Dance, Stages

Review: Two Winners in the Nutcracker Ballet Relay

My interest in classical music was weaned on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker ballet. So I leapt at the opportunity to do a Nutcracker relay last Saturday: the matinee opening […]

Bob Benenson /
Dance, Stages

Review: A&A Ballet’s Striking The Art Deco Nutcracker Reimagines the Story in 1920s America

A & A Ballet’s production of The Art Deco Nutcracker lavishly illustrates that a dance company need not have a big name to have oversized talent, vision and creativity. The performance last weekend at Athenaeum Theatre featured impressive choreography, stunning costumes and clever reimagining of […]

Bob Benenson /
Dance, Preview, Stages

Preview: Inspired by the Ballet Russe, A&A Ballet Stages The Art Deco Nutcracker

The Nutcracker season has officially begun. All over Chicagoland for the past several months, phalanxes of slipper-clad dancers have been working on battered marley floors, steaming up windows as they rehearse […]

Angela Allyn /