ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar
The Contemporary Dance Company Presents a Two-Part Spring Series at
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) has announced its 2021/22 44th season Spring Series: RE/CONNECT. The dance company will premiere two programs that will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E. Chicago Ave) March 2-13.
The Spring Series features two mixed-repertory programs. Program A brings together works by some of the most prolific established and emerging choreographers in contemporary dance: B/olero by Ohad Naharin, Little Rhapsodies by Chicago native Lar Lubovitch, and two world premieres by the effervescent Darrell Grand Moultrie and Amy Hall Garner. The following week, Program B offers another opportunity to see the new work by Darrell Grand Moultrie plus Nacho Duato’s Jardí Tancat (called “hauntingly beautiful” in the fall by WTTW) and Jermaine Maurice Spivey’s The Seen, commissioned by Hubbard Street in the fall and hailed by WTTW as “provocative [and] intriguing!”
Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, Artistic Director of HSDC, had this to say about the Spring installment of their multi-venue season: “If the Fall Series was about our return to live performance, the Spring Series is our chance to deepen the relationship to our audiences and reconnect. The intimate Edlis Neeson Theater is the perfect venue for this exciting array of world premieres, new choreographers, and returning artists.”
When asked about repeated pieces throughout the season, Fisher-Harrell said, “I like to let things catch fire. The first time we perform a piece, it creates a little spark of buzz that carries over to the next time it is performed, whether that be in a different venue or the same one. If you missed Jardí Tancat or The Seen at the Harris last fall, you have another shot at seeing these remarkable pieces during Program B. And if you saw them already, you have a chance to see different casts in a completely different setting. [Founding Artistic Director] Lou Conte used to have Programs A, B, C, D – we want to offer something for everyone! The 2-week run in the Edlis Neeson Theater at the MCA allows us to feature new artistic voices in addition to tried and true favorites, so you can attend Program A and then a week later, join us for Program B to get the full Hubbard Street experience.”
The Spring Series has performances Wednesday, March 2 through Sunday, March 13. Tickets for Spring Series: RE/CONNECT at the MCA are now on sale via the Harris Theater Box Office. They can be purchased at harristheaterchicago.org or by calling 312-334-7777, and range from $15 to $110. The Harris Theater Box Office is open from 12pm-5pm CST, Monday-Friday. Please visit mcachicago.org/visit/safety for the MCA’s up-to-date COVID-19 safety protocols. Spring Series: RE/CONNECT is not part of the MCA Stage performance program.
To demonstrate Hubbard Street’s commitment to making the arts accessible to all, a limited number of $15 tickets are available for every performance this season, with over 1,000 Hubbard Street tickets set at this special $15 price this year.
Hubbard Street is grateful to Liza Yntema for her support of female leadership in dance. Athletico Physical Therapy, Chicago Athletic Clubs, and the Illinois Arts Council Agency are Season 44: RE/CHARGE Season Partners. Amy Hall Garner’s world premiere commission is supported in part by Camille Rudge.
The Spring Series: RE/CONNECT performance schedule is as follows:
PROGRAM A: DARRELL GRAND MOULTRIE (World Premiere), OHAD NAHARIN (B/olero), LAR LUBOVITCH (Little Rhapsodies), AMY HALL GARNER (World Premiere)
Wednesday, March 2 at 7:30 pm
Thursday, March 3 at 7:30 pm
Friday, March 4 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, March 5 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, March 6 at 3:00 pm
PROGRAM B: NACHO DUATO (Jardí Tancat), JERMAINE MAURICE SPIVEY (The Seen), DARRELL GRAND MOULTRIE (World Premiere)
Wednesday, March 9 at 7:30 pm
Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 pm
Friday, March 11 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, March 12 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, March 13 at 3:00 pm
Following RE/CONNECT, Hubbard Street’s 44th season continues May 12-15, 2022 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance with Summer Series: RE/UNION. This homecoming event will feature the highly anticipated return of Ohad Naharin’s Decadance/Chicago as Program A, with Program B offering a Chicago premiere by Spenser Theberge, an encore presentation of Aszure Barton’s thrilling BUSK, and Amy Hall Garner’s world premiere commission from the spring. Tickets for RE/UNION will go on sale in spring of 2022.
