UCSB Arts & Lectures will bring the celebrated dance company Hubbard Street Dance Chicago to The Granada Theatre at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago was founded by teacher and choreographer Lou Conte in 1977, as a direct offspring of his notable Lou Conte Dance Studio. Conte immediately began to establish creative relationships with choreographers who were just breaking out of their apprenticeships, as well as with others who already possessed world reputations. That project took about a decade. Since 2009, the company has been under the leadership and artistic direction of Glenn Edgerton, formerly of the Joffrey Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater.
Composed of 17 dancers of impressive versatility and virtuosity, Hubbard Street has now become an emblem of Chicago’s international cultural profile (the Windy City has ambitions to rise from “Second City” to first). In 1997, Conte started a second company, HS2, and expanded the company’s outreach program.
Hubbard Street’s first show in Santa Barbara will consist of works by choreographers Jirí Kylián and Johan Inger. The program contains two works by Kylián: 27’52”, which takes the audience “along for an intriguing game of seeking and being sought, of holding and being held, pulling and pushing, set to a new composition by Dirk Haubrich based on themes by Gustav Mahler,” and Petite Mort, for six men, six women and six foils, set to the lovely tunes of a couple of Wolfgang Mozart piano concertos. Closing out the evening will be Inger’s Walking Mad, set to Maurice Ravel’s Boléro — a “madcap comedy merging pure dance with theatrical effects.”
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will also take part in a community dance class at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Gustafson Dance, 2285 Las Positas Road. The class is co-presented with the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance. For reservations, call 805.966.6950.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s performance is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by CASA. A conversation with the artists will follow the show.
Tickets are $38 and $48 for the general public and $20 for UCSB students, with a Granada facility fee included in each ticket price. For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at 805.893.3535 or click here. Tickets are also available through the Granada at 805.899.2222 or click here.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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