CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–September 11, 2014. Roosevelt University will name the largest dance studio in its year-old dance facility at 218 S. Wabash Ave. in Chicago for legendary dancer, choreographer and teacher Lou Conte (pictured above).
The founder of the internationally acclaimed Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will be honored during a ribbon cutting and reception beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 16 in Room 308, location of the new Lou Conte Studio of Roosevelt University.
Attending the ribbon cutting and reception will be Roosevelt University Trustee Charles Gardner and his wife, Patti Selander Eylar, who are financially supporting the dance studio. “Lou Conte is the Michael Jordan of dance and we want to honor that legacy,” said Gardner, who formerly sat on Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Board of Trustees and is currently on the dance company’s advisory board.
An Illinois native, Conte studied tap, ballet and jazz before a performance career with roles in musicals including the original Broadway run of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Settling in Chicago, he established the Lou Conte Dance Studio in 1974 and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 1977.
Both operations were located from 1981 to 1998 in the third-floor 13,000-square-foot facility where the Lou Conte Dance Studio previously trained Roosevelt’s musical theatre students in dance and where Hubbard Street Dance Chicago prepared for area engagements, TV appearances and domestic and international tours.
During those 17 years, Conte welcomed many notable and diverse artists to the facility including Gwen Verdon, Ravi Shankar and Madonna; choreographers Nacho Duato, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Margo Sappington and Daniel Ezralow; Roslyn Anderson, staging artist for renowned dancemaker Jiří Kylián; and Twyla Tharp, whose six existing works and original creation I Remember Clifford were hallmark Hubbard Street productions during the 1990s. Today, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is located at 1147 W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago.
“It’s interesting and vital to keep the origins and history of Roosevelt’s new dance facility alive,” said Eylar, who remembers herself and friends taking open dance classes at 218 S. Wabash. “It was Lou Conte’s headquarters for 17 years and a time when both the Lou Conte Dance Studio and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago made enormous contributions to Chicago and beyond.”
In 2013, the Theatre Conservatory in Roosevelt’s Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) started a new degree program in which musical theatre students can earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre with a concentration in Dance. The Theatre Conservatory also offers bachelor’s degrees in Acting and in Musical Theatre with a concentration in Voice. In order to best accommodate a growing student body enrolled in all three tracks, the Conservatory expanded in fall 2013 at 218 S. Wabash Ave. Facilities at that location include dance, voice and film studios, showers, lockers, a student hangout area and dance faculty offices.
“This gift is of extraordinary importance to the Chicago College of Performing Arts because it is a strong affirmation by a donor of the value and importance of the new program we are offering for a degree in music theatre with a dance emphasis,” said Fogel, dean of CCPA. “Support for the facility in which we are teaching this program is particularly meaningful to us, and we are immensely grateful for the recognition that has been bestowed on our work,” he said.
Conte is being given a prestigious Fifth Star Award by the city of Chicago on Sept. 17 and is expected to be on hand at Roosevelt’s naming of the dance studio. A plaque that will be unveiled during the celebration includes the following quote from Conte: “I am humbled at this honor, grateful to Patti and Charlie, and proud of all we accomplished during our 17 years in this location.”
Source: roosevelt.edu
