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Bodies in motion: Chicago dance season filled with anniversaries and milestones

The 2025-26 dance season around Chicago is full of notable milestones and anniversaries. There are several premieres and revivals among the Windy City’s famed dance companies that specialize in ballet, modern and folk dance traditions. Internationally acclaimed dance companies are also making visits to Chicago and surrounding suburbs.

Bountiful ballet

The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago is celebrating the company’s 70th anniversary season, and it has been 30 years since the Joffrey Ballet relocated from New York to make Chicago its artistic home.

The Joffrey Ballet’s 2025-26 season features the premieres of two story ballets that have also been successfully adapted as operas from their original novels (appropriate for their main Chicago performance home at the Lyric Opera House).

Opening the Joffrey season is the U.S. premiere of “Carmen” (Sept. 19-28) by the late choreographer Liam Scarlett (“Frankenstein”). Though the ballet score features music from Georges Bizet’s hit-filled 1875 opera version, Scarlett shook things up by resetting his 2015 dance version of “Carmen” on the brink of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

Concluding the season June 4-14 is a new version of “Eugene Onegin” by choreographer Yuri Possokhov and composer Ilya Demutsky. It re-teams the collaborators of the Joffrey’s “Anna Karenina,” so don’t expect any of Tchaikovsky’s music from his opera adaptation. The Joffrey also celebrates important choreographers from the company’s history, like co-founders Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino, as part of the mixed repertory program “American Icons” Feb. 19 through March 1.

Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s Chicago-inspired production of “The Nutcracker” is set to be revived by the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago at the Lyric Opera House in December. Courtesy of Cheryl Mann, Joffrey Ballet

Christopher Wheeldon’s Chicago-centric take on “The Nutcracker” is also back for another season Dec. 5-28.

The Joffrey Ballet also branches out for separate performances of “Matters of the Heart” Nov. 6-9 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago. On the bill is the Chicago-inspired love story “Wabash & You,” plus a tribute to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo called “Broken Wings.”

Other ballet companies visiting the Harris Theater include the Grand Kyiv Ballet with “Swan Lake” Oct. 1. Then, on Oct. 11, Chicago-based Ballet 5:8 presents its annual gala and a mixed repertory program called “Beauty Will Save the World.”

Ballet 5:8 also continues to tour choreographer Julianna Rubio Slager’s modern take on the Mexican myth of “La Llorona.” See it Oct. 4 at College of Lake County’s Lumber Center for the Performing Arts in Grayslake and then Oct. 18 at Governors State University in University Park.

Chicago Repertory Ballet boldly presents the world-premiere story ballet “The Capulets” at the Ruth Page Center in Chicago Nov. 7-16. Choreographer and founding artistic director Wade Schaaf takes another look at “Romeo and Juliet” from a different angle, instead imagining a secret love affair between Lady Capulet and Tybalt.

Classical Arts Entertainment also presents tours of classic Tchaikovsky story ballets. “The Sleeping Beauty” plays the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie Nov. 9, while “Swan Lake” plays the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan Nov. 14 and the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet Nov. 16.

And since F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” is now in the public domain, a touring ballet adaptation is now crisscrossing the nation. World Ballet Company’s “The Great Gatsby Ballet” plays the Rialto Square Oct. 4 and the Genesee Oct. 16.

Jazz and contemporary dance

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago continues its partnership with the foundation Fosse Verdon Legacy for the 2025-26 season. This is a dance foundation created to preserve and perpetuate the works of Hollywood and Broadway choreographer Bob Fosse and his frequent muse, Gwen Verdon.

Hubbard Street’s Fall and Spring Series features Fosse’s “Percussion IV,” plus a spring return of the Fosse/Verdon collaboration “Sweet Gwen Suite.” Other Hubbard Street fall repertory includes “A Duo” by resident artist Aszure Bartion, “Black Milk” by Ohad Naharin and Johan Inger’s “Impasse” at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago Nov. 14-23.

Hubbard Street then switches to the Harris Theater in Chicago for its Winter Series (Feb. 26 through March 1) and Spring Series (May 14-17). For details, visit hubbardstreetdance.com/.

