Thoughts on HSDC 2011 Fall Series

Dancers Jesse Bechard & Penny Saunders in "Arcangelo". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Last night was the big night!  Hubbard Street Dance Chicago‘s (HSDC) season opener at the Harris Theater with the world premiere of SCARLATTI by Twyla Tharp.  A packed house (they even had to open up the balcony) full of Chicago dance enthusiasts, including our favorite fan-in-chief Mayor Emanuel and his family, was virtually vibrating with anticipation for a great show.  As usual, HSDC did not disappoint.

Tharp’s SCARLATTI, set to the music of Domenico Scarlatti, opened the show.  Extremely musical; lightening fast, vivid footwork; carefree, fun attitude and work-your-tail-to-the-bone difficult.  In other words, quintessential Tharp.  The dancers made it look easy.  It isn’t.  Not by a long shot.  To say it is simply about the music and the dancing (although it is) is misleading.  There is nothing simple about it.  Using her evil genius mind and savant-like musical knowledge, Tharp creates a dizzying whirlwind of dancers entering and exiting the stage in a nanosecond.  Part of the dizzying effect was due to the costumes, designed by Norma Kamali.  White, black, neon yellow, stripes, leopard spot, headbands, arm bands…too much.  Quite frankly, the costumes were distracting.  The thirty-minute piece was non-stop, balls-to-the-walls dance finishing with a cute wave from new company member David Schultz as if to say, “hi, I’m here!”  Standing ovation.  The audience ate it up and Tharp postponed her bow to hug each of the dancers.

Nacho Duato’s Arcangelo, the next work on the program, is one of my favorite pieces in HSDC’s rep.  A reflection on heaven and hell danced by four couples is set to the music of Arcangelo Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti, who was the father of Tharp’s composer.  HSDC brought the work into it’s rep last fall and is the only US company to perform it.  (You can read my interview with Duato from last fall here.)  It is gorgeous and the dancers performed it seamlessly.  One audience member stood up to applaud at the curtain before everyone else.  Mayor Rahm Emanuel.  Too cool.

Dancers Kellie Epperheimer & Kevin Shannon in "Walking Mad". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Walking Mad by Swedish choreographer Johan Inger closed the show.  Quite a few people had been talking about this piece, trying to convince me I had seen it before.  I hadn’t.  This is something you have to see to believe and you won’t soon forget it.  (Note to Alejandro: party hats, wall, Bolero…now I know!)  An ingenious mix of silliness, heartbreak, passion, despondency, acrobatics, strength and talent, set to the driving force of Ravel’s Bolero.  Originally created ten years ago for the Nederlands Dans Theater, the work utilizes a wall set piece that has the dancers moving through four doorways, around, over and on the wall which also lowers to the floor, raises and folds to create a shadowy corner.  I loved it.

Once again, to name stand outs would be to list every single performer.  New company members Schultz and Garrett Anderson (Alice Klock was not in this cast, but I’m hoping to see her on Sunday) fit in like they’ve been here forever and are definitely where they belong.  The show runs through Sunday and it is a must see.  HSDC just gets better and better.

Moving Up

Dancers David Schultz & Alice Klock in "I Can See Myself in Your Pupil". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

For two of the three new dancers added to Hubbard Street Dance Chicago‘s (HSDC) roster this season, it was a new road traveled.  Alice Klock and David Schultz – 23 and 24 respectively – are the first two dancers to move up the HSDC chain from summer intensive students to members of HS2 to being promoted to the main company.  All in two years.

Both dancers hail from Michigan, but the similarities in dance beginnings end there.  Schultz stated dancing at five taking tap (he wanted to be Donald O’Connor), then began taking ballet classes with his older brother Nick.  Once hooked, he took numerous summer workshops that eventually led to an apprenticeship (while still in high school) and then a full-time position with the Grand Rapids Ballet, where he danced for over four years.  Klock didn’t start dancing until age 11 with ballet classes.  She quickly took to the form and three years later attended a summer program at San Francisco Ballet, where she decided she wanted to be a professional dancer.  She went to Interlochen Center for the Arts for high school and after two years at Dominican University, figured it was time to start her professional career.

