Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Dance St. Louis

There are two kinds of brilliance. Most noticeable is the sparkling kind -- but whether it's rhinestones or diamonds can be hard to figure. That's what Hubbard Street Dance Chicago used to be. Then there's the deep gleam of well-worked, carefully polished materials, and cheap stuff won't take such a shine. That's what Hubbard Street is.

All five pieces the company danced last weekend at the Fox Theatre were handsome, and all had at least a drop of weirdness. The most interesting, least weird piece, Kevin O'Day's "Quartet for IV (and sometimes one, two or three ...)," set to a vivid contemporary string quartet by Kevin Volans, has four dancers involved in a consistently abstract lyricism undercut by odd angles of arms or foot or back. Never did the entire company appear onstage, but the dances, whether for two or 12, were at least interesting but most often completely absorbing.