Displaying items by tag: Alan Watts

Returning to the Auditorium Theatre after a long 20-year absence is Hubbard Street Dance Chicago with its 40th Anniversary Spring Series. This edition spotlights Spanish born Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, who joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2005, and was named Choreographic Fellow in 2008 and became the company’s first Resident Choreographer in 2009. He’s a recipient of multiple awards, including prestigious Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance.

The show is a progression of Cerrudo’s works, from old to new. It has a pleasant start with his earliest piece, Lickety Split, originally performed in 2006 at the Harris Theater as part of the Inside/Out Choreographic workshop. Celebrating athletic femininity and confident masculinity and set to music by renowned songwriter Devendra Banhart, Lickety Split is about modern love and romantic relationships. It’s very beautiful and has well balanced energies.
But then something completely unexpected happens. The spotlight is on a balcony where a captivating, extravagantly dressed and coiffed female (Rena Butler) is seated, casually talking to the audience about the nature of reality. She is smoking a pipe, while blowing our minds with [Alan Watts’] philosophical concepts. Amazing.

And so the drama begins. More new age philosophy is injected into the show when David Schultz walks out on stage, wearing a cane and delivering another serving of food for thought. The following piece, Off Screen, though highly theatrical, doesn’t take itself too seriously. Inspired entirely by film, it makes lighthearted mockery of Italian musicals and romantic European movies. The music is comprised of 16 passages from various movie scores. Off Screen features seven dancers layering gorgeous fluid movements as if in a dream, their dancing defying gravity and somehow helping to get across the spiritual points introduced earlier. Off Screen was Cerrudo’s third work created for Hubbard Street back in 2009.

After the intermission, it’s the energetic Silent Ghost that originally premiered in 2015 at the Aspen Santa Fe ballet. It feels tribal yet romantic, despite the monochromatic costumes.

The grand finale of the evening is the world premiere of Out of Your Mind. This piece brings everything together: the mysterious monologues earlier in the show, the flow and progression of the pieces, the dreamy dancing. What makes it futuristic is the pulsating energy, and the shapes and configurations of the dancers. At some point, orderly chaos ensues on stage, dancers moving in waves [and somehow particles]. Set to the soundtrack of the soothing voice of the contemporary philosopher Alan Watts, it’s a breathtakingly beautiful and uplifting experience. The piece was inspired by Alan Watts’ lectures called “Out of Your Mind”; Cerrudo borrowed the music that was used in the audio of the lectures and used it in this piece. I’d say contemplating God possibly never looked more spectacular.