CHICAGO – Continuing its commitment to taking an in-depth look at the work of individual choreographers, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will devote an entire program to one of contemporary dance’s most innovative choreographers, Crystal Pite, Dec. 7 – 10 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park located at 205 East Randolph Street. Tickets for the engagement, priced from $25-$110, are currently on sale.
“Crystal Pite is a visionary and someone who I expect will continue to be part of the fabric of Hubbard Street moving forward,” said Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton. “Her sense of creativity lends itself to progressive, thought provoking imagery and a new way of looking at dance.”
The program features the full length duet, A Picture of You Falling, first performed as an excerpt by Hubbard Street in March 2014, as well as two Hubbard Street premieres; Grace Engine, and The Other You.
“Crystal Pite and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago are a perfect match,” said The Chicago Reader, reviewing a 2015 performance. Pite has been hailed as “one of the most talented and intriguing choreographers working today” by the New York Times and “one of the greatest choreographic minds of her generation” by The Financial Times.
About the Works in Hubbard Street’s December Performances
A Picture of You Falling first premiered at the Canada Dance Festival in 2008, borrowing elements originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater in 2007 as part of a piece called The Second Person. The current version was performed with the choreographer’s dance company, Kidd Pivot. The 18 minute work explores the way narratives shared across cultures and generations reside within our bodies, and how the body illustrates those stories. The piece demonstrates how the simplest gestures can convey profound meaning. Choreographer Crystal Pite shows how distortion, iteration and analysis of familiar human action allow us to recognize and re-frame ourselves in each other. The dance is accompanied by the vocals of Kate Strong reading original text by Crystal Pite. A Picture of You Falling features costumes by Linda Chow, lighting by Robert Sondergaard and music by Owen Belton, all of whom have worked closely with Pite and her company.
The Other You is a duet that debuted as part of The You Show performed by Kidd Pivot in 2010. The piece explores the relationship between self and other via contrasting images of man and beast, domination and submission, love, loss and loneliness. This dance emerges from choreographer Crystal Pite’s fascination with the narratives that connect humanity throughout time and space. Pite brings to life the common stories of human existence using the body as her medium. The audience is invited to connect to the work through their own bodies by finding a piece of themselves in the dancers. The audience can recognize their own stories and their own dramas, told through fierce physical language. The audience members see themselves falling and flying, becoming the hero of their own existence.
Grace Engine is a full company work premiered by Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in 2012. An electronic score composed by Owen Belton and dramatic lighting serve to accentuate the tension as dancers morph between cinematic tableaus and unanticipated gestures. The Guardian wrote “when Pite cuts to close-up she reveals dark gleams of beauty among the terror…Pite’s choreography promises redemption beyond the abyss.”
Hubbard Street’s Season 40 Winter Series is at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park, located at 205 East Randolph Street in Chicago, and the complete performance schedule is as follows:
- Thursday December 7, 2017 at 7:30pm
- Friday December 8, 2017 at 8pm
- Saturday December 9, 2017 at 8pm
- Sunday December 10, 2017 at 3pm
Free Balcony Talks begin one hour prior to the start of each performance.
Single tickets are priced at $25-$110 and can be obtained online at hubbardstreetdance.com or by phone at 312-635-3799. Discounted rates and add-on experiences are available for groups of 10 or more patrons; visit hubbardstreetdance.com/groups or call 312-850-9744 ext. 164 for more information. Tickets can also be obtained at the Harris Theater box office.
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 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.
About 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.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
1147 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60607 • 312-850-9744 • hubbardstreetdance.com
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