90 Mile Dance Alliance Lights up The Aud

Nothing beats a great creative partnership.  When two exceptional talents join forces, wonderful results flow in torrents.   

Veteran contemporary dance stalwart Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and six-year-old Malpaso Dance Company of Cuba went into a huddle last year to immerse themselves in each other’s work.   The objective; learning through sharing.  In the end, their dancers would not only perform together on stage, but each company would present works created by one of the other’s choreographers.   The culmination was a bravura performance conducted by both companies on the Auditorium stage over the weekend, March 2^nd and 3rd. 

On the outset, the evening’s direction wasn’t clear.  The first piece, Cloudline, choreographed by Chicago’s Robyn Mineko Williams and danced exclusively by the company’s own artists, was classic Hubbard Street.  Grace and relaxed confidence fused beautifully with impeccable technical execution.  Cloudline possessed attributes you’d associate with a fine tapestry. The greater the complexity, the more color and depth shine through.  It was fascinating to watch the dance continually erupt into tiny bursts of surprise before shifting down to soft poems of movement.  

More and more contemporary works are raising the ante on where dancers are allowed to go instinctually; leaving the impression that lines are being crossed.  Both male and female dancers are given greater opportunity to express strengths and vulnerabilities that once were the domain of one or the other gender.  When boundaries are removed in the world of dance, you see the kind of solos Cloudline showcased and gain a whole new appreciation for the beauty of the possible.

Ocaso, created by Malpaso’s Artistic Director Osnel Delgado, provided glimpses into how similar these two companies are.  A common creative intelligence seems to be in play as well as a reliance on the keen artistic sense of company dancers.

 Delgado not only choreographed the piece, he designed the costumes and danced the two-person work with Hubbard Street’s Alicia Delgadillo.  A captivating performance achievement, the dance scrutinized the many shades of emotional intimacy from a hundred different angles.  Meaning sunset or twilight in English, Ocaso felt and looked like an unraveling that neither dancer wanted to realize.  With alternating jolts of brawn and fragility, a constant back and forth of tenderness and tension got kneaded into something quite beautiful.  Touches of humor would flash out of nowhere while a thick dramatic thread kept the audience transfixed to see where this story would end.  Opening to the sound of thunder and carried on brilliant scores that included Autechre, the Kronos Quartet and Max Richter, Ocaso became a powerful expression of imagination. One of those rare people whose talents seem boundless, Delgado’s gifts as a dancer are in lock step with his abilities as a choreographer.  Hubbard Street’s Delgadillo matched his stellar performance effortlessly Friday night making the dance a visual joy.

The sounds and movements more clearly attributable to Cuba fully surfaced in the second half of the show.  Grounded in the common universality of romantic intrigue, there were few flashes of Latin America in Ocaso.  Elemental and The Windless Hold, both world premieres, made us feel the tropics both through the beat and the language of the dance. Created by Hubbard Street’s Williams and danced by the Malpaso company, Elemental opened on Africa tinged drums before gliding on heat seared piano.  All the while celebrating the Cuban dancers’ fluid skills. In one of the work’s segments, two people danced in melancholy seduction as a solo vocalist sang acapella from the stage.  Suspending time, it serenely reflected the creativity rampant throughout the entire piece. 

By the end of the show, a dialogue of mutual appreciation existed between the performers and the audience.  The final curtain fell to dancers jamming free style on the stage as contented smiles floated out onto frigid streets.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago/

Malpaso Dance Company

March 2 & 3, 2019

The Auditorium Theatre

50 E. Ida B. Wells Dr.

Chicago, IL    60605

www.auditoriumtheatre.org