As part of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s commitment to its artists, the company has launched a comprehensive Dancer Health and Wellness program.

HSDC has long offered benefits including medical insurance, onsite access to physical therapy, complimentary gym membership to the Lincoln Park Athletic Club and six weeks of paid vacation. The new initiative focuses on preventative care, continuous care and consistency in physical therapy in the studios and on tour. With support and input from the dancers, HSDC has developed a three-year strategy for fully implementing a state-of-the-art health and wellness plan.

HSDC’s partner in the Dancer Health and Wellness program is AthletiCo, the company’s official provider of dancer rehabilitation and wellness services.

“AthletiCo is pleased with the way that the existing relationship between the two organizations has flourished over the years,” said AthletiCo Affiliations Manager Josh Niemi. “We are excited about the development of this program and the opportunity to be involved with the overall well-being of each dancer—from injury prevention to rehabilitation to strength and conditioning. We are proud to be part of the Hubbard Street family.”

Components of the Dancer Health and Wellness Initiative include:

• increased physical therapy hours at HSDC
• designated treatment room for physical therapy, which HSDC will develop as a holistic space for attention to dancer wellness and supply with state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic equipment
• international and domestic touring with AthletiCo physical therapists
• monthly lunchtime seminar series to address topics such as medical insurance, injury prevention, nutrition and workers compensation
• relationships with local massage schools to provide regular access to massage therapy for dancers and training for massage therapists in how to work with dancers
• educational sessions on dancer health and injury prevention for HSDC summer intensive and Lou Conte Dance Studio students
• increased access to chiropractic care, in addition to alternative therapies such as acupuncture/acupressure

To defray the expenses associated with the program, HSDC has also launched a two-year, $2 million endowment campaign, led by HSDC board member Meg Callahan. Meg and her husband Tim made an initial gift of $100,000 to support the wellness initiative.

“After attending a rehearsal at which a dancer became injured, I realized we needed to take stock of the causes of these kinds of injuries and do more to prevent them,” said Callahan. “The dancers are what we are all about and why we are all there—if we don’t take care of them, we don’t have a company. So I became very passionate about having HSDC implement a formal wellness program, and fortunately, [Executive Director] Jason Palmquist shared my passion for this, even before he arrived last year.”

In 2008, HSDC anticipates close to $100,000 in wellness-related expenses, in addition to health insurance for the company. As the company implements future phases of the program, the budget will increase to $150,000 for equipment expenditures to outfit the treatment room.

Julie O’Connell, AthletiCo’s director of performing arts rehabilitation, leads a team of physical therapists who work with HSDC dancers daily, both in Chicago and now on tour. Said O’Connell, “AthletiCo is excited to be the provider of rehabilitation services to Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, as it is the active partnership between therapists and dancers that allows us to achieve our goal to keep the dancers dancing.”

Formalizing the Dancer Health and Wellness program has been an important priority for HSDC in 2008. By focusing on injury prevention and consistency of care, HSDC is able to better protect our company’s greatest asset—our dancers.

A statistical snapshot of the Dancer Health and Wellness program in the 2007–08 season:

• 80 percent of HSDC dancers participated in a Dancer Health and Wellness Survey.
• AthletiCo provided nearly 500 hours of physical therapy and massage therapy coverage at rehearsals, lectures, injury assessments, international and domestic tours and local performances.
• An average of 20 physical therapy sessions per week took place at the Hubbard Street Dance Center.
• HSDC spent $100,000 on Dancer Health and Wellness initiatives.
• The company toured 15 cities (in four countries) with AthletiCo.
• Six therapists and 26 dancers participated in a pre-season screening at the Hubbard Street Dance Center.
• HSDC has budgeted $150,000 in annual Dancer Wellness expenses for fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

To support HSDC’s Dancer Health and Wellness program, you can make a gift online at hubbardstreetdance.com or contact Martin Grochala, director of development, at 312-850-9744, ext. 127 or mgrochala@hubbardstreetdance.com.

