During the past couple of weeks, three of Chicago’s most formidable contemporary dance troupes — the Hubbard Street Dance Company, Giordano Dance Chicago and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater — have turned in terrific performances.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
“Refraction” is the all-encompassing title of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s fall program at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, and it marks the start of the celebrated company’s 45th anniversary “Sapphire” season.
The company’s 15 sensational dancers performed “Decadance/Chicago,” a superbly mixed-and-matched compilation of segments from nine of Naharin’s works. They were created between the years 1993 to 2011, during his long tenure as Artistic Director of Israel’s fabled Batsheva Dance Company.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago has retained a number of its most superb and experienced dancers. At the same time, it has incorporated a good deal of new talent that clearly can carry off the many challenging and stylistically varied works that are part of its ever-expanding repertoire.
Hubbard Street’s phoenix-like rebirth was fully on display this weekend in an aptly titled program, “RE/TURN,” that featured three fascinating, superbly performed pieces.
The titles of the four pieces provide a telling suggestion of the psychologically probing works being performed with the company’s trademark blend of uncanny fluidity, plasticity, control and ensemble perfection.
A stunning program interlaced the formidable talents of dancers and choreographers from each company, suggesting that the two, if not quite identical twins, are the very closest of kissing cousins, different only in some distinctive rhythmic impulses.
If you are in search of fresh choreographic talent, why not turn to the dancers who are right under foot in your own studio? Sometimes, this makes perfect sense. But as revealed in “dance(e)volve New Works Festival,” there can be drawbacks to this effort.
In its three-part fall season program, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago harkened back to the creation of the universe and the ascent of man before conjuring an apocalyptic vision of where it all went wrong.
Recent performances by a number of major Chicago dance companies suggest that in a city renowned for its theater scene, an impressive component of drama also can be found in the work of its dancers.
The work of two of Chicago’s most enduring but dramatically different contemporary dance companies – Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Giordano Dance Chicago – was on elaborate display this past weekend.
Hubbard Street Dance stages a tribute to the international choreographer
The internationally recognized choreographer discusses his history with the Joffrey Ballet, the de-gendering of ballet, and who – if not him – acts as the true successor to the father of American Ballet.
A chance to dance; we take a look at Hubbard Street Dance Company's effort to boost homegrown talent.
