Partly to boost its box office after a somewhat disappointing winter engagement, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago is ending the season with “The Company: Favorites,” a program heavily laden with works from last year’s movie.
It’s nonetheless an excellent collection, tingling with the technical novelties that would naturally appeal to a filmmaker. But the most exciting piece on the lineup, on view through May 16 at the Auditorium Theatre, isn’t from the movie.
That piece is Gerald Arpino’s gloriously simple elegy, “Ruth, Ricordi Per Due,” a tribute to Ruth Levy, late mother of Barbara Kipper, a crucial Joffrey supporter.
“Ruth” previewed a year ago and received its official premiere Wednesday. Capitalizing on ballet’s affinity for death and danger, “Ruth” is a heartbreaking exploration of grief.
“Italian Suite” is probably Arpino’s most famous homage to his Italian-American heritage. In many ways, “Ruth” is an even more acute example, set to Tomasso Albinoni’s stirring Adagio in G Minor for Organ and Strings and rich in imagery out of Renaissance sculpture.
In a threadbare plot wherein a man invokes the image of his dead wife or lover, Arpino uses swoops, lifts and embraces for as emotional a ballet as any in his prolific canon. Performed brilliantly by Maia Wilkins and Willy Shives, “Ruth” is a celebration of their onstage partnership, his stoic presence ever supporting her wistful, tragic delicacy.
Elsewhere, the program dazzles with color, light and inventive stagecraft.
Laura Dean’s 1999 “Creative Force,” her eighth work for the troupe, is a rollicking ensemble piece, showcasing the leaps of the men, the turns of the women and the speed of them all. Steeped in Dean’s minimalism and repetition, it is one of her more accessible and joyful works, ingeniously dressed in hot-red satin (she co-designed the costumes with Rebecca Shouse) and festive in its responses (including hints of Latin ballroom) to the score by Rockford composer John Zeretzke.
Arpino’s “Valentine” is a modernist sendup, a quirky, itchy pas de deux casting the romantic man and woman as pugilists. Key is the role played on stage by contrabass player Joseph Guastafeste, who provides musical accompaniment and, in the end, a bit of acrobatics.
“Valentine” also is a bravura workout for Julianne Kepley and relative newcomer Fabrice Calmels, a statuesque French dancer with clean technique and memorable presence.
There seemed no end to the beauty and luster of Emily Patterson’s performance in “White Widow,” Moses Pendleton’s and Cynthia Quinn’s lush solo for a woman in a rope swing. Nor did the clever, streamer design and geometric creations in Alwin Nikolais’ “Tensile Involvement” detract from Patterson’s and Matthew Roy Prescott’s superb lead portrayals.
Amidst all this gimmickry, Robert Joffrey’s comparatively traditional salute to 19th-Century ballet, “Pas Des Deesses,” seemed staid and a little slow, despite fine dancing from Wilkins, Suzanne Lopez, Michael Levine and an especially flashy Stacy Joy Keller.
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“The Company: Favorites” plays through May 16 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy.; Phone: 312-902-1500.