Education & Community Programs Expand In Oak Park

HSDC makes a lasting impact that goes well beyond the stage. Through its Education & Community Programs, HSDC energizes the educational experience of Chicago-area students through innovative residencies that explore all students’ creativity. Residencies are supported by accredited, professional development workshops for Chicago-area educators and exposure to professional dance.

Thanks to increased support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), HSDC’s impact is expanding during the current school year. Following a successful first year collaborating with Oak Park School District 97, HSDC is working with six elementary schools (up from five last year) in this west suburban school district, reaching up to 40 classrooms and approximately 800 students and teachers in grades 1 through 5 with the establishment of long-term, comprehensive dance education curriculum.

Under the banner Movement As Partnership, HSDC and the schools are creating unique programming that allows students to experience the creative processes of contemporary dance and how these processes connect with other elements of the standard curriculum.

Dr. Constance Collins, superintendent of Oak Park District 97, commented, “Hubbard Street Dance Chicago has provided our students with an outstanding outlet for learning through the arts. Having HSDC teaching artists in residence has encouraged students to choreograph and perform dances as another way of expressing themselves. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the teachers who not only guided learning, but became dancers themselves. What a great program!”

According to analytical as well as anecdotal research on the first year of the partnership:

• Teachers remarked that HSDC’s programs had changed the ways they viewed their students and the ways they approached teaching. Participating teachers recognized the value of developing and implementing lessons that incorporate dance principles, regardless of whether an HSDC teaching artist was present.


• At the beginning of the last school year, a 5th grade boy wrote in his journal that he did not want to participate in the HSDC residency; by the time the residency ended, he said it had been the best thing he had learned all year—he learned that he knew how to move, how to dance and he couldn’t wait to go see a dance performance. He learned that dance wasn’t just “ballet for girls,” that there was so much more out there.


• There was significant growth in students’ use of artistic vocabulary through the course of the residencies. One project for 4th graders involving Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are combined written descriptions of “wild things” with movement depicting these creations, resulting in improvement both in the students’ use of descriptive vocabulary and in their choreographic abilities.

One 4th grader said, “What I took away from this experience was that dance could help you with lots of things, not just dancing because it was fun. The residency improved my learning.” Another young student related the following: “What I will walk away with from Hubbard is an education. Hubbard Street Dance has improved my reading because it actually feels like I’ve been to that place so it makes me more interested than just reading the book. With Hubbard Street Dance it changes the way I look at dance because you can express yourself in the way you dance and the music you listen to.”

To prepare for the school year, teachers new to the program attended HSDC’s Move Right Into Reading program, a professional development summer institute designed to strengthen the connections between arts and academics in classrooms, at the Hubbard Street Dance Center. Returning teachers participated in a variety of half-day workshops throughout the summer, including The Science of Dance, Performance As Curriculum, Exploring Literacy and Get Those Student Bodies Moving.

Oak Park teachers will participate in professional development workshops throughout the year, and each school will experience a 10-week in-class residency and performances by Hubbard Street 2, HSDC’s second company, both in the schools and at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park.

“These partnerships continue to work toward creating a deep knowledge base for dance education in each school and throughout the district, with committed teachers and an administrative team that understands the power of real, integrated dance instruction,” said HSDC Education Director Kathryn Humphreys. “Movement As Partnership provides teaching artists and educators with the opportunity to plan, teach and learn together to create exciting and meaningful integrated curriculum, which challenges students and takes learning to new levels.”

Parkinson’s Patients Find New Outlet Through Dance
HSDC Collaborates with Rush University Medical Center

A new collaboration between the arts and medical worlds is demonstrating the healing power of movement.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, working with Rush University Medical Center, has developed Dance for Parkinson’s, a program in contemporary dance specifically designed for people with Parkinson’s disease and related movement disorders. A 10-week pilot program during the summer, through which 14 to 16 participants attended weekly classes at the Hubbard Street Dance Center, proved so successful that HSDC launched a second session in September.

