“An ensemble of extraordinarily beautiful, passionate, superbly skilled dancers” (The Chicago Sun-Times). Following their triumphant performances in Spain in 2016, and their fiery 40th anniversary finale at#theAud last fall,Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theater returns to the Auditorium to open the 2017–18 “Made in Chicago” Dance Series. The company’s new program brilliantly blends flamenco, classical, contemporary, and traditional forms of dance, and features the piece “Defalla, Fuera de la Caja” (Defalla, Out of the Box), Angel Rojas’ contemporary take on part of the classic ballet “The Three-Cornered Hat” (first performed at the Auditorium Theatre in the 1930s by Serghei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo), set to the music of La Vida Breve (The Brief Life). The program also includes audience favorites “Iroko,” choreographed by Rojas and Carlos Rodriguez (of the Nuevo Ballet Madrid), and Founder Dame Libby Komaiko’s 1983 piece “Ecos de España,” as well as the Komaiko’s celebrated signature work “Bolero.” See the company the Chicago Tribune calls “exciting, sensual, and breathtaking.”