PRIVATE DANCERS
It’s a stunning vote of artistic confidence. The repertory of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Summer Series, their latest dancefest at the Harris Theatre, consists of three works by Spanish choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo–including his 14th world premiere for the ensemble. The two-hour presentation focuses fiercely on Cerrudo’s tensile strengths–quirky gestures that come from the heart as much as limbs, bursts of earned intimacy where every movement seems motivated–and equally distinguishing weaknesses–arch silent sequences where we must invent the music or the dancers make up the steps. The series may lack quite enough sheer inspiration to sustain an entire program, but, no question, it’s a fine choreographic canvas for a deserving dance designer.
Opening the exhibition is Cerrudo’s darkly pensive 2007 offering “Extremely Close.” Here revolving white panels on tracks divide but never conquer the eight performers. To a piano score by Philip Glass and Dustin O’Halloran, this moody monochromatic piece features a pavane-like trio for Kellie Epperheimer, Alice Klock and Ana Lopez, as well as frenzied and intricate interactions for a complementary male trio of Garrett Patrick Anderson, Johnny McMillan and David Schultz.
Meanwhile partners Jessica Tong and Andrew Murdock attempt to consummate a connection, despite a dance floor heavily laden with white petals, feathers or blossoms (the detritus from a giant unseen pillow fight). The blanche debris seems to demand an intermission for removal. Happily, a hardy male dancer pulls up an unseen black tarp to eliminate the ballet as the lights dim. It all came “extremely close” but, happily, not too much for comfort.
With an equally descriptive and ambivalent title, Cerrudo’s world premiere “Still in Motion” features designer Michel Korsch’s sloping white tarp crowned by a long fluorescent light, varied with five overhanging white squares. Staccato and jerky, performed with artless austerity to an eclectic musical backdrop, it seems to sustain a story through its steps: Rigid at first, a questing couple discover each other (to the ballad “What Am I To You?”). They literally loosen up and move into love, then their friends return and they freeze up as darkness encroaches. It’s mysterious and unpretentious, with random tandems connecting contrasting couples and bizarre clodhopping processions by all eight dancers. (Unintentionally or not, these unfortunately conjure up the Monty Python “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch.) “Still in motion” is, of course, the best reaction an audience can have to the stuff they’ve seen.
Easily the night’s crowd pleaser is the welcome return of Cerrudo’s very engaging “Little mortal jump.” Playful and rambunctious, it may lack gravitas but has fun with lovers trapped on Velcro-like blocks freeing themselves to indulge in dream-like conjugations. Along the way they dodge animate objects that have their own agendas of motion and displacement. The ten Hubbard dancers’ little mortal jumps–again, another lovely title–are as thrilling as charming, a fertile fusion on any stage. Through Sunday, Cerrudo gets the showcase he deserves: We’re all the better for his canny creations.
photos by Todd Rosenberg
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Season 37 Summer Series (All Cerrudo)
Harris Theater for Music and Dance
Millennium Park, 205 East Randolph St
ends on June 14, 2015
for tickets, call 312-850-9744 or visit www.hubbardstreetdance.com
for info on Chicago Theater, visit www.TheatreinChicago.com
