Hubbard Street announces 2012-2013 season

HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO CELEBRATES 35th ANNIVERSARY WITH A SEASON TO REMEMBER!

LANDMARK SEASON TO FEATURE A FULL-LENGTH WORLD PREMIERE BY ALEJANDRO CERRUDO, A GROUNDBREAKING COLLABORATION WITH ALONZO KING AND LINES BALLET, AND A COMPANY PREMIERE BY MATS EK

CHICAGO – April 9, 2012 – Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, led by Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton, announces its landmark 35th Anniversary Season, unveiling a year of premieres and audience favorites back by popular demand; the second annual danc(e)volve: New Works Festival at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago offering an intimate program of new works by promising choreographers; as well as touring and innovative collaborations with cultural partners in the city and around the country. The 2012-2013 season also marks Hubbard Street 2’s 15th Anniversary.

“For the main company’s 35th Anniversary and Hubbard Street 2’s 15th Anniversary Season I feel it is important to focus on our future of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago,” notes Hubbard Street Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton. “To celebrate this milestone, I have asked Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo to create a full evening work inspired by Marc Chagall’s America Windows. We have watched Alejandro develop as a choreographer, from Lickety-Split [2006] to his most recent success, Little mortal jump [2012]. I believe that Alejandro is the right choreographer to start this anniversary season –a momentous year in our history.” 

Edgerton continues, “I am also looking forward to the major acquisition of Mats Ek’s Casi-Casa. With this addition we complete the roster of international master choreographers whose work we’ve made it a priority to present: Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Jirí Kylián, Ohad Naharin and now, Mats Ek. This is a dream come true. Our season would not be complete without the culmination of our multi-year collaboration with Alonzo King and LINES Ballet. This is an exciting opportunity for both companies – melding two unique companies and identities to perform together on our stage and around the country. All in all, this season has become a pioneering one, even further demonstrated with the cultivation of in-house choreographers for danc(e)volve, our summer series at the MCA. As we look toward the next 35 years our goal is to keep Hubbard Street progressively leading dance into uncharted territory.”

PERFORMANCES IN CHICAGO

At the heart of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and 35 successful years is an annual roster of home performances at celebrated venues throughout the City. The Company’s momentous 35 th Anniversary Season launches with a not-to-be-missed Fall Series at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, October 18-21, 2012. Hubbard Street has commissioned Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo to create a full-length world premiere to celebrate the Company’s significant history as Chicago’s premiere contemporary dance company. A full-Company work including the dancers of Hubbard Street 2 and featuring the music of Philip Glass, this is the Company’s first, full-length work by a single choreographer, featuring a single theme.

Tentatively titled A Thousand Pieces, Cerrudo’s inspiration for this new dance lies in one of the most beloved Chicago treasures housed at the Art Institute of Chicago, Marc Chagall’s America Windows. The historic panels of stained glass, created by Chagall especially for the Art Institute and dedicated to Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley (1902–1976), commemorate the American Bicentennial. The glowing glass infuses the artist’s landscape of familiar American icons, references to Chicago and symbols of the fine arts with an ethereality that suggests the creative expansiveness made possible by American freedom and liberty. Alejandro Cerrudo’s new work has been dedicated to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his commitment to making Chicago an international destination for dance.