Here’s where there stories come together.  Both attended the HSDC summer intensive in 2009 and were asked to join the second company HS2.  Landing here happen almost by accident, but now they couldn’t be happier.  “I’d known a little bit about the company, but once I got here, I realized how much I really loved the whole philosophy and the rep,” says Klock.  Schultz agrees.  “Just learning the rep I thought ‘this is it’!  This is what I want to do.”  Their success ties into the larger HSDC mission of nurturing the next generation of artists.  “David and Alice are great examples to a bigger mission of mine, which is to mentor young dancers and prepare them for a profession in dance rather or not they continue with Hubbard Street or not,” says Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton.  “They’ve matured so quickly in all ways, both in their dancing and also in their understanding of how to approach their work creatively and practically.  I feel we have been able to tap into their talents and start to challenge them toward their potential.”  That potential will be challenged this season with having to learn the previous repertoire that includes masters like Ohad Naharin, Nacho Duato and Jirí Kylián, as well as new company works by a range of choreographers from Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo to the legendary Twyla Tharp (her world premiere hits the stage this Thursday, Oct 13th).

Alice Klock & David Schultz in "Harold and the Purple Crayon". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

No one is more proud of these two dancers than HS2 Director Taryn Kaschock Russell, “I’m so proud of them!”  After thriving under her guidance in the second company, Klock attributes much of their success to her.  “Taryn is amazing,” she says before class last Tuesday morning.  “She’s such a caring and passionate leader.  Taryn really looks at each dancer in the second company and finds what exactly it is that will take them to the next step.  Because of that, we progressed really quickly.”  With this close bond, Kaschock Russell was the perfect person to ask what it is about these two that impressed her.  On Schultz:  “He is a never-ending ball of energy and curiosity.  He is willing, always.  He has grown exponentially over the course of two years and added texture and versatility to his already dynamic stage presence.  He soaked up every bit of information that he could get his hands on from me and all of the choreographers and colleagues he worked with.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s also a handful – in a wonderful way.  You have to keep your eye on that one.”  On Klock:  “Alice has an intelligence that often stops me in my tracks.  When I first began working with her, I was taken by her physical beauty and long lines.  When she attended the summer program, she was very timid and a bit like a young fawn on those beautiful legs of hers.  During her two years with HS2, she went from that understated shy presence, unsure of her place in the room, to eating up the stage with her every movement.  She commands attention, her stance is strong and her gaze unyielding. ”

Come see Klock, Schultz, along with new HSDC company member Garrett Anderson this week (Oct 13 – 16) at the Harris Theater (205 E. Randolph)as Hubbard Street presents their Fall Series.  On the program, a world premiere SCARLATTI by Twyla Tharp, Nacho Duato’s Archangelo and Walking Mad by Johan Inger.  Tickets can be purchased by calling 312.850.9744, 312.334.7777 or by visiting the Harris Theater box office.

The Interview

On a sunny morning in early June, I was in a cab heading to the West Loop studios of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.  It’s standard procedure at this point for me to watch rehearsals or steal a few minutes with a dancer or someone on the artistic staff to chat about an upcoming show, but this morning was different.  I was going to interview Twyla Tharp.  I was getting twenty minutes face-to-face with a legend. To say I was nervous is a serious understatement, but I was determined to rally all of my confidence and go for it.  In my research for this meeting (which included reading her two newest books The Creative Habit and The Collaborative Habit), I found Tharp often quoted saying, “If you’re not early, you’re late.”  Leaving nothing to chance, I was in the lobby of the studio 45 minutes ahead of our scheduled interview time going over the questions in my head and trying semi-successfully to not freak out.  (In fact, Communications Manager Farrah Williams later told me I looked like I was going to throw up.  Great.)

