Hubbard Street Kicks Off 40th Anniversary this June

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic direction of Glenn Edgerton, announces today, programming for Season 39 Summer Series, June 8-11, 2017 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The program features a look at Hubbard Street through the decades, featuring The 40s and Georgia by Lou Conte, Twyla Tharp's The Golden Section, an excerpt from Resident Choreographer, Alejandro Cerrudo's One Thousand Pieces as well as pieces by Jim Vincent, Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, and Lucas Crandall.

Founding Artistic Director Lou Conte's full-company The 40s, Hubbard Street's longtime signature work, is set to bandleader Ralph Burns's rousing take on Sy Oliver's "Opus One," and Burns's own "V. J. Stomp."

The LA Times called The 40s "a quintessential Conte ensemble work" noting that the piece was "inventive in its use of the old standards" with its' "borrowed big-band sounds and the jitterbug dance forms of the period."

Says Lou Conte: "I was born in 1942 during the war, and remembering how happy everyone was when it ended, shooting guns in the air and beating on washtubs, was one of my first memories as a child. It was a very celebratory feeling, and that's always what I tell the dancers when they are learning The 40s."

Hubbard Street also revives Conte's beloved duet Georgia, set to Willie Nelson's "Georgia on My Mind," originally premiered in 1987 as part of the triptych "Rose from the Blues." Claire Bataille, an original Hubbard Street company member and now Director of the Lou Conte Dance Studio, was the original female lead and inspiration for the iconic duet.

Representing The Tharp Project - a ten-year initiative and partnership launched in 1990 between the company and choreographer Twyla Tharp - Hubbard Street performs Tharp's The Golden Section, premiered on Broadway in 1981, and debuted by Hubbard Street at the Holland Dance Festival in the Netherlands in 1991. For 13 dancers and set to music by composer and pop star David Byrne (Talking Heads), The Golden Section is the finale of the full-length dance drama The Catherine Wheel, televised for the PBS series "Dance in America," with costumes by Santo Loquasto, and lighting by Jennifer Tipton.

This blockbuster anniversary program also features the full-company work One Flat Thing, reproduced by William Forsythe; the solo A Picture of You Falling by Crystal Pite; and excerpts including scenes from Palladio (2007) by former Hubbard Street Artistic Director Jim Vincent, Imprint (2016) by Hubbard Street Rehearsal Director, Lucas Crandall, and One Thousand Pieces (2012), the company's first evening-length production, created by Alejandro Cerrudo in response to Marc Chagall's America Windows at the Art Institute of Chicago, and premiered for Hubbard Street's Landmark 35th Anniversary Season.

Says Glenn Edgerton: "The Summer Series programming is a celebration of everything that Hubbard Street is and has been for the past forty years. It puts the evolution of the company in the spotlight featuring the most beloved pieces of each decade of our history."

Hubbard Street's Season 39 Summer Series is at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, located at 205 E Randolph St., and the complete performance schedule is as follows:

Thursday June 8, 2017 at 7:30pm

Friday June 9, 2017 at 8pm

Saturday June 10, 2017 at 8pm

Sunday June 11, 2017 at 3pm

Single tickets for the Season 39 Summer Series start at $30 and available now, online at hubbardstreetdance.com/summer. Season 40 subscriptions and single tickets will be available following the Summer Series online and through the Hubbard Street Ticket Office at 312-850-9744. Discounted rates are available for groups of 10 or more patrons; visit hubbardstreetdance.com/groups or call 312-850-9744 ext. 164.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago also extends special thanks to its 2016-17 Season Sponsors: Athletico, Official Provider of Physical Therapy; and Chicago Athletic Clubs, Official Health Club; and Media Sponsor, Crain's Chicago Business.