Based on a program developed by the Mark Morris Dance Group, in conjunction with the Brooklyn Parkinson Group, HSDC is offering the free class as an opportunity for those with Parkinson’s disease, as well as their loved ones and caregivers, to derive both physical and emotional benefits from participating in a contemporary dance class. The class size is limited to provide individual attention to participants.

“Dance may be an appropriate and effective strategy for improving functional mobility deficits in people who are living with brain disorders such as Parkinson’s, stroke and traumatic brain injuries,” said Dr. James Young, chairman of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Rush.

Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological disorder that causes tremors, rigidity, a slowing of movement and difficulty with balance. The disease strikes about 3,500 people out of a million, 60 and older.

Rush doctors say that the best way to fight it is to keep moving.

“Medications are important in the treatment of Parkinson’s, but many symptoms don’t respond as well to medications as we would like,” said Dr. Kathleen Shannon, neurologist at the Movement Disorders Center at Rush. “Music and other rhythmic stimuli help Parkinson’s patients to move better, so dance may better help Parkinson’s patients regain balance and help patients make more fluid movements. Dance also may help the fight against depression seen in Parkinson’s disease. The thought is that, by moving to music, the brain will reinforce movement pathways, or simply create new ones.”

Leading the class is Sarah Cullen Fuller, who danced with HSDC for nearly seven years and is on the faculty of the Lou Conte Dance Studio at the Hubbard Street Dance Center. She attended a training session with the Mark Morris Dance Group in Brooklyn, which developed its program eight years ago, to learn the fundamentals of the program and how to modify a traditional dance class to accommodate the circumstances of the participants.

“I’m very excited about this class,” said Cullen Fuller. “Dance for me has always been therapeutic in many ways, although it’s important to note that this is not a therapy session. This is a dance class that combines the artistry of dance with live music to encourage one’s natural instincts for movement and the benefits that movement can produce physically and socially. It’s an opportunity for participants and their loved ones to do something fun together.”

With nearly all the summer participants returning for the fall session, Cullen Fuller says that the class has exceeded her expectations. “The participants are experiencing improvement in their balance, flexibility and strength,” she remarked. “We are building on concepts from the first session and they are even learning choreography from Ohad Naharin’s Minus 16. And we have developed into a strong community.”

To maintain its effectiveness, the class size remains small, causing HSDC to explore opportunities to expand the program in the future to accommodate the growing list of those interested in participating. For more information or to register for the class, contact Rush University Medical Center, 888-352-7874.

To check out the Chicago media coverage of Dance for Parkinson’s, visit these links:
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/parkinsons.disease.dance.2.796653.html
http://chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=29154

HSDC Partnerships: Bank of America

Bank of America has had the eyes of Chicago this month—not only as the sponsor of the annual Chicago Marathon but as a longtime corporate donor to Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, with decades of consistent support. As a prominent member of Chicago’s corporate philanthropic community, Bank of America has supported HSDC in many ways, including general operating support, program sponsorship and, for the last eight years, as a major contributor to HSDC’s Education & Community Programs. In addition, Bank of America plays an active leadership role in the organization, with more than 20 years of representation on HSDC’s board of directors.

This year, Bank of America was the Leading Sponsor of HSDC’s 2008 Fall Series, which marked the beginning of the new season and kicked off an unprecedented year-round performance schedule in Chicago.

“Bank of America has been supporting Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for more than 20 years,” said David G. Mekemson, senior vice president, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management and chair of HSDC’s board of directors. “We have provided this support because the company has produced a consistently excellent product demonstrating leadership in the globally competitive world of contemporary dance. We also applaud the company’s commitment to the community with their programs in the public schools and dance class offerings.”

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago considers our relationship with Bank of America a wonderful example of the partnerships that exist between the corporate and arts communities of Chicago. We are grateful for their continued support, and the support of all our corporate donors, who all make Chicago such a wonderful city for the arts.