Nine of the aughties' biggest dance moves

1 Eduardo Vilaro spent ten years turning Luna Negra Dance Theater from a scrappy YMCA resident into one of the city’s hottest companies, but just when it found its legs, Vilaro hightailed it to New York to direct Ballet Hispanico. The board’s choice for his successor, Spanish choreographer Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, was an equally ballsy decision: He’s only 31. Currently wrapping things up at the company he started in Valencia, Spain, Sansano moves in for good in June.

2 Hubbard Street Dance Chicago founder Lou Conte drove the company’s meteoric rise with a big personality, but when he stepped down in 2000, the torch was passed to Jim Vincent, a soft-spoken, American-born dancer with an extensive European career. Vincent’s departure last summer to direct Nederlands Dans Theater was its own bombshell, but in a bit of musical chairs, Glenn Edgerton—a former director of the Dutch company—is Hubbard’s new boss.

3 In 1956, Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey started what is now the Joffrey Ballet. Fifty years later, at the age of 83, Arpino retired as the company’s artistic director and, sadly, passed away shortly thereafter. Briton Ashley Wheater now runs this city’s biggest dance company.

4 The Dance Center of Columbia College kicked off the decade with a move to the South Loop and the selection of a new department chair, former Dance/USA president Bonnie Brooks. Along with Phillip Reynolds, Brooks has kept its theater packed with notable bookings ever since.

5 Although Nan Giordano had taken over the directorship of Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago in 1993, the passing in 2008 of her father, founder Gus Giordano, felt like the end of an era. Keeping it in the family has ensured his full-throttle, pyrotechnic style will live on.

6 Sherry Zunker led River North Chicago Dance Company into the ’90s, joined by Frank Chaves a few years in. In-demand director and choreographer Zunker left the company in Chaves’s hands in 2001 but has maintained close ties.

7 After serving for more than two decades as Hubbard Street’s executive director, Gail Kalver passed the torch in 2007 to Jason Palmquist, a heavy-hitting arts administrator from D.C. Kalver’s still here and busier than ever, though, working with companies, boards and committees all over town.

8 Ground zero for experimental performance from Chicago and beyond since 1978, Links Hall in Wrigleyville has had a wild ten years. Former TOC Dance editor Asimina Chremos became director in 2000, CJ Mitchell became its first executive director in 2004, and Roell Schmidt has been in charge since last summer.

9 Katie Saifuku La Varre was a founding member of Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre, codirecting it with Joanna Rosenthal for much of the aughties. La Varre gave Rosenthal both reins earlier this year to focus on her career as a massage therapist.