Hedwig Dances Celebrates the Past, Present, and Future

 

 

Twelve years ago, I was in the room when Eduardo Vilaro, then Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theatre, asked Maray Gutierrez Ramis and Victor Alexander to make a choice. The husband and wife dancer duo were relatively new transplants from Cuba, and their schedules dancing with both Luna Negra and Hedwig Dances was starting to become problematic. It seems as though they made the right choice, particularly watching them dance together last weekend for their swan song with Hedwig Dances. Onstage at the Athenaeum Theatre for her 30th anniversary concert, Artistic Director Jan Bartoszek announced Maray and Victor’s retirement from performing in between thanking the donors and reminding us to turn off our cell phones. So, instantly, we knew that this night was going to be special.

 Indeed, though we’ve seen Maray and Victor dance together hundreds of times, doing movement very similar to the duet created for them in Edson Cabrera’s choreographic debut Bangweulu, this time somehow felt different. It was one of three duets making up Bangweulu, all demonstrating fantastically smooth partnering. Cabrera’s aesthetic and movement vocabulary are pursuant to Hedwig’s rep, so while Bangweulu doesn’t offer anything particularly new, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

 Hedwig has the ability to make really hard dance appear smooth like butter and completely effortless. Bartoszek’s dancers fly; dances are composed of streams, not steps; and each piece (particularly in this concert) is beautifully dressed in costumes by Maggie Dianovsky and Vin Reed, and exceptionally lit by Ken Bowen. Everything about Hedwig just feels good, and new dancers Sarah Carusona, Molly Ross, and Odbayar Batsuuri fit quite well with Bartoszek’s veteran quartet of Cubans (Alexander, Gutierrez Ramis, Cabrera and Jessie Gutierrez).

With the first half of the concert celebrating the future by inaugurating a new choreographer, the second half was a look into the past. In One Grand Dance, Bartoszek reached into the archives to mine some of her best bits from the first 15 years of the company, strung together by transitioning moveable set pieces constructed by Bryan Saner. In One Grand Dance, we are given a waltz, a tango, and a polka – all quite silly and fun – with a few serious divertissements. In looking at the 30 year span of Bartoszek’s portfolio, these were the right choices, and showed as anything but antiquated. She’s nothing if not consistent, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

As Hedwig moves into its 31st season, some big changes are in store at Hedwig Dances with Alexander named as resident choreographer and Gutierrez Ramis as Artistic Associate. Per usual, audiences can likely expect Jan Bartoszek to weather these changes and continue to hone her corner of Chicago’s dance community with elegance and grace.