Ballet Chicago. - Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, IL - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, August, 1994 by Maura Troester

Ballet Chicago took a major step forward with the premiere of Hansel and Gretel, the company's first evening-length story ballet. With the Tribune Charities/Ruth Page Foundation's monopoly on the annual Nutcracker (which provides many people in this city with their first taste of ballet), Ballet Chicago has made do since its founding in 1987 with a repertoire of short pieces that do little to give it a sound identity. Hansel and Gretel provides the company with a signature piece, something on which the public seems happy to hang its hat: Attendance during the engagement, part of the Spring Festival of Dance, was strong.

For all its commercial success, the production is somewhat disappointing. Hansel and Gretel is more than a fairy tale about two children, abandoned in the woods, who meet a wicked witch. It also has strong psychological and social undercurrents, which artistic director Daniel Duell and resident choreographer Gordon Peirce Schmictt have obviously kept in mind. The problem is with focus. In one scene the ballet is a social commentary on poverty; in another it's a psychological ballet; and in still another it tries to be magical. Not surprisingly, the final product is somewhat spotty.

Duell and Schmidt's vision is strongest when they concentrate on the psychology of the characters. The most impressive performance of the evening was given by Lisa Cueto, as the Stepmother who reluctantly decides to abandon the children in the forest. The choreography deftly communicates her thoughts through a series of clenched fists, twisted fingers, and loping spins of despair and indecision. If as much attention had been lavished on the psychological importance of the fairies and other creatures of the forest, this production might have the depth it needs to really touch our hearts.

But just like Hansel's bread crumbs that get eaten by the birds, the drama established in the first act disappears in the second. While Guoping Wang and Meridith Benson, as Hansel and Gretel, dance with grace and childlike charm, other performances are less compelling. It's not surprising that when Hansel and Gretel find their way back to their parents, the joyful reunion feels somewhat hollow.

Kimberly Schmidt's rescoring of Engelbert Humperdinck's opera, written just before the turn of the century, is suitably sumptuous and serves the production well. Jeff Bauer designed a gorgeous preshow curtain painted with a verdant German valley, but he paid far less attention to his costume design. Poor people don't look poor; fairies don't seem magical; and the beasts of the forest look flat-out phony.