The Reader‘s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds.
This weekend, as Oliver Sava has reported, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago returns to the Auditorium Theatre for the first time in 20 years for a retrospective of the work of its resident choreographer, Alejandro Cerrudo.
Cerrudo is a bit of philosopher: he told Sava about how he viewed the Auditorium’s large, deep stage as an inspiration, not a challenge. “If you have enough depth on the stage,” he said, “you can get the sense that there’s nothing but darkness behind them. It sounds scary, but it’s beautiful. You’re not focused on that, you’re focused on the dancers.”
In a longer interview in the 2012 People Issue, Cerrudo spoke in more depth to Laura Molzahn about his process
Even the simplest thing onstage can be hours and hours of trying to figure out how to make that simple thing look simple. I’ve choreographed sections that I had to throw away because they didn’t make sense, visually or in the flow. Like, I love this section, but it’s not working with the rest. And some sections maybe I’m not so happy with, but they’re perfect for the transition. Or sometimes you need to make a section that is kind of annoying, but then the next one is supposed to go like [big breath out]—and it’s even more [big breath out] because you were [holds breath]. I make you uncomfortable so the contrast is greater.