Pull any ballet press rep aside and most likely they’ll agree that repertory programs—a mix of three or four short ballets—just don’t sell like the full-length fairy tales. That’s one of the reasons we see fewer mixed bills these days. So the repertory program that American Ballet Theatre is bringing to Chicago is a real treat. It begins with Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère Act Two—a night-blooming dream of love and regret known as “The Kingdom of the Shades,” a realm in which nether spirits emerge like mist in the high Himalayas. The second ballet is Antony Tudor’s early masterpiece Jardin aux Lilas (Lilac Garden), a “tearful little tale” (as the critic John Martin called it) set in Edwardian England. The third ballet is Deuce Coupe—Twyla Tharp, the Beach Boys, a milestone in modern ballet. —L.J.