Al Blackstone’s “Sana” is revived Oct. 18-19 by Giordano Dance Chicago at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. Courtesy of Anderson Photography

Giordano Dance Chicago, the first U.S. company to focus on jazz dance, launches its 63rd season Oct. 18-19 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. There’s an encore of “Sana” by “So You Think You Can Dance” choreographer Al Blackstone, a revival of “Red & Black” by “Dancing With the Stars” choreographer Ray Leeper, and the return of “333” by Gus Giordano and Cesar G. Salinas. Giordano Dance Chicago’s spring season then switches to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago April 10-11.

Red Clay Dance Company, which bills itself as “Chicago’s premier Afro-contemporary dance company,” has collaborated with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago for a choreographic response by founding artistic director and CEO Vershawn Sanders-Ward to the artwork “Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar.” This immersive dance piece plays Sept. 20-21.

South Chicago Dance Theatre opens the 30th anniversary season of The Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University in University Park Sept. 27. The performance features works by choreographers Kia S. Smith, Monique Haley, Tsai Hsi Hung and more.

Ailey II, an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company of early-career dancers, is set to perform in choreographer Francesca Harper’s “Luminous” and other repertory works Oct. 25 at College of DuPage’s McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn. Courtesy of Nir Arieli

And Ailey II, an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company of early-career dancers, is set to perform a repertory program Oct. 25 at College of DuPage’s McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn.

Festival features

The return of the free CHICAGO LIVE! arts festival at Chicago’s Navy Pier is a way to sample several smaller dance troupes Sept. 20-21. This year’s festival includes Aerial Dance Chicago, Momenta Dance Company, Visceral Dance Chicago and Chicago Dance Crash. The complete roster is at navypier.org/chicago-live/.

Momenta Dance Company will perform during the free CHICAGO LIVE! at Navy Pier Sept. 21. Courtesy of Michelle Reid Photography

The Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival plays the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in Chicago Sept. 26-27. Just a few of the local companies include Aerial Dance Chicago, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre II, Giordano II, Little Fire Artist Collective and The Seldoms. The full schedule can be found at hccdf.com/.

Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre also showcases Chicago’s Latinx choreographers exploring issues such as immigration, colonialism and biracial identities in the “Latinx/e Contemporary Movement Festival” Oct. 11 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts.

And on Nov. 15, the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University is set to host Chicago’s own Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater to commemorate the dance company’s 50th anniversary.

Nutcracker variations

“The Nutcracker” may have debuted in Russia in 1892, but the Tchaikovsky Christmas ballet has become a tried-and-true holiday classic in the U.S. starting in the mid-20th century. Local audiences can choose from a variety of homegrown and touring productions.

“Ruth Page’s Nutcracker” was an annual tradition at McCormick Place’s Arie Crown Theater long before the Joffrey Ballet’s take on “The Nutcracker” became the main professional Chicago production. “Ruth Page’s Nutcracker” can be seen again this year at Governors State University in University Park Dec. 6-7, at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago Dec. 13-14 and at College of Lake County in Grayslake Dec. 20-21.

Another Lake County tradition is Dancenter North’s “The Magic of the Nutcracker,” though performance dates were yet to be announced.

Chicago’s Athenaeum Theatre also plays host to a few different takes on this Christmas chestnut. The Grand Kyiv Ballet tours “The Nutcracker” on Nov. 20, while A & A Ballet’s “The Art Deco Nutcracker” returns Dec. 6.

Ballet Chicago’s “The Nutcracker” moves house this season to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago Dec. 19-21.

A tour of “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet” returns Dec. 14 to the Rosemont Theatre.

Salt Creek Ballet's “The Nutcracker” returns Dec. 19-21 with the New Philharmonic at College of DuPage's McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn. Courtesy of Keith Gerling, Salt Creek Ballet

And Westmont-based Salt Creek Ballet tours its version of “The Nutcracker” to Hinsdale Central (Nov. 29-30), the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie (Dec. 5-6) and the McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn (Dec. 19-21). The College of DuPage performances feature live music from the resident ensemble of the New Philharmonic.

Salt Creek Ballet tours its production of “The Nutcracker” to Hinsdale Central (Nov. 29-30), the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie (Dec. 5-6) and the McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn (Dec. 19-21). Courtesy of Keith Gerling, Salt Creek Ballet

Von Heidecke’s Chicago Festival Ballet performs “The Nutcracker” Nov. 30 at the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet.

And Schaumburg Dance Ensemble celebrates its 30th annual “Nutcracker” Dec. 4-14 at the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg.