Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s fall season opener features dances by Lar Lubovitch, Kyle Abraham, resident choreographer Aszure Barton—and Bob Fosse. Yes, that Bob Fosse. The company premiere of Sweet Gwen Suite, by Fosse and his muse, Gwen Verdon, takes place November 15–24 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
It’s a first for the Verdon Fosse Legacywhich licenses works by Fosse and Verdon. Sweet Gwen Suite is the first piece in the organization’s 11-year history to be accepted into a dance company’s repertoire—but it’s not the only Fosse piece in Hubbard Street’s rep. In 1991, Verdon staged Fosse’s Percussion Four on the company—which happens to line up with current artistic director Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell’s brief time as a Hubbard Street dancer. “I got the honor of working with Gwen,” says Fisher-Harrell. “She was sweet. She was kind—but very specific.”
Hubbard Street founding director Lou Conte idolized Fosse, but the 47-year-old company has only recently begun to tap back into its jazzy roots. Conte’s signature works were revived for the 40th anniversary; so was Twyla Tharp’s The Golden Section, set on Hubbard Street the same year as Percussion Four. Since her appointment in 2021, Fisher-Harrell has been focusing on adding well-rounded dancers with eclectic backgrounds, resulting in a roster that includes more dancers with extensive jazz training. She’s also expanded the repertoire with new works by Rennie Harris, Maria Torres, and Darrell Grand Moultrie while keeping connected to the Euro-contemporary aesthetic of Hubbard Street’s recent past. “This is a part of who we are,” says Fisher-Harrell. “If you’re here for Johan Inger, we do this, too. And we’ve been doing this since 1977. It’s really a part of our DNA.”
Linda Haberman staged
Sweet Gwen Suite on Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for the Verdon Fosse Legacy. Photo by Michelle Reid, courtesy Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
But even the most versatile dancer goes to battle with Fosse’s highly stylized movement. Former Fosse assistant Linda Haberman, who directed the Rockettes for nearly a decade, was selected to stage Sweet Gwen Suite on Hubbard Street. The schedule had time built in for workshopping the tiniest of details. “The special thing about Fosse’s work is the aesthetic,” says Fisher-Harrell. “How the hat is grabbed. How the hat is worn. All of those things are really what the work is about.”
Fisher-Harrell says the Verdon Fosse Legacy, founded and directed by Fosse and Verdon’s daughter, Nicole Fosse, has had its eye on Hubbard Street since the beginning. And with the 2023 Broadway revival of Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ now closed and preparations underway for Fosse’s centennial in 2027, the timing was right.
“They’ve really been looking for a repertory company that can take on the Fosse works with a certain excellence and integrity,” says Fisher-Harrell.
Works, plural?
“Things could be happening,” she says.
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