Dancer/choreographer Lou Conte founded Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 1977 and directed the company until his retirement in 2000. Although he was originally the company’s sole choreographer, Conte built the repertory by forging a key partnership with Twyla Tharp in the 1990s, acquiring seven of her dances including Nine Sinatra Songs and an original work which had its world premiere at the Pillow. The relationship between the company and the Pillow has been particularly close, encompassing more than a dozen engagements since 1983, and including an unusual two-week season in 1990. The company continued to develop and thrive for nine years under the direction of Jim Vincent, and has been led by Glenn Edgerton since the fall of 2009. Edgerton has presented works by Aszure Barton and Jiří Kylián in two previous Pillow visits, and here shares an “insanely complicated” Forsythe work that had never before been attempted by any company other than Forsythe’s own.
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