Recognized worldwide for its exuberant, athletic and eclectic approach to dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago has been an innovative force in contemporary dance for over three decades. This program features the fluid yet unpredictable movements of choreographer Doug Varone’s latest work, The Constant Shift of Pulse. This intricate and visually powerful piece illuminates the purity of movement, as 15 Hubbard Street dancers test the boundaries of trust and release across an engaging emotional and physical landscape.
“Take a deep breath, because Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is going to take your breath away.” The Washington Post
When: Wednesday, February 4, 7:30 PM
Where: Concert Hall
Tickets: $40, $30, $15; Five College Students and Youth 17 and under $15
If you’ve seen this show or plan to, please leave a comment and let us know what you think! Be a critic! Be a fan!
Loved it!
I loved all the performance. The last piece was so completely imaginative and inventive, quickly changing in concepts, all of great interest, an equal balance of spontaneity with structure. The dancers are highly skilled, the choreography moving like water; I found myself living completely ‘in the moment’ through every twist and turn of the moment. It was very precious how dancers came right into the audience and grabbed people to dance on stage with them. Little was it known that one of the people chosen is a professional dancer, Elizabeth O’Brien, who fell ‘right into the present moment’ dancing with the dancer who chose her. She was a terrific improviser and enraptured the audience. The two danced together as though it was staged, but it was not. When the performance ended, I did not want it to ever end, and have been inspired since.
The performance was beautiful! The first piece weaving classical and modern elements was emotionally moving. The second piece, unfortunately seemed disconnected and left me less than impressed. But then — the final number: WOW! So many different concepts somehow melding together in a way that made sense. Many pieces of this last number appeared to carry a message which left me more than inspired to dance and move … but to also consider things greater than myself. It was simply amazing.
I was so pleased to be able to share this performance with my boyfriend who is still new to modern dance. We both were thoroughly impressed with the skill of the dancers, both technical and theatrical. The selectios went well with each other. I loved the interpretation of the Mozart (music I know well) with both balletic, modern, and improvisational styles. The patterns of the music came alive visually in the movement. I also enjoyed Doug Varone’s piece as it brought back visceral memories for me, and I could ‘understand’ and relate to the movement style and experimentation around the theme. I also enjoyed the music and pulse of the piece, although it may not have been as successful as the first and 3rd peices. Finally, Ohad’s piece was also pure joy. The range of expressiveness, and humor, that the dancers mastered and conveyed was impressive, especially in the Latin sections. The dramatic building of gestures and movement combinations in the Israeli section was powerful and well done. Finally – what fun to bring the audience into the dance . It was fortunate that the dancers chose Elizabeth with her dramatic hair contrasting with her red top, and her complete willingness and ability to play off her partner and dance. She actually ‘stole’ the stage, and to many I’m sure it seemed ‘staged’, but the performance was fully appreciated by the audience. I am glad that Hubbard Street could present a pieces that seemed to work well with each other and spark excitement in the audience. Thank you FAC for bringing them here again. Looking forward to more.
A wonderful performance! In the first piece. the innovative and clever choreography brought us a new understanding of a loved Mozart work, mixing elements of classic, modern, and even hip hop, with humor and clever use of costuming. The dancers energy and skill was immediately apparent. I felt Mozart would have enjoyed this as it respected his youthful genius.
The rest of the evening just got better and better. After the third piece we were grinning from ear to ear, and felt appreciation for the FAC bringing us such a delightful warm entertainment on a cold winter night. Thank you, FAC!
blown away is right! We sat up in the balcony until the first intermission and then moved down, and the performance was equally riveting from either place. I personally liked the first piece best because I preferred the music (Mozart) and I liked the humor of the choreography, but the second was amazing because of the athleticism of the dancers and the third because of the variety and, again, the ability and strength of the actors, and the variety. Definitely worth the price of the ticket
Fabulous! I wanted them to start all over again the minute they were finished. Would love a DVD of the performance to stop and stare at some of the amazing moves. How to be upright without a spinal column… Bring them back anytime. Thanks for a good choice.
What energy! I thought that the Paul Taylor performance would be hard to match, but this did it. We have been following this group from its Jacob’s Pillow performances and they keep getting better.
Awesome.. one of the best dance performances I have ever seen. Can’t wait to see them again.
