{"id":8847,"date":"2010-12-09T23:43:54","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T06:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=8847"},"modified":"2010-12-14T00:35:29","modified_gmt":"2010-12-14T07:35:29","slug":"international-exposure-2010-glenn-edgerton-artistic-director-of-hubbard-street-dance-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=8847","title":{"rendered":"International Exposure 2010: Glenn Edgerton, Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Glenn Edgerton is engaged in an ongoing conversation with the world through dance. As Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC), a company renowned for its exciting, diverse repertoire and versatile dancers who imbue their performances of internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Nacho Duato, Jiri Kylian, and Ohad Naharin with their own personality and style, Edgerton is currently in Israel for International Exposure 2010, seeing new dance works by Israeli choreographers.<\/p>\n

The HSDC current repertoire includes Ohad Naharin\u2019s Tabula Rasa<\/em>, and in March 2011 the company will expand their repertoire to include two new works, one by Ohad Naharin and one by Sharon Eyal, which the choreographers will set on the company.<\/p>\n

Edgerton was in Israel last October <\/a>with his dancers when HSDC performed as part of Tel Aviv Dance 2009. At the time he had recently been appointed Artistic Director, and says, \u201cI had the opportunity to rearrange things as I wanted, I was Associate Director the year prior so I knew the rep very well and in my mind\u2019s eye I knew what I wanted to change\u2026so there was a lot of \u2018what if\u2019…I rearranged everything and included Tabula Rasa<\/em> in the mix.\u201d Ohad Naharin\u2019s Tabula Rasa<\/em> was originally created for the Netherlands Dance Theatre (NDT) in 1988.\u00a0 Edgerton recalled, \u201cReworking the piece, realizing that our\u00a0Associate Artistic\u00a0Director Lucas Crandall has done a lot of Ohad\u2019s work over the years\u201d he suggested to Naharin that Crandall set the work on the dancers in Chicago before their tour and Naharin work with the HSDC dancers during their stay in Israel. \u201cWhen we arrived home we had Tabula Rasa<\/em> ready,\u201d says Edgerton, \u201che [Naharin] was very pleased and we had a great time with the work. I feel like Hubbard Street has done Ohad Naharin\u2019s work significantly where we really get the essence of the work. I don\u2019t feel like we\u2019re trying to copy, we\u2019re understanding it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seeds for the new project with Naharin were sown during Edgerton\u2019s previous visit to Israel, \u201cI made a comment that since I left NDT I didn\u2019t really know his later works.\u201d Naharin will create a collage of his recent work for HSDC, but as for the specifics, Edgerton says, \u201cI really don\u2019t know where he\u2019s taking it at this moment.\u201d Naharin will come to work with the HSDC dancers in mid-February, following Sharon Eyal, who is scheduled to set her choreography on the company in January. It was Naharin who first generated Edgerton\u2019s interest in Sharon Eyal\u2019s work several years ago when Edgerton was Artistic Director at NDT.<\/p>\n

Edgerton observed rehearsals of Eyal\u2019s latest work Bill<\/em>, yesterday and says, \u201cthat\u2019s the direction she wants to go, she wants to dig deeper into that world \u2013 but at the same time, go further. In terms of Hubbard Street, Eyal is a new voice. I live for that \u2013 to bring in a new choreographer to the company and to our audiences, to shake up the culture that we\u2019ve come to know and expect.\u201d When asked what drew him to Eyal\u2019s work, he replied that \u201cthe sense of creating character with her dance works, movement coming out of characterization, I find that interesting. The personality of the individual creating a character, and the staging of it is unique, creating an atmosphere that you don\u2019t typically see.\u201d<\/p>\n

