FROM FRIDA TO FUNK,
MATTERS OF THE HEART THRILLS

When words fall short of capturing the fullness and depth of life’s experience, there is dance—or more broadly, art itself. That truth was made irrefutably clear last weekend when The Joffrey Ballet joined forces with Harris Theater for Joffrey at the Harris: Matters of the Heart, a collaboration between two of Chicago’s cultural powerhouses that proved just how rapidly dance continues to evolve as a luminous interpreter of our souls and our times.

With the two-act program of Broken Wings and the world premiere of Wabash & You by two wonderfully prescient choreographers, the esteemed company leaves the ivory tower and proves it can dazzle just as blindingly in other domains and contemporary formats.

The Joffrey Ballet Ensemble in Broken Wings

The first half, Broken Wings by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, celebrates a woman who had already become legend long before her death in 1954. The shadow Frida Kahlo cast upon the world through her paintings continues to captivate and provoke wonder. Many of her works were self-portraits, her piercing gaze a constant reminder of her unflinching force. Premiering nearly a decade ago at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, Broken Wings resurrects Kahlo’s spirit and reminds us she was everything Vanessa Severo’s one-woman show at Writers Theatre earlier this year claimed her to be: “a woman who lived boldly, loved wildly, and painted prolifically.”

Dylan Gutierrez and Anais Bueno in Broken Wings

With music by Peter Salem, performed live by the Chicago Philharmonic and enhanced with gorgeous Mexican folk elements woven throughout, Broken Wings not only captures Kahlo’s legacy—it makes it palpable and amplifies its timelessness.

Kahlo’s life was defined by fate. Horrific injuries she sustained at 18 from a major bus accident fractured her spine, pelvis, ribs, and collarbone. Surgeries and pain became lifelong companions, counterbalanced by an iron will and copious talent. The mix created a complicated and determined woman. Supremely danced Thursday night by Anais Bueno in the role of Kahlo, Bueno portrayed a flower of steel, often wilting in anguish only to rise again through sheer mettle. Seeing these traits enacted with such power through movement alone, and wrapped in Salem’s alluring score, was remarkable.

Anais Bueno and The Joffrey Ballet Ensemble in Broken Wings

Others in the company—specifically nine male Fridas—revealed other aspects of her character through dance. Dieuweke van Reij’s radiantly colorful costumes helped make them a transfixing force. Combined with Ochoa’s distinctive and beautifully original choreography, the phalanx of Fridas became a fixation whenever they appeared on stage.

Anais Bueno and The Joffrey Ballet Ensemble in Broken Wings

Representing the subject in Kahlo’s 1946 painting The Wounded Deer, Lucia Connolly danced the part of a commiserating alter-self who brought comfort to the artist during her most grueling physical trials. Conveying delicacy and profundity in equal measure, Connolly helped us fathom the full measure of Kahlo’s physical plight—and she succeeded completely.

Olivia Duryea and Anais Bueno in Broken Wings

These dance passages were all a prelude to sequences depicting Kahlo’s famously turbulent relationship and marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera. Dramatic, exquisite, and riveting in both dance and narrative, every motion dripped with import and meaning. With Dylan Gutierrez as Rivera, he and Bueno—through Ochoa’s creative vision—rewrote how passion, desire, and fury can appear on a professional dance floor.

The Joffrey Ballet Company in Broken Wings

Jim French’s ingenious lighting and inspired use of silhouettes, in conjunction with van Reij’s spare but splendid scenic design, make Broken Wings’ theatrical framework a thing of fascination.

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A universe apart, but linked by a common thread, Wabash & You, choreographed and directed by Chanel DaSilva, proved no less galvanizing. Conceived as a “modern twist on the classic girl-meets-boy love story,” Wabash & You goes much broader in looking at who gets nicked by Cupid’s arrow.

The Main Squeeze Lead Singer, Corey Frye, in Wabash & You

Tantalizing novelty seems to be a hallmark of this forward-thinking project. Rather than using recorded sound to support the dance, a live band shares the stage and becomes integral to the performance. The Main Squeeze, a top-flight funk band now based in Los Angeles, provides a sensational musical foundation for the work.

Set under the steep stairs leading up to the El on Wabash Avenue in downtown Chicago, a love story unfolds that’s as old as the pyramids and as fresh as a sunrise when a boy and girl’s eyes meet. The music’s cool, sweet, and enveloping as its lyrics mirror what’s transpiring in the dance after first glances lead to an exchange of words and then a conversation.

Xavier Núñez and Amanda Assucena in Wabash & You

Amanda Assucena and Xavier Nuñez dance the parts of a young couple slipping heedlessly into the magic of love. DaSilva’s choreography and The Main Squeeze’s music wrap the process in a fabric so contemporary it feels palpably of the moment. That familiarity and connection are important to DaSilva, who has said she “uses dance as a vehicle for social change and evolution toward a more diverse, just, and inclusive dance industry and society.” She lavishly inserts these principles into her choreography. Through it, you feel the pulse of the city and the multiplicity of hopes and dreams of the people who inhabit it.

Xavier Núñez, Amanda Assucena, and The Joffrey Ballet Ensemble in Wabash & You

It’s in this context that you see love blossom and burst into bloom through dance before it transitions to less joyful places. As poignant as it is, it’s beautiful to watch—not only because it embraces life’s realities, but because this world premiere also celebrates how willingly love lends itself to variability. Dance arrangements featuring the complete cast sparkle as they revel in that ideal.

Amanda Illuminati, Lucia Connolly, Amanda Assucena,
and Fernando Duarte in Wabash & You

Like Broken Wings, a dance of passion-driven fire brings the piece to a close, giving both Assucena and Nuñez a new opportunity to display their ample gifts. It also underscores DaSilva’s choreographic heft and fearless vision. Her choice to bring The Main Squeeze into the project, with Corey Frye on vocals, turned the production into an unforgettable event of tremendous pleasure.

If this is what dance looks like when two cultural powerhouses come together, we can only hope the rare exception becomes gloriously routine.

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photos by Kyle Flubacker

Joffrey at the Harris: Matters of the Heart
Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 200 East Randolph
played November 6–9, 2025
for more info, visit Joffrey and Harris Theater

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