Hubbard Comes Home, Plays `Lottery' - Hubbard Street Dance Company does Shirley Jackson's 'Lottery' - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, March, 2000 by Ann Barzel

Drawn from the macabre short story by Shirley Jackson and propelled by a score mixing Beethoven and Edith Piaf, Harrison McEldowney's darkly comic ballet The Lottery will be a main feature of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's three-week session at Chicago's Shubert Theater.

The company, which has returned to its home base after tours in Europe and South America, stages The Lottery's premiere March 28 and April 16 in the 2,000-seat arena. The Prince Charitable Trust commissioned the work. The company will also debut its production of Jiri Kylian's Petit Mort, set to Mozart. Hubbard Street had a great success with Kylian's hilarious Sechs Tanza and will dance it again during the spring season.

Artistic Director Lou Conte's Georgia and his ever-popular The 40s, as well as repertory works by Twyla Tharp, Daniel Ezralow, and David Parsons, are also slated.

One of Conte's major concerns is choreography, and Hubbard Street recently conducted a choreography competition, hoping to acquire new works for Hubbard Street II, the young ensemble that performs often at various venues in Chicago. Nearly 100 competitors offered original works. The finalists were Robert Battle and Jessica Lang, both Juilliard graduates from New York. Battle, who created In the Dark for Hubbard Street II, is a member of the Parsons Dance Company. Lang is a former member of Twyla Tharp's Tharp! For Hubbard Street II, she choreographed a piece titled Strange Young Lady set to violin and vocal music by Iva Bittova.

Conte, who founded HSDC some twenty years ago, choreographing all the works on the early programs, has announced that he will retire at the end of the spring season. He will remain at the head of the Lou Conte Dance School. A search committee is interviewing candidates for the position of artistic director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.