December 6-9, 2012 Hubbard Street Dance Chicago offers patrons a major acquisition in the Company’s history. Hubbard Street presents the Company Premiere of the touching and profound Casi-Casa by famed Swedish master choreographer Mats Ek, becoming the first American company to acquire this work into its repertoire. Originally staged for Danza Contemporánea de Cuba in 2009, the 40-minute piece blends two of Ek’s earlier works, The Apartment and Fluke, and eloquently alludes to dramatic situations through subtle encounters. Casi-Casa suggests a lazy domestic coziness, implied by home appliances on stage, but extracts darker urges and somber moments through intense duets and a collage of varied music selections. Hubbard Street’s Winter Series also features Aszure Barton’s eloquent and spellbinding Untouched created for and premiere by the Company in 2010 to rave reviews and set to the music of saxophonist Curtis Macdonald, pianist Njo Kong Kie, and Russian-born violist Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin; and two of Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo’s shorter pieces: Blanco (2010), a stunning mix of abstract and sculptural movements created for four women featuring music by Felix Mendelssohn and Charles-Valentin Alkan; and PACOPEPEPLUTO, a trio of men performing to music by “the king of cool,” Dean Martin. PACOPEPEPLUTO was created for the 2011 Inside/Out Choreographic Workshop, but has never been seen on the main stage in Chicago.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago leads the charge in Chicago’s spring dance season, March 14-17, 2013. The Spring Series at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance realizes the Chicago Premiere of a multi-year collaboration with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, where contemporary meets neo-classical. Two of the most renowned dance companies in America join together in an unprecedented collaboration that combines classical ballet with contemporary styles, highlighting the emotional nuances of movement. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and LINES Ballet share the stage to present an inspiring new work by LINES Ballet Artistic Director Alonzo King. This partnership is an opportunity for King and dancers from both companies to stretch their artistic limits and experience each other’s varied specializations — Hubbard Street’s earthy and athletic contemporary style and LINES Ballet’s ethereal and linear neo-classical focus. This fusion of contrasts informs the content of the new work, as King experiments with pairing dancers across companies and creating intriguing new movement. “Hubbard Street and LINES Ballet are uniting to build something that hasn’t been built before,” explains King. “We will have the opportunity to re-examine how to communicate ideas clearly and how to inculcate the best qualities of humanity into movement.” Audiences have the opportunity to witness each company’s unique style in the same performance. The World Premiere of Alonzo King’s new work for Hubbard Street and LINES Ballet takes place at Cal Performances in Berkeley, California, February 1-2, 2013. In addition to this joint premiere by King, the program also features a mixed repertoire of other works by both companies, to be announced at a later date.

Hubbard Street’s 35th Anniversary subscription season concludes June 6-16, 2013 with the second annual, critically acclaimed danc(e)volve: New Works Festival at the MCA Stage at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Always working to expand the field of contemporary dance and strengthen the Company’s unique commitment to new choreography by emerging choreographers, danc(e)volve: New Works Festival is the latest effort by Hubbard Street Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton to offer opportunities to develop choreographic talent from within and allow the dancers from both the main company and Hubbard Street 2 to explore new horizons.

This intimate look inside the Company is curated by Edgerton using a selection of pieces developed at the 2012 Inside/Out Choreographic Workshop, to take place June 23, 2012 at the UIC Stage – where dancers have the opportunity to become choreographers and directors as they create their own works and set them on fellow

Company members. danc(e)volve also features works created for Hubbard Street 2 by winners of Hubbard Street’s 2012 National Choreographic Competition, a worldwide annual competition.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s four-program subscription ranges in price from $75 to $302. For more information about Hubbard Street’s 35th Anniversary Season and subscriptions packages, please call the Hubbard Street Ticket Office at 312-850-9744 or visit hubbardstreetdance.com. Single tickets range in price from $25 to $99 and go on sale in August 2012.

TOURING & PARTNERSHIPS

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago prides itself on the unique collaborations it has established with other preeminent and like-minded cultural institutions in Chicago and around the world, and the Company’s robust 35th Anniversary Season touring schedule reflects this. In the 2012-13 season, the main Company travels to venues on the West and East coasts, including the Laguna Dancing Festival in Laguna Beach, California, September 8-9, 2012; Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona (January 25-26, 2013); Cal Performances in Berkeley, California (February 1-2, 2013); Humboldt State University in Arcata, California (February 5, 2013); the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington (February 9, 2013); White Bird in Portland,
Oregon (February 13, 2013); the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin (March 20, 2013); the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey (May 11, 2013); The Joyce Theater in New York (May 13-26, 2013); and Los Angeles, California (June 2013). Hubbard Street’s international touring schedule will be announced in May 2012.

