UMS Concert Program, March 12, 1988: Hubbard Street Dance Co --

Season: 109th
Concert: Thirty-fourth
Power Center For The Performing Arts Ann Arbor, Michigan

Intetfiationa Presentations M&cD
THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Hubbard Street
DANCE
X
LOU CONTE, Artistic Director
Saturday Evening, March 12, 1988, at 8:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Alberto Arias Claire Bataille Frank Chavcs Sandi Cooksey Ron De Jesus
The Company
Ginger Farley Rick Hilsabcck Shannon D. Mitchell Geoff Myers Josef Patrick
Lynn Shcppard
Kitty Skillman Hilsabeck
Leslie Stevens
Sven Toorvald
Carlton Q. Wilborn
Claire Bataille, Assistant Artistic Director Warren Conover, Ballet Master Ginger Farley, Rehearsal Assistant
Jeffrey W. Hudgins, Production Stage Manager
Todd L. Clark, Lighting Supervisor Sue Saltmarsh, Wardrobe Supervisor Birgit Rattcnborg Wise, Costumer
Gail Kalver, General Manager Donna Magnani, Development Director Katherinc Wagner, Business Manager Don Sorsa, Company Manager
Elizabeth Finlcy, Assistant to the General Manager
Jamie Lou Goldman, Assistant to the Director of Development
Paula Campbell, Administrative Assistant
This concert is supported in part by Arts Midwest's members and friends, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
Cameras and recording devices arc not allowed in the auditorium.
Thirty-fourth Concert of the 109th Season
Seventeenth Annual Choice Series
PROGRAM
LINE DRIVE (1982)
Choreography: Lou Contc and Claire Bataille
Costumes: Cindy Maniates
Lighting: Robert Christen
Musk: "Danza" by Pipo, performed by Sky;
"God Bird Change" by Mingo Lewis, performed by Al DiMcola.
The Company Costumes for Line Drive were made possible by a donation from Colleen Zenk.
THE KITCHEN TABLE
Choreography and Direction: Bill Cratty Music: Baby Dodds and Mexican Marimba Costumes: Don Mangone and Alison Taylor
Table Design: Jack Neveaux Lighting Design: Rachel Budin
Mother..................................................... Leslie Stevens
Daughter ......................................... Kitty Skillman Hilsabeck
Father..................................................... Rick Hilsabeck
Lover ...................................................... Alberto Arias
This recording is taken from the original performance by Baby Dodds in 1951 and is used courtesy
of Folkway Records.
The Kitchen Table was first performed by Hubbard Street Dance Company in 1988.
THE ENVELOPE (1987)
Choreography: David Parsons
Music: Gioacchino Rossini
Costumes: Judy Wirkula
Lighting: Howell Binkley
Geoff Myers
Shannon Mitchell Claire Bataille Ron Dc Jesus Frank Chaves Lynn Shcppard Sandi Cookscy
INTERMISSION
COBRAS IN THE MOONLIGHT (1986)
Direction and Choreography: Margo Sappington
Music: Astor Piazzola
Lighting Design: Robert Christen
Costumes: Christian Holder
For no individual is entirely male or entirely female. Each is made up of a composite of both elements, and these two constituents are not infrequently in constant conflict within the psyche.
-M. Esther Harding
These four tangos represent a journey toward the loss of the anima ... the feminine principle.
Eleganza
Shannon Mitchell and Ron De Jesus
Lungo La Via Del Destino Lynn Shcppard and Carlton Wilborn
La Maledetta Rick Hilsabeck, Kitty Skillman Hilsabcck, Alberto Arias
Federico e II Suo Amico Claire Bataillc and Frank Chaves
Section 1: Adios Nonino from the album Adios Nonino, courtesy Industrias Musicales, S.A.
Sections 2, 3, 4: Verano Portcno, Rctrato de Alfredo Gobbi, and Lo Que Vendra from the album Tango Futur,
courtesy R.C.A. Records, Editorial Lagos, S.R.L., and Chappcl& Co., Inc.