Truth be told, I’d been obsessing about this interview ever since I got the “ok” from my editor weeks prior.  I had pitched it hard, eventually annoying her into agreement.  My inner mantra was:  Don’t f*#^ this up!  Advice from a dancer that worked with Tharp frequently (who shall remain nameless):  Be prepared.  Don’t waste her time.  Roger that!  I was definitely prepared, but the problem with the twenty minute time frame is I knew I wouldn’t be able to ask her all of the questions I wanted.  Let me set the record straight.  I gained press access to Ms. Tharp because I was writing a story for CS Magazine*, not because of Rogue Ballerina.  I’m sure my little dog-and-pony show would not register on the press map to someone of her caliber, plus I heard she does NOT like bloggers.  However, I was hoping for the chance to include a couple of questions beyond the scope of the CS readership.

I was escorted upstairs and down a long hallway behind the studios.  No turning back now, it was time.  First impression:  she’s tiny!  She’s smaller than I thought she’d be, but otherwise looked just like…well, Twyla Tharp.  Petite, but with an enormous presence.  Smart, dry, direct, intense.  Intimidating.  Completely daunted, I forged ahead with my questions punctuated by my trademark idiotic nervous laughter.  The next twenty minutes quite frankly is a blur.  It went by way too quickly and I came out thinking I was somewhere between having been eaten alive and having held my own.  I had survived.  Luckily, I have the entire conversation on tape!  Upon listening, I found Ms. Tharp to be quite generous and genuine.  She has a biting sense of humor that I think, because of her extremely analytical mind, doesn’t come always across.  For instance, when I asked my final question – if you went back to your parents’ drive-in movie theater and saw the story of your life on the screen, what would it be titled? – after commenting on what a bizarre question that was (which I took as a complement), she went on to analyze if it would work, how it would work, why it would work, what would be in it, plotting scenes, wondering who would be changing the marquee and then deadpans, “Shirley MacLaine could play me now.”  We discussed her process, her habits, her books, what she’s reading and the dreaded subject of getting older.  We did not discuss her upcoming work for HSDC.  It was still in the planning stages. I would’ve liked to talk to her more about her writing process and asked about her collaboration with musician/composer Danny Elfman, but time ran out.

Here are some excerpts of our conversation that didn’t make it into the article for CS (reprinted in Front Desk Chicago – images below)*.

Congratulations on the Spotlight Award.

Thank you.  You’re very kind.  As far as I’m concerned, I’m handing it right back to Lou (Conte).

Because you do have quite a few awards already…what makes this one special?  Is it the fact that Lou is coming back to give it to you or is it the relationship that you have with Hubbard Street?

It’s not about awards; it’s about work.  Lou is a phenomenal legend – a Chicago legend.  I’m always, always happy to see him.  He’s an honest guy.  I really value that.  He’s built around his abilities and talents and able to grow it into what is essentially one of the very few repertory companies in America for modern dance.  There are numbers of repertory companies for ballet, but very few for modern dance.  This is going to become more and more of an issue in the future because will single company founders passing away…Graham, Cunningham, Paul’s in his 80s, I’ve already disbanded the company because I was curious about investigating what happens after you die?  Which was my experiment.  It’s still my experiment.  I kind of look at it as I’m visiting into the world after I’m gone to see both what I can still do in terms of working with the talent and with the – and I really don’t like this word – legacy.  The work that’s been done previously, how has it taken hold?  How has it imbedded itself, so when I come back 15 years later, what’s there that I can pick up on?  What’s made a difference? What has mattered to these dancers?  What has been useful to them?  That’s sort of a privilege that I have to go back and try to explore…excavate in a way.  It’s like archeology.  

After 15 years, how did this new collaboration come about?  Why did you decide this is the right time to come back?

