CHICAGO: One Thousand Pieces // Family events: November + December
Company:
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Winter Series continues Season 36
One Thousand Pieces returning by popular demand
CHICAGO – Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton are pleased to continue Season 36 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park, December 12–15, 2013.
Hubbard Street’s Winter Series is devoted to a special encore presentation of One Thousand Pieces by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, which opened the company’s Landmark 35th Anniversary Season to critical acclaim (a a a a , Chicago Tribune). Featuring members of both the main company and Hubbard Street 2, it was Cerrudo’s and Hubbard Street’s first full-length work, inspired by Marc Chagall’s America Windows, permanently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The America Windows were given by Chagall to the city of Chicago and accepted by then-Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1977, the same year Hubbard Street Dance Chicago was founded by renowned choreographer and teacher Lou Conte. Likewise, One Thousand Pieces was presented as a gift to the city and accepted onstage by Mayor Rahm Emanuel before its October 19, 2012 performance.
Including three acts and one intermission, One Thousand Pieces runs approximately 90 minutes. Its premiere engagement was supported in part by the Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work, awarded to Alejandro Cerrudo and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2012; corporate sponsors Exelon and Grosvenor Capital Management, L.P.; Individual Sponsors Meg and Tim Callahan; and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
The score for One Thousand Pieces is by renowned American composer Philip Glass and provides a unique overview of his career from 1976–2006, as it includes selections from his works for solo instruments and chamber ensembles, orchestral arrangements and operas, and original compositions for films. One Thousand Pieces features lighting by Michael Korsch, and sets and costumes by Thomas Mika, whose prior collaborators in dance include John Cranko, Derek Deane and Kevin O’Day.
Says Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton: “One Thousand Pieces is a mercurial fantasy of movement and light and, every time I see it, I discover an intriguing detail for the first time.”
Hubbard Street continues Season 36 with One Thousand Pieces at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph Dr., Chicago, Illinois, 60601. Performance schedule:
• Thursday, December 12 at 7:30 pm
• Friday, December 13 at 8 pm (plus, at 11 am, a special presentation for school students)
• Saturday, December 14 at 8 pm
• Sunday, December 15 at 3 pm
Single tickets, $25–$99, are available at hubbardstreetdance.com/winter or by phone at 312-850-9744. Subscriptions to remaining Season 36 performances at the Harris Theater including One Thousand Pieces, Hubbard Street’s Spring Series featuring four works by JiAí Kylián (March 13–16, 2014) and the Summer Series (June 5–8, 2014) remain available by phone or online at hubbardstreetdance.com/subscribe.
Artist profiles
Alejandro Cerrudo (Dancer and Resident Choreographer) was born in Madrid, Spain and trained at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza de Madrid. His professional career began in 1998 and includes work with Victor Ullate Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and, since 2005, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2008, Cerrudo was named Hubbard Street Choreographic Fellow and became the company’s first Resident Choreographer in 2009. His 12 works to date choreographed at Hubbard Street include unique collaborations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Nederlands Dans Theater. These pieces and additional commissions are in repertory at companies in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and around the United States. Always dancing and constantly creating, Cerrudo was honored in 2011 with an award from the Boomerang Fund for Artists. In 2012, he received a Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work from the Prince Charitable Trusts, for his first full-length work, One Thousand Pieces. Cerrudo’s forthcoming creation for Pacific Northwest Ballet is supported by the Joyce Theater Foundation’s Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance.
Philip Glass (Music) was born in 1937, grew up in Baltimore, and studied at the University of Chicago, the Juilliard School and in Aspen with Darius Milhaud. He then moved to Europe, where he studied with the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger and worked closely with sitar virtuoso and composer Ravi Shankar. He returned to New York in 1967 and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble, seven musicians playing keyboards and a variety of woodwinds, amplified and fed through a mixer. Through numerous compositions and wide-ranging collaborations with artists including Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma, Twyla Tharp, Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen, Doris Lessing and David Bowie, Glass has made an extraordinary impact upon the musical and intellectual life of our time. His ouevre includes over 20 operas, ten symphonies, a growing body of work for solo piano and organ, two piano concertos and concertos for violin, piano, timpani, and saxophone quartet and orchestra. Glass has also written music for experimental theater, and for Academy Award–winning motion pictures such as The Hours and Kundun. He presents lectures, workshops, and solo keyboard performances around the world, and continues to appear regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble. Visit philipglass.com to learn more.