INTERMISSION
STEP OUT OF LOVE (1987)
Choreography: Margo Sappington
Costumes: Christian Holder Lighting: Robert Wierzel
Music: Steve Forsyth, co-produced by Walter Durkacz
Claire Bataille Ginger Farley Lynn Sheppard Leslie Stevens Sandi Cooksey
THE 40's (1978)
Choreography: Lou Conte
Costumes: Julie Nagcl Lighting: Jennifer Tipton Music: Sy Oliver and Ralph Burns
Kitty Skillman Hilsabeck
and The Company
V.J. Stomp: Ralph Burns, copyright 1977 United Artists Corporation, used by permission of Unart Music, a Catalogue of CBS Songs, a division of CBS. Opus Number One: Sy Oliver
Hubbard Street Dance Company has entertained audiences with its acclaimed style of American dance since 1978. The original company of four women was founded in late 1977, when Barbara Cohen of Urban Gateways asked Lou Conte to put together a program for senior citizen centers. His program featured various styles of American dance, including jazz and tap, and was performed throughout the city under the auspices of the mayor's Office for Senior Citizens and the Handicapped. Miss Cohen subsequently became the company's first executive director, and Claire Bataille, one of the original members, is now assistant artistic director as well as dancer. Hubbard Street's name was taken from its original location, and, although now located in larger facilities, the Lou Conte Dance Studio remains the home of Hubbard Street Dance Company.
Lou Conte, veteran dancer, choreographer, and founder of the Lou Conte Dance Studio in Chicago, has created a popular, yet serious, style that combines ballet, jazz, and the rhythmic footwork of tap, often incorporating American themes and music. With major artistic contributions from resident choreographer Claire Bataille, the company's repertoire also includes works by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, John McFall, Richard Levi, Margo Sappington, David Parsons, David Anderson, and Rick Hilsabeck, a company member who made his choreographic debut for the company in 1985.
Chicago-based from the start, Hubbard Street Dance Company enjoys home seasons at the Ravinia Festival, Opera House of the Civic Center for Performing Arts, Goodman Theatre, and Auditorium Theatre. The company began touring in 1983 and now has performed in 28 states and Canada. Summer festival appearances include engagements at Jacob's Pillow, Artpark, Saratoga, and BalletAspen, in addition to Ravinia. They have also performed in France and South America under the aegis of the United States Information Agency Arts America Program and Mozarteum Argentino.
Hubbard Street has made two television specials, produced and directed by Richard Carter for WTTW, Chicago. The first program won a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award in 1982 as the best locally produced performance program that year. The company received a 1986 Governor's Award for the Arts and its first Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Hubbard Street's archives have been placed in the Midwest Dance Collection of the Ncwbcrry Library in Chicago.
Hubbard Street Dance Company now appears for the first time in Ann Arbor during its tenth anniversary celebration.
Lou Conte grew up in DuQuoin, Illinois, where he began tap and ballet studies at a young age. He attended Southern Illinois University as a zoology major, but returned to dance in the 1960s and did his first Broadway musical at age 22, dancing in the chorus of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. His other Broadway credits include Cabaret and Manic, both in New York and on the road. From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, he choreographed over thirty musicals. After thirteen months in Europe with George Reich Ballet, Mr. Conte returned to Chicago in the mid-1970s to found the Lou Conte Dance Studio and devote his choreographic energies toward forming a company. Under his direction since its inception in 1977, Hubbard Street has collected accolades from a variety of critics -among them Fred Astaire, who, after seeing HSDC's first television special, said that it contained "some of the greatest dancing" he had seen in years. Mr. Conte has received awards from the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Academy for the Arts for his contribu?tion in dance to the City of Chicago. He currently serves on the Illinois Arts Council Dance Panel and the Dance Presenters Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Claire Bataille, assistant artistic director, resident choreographer, and dancer, is an original company member whose choreography and collaborations with Lou Conte have become a major artistic contribution to Hubbard Street. She has been a teacher at the Lou Conte Dance Studio since 1975 and for the last seven seasons has been featured in Ruth Page's Nutcracker. Ms. Bataille, who grew up in Barrington, Illinois, studied dance in Chicago and New York and currently studies with Lou Conte, Warren Conover, Larry Long, and Birutc Barodicaite.
Ballet master Warren Conover was born in Philadelphia where he studied with Peter Conlow. His first professional appearance was with the Pennsylvania Ballet, where he attained the rank of soloist. He then became a soloist with the Harkncss Ballet and leading dancer with the Eglevsky Ballet Company beforcjoining the American Ballet Theater in 1970, attaining the rank of soloist after two years. Mr. Conover danced a wide range of roles in over fifty ballets in his twelve years with A.B.T. He appeared on national television in A.B.T.'s Nutcracker, staged by Mikhail Baryshnikov, and was seen in several "Live from Lincoln Center" and "Dance in America" programs. He serves on the faculties of the Ruth Page Foundation School of Dance and the Lou Conte Dance Studio and teaches master classes throughout the country.
Tomorrow Afternoon at 3:00, Power Center
Hubbard Street Dance Company performs:
Line Drive (1982) Rose From the Blues (1987) The Envelope (1987) Tiempo (1983)
Appearances (1984) Diary (1982) The40's (1978)
Tickets available at Power Center box office beginning at 1:30.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Telephone: (313) 764-2538