The Summer Series is sponsored by Allstate - Community Engagement Partner; Baker McKenzie - Diversity Partner; Lew, Steven and Caralynn Collens; the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation; John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe; Marlene-Breslow Blitstein and Berle Blitstein; Jonathan and Sally Kovler. The Lead Family Sponsor of the Lou Conte Masterworks is the Tomlinson Family (Richard and Ann, and sons Richard and John). The revival of Lou Conte's The 40s is sponsored by Charles Gardner and Patti Eylar with additional support provided by Thomas J. O'Keefe and Jane Ellen Murray. The Revival of Lou Conte's Georgia is sponsored by Jim and Kay Mabie. The revival of Twyla Tharp's The Golden Section is sponsored by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. The excerpt of Alejandro Cerrudo's One Thousand Pieces is sponsored by Richard and Barbara Silverman and Larry and Marla Gilbert with additional support provided by Shawn M. Donnelley and Christopher M. Kelly.

On Wednesday, June 7, 2017, Hubbard Street holds its Season 39 Spotlight Ball following a special one-hour Spotlight Ball performance at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at 6pm. The Season 39 Spotlight Ball dinner and reception begins at 7:30pm at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park, located at 200 North Columbus Drive in Chicago, with Honorary Chair Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Corporate Honoree Exelon. For their leadership commitments, Hubbard Street thanks Season 39 Spotlight Ball Presenting Sponsor Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund; Benefactors Sara Albrecht, Denise Stefan Ginascol and John Ginascol, and David Herro and Jay Franke; Sponsors Allstate, Marlene Breslow-Blitstein and Berle Blitstein, Meg and Tim Callahan, Lew, Steven and Caralynn Collens, Conagra, Penny Rodes DeMott, Patti Eylar and Charles Gardner, Larry and Marla Gilbert, Jenner & Block, The PrivateBank, ITW, Timothy R. Schwertfeger and Gail Waller Schwertfeger, and Deborah and KElly Stonebraker; Patrons ARI, Kristin Conley and Andrew Sudds, Dirk Denison and David Salkin, Sondra Berman Epstein, Jim and AnDrea Gordon, Sandy and Jack Guthman, HFF, Katten Muchin Rosenman, Marc Miller and Chris Horsman, Northern Trust, Byron and Judy Pollock, Lauren Robishaw, Richard L. Rodes, Kelly Royer and Damian Dolyniuk, Mary Kay Shaw, Richard and Barbara Silverman, Richard and Ann Tomlinson, John Vazquez and Paul Gleixner, and West Monroe Partners. Further details about Hubbard Street's Season 39 Spotlight Ball including special guests, auction items and more will be announced at a later date. Spotlight Ball reservations begin at $700 per guest; table reservations and sponsorship opportunities start at $7,000. All proceeds from the Spotlight Ball support Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's education, community and artistic programs. For more information, contact Kristen Meyer at 312-553-2000, via email at kmeyer@pjhchicago.com, or visit pjhchicago.com/hubbardstreetdance

About Lou Conte

After a performing career that included roles in Broadway musicals such as Cabaret, Mame, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Lou Conte established the Lou Conte Dance Studio in 1974. Three years later, he founded what is now Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Originally the company's sole choreographer, he developed relationships with emerging and world-renowned dancemakers Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Margo Sappington, and Daniel Ezralow as the company grew. Conte continued to build Hubbard Street's repertoire by forging a key relationship with Twyla Tharp in the 1990s, acquiring seven of her works as well as original choreography. It then became an international enterprise with the inclusion of works by Ji?í Kylián, Nacho Duato, and Ohad Naharin. Throughout his 23 years as the company's artistic director, Conte received numerous awards including the first Ruth Page Artistic Achievements Award in 1986, the Sidney R. Yates Arts Advocacy Award in 1995, and a Chicagoan of the Year award from Chicago magazine in 1999. In 2003, Conte was inducted as a laureate into the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the state's highest honor, and in 2014, was named one of five inaugural recipients of the City of Chicago's Fifth Star Award. He has been credited by many for helping raise Chicago's international cultural profile, and for creating a welcoming climate for dance in the city, where the art form now thrives.

