Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is a dance company based in Chicago.

History

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) was founded in 1977 by dancer and choreographer Lou Conte, who served as artistic director until his retirement from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2000. Originally the company’s sole choreographer, Conte developed relationships with both new and established choreographers as the company began to grow, adding bodies of work by a variety of artists. In the 1980s, the company commissioned several works by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Margo Sappington and Daniel Ezralow.

A partnership with Twyla Tharp in the 1990s helped expand the company's repertoire with the acquisition of six of Tharp's works and commissioning an original work for the company. About this time, the company began to include European choreographers Jirí Kylián and Nacho Duato. These long-term relationships, along with the selection of Jim Vincent as the company’s new artistic director, helped determine the company's future direction as primarily a repertory company.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago further expanded its repertoire with the works of Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, including "Tabula Rasa," "Minus 16," "Passomezzo," "Queens," and "Black Milk."

Current company

Artistic Director Jim Vincent has continued to develop Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's strengths and increase the company's prominence. The company's 22 dancers are notable for a versatility and flexibility that allows HSDC to perform a varied repertoire and serve as a living archive for choreographic works by international choreographers and a platform for new dance works by new choreographers. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago also works to develop new choreographers and collaborates with artists in music, visual arts and theater. In 2007, The New York Times called Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, "one of America’s foremost modern-dance repertory companies, showcasing the dances of a range of choreographers." ["New York Times" dance review, Alastair Macaulay, "It's Summer, and These Moves are Hot" June 30, 2007]

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performs in downtown Chicago and its metropolitan area and tours nationally and internationally throughout the year. The company has appeared in 44 states and 17 countries at celebrated dance venues including the American Dance Festival, DanceAspen, the Holland Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Dance Celebration, the Ravinia Festival, Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds (Italy), Spoleto Festival U.S.A. (Charleston, SC), Sadler's Wells Theatre, The Brighton Festival and Wolf Trap. In January 2004, HSDC joined forces with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for an engagement conducted by Pinchas Zukerman that brought one of Vincent’s goals to fruition by performing his piece, counter/part, to live music. Since then, HSDC has rejoined Pinchas Zukerman for an engagement with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and a return performance with the CSO for the world premiere of SF/LB. In December 2005, HSDC will once again join Zukerman and the CSO for a celebration of dance and music in honor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Education programs

As part of their effort to outreach to the community of Chicago, the HSDC has partnered with several schools in Chicago to offer both in class and after school programs to students under the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts. They also provide classes for teachers on how to incorporate dance into their classroom. HSDC works with an average of 25 schools each year, which are selected through an extensive application process that includes site visits and a demonstrated commitment to the program by each school. Although HSDC has previously hosted master classes and residencies for schools outside of Chicago, this year the company is also piloting a whole school dance initiative with five K–5 schools in Oak Park, a nearby Chicago suburb. [http://www.arts.gov/about/NEARTS/18-2007vol4/story.php?id=p08_expressing]

Footnotes