Michael Korsch (Lighting Design) is a lighting and scenic designer based in Philadelphia, where he earned his BA in Theater at Temple University. Korsch has worked with numerous directors and choreographers, creating visual designs for dance and theater throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Michael has been resident lighting and scenic designer as well as technical director for Complexions Contemporary Ballet since 1998, and resident lighting designer for Ballet Arizona since 2001. In addition to One Thousand Pieces and his prior Hubbard Street premiere, Alejandro Cerrudo’s Little mortal jump (2012), Korsch has created designs for productions by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, BalletMet, BalletX, Carolina Ballet, Cleveland Play House, DanceBrazil, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Disney Creative Entertainment, English National Ballet, MOMIX, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Oakland Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Royal Danish Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin and the Washington Ballet.
Thomas Mika (Set and Costume Design) studied musical theater direction at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Hamburg, Germany, where he was born. He then began his career in the performing arts assisting director Dominik Neuner. Choreographers with whom Mika has worked include Edward Clug, Leo Mujic and Kevin O’Day; productions he’s designed include Derek Deane’s The Lady of the Camellias and John Cranko’s Onegin, presented internationally by companies including Stuttgart Ballet, the National Ballet of China and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Mika also designed sets and costumes at Staatsballett Berlin in 2006, for OUT OF 99 by Leo Mujics. One Thousand Pieces is Mika’s first production design for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
About Hubbard Street and Hubbard Street 2
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic leadership of Glenn Edgerton, celebrates its 36th season in 2013 and 2014. Among the world’s top contemporary dance companies and a global cultural ambassador, Hubbard Street demonstrates fluency in a wide range of techniques and forms, and deep comprehension of abstract artistry and emotional nuance. The company is critically acclaimed for its exuberant and innovative repertoire, featuring works by master American and international choreographers. Hubbard Street’s artists hail from four countries and 12 U.S. states, and comprise a superlative ensemble of virtuosity and versatility.
Since its founding by Lou Conte in 1977, Hubbard Street has grown through the establishment of multiple platforms. Each is dedicated to the support and advancement of dance as an art form, as a practice, and as a method for generating and sustaining communities of all kinds.
Extensive Youth, Education and Community Programs, directed by Kathryn Humphreys, are models in the field of arts education, linking the performing company’s creative mission to the lives of students and families. Hubbard Street also initiated the first dance-based program in the Midwest to help alleviate suffering caused by Parkinson’s disease. Youth Dance Program classes at the Hubbard Street Dance Center include Creative Movement and progressive study of technique, open to young dancers ages 18 months to 16 years.
At the Lou Conte Dance Studio, directed by founding Hubbard Street Dancer Claire Bataille, workshops and master classes allow access to expertise, while a broad variety of weekly classes offer training at all levels in jazz, ballet, modern, tap, African, hip-hop, yoga, Pilates® and Zumba®.
Hubbard Street 2, founded by Julie Nakagawa and Lou Conte in 1997 and now led by Terence Marling, prepares dancers ages 18 to 25 for careers in contemporary dance, and identifies next-generation choreographers. While members, talented young artists receive professional experience in a dynamic environment that fosters artistic growth while allowing them to hone multiple techniques. To date, 12 members of HS2 have advanced to Hubbard Street’s main company, with numerous others joining top dance companies worldwide.
HS2’s dancers reach thousands annually with diverse programming that provides valuable outreach in schools, site-specific work in museums and cultural institutions, and evening-length repertoire performances. HS2 has been honored to perform at many prestigious venues including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Joyce SoHo and North Carolina School of the Arts, and overseas in Germany, Luxembourg, South Africa and Switzerland.
As part of its mission to identify and nurture young choreographers, HS2 initiated a National Choreographic Competition in 1999. Each year, the competition provides residencies offering choreographers opportunities to create original work and conduct master classes for the community. The competition has gained an esteemed reputation, international recognition and produced nearly 30 works, by notable choreographers including Robert Battle, Aszure Barton, Camille Brown, Norbert De La Cruz III, Gregory Dolbashian, Jonathan Fredrickson, Alex Ketley, Gabrielle Lamb, Loni Landon, Edwaard Liang, Terence Marling, Andrea Miller, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, Alex Soares, Samar Haddad King, Dominic Walsh and Edgar Zendejas.
Committed to the creation of quality family programming, in 2010 former HS2 Director Taryn Kaschock Russell conceived of Harold and the Purple Crayon: A Dance Adventure, the company’s first program-length work created specifically for young people and families, choreographed by Terence Marling and former company dancer Robyn Mineko Williams. HS2 premiered this educational performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to a sold-out house and continues to engage young audiences around the world with this imaginative program.
HS2 is an integral component of Hubbard Street’s Youth, Education and Community Programs, which bring students into the world of dance by actively engaging them in perception, research, reflection and discussion, assisting them in strengthening basic proficiencies to develop analytical and abstract thinking, interpretation and problem-solving skills.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
1147 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60607 • 312-850-9744 • hubbardstreetdance.com
