Around the world and back again

It seems as though everyone from stockbrokers to waitrons is blabbing about globalism and global culture. In this age of jet travel and iTunes, what does it mean to tout a dance concert by capitalizing on one choreographer’s Japanese birth, or the fact that the music for another dance piece is from Norway?

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s 2006 fall series, given the umbrella title Global Tapestry, includes one premiere by Japanese guest choreographer Toru Shimazaki, another premiere by Spaniard Alejandro Cerrudo, and music by a Belgian band and a Norwegian band—among other disparate components with various passports.

Shimazaki did grow up in Japan, but he started dancing by learning ballet while he lived in Vancouver. His dance career took him to Switzerland, working with dance companies in Innsbruck and Geneva. The piece he’s choreographed for 12 dancers of the HSDC company makes use of an Asian concept: It’s titled Bardo, and depicts the space of time between death and reincarnation that is described in Buddhist texts, yet it features a Shakespearean central couple who move through the work. “I thought of Romeo and Juliet after their deaths,” Shimazaki says.

Truth be told, one could easily point out a plethora of international influences in any number of HSDC’s recent shows. This ain’t nothing special: Cross-national culture is old news in the dance field. French ballet made it to Russia in the 17th century; in the ’20s, modern-dance pioneer Ruth St. Denis stole ideas from India to put on vaudeville stages; and so on.

Twenty-six-year-old Cerrudo has been dancing with HSDC for one year, after dancing in Stuttgart and the Netherlands. The title of his new work, Lickety Split, is quite an Americanism for a kid who grew up in Madrid. It’s not likely his mom was hollering out the back door: “Y’all get your asses in here likety-split or I’ll tan your hides.” In fact, he probably doesn’t know what “tan your hides” means. As for “lickety split”: “I like the way it sounds,” he says. Of the piece he’s made for six of his colleagues, Cerrudo says, “I wanted a title that is not pretentious.”

Cerrudo is using the music of vagabond psychedelic-folkie Devendra Banhart for this piece. He discovered Banhart’s music when a friend of his lent him a stack of CDs.

Global Tapestries also includes a reworked version of the 2003 piece Dipthong by HSDC dancer-choreographer Brian Enos. This twisty, smooth and excitingly speedy ensemble work is danced to songs by Zap Mama, a Belgian band made up of African-diaspora women who make wonderfully layered, rhythmic vocal music. It’s music that was used ad nauseam by modern-dance companies throughout the ’90s, but it is supremely danceable stuff.

Another band that choreographers will tell you is on the frequently hit list is the Australian duo Dead Can Dance. You’ll hear their emo-goth sound in Bardo. “I think my hairdresser introduced me to their music years ago,” Shimazaki says.

Also on the Global Tapestry program is HSDC repertory favorite Gimme, a romping duet choreographed to neo-folk fiddling by Norwegian band Blå Bergens Borduner by HSDC artistic associate (and Wisconsin native) Lucas Crandall. Finally, artistic director Jim Vincent’s 2002 ensemble work counter/part is being revived for this concert. Vincent, an American who spent much of his career in France and the Netherlands, set this quirky, elegant work to the music of that international, timeless superstar: Composer J.S. Bach—a German—which is such a great example: When art is really amazing, we stop worrying about the nationality of the artist and focus on the art itself.

Global Tapestries is at the Harris Theater Wednesday 27 through October 1.