About the Spring Series Choreographers
NACHO DUATO
Nacho Duato, born in Valencia, Spain, started professional ballet training with the Rambert School in London at eighteen, expanding studies at Maurice Béjart's Mudra School in Brussels and completing his dance education at The Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre in New York. In 1980 Duato signed his first professional contract with the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm and a year later Jirí Kylián brought him to the Nederlands Dans Theater in Holland, where he was quickly incorporated into company and repertoire. His first choreographic attempt in 1983 turned into a major success: Jardí Tancat to Spanish/Catalan music by compatriot Maria del Mar Bonet won him the first prize at the International Choreographic Workshop (Internationaler Choreographischer Wettbewerb) at Cologne. Duato has created more than a dozen works for the two companies of Nederlands Dans Theater and in 1988 was named Resident Choreographer next to Hans van Manen and Jirí Kylián. His ballets form part of the repertoire of companies like Paris Opera, Cullberg Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Deutche Opera Ballet, Australian Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Ballet Gulbenkian, Finish Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, The Singapore Ballet, Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, North Carolina Dance Thatre, The Boston Ballet, The Gothemburg Ballet, The Royal Swedish Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, The Northen Ballet, Ballet du Capitole, Ballet du Rhin, Teatro Comunale Florence, National Ballet of Portugal, The Norweigian Ballet, National Theatre Tokio, The Universal Ballet, Stars Foundation Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Staats Theater Berlin, Bolshoi Ballet, etc. From June 1990 until July 2010, Nacho Duato was Artistic Director of Compañía Nacional de Danza (Madrid-Spain). In 1995 he received the grade of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres which is annually given by the French Embassy in Spain. In 1998 the Spanish Government rewarded him the Golden Medal for the Merit in the Fine Arts. At the Stuttgart Opera he was offered the Benois de la Danse, one of the most prestigious international awards for choreography, presented by the International Dance Association for his ballet Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness, in April, 2000. Starting January, 2011 he held the position of Artistic Director of Mikhailowsky Ballet (Saint Petersburg, Russia). In 2014 he became Intendant and Artistic Director of Berlin State Ballet (Germany).
AMY HALL GARNER
Amy Hall Garner is a native of Huntsville, Alabama, and a graduate of The Juilliard School. Her work has been praised internationally and commissioned by Ailey II, ABT Studio Company, Collage Dance Collective, The Juilliard School, The Ailey School, Barnard College, The University of the Arts, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Point Park University, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Recently, she has received virtual commissions from BalletX, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process Digital Series, ABT Studio Company, Boulder Ballet and a virtual collaboration between Miami City Ballet and Paul Taylor American Modern Dance. She personally coached Grammy Award winner Beyoncé, providing additional choreography for The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. Theatrical choreography credits include: The Color Purple(Milwaukee Repertory Theater) and Invisible Thread, associate choreographer (Second Stage Theater, NYC). In 2018, she was selected to participate in Alvin Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab supported by the Ford Foundation. Garner was one of the first recipients of the Joffrey Ballet’s Choreography of Color Award (now titled Winning Works). She is an adjunct professor at New York University’s New Studio on Broadway at Tisch School of the Arts. In 2021, Ms. Garner was a Virginia B. Toulmin Fellow at The Center for Ballet and the Arts. Currently, she is creating and reimagining the classical ballet narrative The Nutcracker, at Baltimore School for the Arts.
LAR LUBOVITCH
Lar Lubovitch is one of America’s most versatile and widely seen choreographers. He founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Over the course of 53 years, it has gained an international reputation as one of America’s top dance companies, produced more than 120 dances and performed before millions across the U.S. and over 40 countries. Many other major companies throughout the world have performed the company’s dances, including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Joffrey Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and more. Lubovitch has created ice-dancing works for Olympians John Curry, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Brian Orser, JoJo Starbuck, and Paul Wylie, and he has created feature-length ice-dance specials for TV: The Planets for A&E (nominated for an International Emmy Award, a Cable AceAward, and a Grammy Award) and The Sleeping Beauty for PBS and Anglia TV, Great Britain. His theater and film work includes Sondheim/ Lapine’s Into the Woods (Tony Award nomination), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award), the Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I (on Broadway and in London’s West End), Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin, and Robert Altman’s movie The Company (American Choreography Award). In 2016, he premiered The Bronze Horseman, based on the Pushkin poem, for the Mikhailovsky Ballet in Russia. In 1987, he conceived Dancing for Life, which took place at Lincoln Center. It was the first response by the dance community to the AIDS crisis, raising over one million dollars. Together with Jay Franke, in 2007 Lubovitch created the Chicago Dancing Festival, in collaboration with the City of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art. It presented 10 seasons entirely free to the public. Recent awards: 2007 named Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune; 2008 named similarly by Chicago Magazine; 2011 designated a Ford Fellow by United States Artists and received the Dance/USA Honors Award; 2012 his dance Crisis Variations awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse for outstanding choreography at the Bolshoi Theatre; 2013 honored for lifetime achievement by the American Dance Guild; 2014 awarded an honorary doctorate by The Juilliard School; 2016 received the Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement and the Dance Magazine Award, named one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition and appointed a Distinguished Professor at UC/Irvine. In honor of his company's 50th anniversary, in 2018 he was presented with the Martha Graham Award for lifetime achievement.
