This was, after all, the first LIVE performance sponsored by Auditorium Theatre since the pandemic’s start. When Mark Kelly, Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Culture and Special Events, had started off the performance by crowing about how culture would bring the city back, he was given loud cheers in return. YES! The drought has ended.
This Let Me Sing Forevermore duet, choreographed by Jessica Lang, was actually the third of four performances by American Ballet Theatre (ABT), or, if one counts the pre-show warmup on stage, perhaps it could be counted as fourth of five. Reminiscent of a Degas classic inside view of dancers backstage, the ABT troupe did their warmup for all to see. Unlike Degas’ dancers though, some of these dancers wore vibrant color patterned leg warmers, while others were garbed in running clothes or casual jackets over the tutus. Each dancer seemed to inhabit their own planet on the stage—this one going up and down on pointe, that one from position three to five, and here a leap, and there a leap. The layers came off one by one too, letting us get a good view of the one-shouldered bright-colored costumes worn in La Follia Variations that followed their warmup.