Well, Glenn (Edgerton) asked if I might do a piece and I was able to put the time in place to do it.  Also, it’s always a good time to go back and regroup.  2015 is my 50th anniversary of work and we’re already starting to develop the platform that we’ll present that year.  We’re putting up a new website that is going to give a much more comprehensive overview of things.  I’m working on a full-length ballet, a narrative ballet…of a lot of lessons learned and questions asked.  I think this is something of the same thing.  It’s a revisitation to roots to see where…roots is a bad analogy, because plants don’t grow fast enough.  We only have 3.5 weeks to grow this plant, to see where we can get it to.  In particular, it’s about the women here.  My first group from 1965 – 1970 was all women.  We worked in a very different way, different than anybody was working at the time.  In being only, not only, but having no men in the group, we pushed ourselves physically as hard as possible.  There was no, “ok the guys can do this”.  If we wanted jumping, we jumped.  If we wanted partnering, we partnered.  We developed physically in different ways and we also developed emotionally in very different ways.  The women in this company are closer to that ethos than most women in dancing are.  It’s about using their courage. 

Are you comfortable being labeled a genius?

It’s a ridiculous word.  Everyone has a genius.  Everyone has a spirit, a spark inside that’s very, very special.  There are those who are both fortunate and who have been corralled enough by resourceful human beings to develop discipline.  It’s the ones who manage to discipline that spark, to harness that spark that get labeled with this nomenclature.  The romance of the genius is ridiculous.   Part of genius is the guidance system that one grows up within.

"The Tao of Twyla" - CS Magazine

"Dance Diva" - Front Desk Chicago

See Twyla Tharp’s World Premiere SCARLATTI for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago next week at the Harris Theater!  Tickets:   312.850.9744, at HSDC (1147 W Jackson) or in person at the Harris box office (205 E. Randolph).

Break

RB took a little time off after the Chicago Dancing Festival (CDF), but now I’m back and ready to go!  Coming up: interviews/previews with Luna Negra (Veronica Guadalupe), Inaside Chicago Dance (Mary Williams), Joffrey Ballet (Michael Smith), Hubbard Street (David Schultz) , Smuin Ballet (Jonathan David Dummar) and even a little chat with Twyla Tharp!

Keep a look out for changes/additions to the blog in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here are some beautiful pics from CDF finale by the gorgeous and gracious mama-to-be Cheryl Mann.

Michelle Fleet and the Paul Taylor Dance Co in "Esplanade".

NYC Ballet dancers Tiler Peck & Gonzalo Garcia in "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux".

Martha Graham dancer Xiaochuan Xie in "Diversion of Angels".

Joffrey's Temur Suluashvili & Victoria Jaiani in "Stravinsky Violin Concerto".

CDF11 Muses

Hubbard St dancers Ana Lopez & Benjamin Wardell in Cerrudo's "Maltidos". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Dance writer/critic/historian Lucia Mauro opened Chicago Dancing Festival‘s (CDF) Muses program (Friday, Aug 26 on the MCA Stage) by distinguishing the difference in meanings of the term muse.  In ancient Greek mythology, the work referred to “beings who imparted knowledge.  They were empowered beings, the sources of greatness”.  But today, we refer to a muse as someone who inspires artistic creation.  After giving a brief list of famous choreographic partnerships (Balanchine and Farrell, Tharp and Baryshnikov, etc.) Mauro set the stage for the discussion to follow with Lar Lubovitch, Alejandro Cerrudo, Janet Eilber and Bettie de Jong that dealt with the artist/choreographer relationship.  Is it “control or collaboration”?  And how has that relationship been defined historically and is it being redefined now?

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago‘s (HSDC) resident choreogher Alejandro Cerrudo subscribes to the “two brains think better than one” theory and tends to use a collaborative approach with his dancers.  After praising the HSDC dancers many talents, he says, “anything the dancers give me is valid” and states simply, “I became a choreographer to become a better dancer.”  HSDC dancers Ana Lopez and Benjamin Wardell (frequent muses for Cerrudo) danced the final duet that was created on them from Cerrudo’s 2010 work Deep Down Dos.  Wardell is leaving HSDC to pursue independent projects.  I’m really going to miss these two artists dancing together.  They seem to have a kinetic ESP that drives their duets.

