Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Bardo, Cor Perdut, Extremely Close, Palladio
Joyce Theater, New York
August 9, 2008
By Tom Phillips
Copyright 2008 by Tom Phillips
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago has an international roster of dancers and choreographers, but the troupe’s most winning quality is its Midwestern heart. Dancing is a team sport for this ensemble of ten men and ten women, with no ranks or stars; everyone takes his or her turn in the corps, and everyone pulls together to create a feeling of athletic energy and co-operative derring-do. There’s a bit too much unison in the choreography, and too much regularity in matching the steps to the music, to suit the tastes of some sophisticated New Yorkers. But that may just be the downside of a refreshingly open, unaffected, and sometimes inventive style.
The closest thing to a star turn in Saturday’s program came by accident. Because of an injury to Jamy Meek, dancer-choreographer Alejendro Cerrudo stepped in to dance his own choreography in his new piece “Extremely Close.” Some dance-lovers have grown tired of being hypnotized by the twinkling piano music of Philip Glass, but Cerrudo’s staging added some moxie to the monotony. The floor is carpeted and completely strewn with white feathers, which blow about as the dancers sweep through them, and cling to their bodies as they work up a sweat. The dancing – most of it by couples -- takes place in a black space, in front of square white backdrops rolled and raced around the stage by dancers doubling as stagehands, creating a constantly shifting scene. The piece climaxes with a riveting duet for Cerrudo and Jessica Tong, who slither back to back, belly to belly and mouth to mouth, before he finally rolls her and the feathers up in the carpet, and drags it off into the blackness. It’s erotic, it’s mysterious, it’s great fun.
Another New York premiere was Japanese choreographer Toru Shimazaki’s “Bardo,” to music by Dead Can Dance. The title refers to the Buddhist idea of an intermediate state between death and the next life, and while the setting was smoky and spooky, most of the dancing looked not that different from what we do in this world. One notable exception was a mesmerizing duet by Meredith Dincolo and Yarden Ronen, who pushed and pulled, leaned and sat on each other with what felt like the awful weight of death.
Dincolo, an Indiana native seasoned by several years dancing in Europe, is the most theatrical of HSDC’s women, and she defined every movement in her ensemble parts. She was a pleasure to watch in the program finale, “Palladio,” choreographed by company director Jim Vincent to a mindless, thumping pop-Baroque score by Karl Jenkins. This is supposed to be a tribute to 16th century principles of architectural beauty, but it never rose to that level. Still, the dancers got to show off their high-powered athleticism as they tore across the stage and flung each other around, and the audience was happy to go along.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago continues at the Joyce through Saturday August 16.
Copyright 2008 by Tom Phillips
Photo by Rosalie O’Connor
Comments