Entertainment :: Theatre
Hubbard Street Danceby Kilian MelloySaturday Feb 7, 2009 This weekend, The Celebrity Series of Boston presents Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, an aptly named troupe that takes the rigor of classical dance as its foundation and builds a jubilant, sometimes riotous, architecture of more modern forms atop it.
This 90-minute presentation (including two 15-minute intermissions) is a non-stop flurry of charm and invention in which darker undertones (almost subliminal sexual aggression) vie with light, delightful prowess: the dancers move with perfect synchronization, acting out dramas that illuminate the corners of passionate intimacy between couples and sketch out group dynamics and tensions.
The first act, Alejandro Cerrudo’s 2006 piece "Lickety-Split," is a 15-minute opus that combines mime, martial arts, and modern dance; three couples creative intricate patterns in their performance space, arraying themselves around the stage or clustering in tightly synchronized groups, whirring through speedy, precise exchanges of movement that contain fiery longing, strains of tenderness, and fleeting moments of implied violence: punches, slaps, a suicidal gesture with an imaginary gun.
The dance unfolds to several urban-folksy ballads by Bay Area artist Devendra Banhart: it’s clear from the start why this is called "Street Dance."
"Gimme," a seven-minute work by Lucas Crandall, is a charming fantasia about power and the balance between cradling a romantic partner and keeping her (or him) in line--literally: dance partners Jessica Tong and Jason Hortin start off bound by a length of cord that connects them, but also restrains and sometimes hauls each of them by force; each takes turns tugging and yanking at the cord, which eventually is used in a funny, knowing riff on the famous spaghetti strand scene from "Lady and the Tramp." Bla Bergens Borunder’s Irish-inflected music is a perfect accompaniment to the theme, and the costumes by Branimira (Hortin is dressed like a bike messenger, Tong in a provocative red dress) speak to urban archetypes of man and woman.
"The Constant Shift of Pulse," a 16-minute piece by Doug Varone, unfolds to John Adams’ "Hallelujiah Junction," a muscial selection that grows gradually more jazzy and, finally, discordant, like some sort of disintegrating ragtime number. So too the dance, which is frenetic, jubilant, and ever more frantic: the dancers fling themselves into sleep and at one another in erotic pairings: boys with boys, boys with girls, girls with girls, and everybody in constant motion (when not spent and sprawled on the floor singly or in entwined pairs), exploring their own and everybody else’s physical capabilities: it’s like watching a group of 20-somethings in a mythical Bohemia (or artist’s village tucked into a larger city scene) sort out their passions in fast-forward.
The longest, most intricate work is the final act, a 24-minute epic set to Ravel’s "Bolero." It’s in this last act that everything the group has done so well in earlier acts--timing, dramatic interpretation, supple physical control--comes together in a sustained, faultless whirl that incorporates isolation, lust, romance, loss, rescue, and poignancy, all built around the central metaphor of a wall.
The wall, in this piece, provides boundaries but also imposes barriers: allows opportunities in the form of doors through which the dancers pop in and out, but also inflicts passages of existential loneliness (when the walls literally close in on one character and the music is abruptly muffled); the wall even demonstrates an ability to show unexpected versatility, with sections falling over into platforms on which the dancers hold forth... or else standing firm as dancers throw themselves against, and stick to, it. All of the works play with the tensions and allure that exist between the sexes, but this piece tips its hat to Bob Fosse, who knew a thing or two about sexual joy and its corresponding anxieties.
For an audience that’s been subjected to some awfully cold weather lately, "Hubbard Street Dance Chicago" sweeps in like a vitamin shot laced with sunlight, a timely taste of the exuberant and the vital that brings to mind the pleasures of spring.
"Hubbard Street Dance Chicago" will perform at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, located at 219 Tremont Street in Boston’s Theater District tonight, Saturday, Feb. 7, at 8:00 p.m., and tomorrow, Sunday, Feb. 8, at 3:00 p.m.
Tickets cost $42, $52, and $65, and can be obtained online at www.celebrityseries.org or via telephone at 617-482-6661 or 1-800-233-2132.
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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