Janet Eilber, Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company told stories about working with the iconic choreographer in the 70s.  Eilber took over many of Graham’s roles once she was retired from dancing and said the best advice she ever gave her was to always create an internal monologue.  “You have to talk to yourself the whole time,” Graham advised her. Eilber also talked of how Graham had changed after a leave of absence from the company (depression and an extended hospital stay).  Once back, the way she choreographed changed to “visually instead of viscerally”.  Clips were shown of Eilber dancing in Graham classics Frontier and Clytemnestra.

Bettie de Jong, Rehearsal Director for Paul Taylor Dance Company brought her considerable personality and humor to stories of working with Mr. Taylor.”Unlike Martha, he doesn’t like to talk about the dances he’s making…maybe two words”, she says.  “His dances had an animal instinct, a dark side, a musical side, a funny side.”  Clips of her dancing with Taylor were shown including Esplanade and Big Bertha.

CDF co-founder Lar Lubovitch came last and promptly rearranged the two chairs on stage into a more pleasing configuration (he admitted it had been bothering him the entire program).  Once settled, he explained that his approach to choreographing is to tell the story of the music.  The dancers need to embody the music.   “My relationship with my dancers is based on who they present themselves to be,” he says adding, “there has to be a bond of trust in the room.  We trust and therefore can be free and therefore can create.”  An excerpt from HISTOIRE DE SOLDAT, Three Dances:  Tango, Waltz, Ragtime (2011) with three of his dancers followed telling a story with dark humor of a soldier, a princess and the devil.  Mauro opened the floor up to questions from the audience before wrapping up a lovely discussion on dance, history and the choreographic process.

Interview with Dance/USA Board Member – Julie Nakagawa

Don’t let her small stature and soft-spoken, polite nature fool you.  She is highly intelligent and a fiercely passionate advocate for dance.  Julie Nakagawa, Co-founder and Artistic Director of DanceWorks Chicago (DWC) and an officer on the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA, is an artist, teacher, mentor and director that focuses on nurturing not only the individual artist, but the global dance community as a whole.  There is no ego here.

A native of Evanston, IL, Nakagawa moved away for a dance career with Off Center Ballet, Cleveland Ballet and Twyla Tharp Dance before returning to Chicago to be with Ballet Chicago dancer, husband Andreas Böttcher.  “We just wanted to be in the same area code,” she says from her River North office inside the Ruth Page Center.  At a crossroads in her career, a social dinner with Lou Conte offered her a surprising opportunity and she wound up managing the Lou Conte Dance Studio.  More opportunities came in the form of directing the Hubbard Street Training Ensemble (now Hubbard Street 2) which she nurtured for the first decade of its existence.  Böttcher joined the organization and an unstoppable team was formed.  With mentors like Conte and Gail Kalver, there really wasn’t any other outcome.  “That was a great place for us to learn separately and collectively and grow together,” Nakagawa says.  “Those two are the best in the business.”

When it was time for them to leave the organization, they took some time off to travel and really focus on what they wanted to do.  Eventually their brainchild DWC was born, which they announced at that year’s Dance/USA conference.  DWC just celebrated its 4-year anniversary in June.  RB sat down with Nakagawa earlier this summer to talk about DanceWorks, Dance/USA and the dance community.

How did the idea of DanceWorks Chicago come about?

