Hubbard Street Dance Chicago to Launch Two Adaptive Dance Programs

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic direction of Glenn Edgerton, and Kathryn Humphreys, Director of Youth, Education and Community Programs, announce two Adaptive Dance Programs: The Autism Project, for youth with autism spectrum disorder in grades 1-6; and Physically Integrated Dance, for neurotypical youth ages 8-16 with physical disabilities.

Five-week pilot sessions for both programs are scheduled to begin in June 2014, joining Hubbard Street's continuing Parkinson's Project within a new Adaptive Dance Programs department. Findings and feedback gathered from these one-hour, once-weekly pilot classes will be assessed and applied to full sessions scheduled to begin in fall 2014. Pilot programs faculty include Sarah Cullen Fuller, founding teaching artist for the Parkinson's Project since its inception in 2007; M.K. Victorson, Education Programs teaching artist since 2004; and Cheryl Olendzki, Education Programs teaching artist since 2007. Hubbard Street's Adaptive Dance Programs are sponsored by Walgreens, with additional support for the Parkinson's Project provided by the Edmond and Alice Opler Foundation.

Says Kathryn Humphreys, Director of Hubbard Street's Youth, Education and Community Programs:

"Hubbard Street's Education and Community Programs create environments in which everyone dances. Our Adaptive Dance Programs will focus on their participants' strengths - on their talents and potential, as they learn to see themselves as we see them: as dancers and choreographers. These new curricula will highlight concepts of the choreographic process, established dance techniques, and improvisation skills relevant to the goals of each individual. Work is well underway to secure our ability to offer these programs at little or no cost to participants."

Adaptive Dance Programs curricula are being developed and advised by Hubbard Street Education Programs staff alongside Joshua Krasne, Visiting Assistant Director of the Resource Center for Autism and Developmental Delays at the University of Illinois; Susan D. Imus, Chair of Columbia College Chicago's Department of Creative Arts Therapies; organizations including Rush Orthopedics, Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association and the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago; Chicago Children's Theatre's Red Kite Project; and other experts in relevant fields.

Hubbard Street's Adaptive Dance Programs will also draw from findings and research gathered from work with students on the autism spectrum, with Asperger's and sensory processing issues, and with physical and extreme emotional disabilities, during long-term, successful past residencies at Near North Special Education Center, in the Oak Park School District, and in Chicago Public Schools.

Further details about Hubbard Street's Adaptive Dance Programs and pilot sessions are available upon request, by email to adaptivedance@hubbardstreetdance.com, or by phone at 312-850-9744 X 133.

About Hubbard Street

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.

Hubbard Street 2, directed by Terence Marling, cultivates young professional dancers, identifies next- generation choreographers, and performs domestically and abroad, in service of arts education, collaboration, experimentation and audience development.

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®.

Photo by Todd Rosenberg