Hubbard Street Dance Chicago comes to Beaver Creek

For 47 years, Hubbard Street Dance has been an innovative force in contemporary dance, and now, with its relatively new mission of awakening the human spirit through a dance landscape that’s relevant to everyone, it comes to the Vilar Performing Arts Center stage.

“We’re making contemporary dance accessible for everyone, which means if you’ve seen the company before — the dancers are still excellent so that’s not going to change — but you’re going to see more voices represented on stage. You’re going to see a more diverse company than you’ve seen in the past (with) so many different voices (in) choreography,” said Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, artistic director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. “There’s something for everyone. No matter what age you are, no matter when you fell in love with the company, whether it was 1977, or you’re just coming to see the company for the first time, there’s something to draw you in.”

Diversity is one of the elements that makes Hubbard Street stand out.

“These dancers can do everything. One minute they’re doing hip-hop, the next thing (there’s) a ballet influence, then modern. Everything that comes to them, they just dive into the process. They’re there to really serve the choreographer and tell the story, and so they’re chameleons in a way, and I think that makes them very unique,” she said. “You can’t really peg them, and say, ‘oh those dances can’t do XYZ’ when, in fact, they really can.”

Because of their great skill, Fisher-Harrell has tasked the dancers with a wide variety of genres, which is reflected in their performance.

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The evening of dance opens with “Echoes of Our Ancestors” by Maria Torres, a piece about her personal journey of dance and influences from her Afro-Latina heritage. As such, it features Afro-Caribbean choreography.

“It’s a lot of fun — people are going to want to get up and move, which is really nice,” Fisher-Harrell said.

After an intermission, “Show Pony” by Kyle Abraham presents a virtuosic solo.

“It is a lot of fun — very percussive, and oh my god, talk about a jukebox of information coming out of one body — that’s all I’m gonna say,” she said.

Lar Lubovitch’s choreographed movements blend so beautifully with the music of “Prelude to a Kiss,” it’s akin to a long, deep sigh.

“It’s almost like the music begs for the movement that he choreographs,” she said. “It’s really stunning.”

Hubbard Street’s resident artist Aszure Barton choreographed the following piece, “A Duo,” which she said leaves audiences with “so much.”

“I’d love to hear people’s responses when they see the work; I don’t want to tell them about where they are when they’re seeing it — like whether they see something in a certain period of time, I want them to take that in, but that one is an experience to behold.”

The final piece, after a second intermission, is another by Barton: “Return to Patience.”

“I wanted to close with ‘Return to Patience’ not as a reflection of where we are today in society but just as humans — how do we return to a quiet place, a place where we’re listening to each other, a place where we’re moving together,” she said. “I think that’s what the audience is probably going to take away. It is very quiet. You can almost hear a pin drop, and the dancers are stunning. It’s a total change in aesthetic. Once the curtain opens up, you’ll notice something totally different about the scenery in the space and the freshness that the dancers bring, and that’s the note that we’re going to leave the audience on.”