The community was already showing signs of strain in resources.  The most obvious resource is money, but for dance, space (which is associated with money), time (which is associated with money) and just the pressure to produce too.  What seemed like a potential danger was that these young dancers that were coming up weren’t…their directors and the companies were at risk of losing the valuable time of investment.  To bridge the gap between student or BFA graduate or conservatory grad or first job, second job thing, because there wasn’t an extra studio space or ballet master to kind of help you along.  Or the idea that yes, we can hire a dancer that we need to put an investment year in…those things weren’t happening.  Directors were saying to me that they can’t renew them because there’s some resource that they are lacking and each company handles that differently, but for the dancer that’s devastating.  Psychologically, that’s devastating.  You don’t get prepared for that in school.  You get prepared for success, but what about the many different ways success can look?  What about things that look or seem like failure, how do you turn those around?  I don’t think that’s necessarily overattended to.  In talking to dancers…they were the ones that said to us that it’s important.  This contribution is important.  The emphasis on companies is constantly to produce the dances.  Our concern has always been to produce the dancers.  That is the difference.  And we need both.  We decided to found DanceWorks Chicago to fulfill that need in the community to continue to have this laboratory or this research and development time to invest in the dancers, because a really courageous and equipped dancer can really do something in these companies.  Where the companies themselves…that might not be their priority.  That’s not a criticism.  They need to produce dances, but the dancers need to be ready to do whatever it is they need to do to help those companies reach their goals. 

We’ve been committed to 30-week contracts for the dancers annually, on salary and with health insurance.  That’s been a push and will continue to be a push, but we’re committed to that because we feel that’s the right thing to do.  We’re committed to building that relationship with them.  To build any relationship you need time.   It can’t be a two-week project and a one-week project and a gig.  That’s not a relationship, that’s two projects and a gig.  Again, that’s not a criticism; it’s just a different rhythm.  Our rhythm needs to be that we’re with each other on a daily basis for full days (9:30 – 4:30).  Time is the most precious commodity.  Money, if  you don’t have it or if you lose it, you can get it back.  You might not, but it’s in the realm of possibility.  Time, you won’t get it back.  We take that very seriously.  The artists’ time, the audience’s time, funders’ time…it’s really important.  From little things like trying to start and end on time, to reconfiguring performances into these dance flights, which are two 45-min segments back-to-back separated by 15 minutes.  That total time is like a regular performance, but the audience has more of a say in how they want to spend their time or their resources.  Trying to do things like that has also been important to us, as well as this laboratory for dancers to explore who they are and test that muscle of courage. That’s a muscle that’s really, really important.  Confidence besides the technical tools, the intellectual capacity and the emotional availability to really be a compelling artist.  We try to give them experience so they can make the best choices.  Do I want to be in a touring company?  Maybe that’s not for me.  If it’s not for you, then you can eliminate certain situations and save you and the company time and discomfort.  It’s a broad dance world out there, but it’s got to be about the relationship and the fit.  Hopefully having these experiences helps them identify a better next step, a better fit for them.

How did you get involved with Dance/USA?

When I retired from dancing, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.  It was more of a personal/professional decision.  I felt I’d had a great decade-long career and felt very grateful about my career and my dancing.  I enjoyed it.  I still was enjoying it, but felt like I needed to make a life choice..a life change.
I talked with my director Dennis Nahad at Cleveland Ballet and he suggested I go to Dance/USA.  Cleveland Ballet were a member organization.  So I went (Minneapolis) and I went to the dancers forum.  There was like seven of us, but it was a really great opportunity that there was a much broader dance community out there and that there were all these people working on all different levels and in all different areas.  To come to a national convening was something I’d never done.  It was really important.  That was my first connection with Dance/USA.  Then, Hubbard Street was a member organization, so I went again.  There’s a lot of value in it.  If you want to play on a national or international level, I think it’s a mistake to think you can do it just in your own backyard.  It doesn’t really matter where your backyard is, even with the internet and technology, it’s a people business.  While you can’t always jet around, you can go to Pittsburgh or Portland or…if you plan ahead, you can make that happen.  Seeing who was at Dance/USA, seeing who wasn’t at Dance/USA, seeing who was making things happen for themselves…there’s definitely a connection there.  The panels, the forums, the speakers, that’s all really important.  The time in the elevator, the time between sessions, even lunch is equally important.  There are so many connections made, deals done, business cards exchanged, synergies discovered that makes it exhausting.  But hopefully you’re exhausted in the right way.  We’re looking for that inside information, that extra edge.  One of the first things we did as a young organization (DWC) was join it.  We felt it was important.  Joining Dance/USA and having 30-week contracts with insurance…it’s not the norm, but if we can do it, it can be done.

