In dance, even success can be a bitter blessing.”We are popular and beloved, and our board is fantastic,” Gail Kalver says of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. “But every year it gets harder. We have 20 dancers and one shower, and we don’t have enough studio space. Everything you see in our offices is donated. It’s hard to upgrade your artistic and administrative functions when it’s all Gee, I hope this works today.’
“When it’s a challenge just to Xerox a piece of paper, it stops you from reaching your full potential.”
Anyone will tell you that Kalver, Hubbard Street’s hard-working executive director for 14 of the company’s 19 years, is the last person in the world to complain. Kalver and Lou Conte, the company’s founder and artistic director, are as sunny as dance professionals get, a genuinely unconceited, industrious, friendly pair.
In a time when not-for-profit outfits complain every day about shrinking dollars and dwindling options, both hesitate to play the whining game. They know how good they’ve had it.
But unlike performing groups in other fields–opera companies, symphony orchestras, theaters–Hubbard Street has no permanent performance home, no subscription base and no endowment. Its dancers change clothes at their Wabash Avenue studio headquarters in a space about the size of an apartment bedroom. Limited in performance dates and theaters available locally, Hubbard Street depends on national touring to make ends meet.
But cutbacks in the National Endowment for the Arts are eating into revenues for the civic centers and other arenas that host troupes such as Hubbard Street as part of their annual programming across the land.
Meanwhile, the Joffrey Ballet set up shop in Chicago late last year, making other local companies privately nervous. “The Joffrey is an international company, and there was some worry on the part of all the local companies, says one dance funding expert. ” Are they going to take our funding? Are they going to take our audiences?’ “
As for the present, Kalver says, “We’re concerned, but then we’re always concerned. And running scared. Our own past is our worst competition. We follow ourselves, really, and we’re a hard act to follow.”
On the artistic side, Conte shares that sense that you’re only as good as your last hit. He has every reason to be thrilled with the company’s recent direction. Six years ago, choreographer Twyla Tharp provided Hubbard Street with new energy.
Through a special arrangement with Tharp, the company was given nearly exclusive performing rights to “The Golden Section,” “Fugue” and “Nine Sinatra Songs,” three of the century’s dance masterpieces. The Tharp material complements old favorites by the likes of Daniel Ezralow and Margo Sappington, resulting in a company with a uniquely Midwestern dance sensibility.
Seven of Tharp’s works joined the repertoire in all, including the new, jazz-scored “I Remember Clifford,” created especially for Hubbard Street. Conte now plays with the best and the brightest. He has added two works by Tharp protege Kevin O’Day–“Quartet for IV,” created for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Project, and a new work just for Hubbard Street, “Hellblondegroove,” to receive its world premiere during the company’s engagement beginning Wednesday at the Shubert Theatre. From its humble beginnings, Hubbard Street was always a singular troupe, its dancing neither classical ballet nor hard-edged experimentalism. The troupe always had a happy, eclectic feel to it, but the arrival of Tharp reinforced art house legitimacy and international respect.
The lineup is so bulging these days Conte has even dropped two of the seven Tharp works for now: “Fugue” and “Sue’s Leg.” So even as Kalver races around headquarters, trying to find a functioning copying machine, Conte must be tickled pink, right?
“Am I gratified?” he echoes and then pauses to contemplate in the office he shares with his giant golden retriever, Buddy.
“I’m always nervous,” he says. “It’s easier to be gratified when you look back on the evolution than it is to sit here this moment and actually be gratified today, about what’s happening right now.
“A college student recently asked me about my vision, and that’s another thing others define for you after the fact. I mean, it has been great–the board has always gotten the money together, for the tours, to do the Twyla thing. But at the same time, dance is a grueling arena.”
Hubbard Street’s annual budget is now at $2.9 million, and unlike a lot of not-for-profit troupes, it has steadfastly avoided a deficit. A big part of its annual earned revenue comes from the spring engagement, but because of a fluke in scheduling, the company is dancing one performance fewer at the Shubert than last year. That might stall an otherwise steady climb in attendance, from 11,796 at the Civic Opera House in 1990 to 22,139 at the Shubert in 16 performances last year.
When the Music and Dance Theatre is built at Cityfront Center (a spring 1998 opening is planned), the company hopes to enjoy a fall season downtown as well as its spring run. Conte plans to add works by top European choreographers, and to start touring Europe as well.
“We’d like to have an endowment, and we’d like to boost our dancers from 20 to 24,” says Kalver. “But the budget grows by $100,000 every year even if you don’t do anything. The challenge is to keep our eyes on the marketplace and be pro-active, not just hold back the tide.
“We’ve carved our own niche,” she adds. “But while it looks easy, it ain’t.”
MONEY IN . . .
The percentages represent revenue and expenses for Hubbard Street’s fiscal year 1995, on a budget of $2.9 million.
23% Downtown Chicago engagement
22% U.S. and international tour
13% Corporate grants
12% Special events
11% Foundation grants
10% Individual gifts
8% Other earned revenue
18% Government grants
Money out
27% Salaries (dancers and production staff)
21% Choreography, design, music fees, royalties and expenses for new works and existing repertory
18% Touring production expenses and maintenance
18% Administrative occupancy and general overhead
9% Salaries and benefits (administrative)
7% Benefits (dancers and production staff)
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Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
When: Wednesday through May 12
Where: Shubert Theatre, 22 W. Monroe St.
Tickets: $12 to $40
Call: 312-902-1500