About Jim Vincent

Jim Vincent, who studied dance at the Washington School of Ballet, Harkness House for Ballet Arts (NYC) and UNCSA, became the Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans Theater in 2009. He previously served as the Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago from 2000-2009, following an extensive career as a dancer, teacher, ballet master and choreographer. Vincent's distinguished career as a professional dancer includes a 12-year tenure with Jiri Kylian's Nederlands Dans Theater and two years with Nacho Duato's Compañía Nacional de Danza in Spain. As a dancer, he worked with many choreographers including Kylian, Duato, Lubovitch, William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, Christopher Bruce, Bill T. Jones and Ohad Naharin. In 2012, he became Executive Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment.

About Twyla Tharp

Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Ms. Tharp has choreographed more than one hundred sixty works: one hundred twenty-nine dances, twelve television specials, five Hollywood movies, four full-length ballets, four Broadway shows and two figure skating routines. She has also written three books. She received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, and a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor. Her many grants include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In addition to choreographing for her own company Twyla Tharp Dance, she has created dances for companies worldwide, where her works continue to be performed. Today, Ms. Tharp continues to create.

About Crystal Pite

Born in Terrace, British Columbia and raised on the Canadian west coast, choreographer and performer Crystal Pite is a former company member of Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt. Pite's professional choreographic debut was in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia; since then, she has created more than 40 works for companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, the National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, and Louise Lecavalier / Fou Glorieux, plus collaborations with the Electric Company Theatre and acclaimed director Robert Lepage. In 2002, Pite formed the company Kidd Pivot, which integrates movement, original music, text and rich visual design, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk. Kidd Pivot tours nationally and internationally, performing critically acclaimed works including Dark Matters, Lost Action, The You Show and The Tempest Replica. Pite is the recipient of the Banff Centre's Clifford E. Lee Award (1995), the Bonnie Bird North American Choreography Award (2004), the Isadora Award (2005), two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (2009 and 2012), a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award (2006) and the Governor General of Canada's Performing Arts Award, Mentorship Program (2008). Pite also received the 2011 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, the inaugural Lola Award in 2012, and the Canada Council's 2012 Jacqueline Lemieux Prize. Visit kiddpivot.org to learn more.

About Alejandro Cerrudo

Alejandro Cerrudo was born in Madrid, Spain and trained at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza de Madrid. His professional career began in 1998 and includes work with Victor Ullate Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater 2. Cerrudo joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2005, was named Choreographic Fellow in 2008 and became the company's first Resident Choreographer in 2009. Fifteen works choreographed to date for Hubbard Street include collaborations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Nederlands Dans Theater. These pieces and additional commissions are in the repertory at companies around the U.S. as well as in Australia, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands; touring engagements have brought his work still further abroad, to audiences in Algeria, Canada, Morocco and Spain. In March 2012, Pacific Northwest Ballet invited Cerrudo to choreograph his first work for the company, Memory Glow, upon receiving the Joyce Theater Foundation's second Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance. Additional honors include an award from the Boomerang Fund for Artists (2011), and a Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work from the Prince Charitable Trusts (2012) for his acclaimed, first evening-length work, One Thousand Pieces. Cerrudo is one of four choreographers invited by New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan to create and perform original duets for Restless Creature, and he was recently announced the 2014 USA Donnelley Fellow by United States Artists.

