Joffrey Ballet of Chicago continues on a roll of good fortune, both in honoring the past and in heralding the future of American dance.
This weekend’s program in the Auditorium Theatre has been smartly assembled as a salute to the centenary of composer Aaron Copland’s birth and features two classic works of dance theater with (taped) Copand scores, Martha Graham’s “Appalachian Spring” and Eugene Loring’s “Billy the Kid.”
Meticulously presented as they are — and “Billy the Kid” looks as clean and freshly danced as it ever has — the most exciting segment of the generous program comes with “Lyric Discourse,” a new seven-minute piece by choreographer and composer Tony Powell, 31, of Washington, D.C.
To create the dance and the music for a new ballet is labor enough, but to have them come from the same man, with such a graceful ease and such an exciting propulsion, is extraordinary.
Without rushing to judgment, it’s safe to say that Powell shows signs of being a born dance maker. His sense of theater is there in the striking shifts of lighting design (by Kevin Dreyer) and in the speeding, ever inventive formations for the dancers. At the same time, his music, a percussion score he created on his computer, moves and invigorates the dance. It’s not an imitation of Copland, but an attempt by a talented young artist to break some ground of his own.
The dance uses five couples, dressed in plain, classic body stockings (in vivid red, designed by Rebecca Shouse), with Leticia Oliveira and Randy Herrera as the lead duo.
It is clearly influenced by George Balanchine, with a bit of Gerald Arpino added; but the precision of attack, the vision that melds the individual movements into a cohesive whole, and the flair for vivid theatricality — these are Powell’s outstanding attributes in “Lyric Discourse.”
There is not a dull moment in it.
“Appalachian Spring,” which is 56 years old this month, is one of Graham’s revered, prime works on American themes.
In the spare framework of Isamu Noguchi’s scenery, it takes place in a pioneer wilderness, where a young man and woman have built their home.
Graham mixed folk dance with classic ballet vocabulary in this work, which she called one of “joy and love and prayer.”
With her swooping, imploring gestures, it is a mythic work, as well. Its abstractly titled Bride and Husbandman are joined by Pioneer Woman, Revivalist and four female Followers; and when they are not dancing, they strike statuesque poses.
The Joffrey dancers, splendidly tutored by Graham veteran dancer Yuriko, are led by Willy Shives as the husband and the exquisitely lissome Taryn Kaschock as the bride.
The program, which also includes Randy Duncan’s graceful “Copland Motets,” closes with Loring’s masterpiece, the 1938 Western dance/drama “Billy the Kid,” featuring a very strong, dynamic turn in the title role by Davis Robertson.
The company finishes its Copland salute Sunday and resumes its fall season Thursday with an all-Arpino program.
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Joffrey Ballet of Chicago
When: Through Sunday
Where: Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy.
Phone: 312-902-1500