Hubbard Street 2 touring includes the UA Presents at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona (January 27, 2013); Wheaton College with the Wheaton Symphony Orchestra in Wheaton, Illinois (February 9, 2013); Culver Academy in Culver, Indiana (March 7, 2013); and a FermiLab performance in Batavia, Illinois (May 11, 2013). Hubbard Street 2’s international touring schedule includes a tour through Germany (February 11-March 3, 2013).

Now in its 15th year of intensive partnership with the public school system, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago provides at least one program every day that school is in session. Offering a combination of long-range collaborative partnerships, innovative teacher education programs, and enhanced opportunities to view and understand professional dance, Hubbard Street continues this vital work with city and suburban schools. Hubbard Street also continues its acclaimed Family Workshop partnerships, hosted by cultural institutions throughout the city, such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago Children’s Museum, the Center on Halsted, and Lycée Français de Chicago, as well as at partner schools.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago extends special thanks to its 2012-2013 Sponsors: AthletiCo, Official Provider of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy; Chicago Athletic Clubs, Official Health Club; and Target, Lead Community Partner. Hubbard Street is also grateful for support from a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. The World Premiere by Alonzo King is commissioned by the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park in celebration of its 10th Anniversary and funded by a 2011 Joyce Award from the Joyce Foundation and an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This work will be created during a residency
at University of California – Irvine, with support from UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts Dance Department, and the Laguna Dance Festival. The project’s touring is partially supported by a National Dance Project Tour Award.

ABOUT HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic direction of Glenn Edgerton since 2009, celebrates 35 ground-breaking years as one of the most original and forward-thinking forces in contemporary dance.

The core purpose of Hubbard Street is to bring artists, art and audiences together to enrich, engage, educate, and transform lives through the experience of dance. Hubbard Street serves as an emblem of the city’s international cultural profile and continues its role as a leader in the field of dance, pushing the art forward by creating new works, diversifying repertoire, and cultivating the next generation of dancers and choreographers. Since Lou Conte founded the company in 1977, Hubbard Street has expanded beyond its main company to include: Hubbard Street 2, which cultivates young professional dancers and choreographers and performs nationally and internationally with a diverse and engaging repertoire; extensive Education & Community Programs which offer city- and state-accredited professional development for teachers to incorporate movement into curricula and allow young people to experience dance; Youth Dance Classes (ages 9 months – 13 years) including Creative Movement and various dance technique classes at Hubbard Street Dance Center; and the Lou Conte Dance Studio, which offers a wide variety of classes weekly in ballet, jazz, modern, tap, African, hip hop, African drums, musical theater, yoga, Pilates, yoga and Zumba® at all levels from basic to professional, as well as workshops and master classes.

ABOUT HUBBARD STREET 2

Hubbard Street 2 (HS2), founded by Julie Nakaawa Bottcher in 1997 and now under the leadership of Taryn Kaschock Russell, celebrates 15 years in the 2012-2013 season. HS2 prepares dancers ages 18-25 for the life of a professional dancer in a contemporary company, providing them a chance to develop their professional experience. In this vibrant environment, dancers quickly become dynamic, bold dancers, developing strong technique and an individual voice. HS2 dancers are known for their athleticism and fearless dancing. To date, 18 HS2 dancers have advanced to the main company, and many more have joined other national and international companies.

HS2’s six dancers reach over 60,000 people annually by appealing to a wide variety of venues. HS2 has expanded the diversity of its programs, providing valuable outreach in schools, site-specific work in museums and cultural institutions and evening length repertoire performances. In 15 years, the company has become a respected training ground for professional dancers performing a diverse and compelling repertoire to critical acclaim at venues around the world. As an integral component of Hubbard Street’s Education & Community Programs, HS2 is constantly striving for a higher level of programming by adapting existing repertoire into engaging interactive performances. These youth oriented programs are presented both through family performances and as outreach in school auditoriums.

All programming is subject to change. For more information, visit hubbardstreetdance.com.