Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

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And it's no mere vanity exercise. His counter/part is a layered costume chimera for ten dancers set to excerpts from Bach's Brandenburg concertos and Italian Concerto in F Major for Harpsichord. Though formally linked to those frisky rococo romps by Jiri Kylian that HSDC performs so winsomely, counter/part is a constellation apart: a genuine theatrical reflection of the music, punctuated by a courtly signature (two fingers carving the air above the head) and reverent atmospherics. Divided into two "counters" and four "parts," the mood alternates between buoyant energy and wrenching lyricism. Scroll patterns occasionally illuminate the floor. In one section, a woman dances with five men in varying pairs and a trio. She wraps, unravels, coils, and uncoils. The piece ends with a flurry of movement accompanied by the happy harpsichord.

Joining counter/part in three mixed programs to be presented at the Power Center September 20-22 are two works that make their return to Ann Arbor — Harrison McEldowney's Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, a bouncy, bantering duet of jazz dance, swing, and hip-hop; and Ohad Naharin's inventive and forceful Minus 16 — in addition to Naharin's recent intimate duet Passomezzo; two Kylian standards, No More Play and Petite mort; and the local premiere of a work by Nacho Duato, whose hypnotic Jardi tancat (Enclosed Garden) HSDC performed here two years ago.   

[Originally published in September, 2002.]