The Joffrey\u2019s whole, entire year:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s safe to say the Joffrey Ballet (whose New York chapter is\u00a0beautifully chronicled<\/a> at Wrightwood 659) could not have imagined the year they\u2019ve had three decades ago, showing up in Chicago penniless and on the brink of closure. Against all odds (and perhaps better judgment), then-artistic director Gerald Arpino believed it would work. Apparently, he was right. Current artistic director Ashley Wheater has stretched his company to the limit this year, with some of the biggest and rangiest repertoire ever \u2014 and they\u2019ve risen to every occasion. The delightfully wacky one-act \u201cPrincess and the Pea\u201d<\/a>\u00a0came a few months before Christopher Wheeldon\u2019s enormously ambitious\u00a0\u201cAlice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland.\u201d<\/a> The U.S. premiere of Liam Scarlett\u2019s \u201cCarmen\u201d<\/a>\u00a0was mere weeks before the company\u2019s Harris Theater\u00a0debut <\/a>\u2014 all capped off with a magical \u201cNutcracker\u201d<\/a> that\u2019s finally found its full, glorious footing<\/p>\n Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Auditorium in March:<\/strong>\u00a0Opening night of the Ailey company\u2019s annual visit to Chicago was one of the more special moments in this critic\u2019s career, marking the\u00a0final time<\/a>\u00a0veteran dancer Vernard Gilmore would perform with the company in his hometown. Gilmore retired last season after 30 years with the organization. The joint appreciation shared between dancer and audience for a most remarkable career is something I\u2019ll never forget. When they come again next spring, Gilmore\u2019s front-and-center spot in \u201cRevelations\u201d every night will be someone else\u2019s. And that dancer will be working under new leadership; the former head of Juilliard\u2019s dance division, Alicia Graf Mack, has just begun her tenure as the fourth artistic director of that lauded institution.<\/p>\n \u201cChildren of Dharma\u201d at the Harris Theater in March:<\/strong>\u00a0Minneapolis-based Ragamala Dance Company has thrice visited the Harris,\u00a0most recently<\/a> illustrating sacred stories from the \u201cMahabharata\u201d through stunning music and dance. \u201cChildren of Dharma\u201d was less opulent than previous works shown in Chicago, but no less impactful, forcing the eye toward the dancers and the story they tell through physical gestures and emotive expressions. The gist seemed to be the reward that comes from care for the earth and each other, and how resisting material temptations will pay off in the end \u2014 an apt lesson for us all.<\/p>\n Twyla Tharp at the Harris Theater in April:<\/strong> The two works that made up her 60th anniversary \u201cDiamond Jubilee\u201d<\/a>\u00a0felt unexpectedly sentimental for Tharp, who revisited her 1999 tongue twister of a dance called \u201cDiabelli\u201d out of a desire to ensure it didn\u2019t get lost. Even her newest work, the stunner \u201cSlacktide,\u201d was made in the shadow of her 1986 tour de force \u201cIn the Upper Room.\u201d Surprising, indeed. But if I know anything at all about Twyla Tharp, it\u2019s her ability to defy expectation again and again.<\/p>\n Trinity Irish Dance Company at the Museum of Contemporary Art in May:<\/strong> Trinity Irish Dance\u2019s first-ever self-produced concert was small by comparison to its usual digs at the Auditorium and other big houses around the world. But for its 35th season, they brought Irish dance to spaces it\u2019s never been<\/a>. That includes both the storied dance festival Jacob\u2019s Pillow and the MCA, where they premiered a landmark collaboration between artistic leads Mark Howard and Chelsea Hoy and contemporary dance choreographer Stephanie Martinez. Called \u201cThe Sash,\u201d the piece is a powerful message on peace through the lens of Northern Irish composer Kevin Sharkey\u2019s upbringing at the height of a bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants.<\/p>\n \u201cTo Leave You\u201d at the Museum of Contemporary Art in September:<\/strong>\u00a0Part multimedia curio cabinet, part karaoke party, Robyn Mineko Williams\u2019\u00a0deeply personal sketch<\/a> was created and performed with fellow long-tenured Hubbard Street Dance Chicago alums Jessica Tong and Jason Hortin (plus inextricable contributions from composer Nate Kinsella and Manual Cinema\u2019s Julia Miller). The trio\u2019s post-Hubbard Street lives showed up in \u201cTo Leave You,\u201d a piece with movement vocabulary that is perhaps more cautious than what they might have performed a decade ago, but is unquestionably gratifying and imbued with a physical place and practice that still fit like a glove \u2014 with all the complexities, curiosities and hindsight of middle-agedness added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Capulets\u201d at the Ruth Page Center in November:\u00a0<\/strong>One of the biggest swings of the year came from Chicago Repertory Ballet, whose original\u00a0full-length ballet<\/a> featuring lesser-known characters from Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d was its most ambitious project to date. Ambition alone isn\u2019t a reason to celebrate. The entire team brought this company to the next level, with an immersive multimedia setting and capable ensemble rising to the occasion \u2014 that occasion being artistic director and choreographer Wade Schaaf\u2019s vivid imagination.<\/p>\n Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at Steppenwolf in November:<\/strong> Of the three programs on view this year, the\u00a0most recent<\/a> stands out as clear evidence of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago\u2019s excellence, and artistic director Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell\u2019s curatorial vision for her company. It\u2019s deeper than \u201cwe do it all,\u201d which has been a perpetual theme of Fisher-Harrell\u2019s tenure thus far. Indeed, the presence of works by Bob Fosse, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger and Aszure Barton on a single evening certainly seems to support that idea. But the nuance is an excavation of the company\u2019s history and extrapolation of its long-standing ability to present dance and dancers on the vanguard.<\/p>\n![\"Victoria](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CTC-L-ENT-WONDERLAND-JOFFREY-11.jpg\")
Victoria Jaiani and Amanda Assucena in “Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland” by the Joffrey Ballet. (Cheryl Mann)<\/p>\n![\"Twyla](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CTC-L-ENT-THARP-PERCUSSION-02.jpg\")
Twyla Tharp Dance’s 60th\u00a0anniversary \u201cDiamond Jubilee\u201d performance at the Harris Theater in Chicago is accompanied by Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion and flutist Constance Volk. (Kyle Flubacker)<\/p>\n![\"Nate](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CTC-L-ENT-DANCE-FALL-2025-02.jpg\")
Nate Kinsella and Robyn Mineko Williams in “To Leave You,\u201d which opened the Chicago Performs festival with performances at the MCA. (Chris Strong)<\/p>\n![\"Wade](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CTC-L-ENT-CAPULETS-BALLET-03.jpg\")
Wade Schaaf’s world premiere of \u201cThe Capulets\u201d by the Chicago Repertory Ballet at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. (Jorge Sigler)<\/p>\n
![\"Ensemble](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CTC-L-ENT-ENSEMBLE-ESPANOL-03.jpg\")
Ensemble Espa\u00f1ol Spanish Dance Theater performs a 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Auditorium Theatre. (Jose Calvo)<\/p>\n