Hubbard Street Youth, Education and Community Programs Receives Support from Allstate and the National Endowment for the Arts

Hubbard Street Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton and Kathryn Humphreys, the company's Director of Youth, Education and Community Programs, are proud to announce major support for Hubbard Street's continuing work with young people and families in Chicago.

Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity. In its second major announcement of fiscal year 2015, the NEA will grant $45,000 to Hubbard Street in support of its Movement as Partnership (MAP) Education Program - one of 1,023 awards from the NEA in its current round providing $74.3 million in funding nationwide.

Hubbard Street is also honored to receive $40,000 in continued support from its Community Engagement Partner, Allstate Insurance Company, for its Youth and Community Programs in addition to its field-leading Education work, which includes MAP among a wide variety of offerings for partner schools.

Hubbard Street's Youth Dance Programs, which develop movement skills and creative processes on-site at the Hubbard Street Dance Center, serve more than 1,000 children annually, while community and cultural partners such as the Chicago Children's Museum and Chicago Symphony Orchestra host related programming through Family Workshops. Its Community Programs include adaptive dance classes for youth on the autism spectrum, and for people with Parkinson's disease - the first such dance classes offered in the Midwest.

Hubbard Street's Education Programs, providing long-term engagement in Chicago-area schools, are projected to serve 150 classrooms in 40 locations in 2015-16, reaching approximately 3,500 students in grades K-12 and, through professional dance performances, an additional 3,000 students. The department's MAP Education Program, projected to serve nearly half of those classrooms, reaching approximately 2,000 students in grades K-6, is a national model committed to enriching schools, through professional development and mentoring for teachers, sophisticated dance education integration in the classroom, and clear assessment protocols supported by research, as students learn to develop as dancers and choreographers.

Says NEA Chairman Jane Chu: "The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like Hubbard Street's Movement as Partnership program represents an investment in both local communities and our nation's creative vitality."

Says Kathryn Humphreys: "Hubbard Street is grateful for the dedication of Allstate and the NEA to providing such vital support for our work with dancers of all ages and abilities across Chicago. Innovative programs encouraging imagination, choice-making and artistic expression are crucial both for whole-child development in the classroom, as well as to the fulfillment and well-being of those we welcome every day to our studios."

About Hubbard Street
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic leadership of Glenn Edgerton, celebrates its 37th season in 2014 and 2015. 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 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, including audition based ensemble programs, open to young dancers ages 18 months to 18 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, dance fitness, modern, tap, African, hip-hop, yoga, Pilates® and more.

Photo Courtesy of Hubbard Street Dance

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