Spotlight on The Joffrey Ballet's "Anna Karenina"

The Joffrey Ballet returns to Northrop Sat, Mar 2 and Sun, Mar 3 with Anna Karenina. Here are some fast facts about the performances.

See a sneak peek of Anna Karenina.

Tolstoy's 800 page masterpiece in two hours? No, it's not speedreading, it's The Joffrey Ballet's new Anna Karenina, brought fully to life in just 13 glorious scenes, choreographed by Yuri Possokhov. (Photos by Cheryl Mann courtesy of The Joffrey Ballet.)

Anna Karenina features a score by Ilya Demutsky—the first commissioned musical score in The Joffrey's 63-year history. Joffrey Music Director Scott Speck describes it as "masterfully crafted," showing clear influences of the great Russian ballet composers of the past, including Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev.

Yuri Possokhov and Ilya Demutsky have had successful collaborations in the past, including the Joffrey’s modern take on Don Quixote in 2011.

Tony Award-nominated Tom Pye has created an abstract set that uses projections on a series of moving panels.

Ashley Wheater, who is Joffrey's Mary B. Galvin Artistic Director, has said Anna Karenina is “a deeply emotional story that speaks to our turbulent times and offers the ideal muse for Joffrey’s tradition of powerful storytelling through dance.”

On a stage that never goes fully black, Anna Karenina's props and sets are moved in plain sight of the audience by supernumeraries costumed as railroad workers.

The Joffrey has made 12 tour appearances at Northrop dating back to 1976, including a 1993 performance of their full-length Billboards that featured royalty-free music by Minneapolis’ own Prince. ( He had seen the company perform in Los Angeles and fell in love with them.)