About William Forsythe

Raised in New York and initially trained in Florida with Nolan Dingman and Christa Long, William Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was appointed Resident Choreographer in 1976. Over the next seven years, he created new works for the Stuttgart ensemble and ballet companies throughout Europe and the United States. In 1984, he began a 20-year tenure as director of Ballett Frankfurt, where he created works such as Artifact (1984), Impressing the Czar (1988), Limb's Theorem (1990), The Loss of Small Detail (1991, in collaboration with composer Thom Willems and designer Issey Miyake), Eidos: Telos (1995), Endless House (1999), Kammer/Kammer (2000) and Decreation (2003). After the closure of Ballett Frankfurt in 2004, Forsythe established a new, more independent ensemble, The Forsythe Company, founded with the support of the German states of Saxony and Hesse, the cities of Dresden and Frankfurt am Main, and private sponsors. His works are prominently featured in the repertoires of virtually every major ballet company in the world, including the Mariinsky Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, London's Royal Ballet and the Paris Opéra Ballet. Awards received by Forsythe and his ensembles include four New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Awards and three Laurence Olivier Awards in the U.K.; he has been conveyed the title of Commandeur des Arts et Lettres by the government of France; and he has received the German Distinguished Service Cross, the Wexner Prize, the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale, the Samuel H. Scripps / American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Swedish Carina Ari Medal. Forsythe has also been commissioned to produce architectural and performance installations by, among others, architect-artist Daniel Libeskind, ARTANGEL, Creative Time, and the SKD-Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. As an educator, Forsythe is regularly invited to lecture and give workshops at universities and cultural institutions, he is an Honorary Fellow at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London, and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Juilliard School in New York City. Forsythe is currently Professor of Dance and Artistic Advisor for the Choreographic Institute at the University of Southern California's Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Visit http://www.williamforsythe.com to learn more.

About Lucas Crandall

Lucas Crandall began his dance career with the Milwaukee Ballet in 1979. In 1980, he joined the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, then directed by Oscar Aráiz. Under the direction of Ji?í Kylián, he danced with Nederlands Dans Theater for two years before returning to Geneva, as soloist and later rehearsal assistant, under the direction of Gradimir Pankov. Crandall has performed and originated roles in works by notable choreographers including Aráiz, Kylián, Christopher Bruce, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Rui Horta, Amanda Miller, and Ohad Naharin. In 2000, Crandall returned to the U.S. to join Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, as Associate Artistic Director and staff at the Lou Conte Dance Studio. His teaching and coaching career includes residencies at various U.S. universities; master classes and repertory workshops, both domestically and abroad; and guest positions at companies including Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Northwest Professional Dance Project, and the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève. Crandall's choreographic work includes multiple premieres for Hubbard Street (Atelier, Gimme, The Set) and new works for Northwest Dance Project and Thodos Dance Chicago. Crandall was recently rehearsal director for Nederlands Dans Theater's main company for three years, under the directorships of Paul Lightfoot and former Hubbard Street Artistic Director Jim Vincent. Crandall returned to Hubbard Street as Rehearsal Director in April 2013.

About the Harris Theater for Music and Dance

The Harris Theater, opened in 2003 in Chicago's Millennium Park, is the first multi-use performing arts venue to be built in the Chicago downtown area since 1929. The Theater hosts the most diverse offerings of any venue in Chicago, featuring the city's world-renowned music and dance institutions and the Harris Theater Presents series of acclaimed national and International Artists and ensembles.

The Harris's mission is to make the arts relevant and accessible to audiences of all ages and communities, and through its partnerships with an array of Chicago's music and dance performing arts organizations, has earned national recognition as a distinctive model for collaboration, performance, and artistic advancement.

About Hubbard Street

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's core purpose is to bring artists, art and audiences together to enrich, engage, educate, transform and change lives through the experience of dance. Celebrating Season 40 in 2017-18, under the artistic leadership of Glenn Edgerton, Hubbard Street continues to innovate, supporting ascendant creative talent while presenting repertory by internationally recognized living artists. Hubbard Street has grown through the establishment of multiple platforms alongside the Lou Conte Dance Studio - now in its fifth decade of providing a wide range of public classes and pre-professional training - while extensive Youth, Education, Community, Adaptive Dance and Family Programs keep the organization deeply connected to its hometown. Visit hubbardstreetdance.com for artist profiles, touring schedules, and much more.

Pictured: Hubbard Street dancer Jacqueline Burnett in One Thousand Pieces by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.