Joffrey Ballet stuns audiences with ‘Anna Karenina’

By Stephanie Racine, Staff Writer

The Joffrey Ballet brought to life Leo Tolstoy’s tragic love story “Anna Karenina” on Feb. 12 in an all-star production.

The ballet will run through Feb. 24.

Choreographed by Yuri Possokhov and composed by Ilya Demutsky, the Chicago Philharmonic performed the score, while Lindsay Metzger accompanied on vocals throughout the production.

The ballet begins with a man being run over by a train. The set design dazzled with a mix of projected media and ornate physical sets, reflecting Tsarist Russia. Anna and Vronsky meet for the first time at the Moscow train station and their immediate attraction palpable. Kitty is introduced at her home, in shades of pink, as Levin and other gentleman vie for her attention, but she is only interested in Vronsky’s impending arrival. Later, the company dances around Kitty as she fights for Vronsky’s attention, with dancers’ multicolored skirts brightening the stage. Anna, in an intricate black bedazzled dress, scandalously dances with Vronsky, dashing Kitty’s hope of a proposal from him.

The stately Karenin, Anna’s husband, is accompanied by robust brass instruments, as he meets his wife at the train station in St. Petersberg. Anna is reunited with her son at home, but domestic tranquility will not last as Anna rushes to Vronsky and their passionate affair begins with a languid and fervent pas de deux.

Anna and Vronsky run away together, but their affair soon sours. Heartbroken, Anna returns to her son and Karenin, but he banishes her forever, in an intricate dance between the three of them. Anna is distraught and undone, performing a frenetic and haunting solo before ultimately taking her life on the train tracks. The production ends, however, on a different note, with Kitty and Levin, now married, frolicking happily together in the countryside, surrounded by blue skies and yellow fields.

The performance is two hours long and runs Thursday through Sunday. For tickets and other information, visit the Joffrey Ballet online at joffrey.org/anna.