RAkU in Chicago, in S.F., on the Web

San Francisco Ballet choreographer Yuri Possokhov and San Francisco double bassist/composer/teacher maven Shinji Eshima shared the acclaim last weekend in Chicago when the Joffrey Ballet presented a program including their RAkU, which has been conquering audiences in the War Memorial.

Hedy Weiss' review in the Sun-Times spares no superlatives:

With its fearsomely difficult dancing and visually ravishing environment, Possokhov’s RAkU is a stunner, pure and simple. And in some ways it brings the program full circle with a 21st century twist on Balanchine’s ballet in its use of exoticism and non-traditional, often acrobatic movement. Its gasp-inducing lifts also suggest the vestiges of Possokhov’s early career with the Bolshoi Ballet, though he uses total stillness to potent effect here as well.

Alexander Nichols’ spectacular, architecturally ingenious set features a series of bare wood boxes onto which photographs of the temple ruins, as well as cherry blossoms, cranes, and flames are projected, creating a cinematic quality ... The fiendishly difficult choreography has clearly set the dancers on fire.

RAkU is coming back to the War Memorial, opening SFB's next season, with performances on Jan. 27-Feb. 7. Program 7, April 10-21, will feature a new work choreographed by Possokhov, set on music by Eshima.

Yet untitled, the new work will have a number of surprises: Moscow-born Possokhov joined SFB in 1994, yet his 35-minute work is a nostalgic look at what was right in 1960s America (maybe from a Cold War-era Russian perspective?); as to Eshima's music, it's scored for a full orchestra, including recorded Tom Waits songs, a drum set ... and a kitchen sink. No joke: orchestra sources report the score calls for "everything including a kitchen sink, literally."

And, World Ballet Day, beginning at 7 p.m. Pacific Time, with San Francisco Ballet participation, streaming live rehearsals beginning at 11 a.m., Oct. 1, including RAkU; Helgi Tomasson’s Giselle, which runs Jan. 29-Feb. 10; and William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, on Program 3, Feb. 24-March 7.

The 2015 ballet season is one of the most attractive in years, especially with such popular revivals as the Possokhov and Forsythe works, Val Caniparoli's wonderful Lambarena (Jan. 27-Feb. 7); Liam Scarlett's Hummingbird (Feb. 26-March 8).

Also, the Helgi Tomasson-Possokhov’s recreation of the full-length Don Quixote (March 20-29), Alexei Ratmansky’s superb Shostakovich Trilogy (April 8-19); and others.