HALLELUJAH!
DANCE ME HAS ARRIVED

Ballets Jazz Montréal brings Leonard Cohen’s haunting songs
and poetry to the Auditorium Theatre for one night only

© Photo Marc Montplaisir

On November 7, 2026, the 10th anniversary of Leonard Cohen’s death, Ballets Jazz Montréal brings Dance Me: The Music of Leonard Cohen to Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre for its Chicago debut. Commissioned under former Artistic Director Louis Robitaille with the blessing of Cohen, who gave his permission a year before his passing, Dance Me incorporates sixteen songs spanning Cohen’s entire discography. The performance marks the last leg of the company’s U.S. tour before it returns to Canada for its final two shows.

© Photo Marc Montplaisir

Let us now praise Leonard Cohen: Born in Montréal in 1934, this dark, brooding poet, novelist, and artist became the unlikeliest of folkie singer-songwriter icons in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cohen had a sonorous singing voice that barely spanned an octave, was conspicuously swagger and attitude-free, and preferred to stay on the margins. When he wrote his first culturally significant song, “Suzanne,” he could neither sing nor play an instrument. What he did have was a gift for writing stunning lyrics: grotesque, moody, sexual, discomfiting lyrics that spoke to the human condition, and that were, no matter the content, always laced with humor and a tremendous humanity. In time Cohen would develop into a wonderful tunesmith as well — his ear for melody is still severely underrated — but from the very beginning, his lyrics were miraculously exquisite.

photos by Austin T. Richey

Over the subsequent decades Cohen maintained a low profile, revered by other songwriters whose covers of his songs kept them in the spotlight even as their creator remained in the shadows. All that began to change in 1991 when John Cale covered “Hallelujah,” a little-known track from Cohen’s 1984 album Various Positions that had been mostly ignored by everyone other than one Bob Dylan who cottoned onto its genius almost immediately after its release. Cale’s version inspired an incredible cover by Jeff Buckley a couple of years later, the success of which led casual listeners — one of whom was this reviewer — to investigate Cohen’s back catalog. By the time “Hallelujah” made its way onto the Shrek soundtrack in 2001, the Cohen renaissance had taken hold firmly and Leonard Cohen was on his way to his well-deserved recognition as one of the greatest songwriters in popular music.

photos by Austin T. Richey

Given the intensely atmospheric and poetic nature of Cohen’s songs, it’s actually a little surprising that it took so long for them to make their way onto a ballet stage. Enter Ballets Jazz Montréal, a contemporary dance company that created a dance show set to the music of one of Montréal’s favorite sons. The production includes selections from his stellar late albums — his genius never flagged up to the very end: he released three of the best albums of his catalog in the last six years of his life, with an undisputed masterpiece, You Want It Darker, dropping less than three weeks before his death.

photos by Austin T. Richey

Choreographed in collaboration by three renowned choreographers, Andonis Foniadakis, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Ihsan Rustem, with stage direction by Eric Jean, Dance Me uses his songs, poetry, and narration to create a multimedia narrative. Incorporating video projection, live singing, immersive lighting, and snippets from his correspondence, in addition to his music and vocals, the piece is a love letter to the art and artistry of Leonard Cohen. Take it in while you can.

photos by Austin T. Richey

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Dance Me: The Music of Leonard Cohen
Ballets Jazz Montréal
Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Dr. in Chicago
80 minutes, no intermission
Sat, Nov. 7, 2026, at 7:30 (one performance)
for tickets, visit Auditorium Theatre
for more info, visit Ballets Jazz Montréal

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photos by Austin T. Richey