This month, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago welcomes its fourth-ever artistic director: Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, a former Hubbard Street dancer who relocates from Baltimore and moves from her faculty position at Towson University to take the reins of the forty-three-year-old company, which has endured several difficult years—even before the pandemic shuttered live performance. Fisher-Harrell, who spent over a decade dancing with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, returns to Chicago with both institutional memory of Hubbard Street under founder Lou Conte and an infectious enthusiasm for bringing in new works by choreographers who are not yet in the company’s repertoire. We spoke with Fisher-Harrell about honoring the past with an eye to the future, and the necessity of the arts to uplift and inspire.
What interested you in taking the creative helm of Hubbard Street?
First of all, I’m a dancer. A dream job for a dancer is to direct your own company. Let’s keep it real! And I saw it was open at Hubbard Street, a company I used to dance with, I share legacy with. I didn’t jump at the chance, because I have a family. I showed the description to my husband and children, and they said, “That’s you! Go for it!” I’m at that point in my life where I’ve learned so much in so many areas of the field, it’s a prime opportunity.
What excites you then about coming to Hubbard Street and having that creative role? Is that a dream of every dancer?
An opportunity to make change, an opportunity to bring the company into a new possible era. I think it’s an opportunity to bring the company back to some of the elements it used to possess.That’s what’s exciting for me: to bring something fresh and new.
What are some lost older elements you’d like to bring back?
I remember vividly having such an intimate relationship with the audience. They felt like they knew us; they were invested in who we were as dancers, and that was because the company brought a certain energy level to the stage. And that’s what I want to bring back. The company may have lost a little of that, for whatever reason. I look back at some of the things the company used to do, and ask what can we redo? The company has established audiences since its founding in the 1970s. Instead of ignoring those eras, I’d like to give a wink and a nod to those eras as we move forward.
What does that path forward look like?
In the essence of contemporary dance and contemporary meaning, there are a lot of voices out there that maybe we haven’t explored. There are choreographers who haven’t had the opportunity to work with Hubbard Street. And Hubbard Street, I mean, come on! Those dancers can do anything. They can do anything. I would love to bring in fresh and new voices that maybe Chicagoland audiences haven’t seen before to showcase the superior talents of the company.
You’re coming in at one of the most difficult times the arts have faced, certainly dance, and definitely Hubbard Street. What do you see as the biggest challenges you’ll have to tackle in the immediate and long term?
I’m thinking in the long-term vision: Reestablishing a building. That’s a huge hit to the Chicago community, the building being sold and the Lou Conte Dance Studio being no more. That was a huge hit to students, to the company, to teachers—so many teachers depended on the studio for income. That just breaks my heart. So establishing a school—I don’t know what it will look like or where it will be located—that’s the long term. That won’t happen overnight.
What I want to tackle now is getting us back in the theater. Can we get into the theater, please? And transitioning some of the repertory. That’ll take a minute, too. You never want to come in and scorch the earth—I would never want to do that—but I want to start integrating some new things into the rep and that means we have to be in a theater at some point, even an outdoor theater. Something where we can all gather and audiences can benefit.
Chicago has great outdoor spaces for presenting dance. With any luck, by summer we’ll be able to gather outdoors to experience live performance again.
And don’t we need it? For our spirit. We need to be uplifted. That’s what I’m interested in, period. Inspiring people. We need to be changed. Sometimes it can be something that impacted you in a sad way. Either way you should leave the theater brand new.
I can’t wait. The deprivation of being with groups of people feels one way after three months, another way after six months. A year in, a deep scar starts to form.
This has been traumatizing. This is traumatic for everyone—for society at large and also the Hubbard Street community has had some trauma. The studio closing, the restructuring, now new leadership. This year has been hard. But that’s why I have hope. Once we are able to get together again, we’re gonna be crazy! We’re all going to rush and try to devour as many things culturally and socially as we can. It’s ripe for change and excitement.
You make a point of mentioning your family in all your interviews. Anything your family is particularly excited about with the move to Chicago?
I started off mentioning them because I wouldn’t have taken the job if it wasn’t approved by my family. With their approval, I took the job and they have been so amazing. I have their interests at heart: can everyone find the work they want? And I need to find schooling for my thirteen-year-old and make sure she makes a smooth transition. My husband is a cyclist, so anywhere he can ride—along that lake! He’s happy. We know, through it all, when we stick together, we can do anything.
Anything else you’d like to mention?
Right now, I’m in the process of wrapping up courses at Towson and a performing-arts high school here, and that’s been bittersweet. It’s exciting to go into this new world that’s thrilling, but I’m saying goodbye to so many young adults, children, teens, parents, my colleagues. I hope in this new adventure to make them proud.
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New Angles: Hubbard Street Dance is Back on Stage in "Re/turn" “I’m feeling like: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell tells me when I ask how she approached curating “Re/turn,” running November 18-21 at the Harris Theater.
