Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: the dance of joy

Is it trite to say that "Hubbard Street Dance Chicago":http://hubbardstreetdance.com/home.asp was a joy to watch? Even if it is, I’ll risk the cliché by saying that the four choreographies presented by "Dance House":http://www.dancehouse.ca/ at the Vancouver Playhouse on April 24 and 25 were spectacularly energetic, beautifully graceful and cleverly choreographed. While I can’t say that the program was edgy or challenging in its theme or aesthetics, it was, quite simply, excellent dance. Each of the four pieces was quite different from the other, making for an enjoyably varied program that breathed fresh air into the Vancouver scene.

The first piece was _Strokes Through the Tail_ choreographed by Marguerite Donlon, opened the show by setting the stakes high. The music was Mozart, the costumes included tuxedo jackets, and the opening moments of the choreography had the lone female dancer being carried in by a handful of men in the style of choreography similar to "Pina Bausch":http://www.pina-bausch.de/index.html. Using such iconic images and music can be a dangerous thing, but the Hubbard Street dancers live up to these high standards and then some. What was quickly evident to me was that these dancers are able to take the grace and elegance of ballet and use them to put a polish on modern choreography that is not always present in contemporary work.

Part of what I loved so much about _Strokes Through the Tail_ was the way it so intelligently explored and played with gender roles. Throughout the piece the men and one woman seemed to be passing the balls of power and prettiness back and forth. While the men showed off their beautiful jetés and tight pirouettes, the lone woman came on stage as a commanding maestro, keeping up with the strength of the men while they kept up with her grace. Everything about this piece was so well done; the lighting was clever, the interaction of music and dance was perfectly balanced and the overall effect reminded me of the delightful warmth that can envelop both dancer and audience when a piece is done this beautifully, this cleverly.

My other favourite, which struck me for its lively and intelligent wit, was _Gimme_, choreographed by Lucas Crandall. This piece opened with a red background and two dancers – Jessica Tong and Jason Hortin – in silhouette against the intensely coloured background. Once again, I thought about how something with such a powerful aesthetic could go off the rails, and once again these dancers kept on track and drove the dance train far into the real of excellence. Using only a string for a prop, the two dancers entered into a choreographic conversation about power and control, balance and boundaries. The string tethered the two together, was used to allow one dancer to move the other as though a marionette, but it was the final image of the couple - each one chewing on their end of the string before Hortin appears to get tired of the process and speeds it up, bringing the couple into a quick kiss against the red background before the lights went down – that made for the most clever and lovely moment of the piece.

So, while I love dance that is edgy, I found myself falling for Hubbard Street Dance for its clean lines, original choreography, and most of all for its technically gorgeous dancers. And, to tell you the truth, I don’t think this company shies away from themes that emerge from the depths of the human psyche; they just do it in a way that is playful, but no less intelligent than other companies of a similar caliber. And anyway, is there anything so wrong with dancing the dance of joy once in a while? With cherry blossoms in the air, the delightful style of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago seemed only appropriate.

_Hubbard Street Dance Chicago was presented as part of the Dance House series in Vancouver, for more information go_ "here":http://www.dancehouse.ca/index.php?mpage=past&season=1