Hubbard Street nicely moves through its 40- year history
In the beginning— and that was four decades ago— Hubbard Street Dance Company was Chicago’s principal claim to dance fame, and frankly, it didn’t have much competition. The company was the creation of Lou Conte, a Broadway dancer and teacher with a superb eye for dancers with distinctive personalities and supremely polished technique, who also had a gift for choreographing sophisticated pieces with popular appeal.
Hubbard Street developed a fervent following in Chicago and beyond, and by the time Conte ceded the company’s artistic directorship to Jim Vincent in 2000 he had turned it into a full- fledged repertory troupe that performed the work of such internationally renowned choreographers as Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, Twyla Tharp and Ohad Naharin, and traveled widely to great acclaim. Its reputation has been honed further by Glenn Edgerton, a former Joffrey Ballet dancer and artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater who, since taking the helm of Hubbard Street in 2009, has continued to draw on the work of major contemporary choreographers, and has even forged a collaboration with The Second City.
The company’s summer program, a prologue to its upcoming 40th anniversary season, is nothing short of sensational. And while the eight works ( or excerpts of pieces) being performed here are not arranged chronologically, overall it offers a rare opportunity to
HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO
savor the work from each decade in Hubbard Street’s evolution, and, by extension, the evolution of contemporary dance itself. Some highlights:
“Imprint,” a hauntingly sensual duet choreographed by Lucas Crandall ( the company’s gifted rehearsal director) opens the program. Set to a section of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” it features a ghostly couple ( with stunning dancing by Emilie Leriche and Jesse Bechard) who seem to be getting acquainted or reacquainted in the afterlife, with a push- pull relationship that is achingly sad and moving in its intimacy.
A total reversal of mood occurs in “One Flat Thing, reproduced,” modernist choreographer William Forsythe’s fiendishly difficult work for 14 dancers and tightly packed rows of large, rectangular metal tables. Set to a grating electronic score by the Dutch composer Thom Willems, the work ( best seen from the higher seats) has the quality of stylized combat as enacted in the feverish brutality of an urban jungle.
There is always a touch of magic and eccentric lyrical poetry in the work of Alejandro Cerrudo and those qualities are fully evident in the excerpt ( Water Section) from “One Thousand Pieces,” set to the music of Philip Glass.
Closing the program are two classics by founder Lou Conte: “Georgia,” the bittersweet duet of love and loss set to Willie Nelson’s “Georgia on My Mind” and “The 40s,” the work celebrating the sound of the big band era and the playful energy of the jitterbug that for years served as the company’s signature piece. A perfect ending to Hubbard Street’s journey back in time.