Hubbard Street Dance Kicks Off 2014 Summer Series Tonight

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic direction of Glenn Edgerton, presents its Summer Series program today, June 5-8, 2014 featuring the 13th world premiere for the company by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, with costumes by Branimira Ivanova, "Jeff" Award-winning designer of numerous Hubbard Street premieres; and lighting by Michael Korsch, designer for both of Cerrudo's acclaimed works for Hubbard Street's main company in 2012: Little mortal jump and One Thousand Pieces.

Completing the Summer Series program are two works by master international choreographers: Gnawa by Nacho Duato, incoming artistic director at Staatsballett Berlin; and Quintett by William Forsythe, founder and artistic director of The Forsythe Company. Hubbard Street's Summer Series Community Engagement Partner is Allstate Insurance Company.

Hubbard Street and the Harris Theater for Music and Dance will also present a live simulcast during the Summer Series to a state-of-the-art, 40-foot wide, 221⁄2 -foot tall LED screen in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park on Friday, June 6 at 8 pm. This free outdoor event, open to the public, is part of Millennium Park's 10th anniversary celebration; highlights the final weekend of Hubbard Street's Season 36 performances; officially concludes the presenting portion of the Harris Theater's 10th anniversary season; and follows the success of the Harris Theater's simulcast in June 2012 of the Paris Ope?ra Ballet's Giselle, a first-of-its-kind event which drew a capacity audience of more than 11,000 patrons. Texas-based Staging Solutions Inc., partner for the Paris Ope?ra Ballet simulcast, returns to produce the Hubbard Street simulcast. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is Presenting Sponsor of the Summer Series simulcast.

In addition to Gnawa and the New Cerrudo, the simulcast June 6 performance includes the "entirely mesmerizing" (Chicago Music) Falling Angels (1989) by Jir?i? Kylia?n, for eight women and set to phased percussion by Steve Reich performed live by Chicago's Third Coast Percussion; and Cerrudo's PACOPEPEPLUTO (2011), three solos for male dancers to songs popularized by "the king of cool," Dean Martin, in the '50s and '60s. See below for complete program information for Hubbard Street's Season 36 Summer Series engagement.

Gnawa was created exclusively for Hubbard Street in 2005 by global choreographer Duato, to music by Hassan Hakmoun and Adam Rudolph. This large-scale work for two soloists and a 14-member ensemble, "both fearsome in its drive and seductively hypnotic in its use of patterning, design and gesture," (Chicago Sun-Times) was inspired in part by the Mediterranean cultures of North Africa and Duato's native Spain. Costumes for the piece are by Modesto Lomba, chairman of the Spanish Fashion Designers' Association. Hubbard Street also performs Gnawa as part of forthcoming tours to the prestigious Spoleto Festival- USA (May 23-25, 2014 in Charleston, South Carolina) and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (July 2-6, 2014 in Becket, Massachusetts).

Quintett, Forsythe's landmark creation for two female and three male artists, is "enacted on a stark, conceptual landscape that becomes about the dancers themselves, their beauty, stamina, persistence and most assuredly their art," according to the Chicago Tribune. Original cast members Thomas McManus, Dana Caspersen and Stephen Galloway restaged Quintett in Chicago for Hubbard Street in 2012, marking the work's first acquisition by a U.S. dance company. The choreography's seamless progression of solos, duets and trios is set to English composer Gavin Bryars' 1971 composition, "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet." Exemplary of the many works created by Forsythe as artistic director of Germany's Ballett Frankfurt from 1984 to 2004, Quintett explores the strictures of classical ballet by testing their resilience to manipulation, torsion and fragmentation.

