`Sensational” does not begin to describe “Minus 16,” the rip-roaring jamboree that Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is unleashing for its United States premiere during every performance of the company’s fall season in the Cadillac Palace.
Created by the Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, it’s a full-company (18 dancers), half-hour work that perfectly fits and expands the high-energy, highly accessible repertoire of Hubbard Street.
Alternately sly and explosive, and danced to everything from cha-cha to Israeli folk music (sung full-out by the dancers) and Dean Martin, it begins, before it actually begins, during intermission, as a single dancer (Massimo Pacilli) goes through some itty-bitty finger, hand, head, hip and knee moves while rocking rhythmically in place in the front of the Palace’s big stage. The lights go down, more dancers join him and suddenly, with everybody assembled, the tempo changes into a whirlwind of motion, the dancers swooping and leaping in frenzied unison.
A lone dancer comes forward, shouts at the audience; the curtain comes down on him, he falls and is dragged backward behind the curtain. For a few awkward seconds, nothing happens. Then the curtain goes up and the dancers, seated in a semicircle, begin an ever-faster ritual of tribal excitement, swaying, rolling and shivering mightily in their straight chairs, all the time singing the folk song and, after each chorus, discarding a piece of his or her black suit until at last, at fever pitch, they are all down to gray tank tops and shorts.
There’s more, too much more to describe in full, but it includes fascinating autobiographical solos, spoken and danced, for each of the company members (Be sure to jot down Joseph Pantaleon’s recipe for his special guacamole); a series of incredible virtuoso turns for the grand finale; and, most delightfully, plunked down in the middle of all this, an audience participation bit in which the dancers bring willing customers onto the stage and dance with and around them.
On Tuesday night’s opening, the neophyte dancers ranged from the nearly motionless to the spectacularly musical young woman in a red blouse and black slacks whom the Hubbard Street dancers were smart enough to feature as the star of the moment. (Literally jumping with joy in her seat, she later identified herself as “Bobbi, just a mom from Chicago.”)
A rousing closer for a program, “Minus 16” is a true audience rush and a great Hubbard Street showcase, guaranteed to take a prime position in the company’s hit parade.
The program’s world premiere is “Split,” a very quick, very skillful piece by the young American Trey McIntyre for three couples, set, appropriately, to a string of hard-punching percussion improvisations by the jazz drummer Art Blakey.
Opening the evening is “Petite Mort,” Jiri Kylian’s work of barefoot classicism, which was introduced last season and is set to music from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21; and, for classic Hubbard Street pop zest, there is Harrison McEldowney’s bright, funny, superbly danced “Group Therapy.”
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Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performs through Sunday at Cadillac Palace, 151 W. Randolph St. Phone 312-902-1500.