…and joining the Board?

Someone nominated me, which was very generous and gracious.  I have some big shoes to fill.  Eduardo Vilaro (former Artistic Director of Luna Negra, currently Artistic Director at Ballet Hispanico) was the most recent Chicago representative on the board.  I think Eduardo is an example of someone who really was a great board member for Dance/USA and translated that into success for Luna Negra…and rightfully so.  I was honored to accept and was subsequently nominated to be Secretary.  I had to ponder that for logistical reasons.  I feel it’s really important to give back.

What do you think having the conference here this summer will do for the Chicago dance community?

We’re all really excited about it coming to Chicago.  It’s the center of the country, so hopefully it’s easy for everyone to get here.  It would be great to have more Dance/USA members in Chicago.  I think it’s such a vibrant community.  Sometimes there’s a perception that there’s New York and then the rest of the country.  I think that has been true.  I don’t think it needs to be true.  Does there need to be one destination for dance in the country?  No.  The math just doesn’t add up any more for lots of folks.  I think Dance/USA is navigating a broad spectrum of dance in terms of their constituency and a broad geographic range on an on-going basis.  I think Chicago is such a great destination for dance.  If you want people to come, it’s not enough just to be here.  Part of it is connecting with them where they are…it’s audience outreach.  I think that one of the things is that it has provided an opportunity for the dance community to convene.  As wonderfully diverse and dynamic as the community is, it’s not difficult to stay in your own area.  Sometimes it’s their geographic area, sometimes their genre…whatever it is.  We had a community breakfast, which drew a really great cross-section of people from the local artistic community.  Artists, presenters, press, agents…it was great.  The opportunity for the community is to come together around dance and around the conference and to represent Chicago.  I think the challenge for the community is what’s going to happen after this?  Are we all going to go back to business as usual?  Your energized and refreshed, and that’s not without value, but what is tangible?  That needs to be attended to.  I would love to suggest a post-Dance/USA community convening to share experiences.  There are so many things to select, there are so many session to attend…it might be beneficial to tag team, so you’re not all at the same meeting.  Can we do that at a broader level?  Can we have the community get together and share for the people that couldn’t come or selected not to come…so that they can still get something out of it.  Just sit down and talk.  I think that would be a great follow up.  And again, I’m a believer in personal responsibility.  Maybe there’s a group that wants to talk about national touring and they identify themselves at the follow-up meeting and then they start meeting bi-monthly.  It would be great to have some really honest, passionate, respectful conversation.

My hope is that the Chicago community really uses this as an opportunity to really shine a light on dance in Chicago in some way. Even if they can’t be there or don’t understand, they understand that the opportunity is out there and they made a choice to attend or not to attend and they stand by that choice.  We’re going to throw a big party – what’s going to happen after it?  That’s the place where there’s a potential to maximize the opportunity for each individual or organization.  There is a way that we can maybe do that as a community.

HSDC Announces 2011-2012 Season

HSDC dancer Jessica Tong in Sharon Eyals "Too Beaucoup". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) announced its 2011-2012 season today. Some Twyla, some Nacho, some Forsythe, some old, some new, a little Harold, LINES and a lot of Cerrudo. On paper, it already looks amazing. On stage, it is not to be missed. Under the direction of Glenn Edgerton, HSDC has continued to show an international audience why they are one of the best. Flawless technicians, intuitive artists, open and honest performers and consummate professionals.