HSDC\u2019s repertoire reflects a mix of world-renowned choreographers of the contemporary dance world, along with emerging choreographers. \u201cMaking room for new voices \u2013 yes, absolutely. It\u2019s completely my goal,\u201d says Edgerton, \u201ca good balance of both [well known and upcoming choreographers]. I want dancers and the public to experience it all \u2013 to come away saying \u2018Oh, I know them, I saw Hubbard Street doing that \u2026oh of course I know Sharon\u2019s work I saw HSDC doing that. It\u2019s about education, awareness, the ability to have a big library of dance in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently planning the 2011\/2012 season for the company, Edgerton comments that it is \u201cgood to get away, be on a plane for 20 hours, sit back and reflect.\u201d HSDC\u2019s conversations with the world extend beyond dance, to include the visual arts and musical collaborations. One \u201cgreat collaboration\u201d begun in the fall of 2009 is with the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the museum\u2019s program \u201c500 Ways of Looking at Modern,\u201d working in coordination with Mary Sue Glosser, Associate Director of Performance Programs at the Art Institute. Describing the project, Edgerton says, \u201cWe were having regular lectures and demos. Each event was a different topic, often certain works of art were being recognized by an art historian from the Institute and I would then talk about how dance relates to those pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year long program gave the dance company \u201cthe ability to have dancers come into a specific gallery and create something specific for that space. There was a project where our dancers choreograph a gallery type walk through, where at this hour this group is going to be dancing in this gallery, the next group in that gallery – culminating in the Griffin Court (the new modern wing). It\u2019s an open space, we put a floor down and that\u2019s what we called our main stage. It was quite a wonderful event we\u2019re going to do it again in the summer,\u201d said Edgerton adding that following the success of the initial connection, HSDC has become a \u201cpillar partner\u201d of the Art Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the dancers have passes to the Art Institute so they can go there and be inspired,\u201d Edgerton explained, \u201cthey get to know the various galleries and some have come and said:\u00a0 I have an idea and I\u2019d like to do this\u2026we set it up with Mary Sue and there\u2019s yet another installation – they write it up and Mary Sue presents it. There are so many legalities \u2013 liability, insurance\u2026 can you do that in the vicinity of that piece of work, can it be photographed or not, but Mary Sue is brilliant she handles all that and comes to us and says yea or nay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives the dancers opportunities to create, to choreograph,\u201d says Edgerton, adding, \u201cWe\u2019ve always had a choreographic workshop called Inside\/Out. Last year this was our version of Inside\/Out, but we\u2019re going to separate it this year. We\u2019re going to have the actual Inside\/Out project inside a black box theatre, but then from that there will be some works that will translate into the Art Institute or material from the workshops will be used.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the new choreographic voices emerging from Hubbard Street is that of Alejandro Cerruda, who began as a dancer in the company and is currently the company\u2019s first resident choreographer. Originally from Madrid, Spain, Cerruda danced with the Stuttgart Ballet and NDT before joining Hubbard Street as a dancer in August 2005.\u00a0 Cerruda\u2019s Off Screen<\/em> (2009)was part of the company\u2019s program in Israel last fall, since then he has created several new works for HSDC, including First Light<\/em> (2010), Deep Down Dos<\/em> (2010), Blanco<\/em> (2010) and Malditos<\/em> (2010).<\/p>\n

In the process of seeking out new works for the HSDC repertoire, Edgerton observes dance in every form: onstage, in the studio, and on video. He gets a sense of a choreographer\u2019s work \u201cespecially from the studio and interaction with dancers. To me that\u2019s most important. That the process be engaging, interesting, and challenging for the dancers \u2013 that\u2019s first and foremost for me. That\u2019s the point, and the result is the cherry on top of the cake, the benefit of it all rather than the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is a challenging process and developing dancers, creating an environment in the studio that brings them into a world and a place that\u2019s all consuming,\u201d says Edgerton, whose guiding questions are: \u201cHow can I bring this choreographer along, how can I help this choreographer\u2026studying what it is, the creativity of this individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the audience, Edgerton says, \u201cI want to bring the audience along with me. If you bring what\u2019s tried and true they\u2019re going to say \u2018Well, I\u2019ve seen that\u2026\u201d and I want to be poking them and saying: Look here! Look here! And, try this! And bring the audience on an adventure as well. It is considering the public, but not in the sense of \u2018what do they want,\u2019 but the sense of what they should want, what do they need, what\u2019s going to challenge them, provoke them, and make them think differently about dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

AYELET DEKEL<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Glenn Edgerton is engaged in an ongoing conversation with the world through dance. As Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC), a company renowned for its exciting, diverse repertoire and versatile dancers who imbue their performances of internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Nacho Duato, Jiri Kylian, and Ohad Naharin with their own personality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}