A lot has happened since Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Wendy Whelan and Francesca Harper agreed to make a dance together. That was 2019, when "Carnival of the Animals" began to take shape around questions of classicism and chaos -- a piece on the U.S. political jungle set against Camille Saint-Saëns' 1886 whimsical menagerie.
Produced by SOZO, "Carnival of the Animals" tours to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on Oct. 19, one of just a handful of engagements to be performed across the country this year.
"At the beginning, it was a leap of faith knowing the incredible talents of these individuals and knowing what they'd come up with together would be powerful," said Harris president and CEO Lori Dimun.
Composer Sugar Vendil's contemporary arrangement of Saint-Saëns' score is played live with two pianos, violin, cello and audio recordings. Lighting designer John E.D. Bass and costumer Elias Gurrola create the container for this unlikely pairing of a former ballerina and a hip hop artist.
"It's a meeting of cultures," said Whelan, who danced with the New York City Ballet for 30 years and has continued performing in freelance contemporary dance projects since retiring. Joseph leaned on his artistic upbringing to script poems drawn from his and Whelan's lived experiences, and how they intersect with systemic sociopolitical issues.
"We had a whole piece on the butterfly, which was a stand-in for talking about migration," Joseph said. "We had a piece on the great white shark, which was a way of talking about gun violence."
"Marc put a ton of his life story into this," Whelan said. Book banning and cultural erasure are undercurrents. So too is Breonna Taylor's death in Louisville, Kentucky, Whelan's hometown. And with Saint-Saëns' movement on "The Dying Swan," memorialized in Michel Fokine's iconic 1905 solo performed some 4,000 times by prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, there's a nod to what Whelan calls her "broken body" at the end of her ballet career on stage.
The pandemic slowed down their progress. Career shifts did, too. But when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attempting to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election, it was as though the timing was pre-determined.
"What they were feeling was this need for a primal release to creatively share something with the world," Dimun said. "What's so interesting about this work is that it's primal in its most beautiful, compelling and inspiring form, versus primal in its most destructive form."
Even since the Seattle premiere of "Carnival of the Animals" this spring, current events continue to seep in, as when the Republican nominees for president and vice president, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, promoted false rumors about Haitian refugees in Springfield, Ohio. Joseph's mother is Haitian.
"I'm mortified by how we're talking about immigrants in general in this country, but Haitians in particular," Joseph said. "We're in a different political moment. I have no problem with the full spectrum of political thoughts and opinions. We can have those discussions pretty lucidly and in a dignified way so long as we're sharing the same reality."
"This piece is like a time capsule," said Harper, who directed and choreographed the hour-long work.
Whelan and Joseph "both are the embodiment of my two worlds," she said. "I was an African American woman in the ballet world. As a ballet dancer, I really understand Wendy's language and the poetry that lives in ballet. And I understand the poetry that lives in Marc's radicalism."
Harper's parents were civil rights activist and attorney John Roy Harper II and Denise Jefferson, director of the Ailey School from 1984 until her death in 2010. Harper and Whelan's paths have crossed throughout their careers, with shared connections to the School of American Ballet and choreographer William Forsythe. The latter excerpted a duet for Whelan and Albert Evans from his ballet, "Herman Schmerman" in 1999 -- around the same time Harper learned the role for Forsythe's company, Ballet Frankfurt.
"There are cyclical moments of synchronicity that have always connected us," Harper said. "There's a real depth of commitment to the art and being brave in the artmaking."
On the point of bravery, Harper, Whelan and Joseph don't deny "Carnival of the Animals" contains some risk by taking a political stance when they all have "day jobs" with some of the country's highest-profile arts organizations. In 2021, Harper was appointed artistic director of the Alvin Ailey II Company. Whelan has been New York City Ballet's associate artistic director since 2019. The same year, Joseph became vice president and artistic director of social impact at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
"We tell this story that actually doesn't point fingers," Joseph said. "It lands us in a place, in a time. We remember a thing that happened. And we remember how we felt. This show is an instrument of public healing."
It is also, almost certainly, the last chance to see Whelan perform in Chicago.
"When this comes around and I put the performer back in my body, it feels so fun and gratifying," she said. "I don't see myself looking for another opportunity to perform, but I'm extremely passionate about this election and about the state of democracy. This is a way for me to participate."
"Carnival of the Animals" takes place at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St. Tickets $33-$109 at 312-334-7777 and harristtheaterchicago.org
Chicago is one of just five cities that will get to see "The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence," a work tracing African American movement from the deep South to industrial cities like St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago. The Great Migration inspired a 60-panel installation by painter Jacob Lawrence, completed in 1941 and last seen in Chicago in 1995. The 30-year-old percussive dance company Step Afrika's 90-minute work ruminating on the piece, made in 2011, is set to live music and includes images of Lawrence's work as its backdrop. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Dr.; tickets $29-$69 at 312-341-2300 and auditoriumtheatre.org