Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s gothic story of creature and creator, is brought to life in the late British choreographer Liam Scarlett’s 2016 ballet of the same name, which will be staged October 12 to 22 by the Joffrey Ballet. Scarlett often chose monsters as his subjects, and this Midwest premiere is a psychological thriller in every sense: spectacularly macabre visual design, a cinematic score, and Scarlett’s signature vocabulary of gorgeously lush dancing. In hindsight, the ballet is also a metaphor for Scarlett’s own deeply personal battle for agency. After parting ways with the Royal Ballet following allegations of sexual misconduct, Scarlett took his own life in 2021 at age 35. His creation, though, lives on.
Giordano Dance Chicago revives the 1999 powerhouse piece Le Grand Futur by Mia Michaels (of So You Think You Can Dance note), plus crowd pleasers Jolt and Sneaky Pete, for the start of the legacy jazz company’s seventh decade. Oct. 27–28
Zephyr Dance applies its time-tested dance-plus-architecture formula to Merce Cunningham’s Suite for Five, deconstructing and reconstructing the iconic 20th-century choreographer’s work with former Cunningham dancer Paige Caldarella, vogue specialist Darrell Jones, butoh expert Kota Yamazaki, and Venezuela-based Roxane D’Orléans Juste. Oct. 19–22
Akram Khan Company returns to the Harris Theater with a stunning contemporary dance theater adaptation of The Jungle Book, using the Rudyard Kipling tale to address 21st-century challenges like climate change and migration. Nov. 9–11