Hubbard Street Dance Announces Its 2015 Youth Summer Camps

Hubbard Street Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton and Kathryn Humphreys, Director of the organization's Youth, Education and Community Programs, are delighted to offer a wide range of diverse dance opportunities for young people for a fifth consecutive summer. Early-Childhood, Primary, Secondary, and Intensive categories both align with Hubbard Street Youth Dance Program classes held during the academic year, and allow the families of first-time students to easily find the Youth Summer Camps best-suited to their needs. Technique-specific workshops provide space for continuing progressive study, while interdisciplinary and creative camps focus on self-expression. Hubbard Street's "à la carte" registration for Youth Summer Camps facilitates "mix-and-match" scheduling, making movement practice accessible to young dancers of all ages, skill levels and interests.

Registration opens February 20, 2015 at 10am, online at hubbardstreetdance.com/youthdance, or by phone at 312-850-9744 ext. 139.

A complete schedule and program descriptions follow; please note that these are subject to change, and will close to registration once each reaches its capacity.

All Youth Summer Camps will be held at the Hubbard Street Dance Center, 1147 W. Jackson Blvd. at S. Racine Ave. in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood, easily accessible via the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290), the CTA Blue Line (Forest Park branch to Racine) and numerous CTA bus routes including 7 Harrison, 9 Ashland, 20 Madison, 60 Blue Island and 126 Jackson.

Primary Program

Artistic Connections Camp

Hubbard Street's interdisciplinary, two-week camp combines dance with music and visual art, and is for dancers ages 6-11 (must be entering 1st grade in fall 2015). Dancers will be grouped by age. Students will create a unique performance, to be held on Friday, July 31 at 3pm. Artistic Connections Camp runs June 29-July 10, 2015, from 9am-4pm; $750 per child.Please note that students age 7 by September 1, 2015 can add an afternoon technique camp.

Dance Explorers Camps

Three unique Dance Explorers camps allow dancers ages 6-11 to experiment, create and perform each day. Dancers will use their individual voices to collaborate and build choreography, which they will share for family and friends at the end of each week. Dancers must be entering 1st grade in fall 2015 and will be grouped by age. Dance Explorers Camps are as follows:

• Dance Explorers: "People and Poetry" runs June 15-19, 2015 from 9am-12:30pm. Students will connect the world of language to dance through choreographic interpretation of poems and stories.

• Dance Explorers: "Stage to Studio" runs July 13-17, 2015 from 9am-12:30pm. Students will create original dances inspired by the choreography Hubbard Street brings to audiences worldwide.

• Dance Explorers: "Art in Action" runs July 27-31, 2015 from 9am-12:30pm. Students will give drawings, paintings and photos three-dimensional life by using imagination and motion.

Early-Childhood Program

Little Movers Camps
Two one-week "Story Time Dance" sessions are offered for children ages 4-6. Participants will build gross motor skills, musicality and kinesthetic confidence, encouraging a lifelong love of dance, and exploration of the world through creative movement. "Story Time Dance" Session 1 runs June 22-26, 2015 from 9am-12:30pm; "Story Time Dance" Session 2 runsJuly 20-24, 2015 from 9am-12:30pm.

Secondary Program

Technique Workshop Series
Secondary Program workshops allow dancers ages 7-16 to focus on their favorite techniques, through intensive study of ballet, jazz, modern and hip-hop - available "à la carte" or in any combination. Students are encouraged to explore the unique history and traditions of these styles, and come up with their own interpretations for today.

Full-day and half-day options are offered for the Workshop Series. Offering flexibility for summer plans, each series may be taken together (three weeks), separately (one week at a time), or repeated (for up to six weeks total). See below for the complete schedule. The Workshop Series is taught by current and former Hubbard Street company members and Youth Dance Program faculty.

Full-Day Technique Workshops

Levels B, C, D and E are for dancers ages 10-16 and held Mondays-Fridays from 9-4pm. Advance registration is required and $425 per week.

Half-Day Technique Workshops

Levels A and B are for dancers ages 7-11 (must be entering 2nd grade) and held Mondays-Fridays from 1-4pm. Advance registration is required and $225 per week.

Please note that these afternoon Technique Workshops may be combined with morning Dance Explorers Camps in the Primary Program for a full-day experience (see above).

• Ballet emphasizes strength, flexibility, coordination, alignment, muscle toning and musicality. Our Ballet Workshops offer intensive instruction in a supportive learning environment, nurturing emerging artists while providing disciplined technical training. Upper-level students will begin learning variations and partnering.

• Jazz dance is a mixture of rhythm and style, influenced by ballet, tap and jazz music. Our Jazz Workshops provide exercises to follow for physical toning, strengthening, flexibility, movement isolations and placement. Dancers will explore a variety of jazz styles ranging from classic to contemporary.

