Nacho Duato Series

Hubbard Street Dance pays tribute to its two-decade-long relationship with Spanish artist Nacho Duato.

Hubbard Street Dance, one of the first dance companies in the U.S. to perform work by Nacho Duato, pays tribute to him by reviving his plaintive, pastoral Jardí Tancat (1983) for three couples and set to Catalan music recorded by vocalist María del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer; and a duet from Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness (1999), Duato’s two-act tribute to the composer J. S. Bach.

Completing the Spring Series program are Lucas Crandall’s full-company work Imprint (2016), with improvised live percussion by Hubbard Street Dancer David Schultz; and Crystal Pite’s Solo Echo (2012), to music for cello and piano by Johannes Brahms.

Jardí Tancat

• On Thursday, March 16 at 7:30 pm.
• By Nacho Duato.

“Water, we asked for water / and You, oh Lord, You gave us wind / and You turn Your back to us / as though You will not listen to us.” This appeal is portrayed by the pastoral movements of three couples, occupied with the sowing, planting and threshing of the barren Catalonian land. Originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater 2 in 1983, and first performed by Hubbard Street in 1998, Jardí Tancat is set to plaintive Catalan music recorded by vocalist María del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer and arranged by French composer Jacques Denjean. Jardí Tancat was Duato’s choreographic debut, for which he received first prize at the International Choreographic Workshop in Cologne, Germany.

Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness

• On Friday, March 17 a 8 pm.
• By Nacho Duato.

Hubbard Street’s Season 39 Spring Series celebrating global dancemaker Nacho Duato features the company’s first performances of a duet from Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness, set to the beloved prelude from Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G Major for unaccompanied solo cello.

Solo Echo

• On Saturday, March 18 at 8 pm.
• By Crystal Pite.

Hubbard Street is honored to be the only U.S. dance company to perform Solo Echo by Crystal Pite, originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater in 2012. Inspired by poet Mark Strand’s Lines for Winter and set to excerpts from two sonatas for cello and piano by Johannes Brahms, opuses 38 and 99, Solo Echo is exemplary of the fluidity with which Pite’s choreography shifts between dance and theater, using classical and contemporary techniques. “Solo Echo presents a man reckoning with himself at the end of his life,” explains Pite. “The character is echoed — copied, reiterated, by seven different dancers. He is portrayed through both male and female bodies, and through various physiques and strengths. Each performer is a distinct and nuanced version of the character, and the connections between them evoke a man coming to terms with himself.”

Imprint

• On Sunday, March 19 at 3pm.
• by Lucas Crandall

Rehearsal Director Lucas Crandall, creator of witty and lighthearted Hubbard Street premieres such as Gimme and The Set, returned to the choreographer’s chair to create Imprint in spring 2016. With scenes which are alternately sinister, silly, sensual, and sensational, this stage-filling ensemble work was initially inspired in part by stampedes. “I’m curious about what triggers this behavior in nature,” Crandall explains, “and I’m especially interested in why — and how — stampedes end. Rather than looking at them from a dramatic perspective, I’m researching their mechanics. My creative process in the studio, in collaboration with the dancers, was to construct complex, dynamic movement patterns with groups, then disrupt those patterns, or subject them to a variety of interventions.”

Join Hubbard Street before the performance on Thursday, March 16, for Chicago’s 14th annual Bold Moves for Bold Women event, celebrating female leadership in business and Chicago’s vibrant cultural scene.