Review: In ‘Swing Low’ by Joffrey Ballet, Angels Arrive to Save a Dancer
The full review first appeared in the June 1, 2021, online edition of the Chicago Tribune.
By Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
Choreographer Chanel DaSilva’s “Swing Low” begins with a dancer — naked heaving torso, tight blue jeans, brown confining face mask — lying among strewed feathers. He might be dead. Even so, the plumage continues to slowly tumble down from the heavens.
But then Fernando Duarte, one of the five male Joffrey Ballet dancers in the piece, starts to stir. He points toward the heavens. And then he flings himself on the floor, demons seemingly scouring over his body.
Death throes, or maybe resilience.
Thereafter, angels arrive. Masked men with wings. Feathers with purpose.