What a great performance! All of the dancers were beautiful and I loved how there was a lot of humor incorporated into the pieces. I haven’t enjoyed a dance show this much in a long time. It was so refreshing!
I really enjoyed the performance. The first piece was lovely, well staged and witty. I was less impressed with the second piece. It seemed disconnected. I had trouble figuring out where it was going and what it was supposed to mean. My favorite was the third piece. It was so innovative. I loved the part set to a Passover song Echod mi yodea both the music and the movements. Also, loved when the dancers brought up people from the audience. It added another flavor. All in all well worth coming out on a frigid night!
The first piece didn’t really do much for me. The classical music didn’t seem to grab me and the performance was uninspiring in terms of content. The second piece was much better. What made the show worth the trip was the last piece. I enjoyed the innovative start to the dance. There was a welcoming quality to the “inexperienced” appearance of the first dancer and the very low volume of the sound caused the audience to hush and watch the dancer intently. Starting all of this in the intermission with the lights up, warped the typical and often staid framework of performance structure. When the audience members were brought onstage, I had the sense of being a part of the performance or at least being closer to the event. If I’d just seen the last piece and not the first two, I would have been satisfied.
The snake that shivered and flitted in successive gestures of delightful passes through Mozart’s unforgettable parade of notes, I’m still singing snatches.
Doug Varone, how could I have missed his recent performance? In this piece the dancers’ spontaneity nearly captured every moment of my attention. Whether burbling up or sliding around one another, the dancers’ floorwork is still casting shadows and lights of memorable moments in my mind. Why must it be so ephemeral?
In the third piece, his initial solo was ,in my mind, that of an inebriated, slightly suspicious, suddenly lucid, social misfit on the edge of a wedding reception who is enamored of the music but can’t quite get it together to at least fall into the arms of a lady to slow dance. The singing in the second part was so stalwart and literally stood in opposition to the repetitive circle flung out of control that rolled up to a meditiative moment experienced by all.
Did the next section start with clapping? I remember keeping the beat while anonymous-looking dancers came off the stage.
I remember the theater falling away. I remember the presence of the dancer who invited me into the moment. He jogged lightly, I jogged lgihtly, onto the stage. The music was so familiar. I remember laughing and saying to him: “Thank you for this gift”. I know we danced in one shared space even as he went back to corps motifs. It was fun and felt just right; the rolling, gesturing, feeling the beat.
He had such presence as we partnered as a trickle of sweat rolled down the right side of his face.I remember the woman on crutches and the short man with white hair and suddenly they disappeared. In the slow dance, my partner cued me for the end by telling me that he would drop and I should walk off stage when the music ended. He said: “Good bye”, so I did.
I’d like to know his name to thank him.
Wow!! What an amazing experience. This performance really renewed my faith in the power of dance (and sometimes we can forget)! “MInus 16” by Batsheva Dance Company’s Ohad Naharin was just so much darned fun. From a silly, almost inconsequential but very fun solo in the beginning as the audience was walking in, to the powerful developing repetitions of the group on chairs, it just kept flipping our expectations. Brilliant, impeccably-trained dancers, doing everything from riveting unison movement to a very funny audience-invited tango (and indeed, Elizabeth really did steal the stage! “Who was that woman?” Everybody seemed to be asking!). I was reminded that dance (and all the arts, in this time of fear and pessimism about the future) can be this wonderful, joyous, tragic, momentous, life-changing experience that can make it all okay again. This was it. My students were blown away too! Thank you for bringing them!
The evening was a disappointment for me. The dancing, of course, was brilliant … energetic … flawless. But the choreography left me wanting something more. It was stylistically innovative and very tasteful, but (at least the first two pieces) lacked emotional context. It was as if each piece had been used by the choreographer as a study for a planned but unseen future work. I felt as if I was viewing a sketch pad full of wonderful ideas awaiting development and connection within a completed painting. I thought the dancers and the audience deserved more.
I’d been wanting for years to see Hubbard Street, as I had trained with one of their alumns several years ago. And it was a great performance! In contrast to those commenters who weren’t happy with Marguerite Donlon’s piece, I was riveted by it. There were several simple aspects to the dance, but when taken as a whole these aspects layered to create a rich and complex piece. The movement phrases were fairly simple; the costuming was sparse; the staging was pretty but plain. Yet, the simple phrases were combined in varying ways, and together with costume permutations and changes in staging there was a lot to look at during every count of the music. Fantastic.