• Modern dance combines traditional technique - to develop strength, coordination and flexibility - with an emphasis on exploring weight and momentum to focus and further develop technique. Students will learn elements of Martha Graham, Lester Horton and release techniques.

Technique Workshop Series: Session 1 dates are as follows:

Ballet June 15-19, 2015

Jazz June 22-26, 2015

Modern June 29-July 3, 2015

Technique Workshop Series: Session 2 dates are as follows:

Ballet July 6-10, 2015

Jazz July 13-17, 2015

Modern July 20-24, 2015

Hip-Hop Camps

Full-day and half-day Hip-Hop Camps are offered July 27-31, 2015. Focused on developing the fundamentals of hip-hop - rhythm, style and musicality - these workshops provide time for intensive focus and opportunities to create within this unique, contemporary dance discipline.

• Full-Day Hip-Hop Camp
Levels B, C, D and E are for ages 10-16 and held Mondays-Fridays from 9am-4pm. Advance registration is required and $425 per week.

• Half-Day Hip-Hop Camp

Levels A and B are for ages 7-11 (must be entering 2nd grade) and held Mondays-Fridays from 1-4pm. Advance registration is required $225 per week.

Please note that these afternoon Technique Workshops may be combined with morning Dance Explorers Camps in the Primary Program for a full-day experience (see above).

Discounts on multiple registrations

Half-day registration discounts are as follows: Register for one half-day workshop/camp and pay $225; for two half-day workshops/camps and pay $200 for the second; for three or more half-day workshops/camps and pay $185 for the third and any additional half-day workshops/camps.

Full-day registrations discounts are as follows: Register for one full-day workshop/camp and pay $425; for two full-day workshops/camps and pay $400 for the second; for three or more full-day workshops/camps and pay $375 for the third and any additional full-day workshops/camps. Please note that full-day discounts do not apply to registrations for the two-week Artistic Connections Camp being held June 29-July 10, 2015.

Hubbard Street's 2015 Summer Intensive: Level I Preparatory Program

The first of four progressive levels of Hubbard Street's Summer Intensive is ideal for serious dancers who are working towards advanced and pre-professional course work. Level I Preparatory students take ballet, modern, improvisation, and composition courses. Students apply techniques through the learning of repertory phrases and perform for family and friends at the conclusion of each week at the University of Illinois at Chicago's UIC Theatre (1044 W. Harrison St. in Chicago). Instructors have included Hubbard Street alumni Sarah Cullen Fuller and Meredith Dincolo, Keesha Beckford, Mandy Beck, Shannon Johnson, Kelsey Allison, Sarah Olson, Winifred Haun and Maliwan Diemer.

The Level I Preparatory Intensive is held at the Hubbard Street Dance Center (1147 W. Jackson Blvd. in Chicago) August 3-7 and/or 10-14, 2015, for dancers ages 12-16.

A placement audition will be held on April 25, 2015 from 2-4pm. All students are evaluated individually for placement in the proper technique level.

Two (1) week Level I sessions are offered. Students may attend one or both sessions, as different material will be covered each week. Students wishing to audition for the Youth Dance Ensemble in fall 2015 must attend at least one week of the Level I Preparatory Intensive. Each session encompasses classes Monday-Friday from 10am-5pm. Advance registration is required and $425 per one-week session. Please note this program was formerly offered as the Hubbard Street Youth Dance Program's Secondary Intensive.

For further details about Hubbard Street's Level II Primary Intensive (for ages 14-18), Level III Advanced Intensive (for ages 14-17), and Level IV Pre-Professional Intensive (for ages 18-24), please visit hubbardstreetdance.com/summerintensive or call 312-850-9744.

About Hubbard Street

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic leadership of Glenn Edgerton, celebrates its 37th season in 2014 and 2015. 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's Youth, Education and Community Programs began in 1997 in order to offer movement-based arts experiences to students, teachers and families throughout the Chicago area, giving them opportunities to participate in dance activities and to enhance their learning in other curricular areas. These programs, under the direction of Kathryn Humphreys, 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's partnerships with schools provide teaching artists and educators the opportunity to plan, teach and learn together to create exciting and meaningful integrated curriculum which challenges students and takes learning to new levels. Hubbard Street offers Family Workshops and Youth Dance Programs at the Hubbard Street Dance Center and, often with community partners, throughout Chicagoland. In 2014, a pilot program for children on the autism spectrum joined the Parkinson's Project in Hubbard Street's newest department, Adaptive Dance Programs.

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.

At the Lou Conte Dance Studio, opened in 1974 and now 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, dance fitness, modern, tap, African, hip-hop, yoga, Pilates® and more.

Photo Courtesy of Hubbard Street

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