HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO ***
“Fold” is Toru Shimazaki’s second work for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, a striking study in contrast from his earlier offering, “Bardo.”
That work was large, intense, moody and sometimes grim. “Fold” is smaller in size, four dancers paired off into two couples — a dance, in other words, about two sets of lovers. There’s more playfulness, lightness and delicacy, too — a happier mood than “Bardo,” and a friendlier one. The score is crucial in that regard, beautiful, melodic guitar music from Rene Aubry.
But, inspired by the art of origami, “Fold” also reveals Shimazaki’s pointed command of human geometry. He stops well short of a conventional dance of this sort, the type colored by frivolous frolic, and keeps his interactions clean and yet startling in their complexity. At Thursday’s premiere, it proved a delightful showcase for the cool, flexible team of Meredith Dincolo and Terence Marling and the sprightly, devilish partnership of Kellie Epperheimer and Christian Broomhall.
Also on tap in this Harris Theater engagement through Sunday is “Extremely Close,” by Hubbard dancer Alejandro Cerrudo, unveiled only last spring, a blend of dance and conceptual art. Employing large, movable screens on a stage strewn with white feathers, its opening passages feature the screens in motion, both from side to side and from front to back. Sometimes a dancer rests in front of a screen and seems propelled by an invisible impulse.
Elsewhere, a woman in a later duet shoves her hand toward her partner’s face. Push is a driving force here.
A work in which isolation alternates with intimacy, “Close” also narrows in from small ensemble to a sultry duet, as if a camera lens is zooming in for a close-up. The ending is choice. One dancer (Marling on Thursday) picks up a floor fabric and wraps his partner, and the entire piece in a kind of good-night blanket.
“Minus 16,” Ohad Naharin’s spectacular classic, completes the lineup.
‘Fold,’
‘Extremely Close’ and ‘Minus 16’
When: Through Sunday
Where: Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Drive
Price: $50-$86, 312-334-7777 and harristheaterchicago.org, hubbardstreetdance.com