DARRELL GRAND MOULTRIE
A recipient of the Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award, Darrell Grand Moultrie has established himself as one of the most diverse and sought-after choreographers and master teachers. This past fall, American Ballet Theatre performed Moultrie’s Indestructible Light at New York’s Lincoln Center Theatre and Milwaukee Ballet premiered Flight Anew. Moultrie has created and staged works for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, BalletMet Columbus, Ailey 2, Tulsa Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, The Juilliard School, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and NBA Ballet in Japan. On stage, Darrell’s work can currently be seen in Space Dogs at New York’s MCC Theatre. Additionally, he has provided movement and choreography for The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Merry Wives, the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’s off-Broadway play Daddy, Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theater directed by Tony Winner Diane Paulus, Sugar in Our Wounds at Manhattan Theatre Club, the off-Broadway musical Invisible Thread at Second Stage, the world premiere of Redwood at Portland Center Stage Theater, and Evita and Pride & Prejudice at Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Darrell also choreographed El Publico, a new opera at the world-famous Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain directed by Robert Castro and conducted by Robert Heras-Casado. Moultrie is also set to choreograph the world premiere of the new musical Goddess at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Moultrie is a proud New Yorker, born and raised in Harlem, and a graduate of P.S. 144, The Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, LaGuardia High School, and The Juilliard School.
OHAD NAHARIN
Ohad Naharin is a choreographer, the House Choreographer of Batsheva Dance Company, and creator of the Gaga movement language. Born in 1952 in Mizra, Israel, he joined Batsheva Dance Company in 1974 despite having little training. During his first year, guest choreographer Martha Graham invited him to join her own company in New York, where Naharin later made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi studio in 1980. For the next decade he presented works in New York and abroad, including pieces for Batsheva Dance Company, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and Nederlands Dans Theater. Naharin worked closely with his first wife, Mari Kajiwara, until she died from cancer in 2001. In 1990, Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company, and in the same year, he established the company’s junior division, Batsheva – the Young Ensemble. He has since created over thirty works for both companies and set pieces on many others. He has also collaborated with musicians including The Tractor’s Revenge, Avi Balleli and Dan Makov, Ivri Lider, and Grischa Lichtenberger. Under the pseudonym Maxim Waratt, he composed, edited, and mixed many of his own soundtracks. Naharin’s work has been featured in several films, including Tomer Heymann’s Out of Focus (2007) and the Heymann Brothers’ Mr. Gaga (2015). In addition to his stagework, Naharin also developed GAGA, the innovative movement research and daily training of Batsheva’s dancers that has spread internationally among both dancers and non-dancers. A citizen of both Israel and the United States, Naharin currently lives in Israel with his wife, dancer and costume designer Eri Nakamura, and their daughter, Noga.
JERMAINE MAURICE SPIVEY
Jermaine Maurice Spivey was born in Baltimore, Maryland USA and is a graduate of Baltimore School for the Arts and The Juilliard School. From 2002-2017, Jermaine lived and worked predominately throughout Europe. He has been a company member of Ballet Gulbenkian and Cullberg Ballet, worked as a freelance/guest artist for Hofesh Shechter Company, Robyn Live 2016, The LID, Arias Company and The Forsythe Company from 2013-2015 as well as a cast member of American Repertory Theater's original production The Shape She Makes conceived by Susan Misner and Jonathan Bernstein. Since 2008, Jermaine has been a member of Crystal Pite's project-based company Kidd Pivot. He has rehearsal assisted and/or staged Crystal Pite's work for companies such as Cedar Lake Ballet, Carte Blanche, Hessisches StaatsBallett Wiesbaden, Nederlands Dans Theater, and Paris Opera Ballet. Jermaine has instructed dance all across North America and Europe for professional companies, universities, studios and training programs including USC Kaufman School of Dance, Cal Arts, The Juilliard School, UCLA, NYU Tisch, Baltimore School for the Arts, The Performing Arts Project, MOVE NYC, No)one. Art House, Nuova Officina Della Danza and GöteborgsOperans Danskompani. He is a 2001 Princess Grace Awardee and a 1998 National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts 1st Level Awardee. As a choreographer, Jermaine has been commissioned by Salt Contemporary Dance, Rambert 2, LA Dance Project, The Broad Museum, Christina Aguilera Live at The Hollywood Bowl with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil, and most recently Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Jermaine has also created and performed two full evening works with partner and collaborator Spenser Theberge titled Rather This Then and Position 3.
About Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s mission is to bring artists, art and audiences together to enrich, engage, educate and change lives through the experience of dance. HSDC is committed to keeping its dancers creating and finding innovative ways to share exceptional contemporary dance with the community. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago grew out of the Lou Conte Dance Studio in 1977, and Conte served as Artistic Director for 23 years. Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell began her tenure at the company in March 2021. In January 2022, HSDC moved to their new home in Water Tower Place on Michigan Avenue.
Hubbard Street offers extensive Education and Adaptive Dance Programs to ensure that residents in every neighborhood of Chicago have access to the benefits of dance. Visit hubbardstreetdance.com for more information.
