolina Ballet this summer and who was especially pert and entrancing in "Allegro Brillante," the first Balanchine offering on the bill.
Credit, too, goes to 15-year-old Rachel Jambois, who not only survived the mercilessly intricate footwork in "Valse Fantaisie" but mastered it. Rachelle Butler's exuberant kicks in the "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" selection threatened the theater's ceiling, while the airy, buoyant leaps of Jose Angel Rodriguez suggest the best weapon in the arsenal of balletic speed may well be youth.
That was also ably demonstrated by guest artist Avichai Scher, a terrific spinner who joined the rest of the wondrously fleet cast in artistic director Daniel Duell's "Mono No Aware," a haunting martial arts fantasia.
sismith@tribune.com
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