Further details regarding the 13th world premiere by Hubbard Street Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, recipient of the Joyce Theater Foundation's second Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance and the Prince Charitable Trusts' Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work, will be announced at a later date. Meg and Tim Callahan, Lauren Robishaw, Bill and Orli Staley, and Randy and Lisa White are the individual sponsors of the new creation by Alejandro Cerrudo. Costumes by Branimira Ivanova are exclusively underwritten by John and Jeanne Rowe, and additional support is provided by Choreographer's Circle Member Sarah J. Nolan and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Hubbard Street presents the Summer Series featuring works by Alejandro Cerrudo, Nacho Duato, William Forsythe and Jir?i? Kylia?n, at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph St. in Chicago, June 5-8, 2014. The performance schedule and programming, subject to change, are as follows:

• Thursday • Friday
• Saturday • Sunday

June 5 at 7:30 pm June 6 at 8 pm June 7 at 8 pm June 8 at 3 pm

Gnawa, Quintett, New Cerrudo
Gnawa, New Cerrudo, PACOPEPEPLUTO, Falling Angels Gnawa, Quintett, New Cerrudo
Gnawa, Quintett, New Cerrudo

Single tickets, $25-$99, are available now at hubbardstreetdance.com/summer or by phone at 312-850-9744.

Hubbard Street's 2014-15 season begins with the world premiere of a collaboratively devised production with Chicago's renowned home for improvised and sketch comedy, The Second City, October 16-19, 2014. Visit hubbardstreetdance.com/secondcity for more information. 2014-15 season subscriptions to Hubbard Street's Chicago performances are $75-$302 and available online at hubbardstreetdance.com/subscribe, or by phone at 312-850-9744.

About Hubbard Street Resident Choreographer 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. Twelve 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 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 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 Whelan's "Restless Creature," touring the U.S. and London.

About Michael Korsch: Michael Korsch is a lighting and scenic designer based in Philadelphia, where he earned his BA in Theater at Temple University. Korsch has worked with numerous directors and choreographers, creating visual designs for dance and theater throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. He has been resident lighting and scenic designer as well as technical director for Complexions Contemporary Ballet since 1998, resident lighting designer for Ballet Arizona since 2001, and lighting and technical director for the Laguna Dance Festival since 2005. In addition to One Thousand Pieces and his prior Hubbard Street premiere, Alejandro Cerrudo's Little mortal jump (2012), Korsch has created designs for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, BalletMet, BalletX, Carolina Ballet, Cleveland Play House, DanceBrazil, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Disney Creative Entertainment, English National Ballet, MOMIX, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Oakland Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Royal Danish Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin and the Washington Ballet, among others.

About Branimira Ivanova: Branimira Ivanova is a graduate of both the University of Connecticut (MFA, Costume Design) and of the International Academy of Design and Technology (BFA, Fashion Design). Since beginning her career in costume design for dance in 2002, with Hubbard Street, Ivanova has continued to work with the company, creating for renowned choreographers including Alejandro Cerrudo, Lucas Crandall, Marguerite Donlon, Andrea Miller and Toru Shimazaki. In 2009 and 2010, Ivanova received Joseph Jefferson "Jeff" Award nominations for her work for Lifeline Theatre's productions of Treasure Island and Wuthering Heights; her work for the Gift Theatre's Cloud 9 received a Jeff Award for Best Costume Design (Equity Wing) in 2012. In 2007, Ivanova received a Certificate for Excellence in Theatre Design from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, and her designs were included in the United States' National Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial World Stage Expo. In 2002, she received Fashion Group International's "Design Your Future Award" and the Driehaus Award for Fashion Excellence.

About Hubbard Street: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic leadership of Glenn Edgerton, celebrates its 36th season in 2013 and 2014. 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 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.

Extensive Youth, Education and Community Programs, directed by Kathryn Humphreys, are models in the field of arts education, linking the performing company's creative mission to the lives of students and families. Hubbard Street also initiated the first dance-based program in the Midwest to help alleviate suffering caused by Parkinson's disease. Youth Dance Program classes at the Hubbard Street Dance Center include Creative Movement and progressive study of technique, open to young dancers ages 18 months to 16 years.

At the Lou Conte Dance Studio, 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, modern, tap, African, hip-hop, yoga, Pilates and Zumba.

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