Next season opens with the company at the Harris Theater in October. Nacho Duato’s gorgeous Arcangelo (if you were lucky, you saw it last fall), Johan Inger’s Walking Mad and a world premiere from Twyla Tharp (working with the company again after a 15 year absence) launches the new season. HSDC switches it up for the Winter Series in January, by performing a slew of new works on the MCA Stage and presenting danc(e)volve: New Works Festival. Edgerton will curate the show featuring pieces picked from the company’s Inside/Out Choreographic Workshop, two winners from the annual National Choreographic Competition and HS2 will perform a world premiere from HSDC Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo.

Springtime brings HSDC back to the Harris for a power-packed program bringing back Sharon Eyal’s techo-intense Too Beaucoup (a huge hit from this year’s Spring Series), Alonzo King’s Following the Subtle Current Upstream (which audiences will see in the upcoming May Summer Series) and another world premiere by Cerrudo, his 10th in four years as Resident Choreographer (keep them coming please!).

In December, HS2 bings back the delightful children’s program Harold and the Purple Crayon: A Dance Adventure. Choreographed by HSDC dancer Robyn Mineko Williams and HSDC Artistic Associate Terrance Marling, Harold wowed the sold-out crowds at its premiere, enthralling parents and kids alike. (Case in point: I’m not sure who enjoyed it more – me or my 6-year-old goddaughter!) Rounding out the season, the company revisits Cerrudo’s Maltidos and Ohad Naharin’s THREE TO MAX (which just had its premiere in March) and presents the much-anticipated company premiere of William Forsythe’s Quintett. Of course, this is just the Chicago concert series. The company is always busy touring, cultivating the collaborations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (now in its 9th year) and the Art Institute of Chicago and doing community outreach through the Chicago Public Schools.

Merde to HSDC for what will undoubtedly be another outstanding season of dance!

HSDC Announces 2011-2012 Season

Dancer Jessica Tong in "Too Beaucoup". Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) announced its 2011-2012 season today.  Some Twyla, some Nacho, some Forsythe, some old, some new, a little Harold, LINES and a lot of Cerrudo.  On paper, it already looks amazing.  On stage, it is not to be missed.  Under the direction of Glenn Edgerton, HSDC has continued to show an international audience why they are one of the best.  Flawless technicians, intuitive artists, open and honest performers and consummate professionals.

Next season opens with the company at the Harris Theater in October.  Nacho Duato’s gorgeous Arcangelo (if you were lucky, you saw it last fall), Johan Inger’s Walking Mad and a world premiere from Twyla Tharp (working with the company again after a 15 year absence) launches the new season.  HSDC switches it up for the Winter Series in January, by performing a slew of new works on the MCA Stage and presenting danc(e)volve: New Works Festival.  Edgerton will curate the show featuring pieces picked from the company’s Inside/Out Choreographic Workshop, two winners from the annual National Choreographic Competition and HS2 will perform a world premiere from HSDC Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo.

Springtime brings HSDC back to the Harris for a power-packed program bringing back Sharon Eyal’s techo-intense Too Beaucoup (a huge hit from this year’s Spring Series), Alonzo King’s Following the Subtle Current Upstream (which audiences will see in the upcoming May Summer Series) and another world premiere by Cerrudo, his 10th in four years as Resident Choreographer (keep them coming please!).

In December, HS2 bings back the delightful children’s program Harold and the Purple Crayon: A Dance Adventure.  Choreographed by HSDC dancer Robyn Mineko Williams and HSDC Artistic Associate Terrance Marling, Harold wowed the sold-out crowds at its premiere, enthralling parents and kids alike.  (Case in point:  I’m not sure who enjoyed it more – me or my 6-year-old goddaughter!)  Rounding out the season, the company revisits Cerrudo’s Maltidos and Ohad Naharin’s THREE TO MAX (which just had its premiere in March) and presents the much-anticipated company premiere of William Forsythe’s Quintett.  Of course, this is just the Chicago concert series.  The company is always busy touring, cultivating the collaborations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (now in its 9th year) and the Art Institute of Chicago and doing community outreach through the Chicago Public Schools.

Merde to HSDC for what will undoubtedly be another outstanding season of dance!